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Alright. Hey. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning.
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It is good to see you. It's a gorgeous morning in Jackson. Glad you guys are here. Let me just share a verse with you before we start singing because we've got a lot of reasons to sing. Proverbs eighteen ten, the name of the Lord is a strong tower.
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The righteous run to it and are safe. So what do you say we warm up just by singing the name of the Lord? Wanna stand up and sing?
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As the morning. As the morning dawns, evening fades, Jesus, in your name we pray. Come and fill
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Amen. God, we thank you for a new day. Thank you for breath in our lungs this morning. Thank you for a church family to be a part of, to worship you in spirit and in truth. Amen.
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Amen. Can I have a seat?
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Amen. Good morning, everybody. How are y'all? Doing alright. I am ready to go swimming.
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Actually, we have a baptism this morning but we also have a covenant ceremony first. So, I've kind of abbreviated the announcements this morning. We have a couple of them. First of all, the first B Women's Study starts this week. I don't want to skip that one.
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It happens Wednesday at 10AM. They're gonna be studying Romans together. So please come on out. If you haven't ever been a part of one in the past and you wanna be, come on, please. Anything I'm forgetting, Deborah?
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Just bring
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your neighbor and
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your friends.
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Bring your neighbor and your friends. Fantastic. That's good. First B Women's Study this Wednesday, 10:00 in the morning. Ah, Old Bills.
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I probably should have started announcing this a while back but Old Bills Fun Run, y'all know what that is? Does everybody know what that is? Everybody from here knows what that is anyway. It's a way to amplify donations for nonprofit organizations and our benevolence fund, our local benevolence fund, what allows me and Diane and Carl and Renzi too sometimes to be able to say yes when people are in need is old bills fun run money. So, you can give to First Bee through Old Bills and it'll amplify your donation.
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If you'd like to do that, I'm sure we'll let you know how. I don't know how. Exactly. You can give to the community foundation for First Baptist Church. And next week, you can do this for just about any organization in town.
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Next week, we're going to have Chuck from the Good Samaritan Mission who is going to be here and he's going to talk about the same thing. Given through old bills. It's a way to amplify your donation. So, that needs to be said. Monday nights at First B, 06:15, meal music and a message.
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Carl's still in the epistles of John. It's fantastic. What's that? Lauren Fry. If you all heard me talk about Lauren Fry and her dad and her recent testimony, she's gonna be talking about that tomorrow night.
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Oh, that's great. I'm looking forward to that. Check your bulletin for everything else. And we do have a covenant ceremony, so I'm gonna invite Gary Geek, who is back there handing out bulletins. If you'll come up, Gary, and then everybody else, you know who you are.
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Would you all come on up and stand up here with Gary?
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Good morning. I
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get the privilege of welcoming some new members into the First Bee Church family. One of the one of the things that, the good lord has kinda led on the hearts of the leadership at First Be is is is, making a covenant with those that God has led to be a a part of the of, the body that for membership. And, the way we do that is that we, we commit to one another. And, and those that haven't, witnessed that, it's a it's a commitment not only of our time and our talent and our treasure, but a commitment that that is both ways. One, them to us and us to them.
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But before we do that, I'll, allow them to introduce themselves. And then if they feel comfortable enough, they would like to share something, they can certainly do that.
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I'm Samantha Compton. And my grandparents actually go to this church, so that's how I was introduced. But I just wanted to thank the body of First Bee because I have never felt so welcomed in a church body.
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And I'm Jill Schmidt, and, I've been attending here for a little over a year. And I feel like Samantha, I just have felt so welcomed here, and I felt a lot of love and acceptance from you guys, and that means the world to me. It's just like I see Jesus here, and where he is is where I wanna be, so that's why I'm here. So thank you, guys. I'm excited about officially being a part of this church.
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Joe, this is Aria. That's Kaya and Quinn and my wife Michelle. We've been here for a while, like three and a half years, and we decided to make it official. I can't believe you guys made us through the vetting process. Canadian, Californian, what were you thinking?
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Carl likes this quote, so do I. It's E McLaren. Be kind with everyone you meet for they're in the midst of a great struggle. That's what I feel about coming to this church is it's a chance to share in each other's struggles, and it's a big deal for us. We've been all over the place.
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This And is it, this is a place where we found where people are genuinely concerned with our well-being, and it's a beautiful thing to see. So keep up the good work.
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Michelle, Joe's wife. Just wanted to say thank you to everybody that's made us so welcome. It really does make a huge difference in people's lives. Like he said, I haven't lived anywhere longer than three years my entire life. And I will say this is the first time I've really felt part of a church family, and it really does mean a lot.
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So keep investing in people. It matters. Thanks.
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I'm Melissa Reese, this is Landon. And we're not going to say anything.
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There is only one requirement to be a member of First Bee, and that is that you've trusted in Jesus Christ as your lord and savior. And I'll ask you in front of this body, have you each of you trusted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior? Will you open your lives to this body that you will serve and allow them to minister to you? And if so, say we will.
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We will.
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Now to the body. Will you be faithful to all that God has sent here to First Be? I believe that they're not standing up here by accident, that God has done a work in their lives and led them here to live out their faith here at First Bee? Will you minister to them? Will you love them?
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And will you just pour your lives into them? And if so, will you say we will? It's customary that, when God adds to the body here at first b that we'd all stand and just grab a neighbor's hand and we'll thank God together. Lord, I pray that each one that is here feel the love of your body, Lord. That they would know that you called us not to independent, but interdependence on one another.
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You've gifted us, that we would use our gifts not for ourselves, but for others. So, Lord, I just pray that, that we'll be faithful to what you you have done here. And I just thank you that, knowing that we're more of what you want us to be now today. And I just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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And now I have a baptism that was scheduled, this week. Come on up, Janice. This is Janice Altman. She lived in Jackson out here for for about eight years, and she has been away for one year. Before she left, we talked about being baptized, and she is back for a visit and wants for us to do it.
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So I'm very happy. Do you wanna say anything? No. No. Happy to be here.
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I'm happy to have you. So, it was not in her tradition that she grew up in to be baptized by immersion, but she felt to identify with Christ and as a out of a step of obedience, she wanted to do that. And while we're going through this process, if you fit that same category and you wanna be baptized, there's water. What hinders you? Alright?
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Maybe extra clothes and towels but let me know. Okay? Alright. So, we're just gonna go ahead and get in
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the pool here.
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Dennis, do you profess your faith in Christ as your lord and savior? Do you seek to live in this day forward in service of your people? Well, upon profession of your faith, my sister, I baptize you in the name of the
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Hey. Would you guys take a minute? Just get up and greet one another. Say say hi. Hug, handshake, high five.
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And he's all our hope and peace. Let's sing of it.
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Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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Amen. Thank you, Lord, for your great in
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ir lives.
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Amen. God, what great news. What a joy to sing of this great truth that we are one with you through faith in Christ, through his work, his life, death, burial, and resurrection. We are united with you through faith and then with one another. And so we we we set aside ourselves today.
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We focus on you. Thank you, God, for the breath that you have given in our lungs, and we use it to praise you. Amen.
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You get life. You give life. You are loved. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope.
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You restore every art So we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's your brand in our lungs. So we pour out our praise to you only.
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And all
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the earth will shout your praise. And all the earth will shout your
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Oh, lord. That is our our prayer, and it's our song to you. You've given us life. You've given us hope. You've given us breath, And I pray that it would be just our our joy our joy to to to sing back to you, to respond to this great love that you've given to us.
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I thank you, God, for every gift that you've given as we're participating here in the worship of giving, I I pray that, again, like I say, that we would live life with an open hand to you. Free give, and we can't out give you. And I pray that you'd use whatever we give to increase, to further the kingdom. Why? Because we want people to know you, Jesus.
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We want people to know the hope that we have, the peace that we have, the comfort that we have, the assurance that we have in you. And we wouldn't keep this to ourselves. We would keep adding and increasing in number, and people would see the joy that we have in you, Jesus. It would be contagious. And that right here, starting in this valley and to the ends of the earth, people would come to know you, put their their trust and and their faith in you, and you can show us life to the full measure.
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We thank you, and it's in Christ's name. Amen. You can be seated.
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Check. Check. Does it work? Yeah. Alright.
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That's second Corinthians. We're back again. End of the word in second Corinthians. It's hot in here. Do y'all feel it?
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That water feels like soup. It's kinda warm in here. Second Corinthians three is where we're up to and last week was a really powerful week for me. Coming up to the sermon last week and then a lot of y'all responded, came in, and talked about the Paul's who he is in that whole scenario, the triumph scenario. I I have never I'll just be straight up.
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I've never looked forward to second Corinthians. I've never thought, oh, can't wait to get to second Corinthians because it's not that it's a lost book, it's all Bible. I know that but I've never thought, oh, that's one of my greatest hits, you know, right there that I would I would choose to listen to but this is a new one for me. This chapter is amazing. This chapter covers the whole scope of Galatians just about in one chapter.
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It's succinct. It's really really good. So, I hope that y'all enjoy it as much as I do but the deal is that when you enjoy it this much, I don't have any idea what to get into a twenty five minute time frame. So I I just kinda laid it out for what it is to begin with. Commendation first, confidence, comparison, spelled wrong, of glory, compartion, comparison of glory, and unveiled faces.
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I'm gonna concentrate mainly on the first three, and really, it's probably gonna be mainly on the third one, comparison glory. But I I ask you all to kind of frame it this way that Paul loves these people. He really loves. Do you believe it now? After seeing what we've seen for the past few weeks, do you believe Paul really really loves these people?
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He does. He's concerned with them. He's concerned with the license obviously in first Corinthians and he's concerned with legalism in this chapter in particular but he loves em and he wants for em to do well and he knows they're believers. He's not trying to shame em or make em feel like they're not, okay? Commendation to begin with.
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Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Paul says, and you can hear that tone. Are we beginning again? Do we have to start over? Do I have to go through this?
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Are we beginning to commend ourselves to you again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or perhaps from you. Now, when Paul says this, this little, just this verse right here, there's a lot there about commending himself to them again. We are, you already know me. I already know you.
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I know your faces. I know your children's names. I know you. You know me. You know what I came there to do.
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Now, I know that these super apostles, which later he'll call false apostles. I know they're telling you some things about me, but you know me. Do I have to commend my do I have to bring a recommendation? And then he says, to you, do I have to bring a recommendation to you? Or would I get that from you?
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Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you? Or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation. Do you get that?
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They accepted Christ under Paul's ministry. His his initiation of the church, Christ's church. Christ is building the church but Paul was the guy. He was the mouthpiece. He was the one who brought the message of the cross and they accepted it.
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So, the commendation there, he's like, I don't understand why I need to have somebody sign off on me. Y'all know me. You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all. Basically says I brag about you everywhere I go. Raise rant on recommendations.
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You ever read a book where you start off in the front and it has like 15 pages of recommendation? Oh, high praise for blah blah blah. And it just keeps on going and you're like, good grief. Will the book not stand on its own? Have you ever watched a late night show where they had a whole series of of guests come in from the same movie?
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When I see that and they're all pumping that movie really hard, I think. They spent way too much on that movie. They want everybody to go see it the first weekend because it's terrible. Anyway, that's just what I've learned. That's that's not Paul.
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Paul is kind of ranting about that too though. He's saying these super apostles with their degrees and with their recommendations from different schools of thought, whatever. That might look impressive but you know me and you know the message that I brought and it was the message of the gospel and you accepted it. So, I I've got another quick little illustration about that. Paul was a tent maker.
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So, it's pretty easy to put somebody down that's a tent maker, a leather worker, and it'd be pretty easy. Oh, he's blue collar. That guy doesn't know anything and Paul admits in first Corinthians two, he says, you know, when I came, I didn't come with Lowry's speech. I came with the simple message of the gospel. I sought to live out nothing but Christ and him crucified.
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I'm not a flowery speaker. I'm not all that great with words. I don't have the oratory skills of those other guys. I don't. He admits it.
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I was recently we had the parsonage in Raptor J had some work done on the ceiling, and we had a sheetrock installed on the ceiling. And so one of the guys that was there, I was talking to him as we went around the building. They've gotten the sheetrock up, and he was going to get a compressor. Helped him unload it out of the truck. I was just talking to him and said, yeah, I did this all the way through seminary.
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I put up a lot of sheetrock and a lot of remodeling tile and stuff like that all the way through grad school and he goes, I finished grad school twice. He had two master's degrees. One of them was in applied linguistics. He spoke five languages. He likes to ski.
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That's why he's here. He said, I can do applied linguistics when I'm older. I probably won't be able to do skiing quite as long. So he came here after he'd already worked in his field for a good long time. Now I usually like to think I don't judge a book by its cover, but he was hanging sheetrock.
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I wouldn't have thought applied linguistics. Didn't know he spoke Russian, Spanish, French, English, and Mandarin but Mandarin, he said, kicked his whatever. So, second Corinthians three goes on. Are we beginning to owe it same thing? Are are we beginning to commend ourselves again?
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Or do we need as some do? Letters of recommendation to you or from you. You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all and you show Christian, you show that you are a letter from Christ that was delivered by us. He doesn't take credit for the authorship of them. He just says, I was the mouthpiece.
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You know me. You trust me. I'm a man of sincerity. That's how you ended the last chapter. Commissioned by God.
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You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us. Written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Now, what is the reference there? It's just a a slight reference at this point, but he gets to filling it out.
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Not on tablets of stone is referring to the 10 commandments. The finger of God literally writing the decalogue, the 10 commandments on tablets of stone. He said, that's not the way that Christ saves. It was not written with ink, and one would expect to say paper, but no, he says tablets of stone. It was written with the spirit of God on heart, not by the finger of God or with ink on paper or finger of God on stone.
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You show that you are a letter and it's not on tablet from Christ delivered by us not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. That's a big difference, isn't it? I mean, that's a huge thing. One of those things is external can be read by all, can be accomplished by none. And the other is internal.
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So location, location, location. Tablets of stone are human hearts. Now this, we'll get the comparison a little bit later, but this is the start of it. The tablets of stone and human hearts is a sharp contrast between the two things. So, he's pointing towards the law and the spirit.
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So, next is confidence. Paul knows the message of the gospel. He preaches it everywhere that he goes and he knows what it looks like when someone accepts it. He understands what happens and he trust that that is what has happened. In his case, dramatic conversion kind of a when he was working against the church and against Jesus, right?
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And then, he went everywhere serving the living Lord Jesus. He says, such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim. Anything is coming from us. He's saying, it's not proprietary.
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This is not my brand. I'm not building a name for myself. You know how we went through summer of Paul and summer of Apollos and summer of Peter and first Corinthians. He's saying, it's not a brand thing. It is the message of the cross.
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Not that we're sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us but our sufficiency is from God or our sufficiency comes from God. They have a power that has been given by God. Does that make sense? Are you with me so far? They have a power that's been given by God to carry this message and if we look at this, our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient.
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So, there's the power they've been given. He's made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. Not of the letter of the law but of the spirit. For the letter kills but the spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit is the power that makes him sufficient.
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That's what Paul is saying. It's the Holy Spirit in our hearts that gives us, that propels us onward, that keeps us carrying this message. We know what he did for us and he empowers us to go and tell others, to live a righteous life and go and tell others. That Holy Spirit is that power. For the letter kills but the spirit gives life.
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This is why I say it's kinda like Galatians. Galatians, there's a whole lot talking about legalism over here, and that's not where it's found. It's not by works that you're saved. Right? The letter kills.
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How many of us first of all, how many of us can name the 10 commandments? Really? If I ask you right now individually to name the 10 commandments, could you get them all? Eventually, probably. The first four are about God.
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The last six are about your relationship with people. When Jesus was asking the New Testament to to what's the, you know, to talk about the commandments. He said, they're all fulfilled in these. Love God and love people. Our motto here is with all we are, loving God, loving people through Christ.
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It's not possible any other way. The letter kills but the spirit gives life. This will come out. I just want you to see it right there. The letter of the law kills.
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Is there any mercy in the 10 commandments? Think about it. It's either thou shalt or thou shalt not. It does not have any mercy in it. The law is really, really good for what it's good for, letting us know where we fail.
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It's really good at that. But contained in the Decalogue, the 10 commandments, there is no mercy. We all fail. We all fall short. Romans, he'd say, and the wages of sin is death.
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We all sin. But thank goodness, you see the new covenant back here? Thank goodness for the new covenant. This is way back, way before Paul was writing but this is what he's referencing. Jeremiah 31 verses 31 through 34 goes something like this.
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Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, Jesus with the lion of Judah, right? Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand and bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke. Though I was their husband, declares the Lord, for this is the covenant, the new covenant, that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.
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I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Amen. Amen. So, comparison or comparison of glory. Comparison of glory, the old covenant, God writes on tablets of stone.
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Moses ministry and by Moses, Paul is going to use Moses to symbolize the whole law or he's going to talk about Moses as the one that God gave the law to at Sinai. So, God writes on tablets of stone. Moses ministry is of transient glory that is veiled and without the spirit, the letter kills. It's condemnation and it's temporary but the new covenant Christ writes on human hearts. Paul's ministry is of surpassing glory that is revealed, not veiled.
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The spirit gives life, it's righteous, and permanent. That's the comparison right there. The surpassing glory of the new covenant was without question but Paul's going to go into it here. Now, if the ministry of death, I'm going to put each reference to that in orange for some reason. Now, if the ministry of death carved in letters of stone, came with such glory that Israelites cannot gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end.
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Do you get that? Do you remember when Moses came down from Sinai and he had had an encounter with God and God had written these 10 commandments which are good. They are not bad. They're really, really, really good. It tells us how we should relate to God and how we should relate to other people.
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Vertical, horizontal. It tells us that. But Paul calls it the ministry of death. He goes on to call it the ministry of condemnation or even damnation. Now, if the ministry of death, carving letters of stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face.
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Imagine that. Imagine that his face is beaming so bright. He had to put a veil over it. And this was being brought to an end Will not then the ministry of the spirit have even more glory? The Holy Spirit of God which God says he will place within us.
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He will write his law in our hearts. Wouldn't that be more glory? Direct? Internal versus external? Will not the ministry of the Holy Spirit have even more glory?
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He goes on. For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation and was there? Absolutely, there was. That's what set Israel apart from other nations. Y'all are looking like this is the heaviest message you've ever heard.
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I promise the last two slides are completely blue. Happy, alright? If there was glory in the ministry of condemnation and there was, that's what set Israel apart. Honestly, people, it's still what sets Orthodox Jews apart. They have built up around those 10 commandments so many other regulations and rules so that they don't even get close to the 10 commandments.
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It's tough. It's a tough, tough thing. Joe and I have been reading a book lately that has been putting this in light. You know, flipping a light switch on for ultra orthodox juice. Flipping a light switch on is heating up that filament.
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It's considered cooking which you can't do on the Sabbath. That's hardcore But that's to put a rule up in front of a rule so you don't break to keep the Sabbath day. Make the, you know, make the Sabbath day holy. Keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember and keep it holy.
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So, if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation and there was, the ministry of righteousness must far exceeded in glory. We all, I think, can agree on that. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory and it did has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. It pales by comparison to this new life. This new covenant makes the old covenant look pitiful.
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Now, the law is good. I'm not saying that the law is bad. I'm saying to live by the law as if you can attain salvation is foolishness. You cannot do that. God makes it very, very, very clear because of the glory that surpasses it.
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This new having Jesus in one's heart, having the spirit in one's heart and one's life to to God. For if what was being brought to an end, came with glory. Now, even Moses knew that the time would come when a new prophet would come and he pointed towards him and said that this would happen and he pointed towards a time where it would come to an end. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory and this is permanent. The new abundant life available in Christ is something that starts.
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And goes on forever. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, which I love. Now, he's not The middle of the synagogue necessarily here in Corinthians and this is the fourth at least letter that he's written them, but this is hardcore for a Pharisee. Paul grew up as a Pharisee. He had practiced all those hedge laws to keep himself away from the other law.
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We are very bold, not like Moses. My goodness. Was Moses not bold? He's saying, Moses had a direct encounter with God and spoke for him but but but he did didn't didn't want to. Right?
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He came around to it but Paul, woe be unto me if I don't speak this news. Woe be unto me if I don't do this. So, since we have such a hope, we're very bold, not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end but their minds were hardened. When God gave the law, think about where they were. Again, with the location, location, location.
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When God gave them the law, they were a group of people, a people group moving out of a land and going to a place that he would give em the promised land and as he's moving them from Egypt, millions of people now, they're not getting along. You ever travel with just your family on vacation? Millions of people are traveling, and they're breaking these laws, and they're hurting one another, and it's breaking his heart. And so he gives them this good law so that they know how to deal with him and how to deal with one another. Since we have such a hope, we're very bold, not like Moses who put on a veil over his face so that Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end but their minds were hardened.
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For to this day, when they read the old covenant and do they still do that? Yes. Even now, I mean, this is this is two thousand years after this. They still read the old covenant. That same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away.
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Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. I I heard a pastor, a friend of mine that said that he got on a plane and there was a little lady sitting up against the window, and this was a big guy kinda like me. And he was sitting in the aisle, and there was one spot left right here between them. And he looked up, and he saw an orthodox Jewish man coming down the aisle. And he was looking nervous, and he flagged down one of the flight attendants and said, I I I need to change seats.
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And he did not wanna sit between a woman and a Gentile. That's bailed. Right? And it bless his heart. That's his religion.
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That's what he grew up doing. He's trying his best to please God. He wants to do what what is right before the Lord. That's what he wants. But he doesn't know the Lord.
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To this day, wherever whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. Boring, boring, boring. Alright. So, this Sinclair Ferguson is another pastor friend. I love what he said about this.
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I listened to his sermon after I prepared this week. Until I came to faith in Jesus Christ, the very worst day of the week, that weekly I wished would end as quickly as possible was this, Sunday, the Lord's day. It was a drag. It was a bore. The hymns in the church I went to were boring.
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The preacher in the church I went to was boring. The people in the church I went to were boring and I couldn't wait for Monday. Then, when God wrote the name of Jesus into my heart, that day changed me. From being the worst day of the week into the being the best day of the week, of course, it seemed as though the hymns got better and the sermons improved and the people seemed interesting. I hadn't thought that the problem was actually out there, external.
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And then I discovered that the problem was in here. Moses had told me to keep the Sabbath day but only Jesus Christ could give me the power through his spirit and the desire to enjoy the Sabbath day and make it holy. Set apart. I like that. I've texted a couple of y'all this week a quote from a book from 1678.
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Didn't have any recommendations in the front of it by the John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress in sixteen seventy seven, seventy eight, and he released it in 1678. And this is an illustration from one of the renditions of that book. There's a story. Faithful is the guy who's walking. Y'all read Pilgrim's Progress.
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Right? Most of you. You're forced to read it in high school. There's faithful, and he's on the path, and he's talking with his buddy Christian. Now Christian is a Christian.
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Faithful is walking the path, and he's talking about the path to a good, upright Christian life. And as he's walking along, he said, I was walking along and then I got to this hill and out of nowhere comes this guy and he hit me with a death blow and I knew I would die. And just as I was starting to come around again, he hit me again. And he said, and then, when I was about to get up, I said, mercy, have mercy, have mercy on me and he said, I do not know how to show mercy. And then he said, a guy was coming along and he had nail pierced hands and a and a split in his side.
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I'm paraphrasing, obviously. And he said, and he picked me up and he held me close and he stopped the other man. The man that overtook you was Moses. He spareth and Christian says this to faithful. The man who overtook you was Moses.
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He spareth none, neither doth he know how to show mercy to those who have transgressed his law. Is there any mercy in the decalogue? None. So, in this picture, this is Moses and he's got the 10 commandments, tablet of stone over his head and that's what he hit him with. This guy seeking to be faithful and then Christ is the one who pulls him close.
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Now, I have a little issue with that. A little struggle with it because the law is good but have you ever seen anybody beat up with the law? Churches are famous for it. We do it all the time. The old covenant, God writes on tablets of stone.
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It was transient. Now, it does define for us what is and what is not sin. It definitely does. It calls us into relationship with God and other people and it tells us how that should be done but it does not give us the power to go by it but God does through Christ. Christ writes on human hearts.
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Paul's ministry is of a surpassing glory that is revealed. The spirit gives life, his righteousness, and permanent. And I wanna illustrate that with a biblical example too. This this kid was 14 in 1933. He presented in Hawaii with a few bumps on his face.
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This is his intake photo. And this is what he became very shortly thereafter. He has leprosy. So what does the law do for someone who has leprosy? What does the law say for someone who has leprosy?
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It says you go to the priest. Usually, you go to a priest at this stage when it's starting to form. And what can the law do for that guy? You are unclean. You're right.
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You're unclean. You have leprosy. You are to be divided, taken away from everyone that you love and know, and you have to say that you're unclean. You have to let everyone around you know that you're unclean. You cannot be a part of normal life and society.
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And so what does that do for him? It's the ministry of condemnation. It separates you and you just get worse. Now, Looking back to verse 14 because only through Christ is it taken away that veil. It was really, really good for what it was good for but you can't get to heaven that way.
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When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. I want to read a quick little pericopy from Luke. Now, while he was in one of the cities, that's Jesus, there came a man full of leprosy. So, he was already advanced and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He calls out in faith and Jesus stretched out his hand.
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Now, he's an untouchable. He's an untouchable man separated apart from society, falls on his face in front of Jesus and he would not dare reach out and touch Jesus. If you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out his hand and he touched this untouchable man saying, I will. Be clean.
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And immediately, the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest. And make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded for proof to them. I don't want you to throw away the 10 commandments completely and not believe that they are good but I want for you to go to Christ when there's something in your life that that law condemns. When there's something in your life that you just can't get there.
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You just can't do it on your own. You can't do it on your own. Go to Christ with it. Last week, I said and I changed the verbiage just a little bit. I said something along these lines.
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You're only going to experience the victory in Christ to the extent that you're willing to surrender. You're only gonna experience victory in Christ to the extent that you're willing to surrender to his spirit. The gospel is not do better. Keep the law. A lot of us grew up in churches where that was the message.
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Do better. Keep the law. I'd love for you to keep the law. And I say when you with the spirit in your heart, he empowers you to keep the law. But it's not do better.
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Keep the law. The gospel is, Jesus kept the law. He traded his righteous life for our sinful lives. So, this is kind of the closer question right here. Where is the law of God written in your life?
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Because it is written somewhere. Is it external where it's written on tablets of stone where you're like, oh yeah, I feel horrible about that. Bam. I just got hit by Moses. Or is it written on the soft, fleshy heart?
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Where you go, oh, lord, help me. Call out to him. I've got more sermon left for next week. I don't think y'all can take it right now. That's a Jesus quote too.
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He says, there there's much more that I'd like to tell you but you can't bear it right now. And so, I'll just ask the band if they'll come back up. Would you stand with us as we sing? We're gonna sing leaning on the everlasting arms. That's where our hope is.
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That's where Jesus wants us and it's actually, I told you the last few slides are gonna be blue too and I didn't get to those. They're happy, happy, happy. Let's read em. Blake, can you go back to em? We'll talk about em next week but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
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Now, the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Do you feel like the weight's just being lifted off your chest? And we all, Christians, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into that same image. Every day, when we yield our life, he's making us more and more into the image of Christ. Transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
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For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. Amen. Thank you, Blake. Amen. Amen.
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So, for benediction, I've got Hebrews ten nineteen through 24 and I think of Sinclair Ferguson's quote about the day of the week that just goes from being the worst day to the best day and I have to say that it is heavy, heavy, heavy if you're living under that ministry of condemnation but the new covenant is available and this is what it's like to live in that new covenant. So, therefore, brothers and sisters, since we do have confidence to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the veil that is through his flesh and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us all draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water and let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised us faithful and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. Amen.
