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Between #193.
193.
Jesus, my Savior.
Of the run of the Kingdom.
All night, sun and all by the Lord.
I remember.
Really not anything.
Oh, my best friend, is God in heaven.
Lord Savior, give me.
You're not allowed to lie.
What shelter Now I won't let her start.
Me clower green sleeping in.
Praying.
I think.
Play it. Still play.
I'd like to suggest Second Corinthians and chapter 3.
It's the Lord's will.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 3.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you, ER our Epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men? For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
And such trust have we through Christ to God, word not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think.
Anything as of ourselves but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth with the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death written in engraving in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the administration of the Spirit be rather glorious?
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For if the administration of condemnation be glory, much more doth administration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth.
For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth his glorious.
Seeing then, that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face at the children of Israel, could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which Vale is done away in Christ.
But even unto this day, when Moses has read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is.
There is liberty, but we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The Second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians.
Was written on the occasion of his having received word that the Corinthians had received his first epistle, and there had been a response.
In their hearts to what had been written, there are many things that needed to be corrected, and the apostle had to deal very directly, quite sternly in some ways.
With his beloved Corinthian Saints, they were the fruit of his laborers, as we'll find the proof of his apostleship.
And he loved them dearly, but they were going on badly and so he had to reprove them.
Quite directly, and as he waited for the response, we find later in the epistle in Chapter 7 that he had been so concerned as to whether they would receive that epistle or not, and he had had great boldness.
In connection with the way he had spoken to them, he knew he had made them sorry with what he had written.
And could have repented in a certain sense that he even wrote the letter. But then when he saw that they responded, he said I don't repent. He was thankful for that response. And in the meanwhile while he was waiting.
To see if they would respond to those admonitions, He and those that labored with him went through a tremendous.
Time of persecution. It brought them to real lows in chapter one and verse.
Eight For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength, and so much that we despaired even of life, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves.
But in God, which raiseth the dead. And so they went through a time where they had not even a hope that they would live through it.
They trusted in God who was able to raise the dead. They have the sentence of death in themselves that they were already dead to this world and should they die, they knew they would be raised again and that was their confidence. But they had no expectation they were going to live.
And all through that, he's agonizing over whether the Corinthians would receive and respond.
To the first Epistle he had them continually on his heart.
And they were delivered through that time of suffering, comforted by God, and then they received the message that the Corinthians had responded and in a great measure had judged the chief evil that had risen among them. There was much more that still needed to be addressed.
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They have put away the offender.
Cleared the Lord's name for His own glory, connection with the sin that had come in, and themselves.
They had responded in a faithful way to the exhortations to deal with that evil.
And now the apostle says in chapter 2.
Verse 6 Sufficient to such a man as this punishment which was inflicted of many, so the contrary wise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him less. Perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also I did right, that I might know the proof of you whether you be obedient.
In all things to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also.
That man had been broken down. He was repentant, but they were.
Not willing.
To restore him.
To fellowship, there was a bit of hardness coming in on their part and their attitude.
And you know how often with us we can swing one way where we're loose and careless is to sin. And then the Lord convicts us about it and and we get that right and we swing the other way and we get too hard about things. And that's what they have done. And so He has to take up with them.
Though faithfulness was required, separation from this world and sin was necessary if they were to go on as an assembly.
Where the Lord Jesus was in the midst, yet the ministry that they had was a ministry of grace.
And that would certainly reach out to this one who was repentant and seek to restore him.
There are other things that needed to be addressed that couldn't be addressed in the first epistle. But now that he saw there was a beginning of the work of the Spirit of God and response in them, that he can go on in the epistle and open up so much more. And so we come to this chapter and he takes up the subject of the ministry.
That we have.
A ministry that has Christ as its object.
And is in the spirit of grace.
Just going back again for a second with reference to verses 8 and nine of the first chapter, we can't neglect what we have in verse 10, which brings before us a past, present, and future deliverance, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us what confidence said is for us.
And the day in which we are living.
So in this epistle, the apostle is taking up with things that he had taken up with in the first epistle, as you say, and.
Just a little bit more in the way of how this book is laid out.
All those introductory statements that you made, Brother Stephen, we had up to this chapter.
The apostle having very much on his mind the repentance and restoration of this brother.
But the other side of repentance was the assembly itself, and we'll come to that in Chapter 7, won't we? Well, we won't in this meeting, but that if you keep reading, that's what we have in Chapter 7.
The other major One of the other major points that the apostle took up in First Corinthians was those who were false apostles.
And I mentioned that because I think that also has to do with what we have in this Chapter 3.
It's what our brother Stephen was saying, the ministry of grace that the Corinthian Saints had and that we have today, but also the apostle was laying out what the ministry of a true servant of the Lord is.
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And this is going to be taken up then, in contrast, in the last chapters of this epistle with the false apostles.
They did not have this ministry of grace. They did not have what was right and proper. And so the apostle sets this up not to make so much of himself. He says he speaks as a fool later on when he has to do that. But here he sets it up so that it's very clear that that false ministry is not in keeping with what is of God. In this chapter we have true Christian ministry of God.
And we find that this ministry doesn't exalt persons, and it certainly has nothing to do with the law, and yet it's a ministry of righteousness. That's what we have in verse 9.
It's the end of the verse administration of righteousness, and by the time we get to the end of this chapter, we'll find out very definitely how righteousness is produced by true Christian ministry in the life of a believer and in a word, that is occupation with Christ.
So I think that's another important feature of this chapter, what their ministry should be, what their attitude should be as the Saints of God in Corinth, but also to show the contrast with the others that were false apostles. The apostle takes that up in chapters.
12 Through the end, but in the middle of it. Then he gets to another thing. Chapters 8-9 and ten he takes up.
The issue of giving, and I think those are the three major points in this second epistle, the repentance taken up, the true Christian ministry, and then also this subject of giving.
Just to read those verses you alluded to in 2nd Corinthians 12, he says in verse 11 I am become a fool in glorying.
Ye have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended of you. For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
Now, was this just to exalt himself, to say, look, I'm the apostle Paul, look at me. No, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience and signs, wonders and mighty deeds. The Spirit of God recognized that. It was so critical that the apostle Paul and his apostleship be defended, because if Satan could somehow undermine that, he could undermine the word of God. And if we can get rid of Paul's doctrine, we can get rid of half of the New Testament. And if we can get rid of half of the New Testament, why don't we get rid of all of it?
And so, as you say in our chapter, we have that same thought coming out in these first few verses about commending himself to them again.
We need to make sure that we don't throw out the Apostle Paul, Paul's doctrine. This has been happening since the sphere of God used the Apostle Paul to write the word of God. What we have in the New Testament and to this day these same attacks are being attacked, are being used by our enemy for the same purpose.
Letters of commendation are important.
When Apollos was.
Was.
Going to be used of the Lord in a larger way in Acts 18.
In verse 27, when he was disposed to pass into a cave, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive Him, who, when he was come help them with help them much which had believed through grace. And if you were to look at Romans 16, you'd find the whole Epistle to Rome was written on the occasion of a letter of commendation needed for a sister named Phoebe.
The whole epistle is a letter of commendation. You know, sometimes we get letters of commendation and they've got this nice little exhortation or encouraging word. Well, why not?
That's what Romans was. Paul uses the occasion of needing a letter of commendation for Phoebe to give the Saints in Rome what they needed. So letters of commendation are important to so we know that someone is.
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Acknowledged by another local assembly being in fellowship. Perhaps somebody we don't know hadn't met before, like Apollos.
They give us sometimes the character the labor and service and appreciation brethren have for this particular one that's coming to visit. But did Paul need a letter of commendation?
With the Corinthians, did he need that, or those that labored with him? Epistles of commendation. They were his letter of commendation.
They were his epistle, they themselves. The fact that there was an assembly existing in Corinth was because of the ministry of the Spirit of God through the apostle Paul. And so they were his letter of commendation, ER epistle written in our hearts. He had them on his heart. It was a heart's occupation with them and burden for them.
They were.
Uh, epistle written in our hearts.
Known and read of all men, all who would look on that company of believers in Corinth would see a proof of the apostles ministry. They were his letter of commendation.
Testing that.
The Apostle Paul would speak of an individual.
As being a letter for an epistle.
You know we think of the letter or an epistle is that which is.
Written with a pen on paper.
But we find here apostate Paul is saying that we are being watched.
By those around us.
And what we do and what we say.
Speaks loudly. Don't realize that perhaps.
But somebody wrote one time the gospel is written a chapter a day.
By the things that we do.
By the words that we say, men read what is written, whether false or true.
Oh, say what is the gospel according to you?
I never forgot that. You know, that's searching.
We're being read day by day.
By those around us.
By believers. By unbelievers.
What is the message that they're getting?
What is the message that we're conveying?
By what we say and what we do.
And I might say that our walk speaks louder than our talk. We've heard that so many times. I don't think we can say it too much. It's true.
If I'm trying to be an epistle for Christ and I'm going on in sin.
Do you think that conveys a convicting message to those around? Of course not.
So.
May we be convicted by that which we.
Do does it really back up what we're seeing?
But we as individuals, whether it be man, woman, boy or girl.
Brother, sister in Christ.
People are watching.
The brethren are watching. The world is watching.
And we don't realize how much of an impact.
Our lives have on those around us.
What we are as individuals we bring into the assembly. And so there was had been bad behavior on the part of the Saints at Corinth, not only in their individual lives, but when they were in assembly, there were things that were going on that were dishonouring to the Lord through the name of the Lord Jesus and it was known in the community, not only their individual conduct.
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But things that were wrong collectively and so he says.
That.
Ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ.
That ye there would include the whole assembly at Corinth.
They were an epistle of Christ, not try to be an epistle of Christ.
Not you should be an epistle of Christ. You are an epistle of Christ. And so, as our brother said, what is being read in that epistle? Does it commend Christ?
Or doesn't it commend Christ? We are an epistle of Christ. There's no getting around that. What's being read in that epistle? It is being read. It's not a case of you should be or shouldn't be. You are. We are an epistle of Christ. The local assembly is an epistle of Christ as well. What is read? It's either commending Christ or it's not.
I struck some years ago to read a comment made by Mahatma Gandhi.
His comment was this, If it wasn't for Christians, I would be a Christian.
In other words, he observed the behavior of those that profess the name of Christ, and it didn't accord or didn't correspond to the doctrine.
That he had read.
And it discouraged him so much that he turned away from any further.
Pursuit of the Scriptures.
And that's one of the wonders of the word of God, that we have example after example of people who please God and we can gain encouragement from their lives. And I want to just spend a moment looking in Acts chapter 6. We just had this in our reading at home and I so enjoyed the ministry on this chapter that we received at home. In Acts chapter 6, we read about.
Some men that were chosen to be a help in the assembly and one in particular. His name was Steven. And so in chapter 6 of Acts verse five we read.
Verse partway through they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. And then if we drop down a little bit to verse.
Eight and Stephen full of faith and power. And I just really enjoyed meditating on this a little bit and that Steven had those characteristics. He was a man full of faith. And so when we get discouraged, what do we do? We need to get down on our knees. We need to open the word of God. We need to pray to the Lord.
And.
It's such a wonderful thing to have that faith from him. And then it says he was full of the Holy Ghost. What a wonderful thing. And the result was power. And so that gives us the ability to go on through the Lord and to be a testimony. And as we were just talking about, when others look upon us, then they see faith and they see the Spirit of God working in our lives and they see power.
And that was that's what really attracts people to the Lord Jesus is that power.
I was noticing the report that in the next verse or verse 8 Acts Chapter 7 says in Stephen full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among people. I believe the people saw that God was working through Stephen by these great wonders.
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Errors. He made an impression upon them.
But you know what today.
We're not doing great wonders and miracles. We're not dazzling people with great displays of power.
Does that mean that people are not going to be impressed by?
The way we live or what we do well.
My brother Joe, he read from Second Corinthians.
Chapter 12.
And verse 12.
And I'd just like you to notice where it is that.
Signs, wonders and mighty deeds come in this verse. It doesn't happen.
At the first of the list, notice what it says Second Corinthians 12 and 12. Truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience.
Patience, or could we say that is enduring.
And you know, this is, I believe what really speaks to the world around when they see that you and I, we don't have it easy. We're experiencing trial and difficulty.
Maybe there's a loss of job or a loss of a loved one.
Or their sickness in the family.
But we don't get all unnerved about it because.
There's that confidence in the Lord that recognizes this is.
God's purpose. In other words, God is at work doing something.
In my life.
That's in the end going to be for good.
And you know, the world is impressed when they see that we're not all bent out of shape when there's difficulty, adversity in our life.
I believe this is what speaks to the power of God, that God by his power.
Maintains sustains one in these circumstances. So there were, as it tells us here in this portion.
Signs and wonders and mighty deeds and the life of the Pastor Paul. But notice what comes first. It's patience or endurance.
And I believe that ought to be an encouragement to us because we can all manifest.
That in our lives.
As believers.
That patience, that endurance, you know him, right? Have put it that Jesus, thou art enough the mind and heart to fill thy patient life.
To calm the soul by love, it's fear to spell the patience endurance.
Of Jesus.
Who suffered like none other in his walk in this world he was despised, dejected of men.
He was maligned, misunderstood.
He was spit upon.
And ultimately, we know he was crucified.
But you know, the Lord Jesus, I do believe he was the happiest man on the face of this planet earth because he was enjoying fellowship with his Father. He was in the will of God, his Father, and it enabled him to go through the deepest, darkest trials that humanity could ever imagine.
The patience.
So his patient life, Let's think about that.
And if he did it, you and I, we can do it.
The Lord Jesus said I overcame, you can overcome through.
His patient lives. It calms the soul. It's what we need today. The world is filled with.
Chaos.
There's violence and corruption, just as in the days of Noah, on every hand.
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But we don't have to.
We are nerved by the whole.
Circumstance around us. We need to keep our focus on the Lord Jesus.
Some years ago I had an opportunity to read the biography of a missionary to Burma at An Iram Judson, and he had great difficulties there, but.
It did not let him.
Those difficulties did not discourage him, and he was known by.
The.
Native peoples there as the man with the shining face, and so they could look at him, and they could see reflected in his countenance the joy that he had in the Lord, and that just beholding him was a testimony to others roundabout.
So perhaps connecting that Brother Bruce was what Brother Wally said, what was perhaps the greatest impression that was made by Steven.
Was when he was brought before the council, and they looked steadfastly honest countenance, and his face shone as it had been the face of an Angel.
The constant work of the Spirit of God in your life and mine is to write Christ on the fleshy tables of the heart. And Christian ministry is the result of the impressive Christ upon the heart, and it flows out from there.
Not with ink and paper. Not.
By the finger of God in stone, like the inflexible tables of the law, but in the fleshy tables of the heart he makes an impress. What is that impress? It's Christ, always Christ, that's who God ever has before him. And that is continually the work of the Spirit of God to write Christ on your heart and mind. And when that's been being written there.
The overflow comes out and praise Thanksgiving and service. Christian service flows from that impress.
And that's written in the heart, not the head. Isn't it the important part of what we have here?
Think about what it says here, Written not with ink. The apostle was talking about a letter of commendation.
And in that context, you can write a letter of commendation about me, and it may or may not be true, but that doesn't abide.
The Apostle Paul was ministering and that's what we have here. He says you're declared to be the apostle of Christ, ministered by us. He was writing to them, giving them the word of God.
That's even better than a letter of commendation, but the word of God.
By itself.
Goes further, much further. It's powerful, living and powerful. But here we see the Spirit of God comes in and takes that ministry that the apostle was giving, that which he was writing to them and he was using that.
Right is her brother Stephen was bringing out to write Christ himself in their heart. And that's what it really needs to be, isn't it? We're talking about Christ's likeness. How does Christ's likeness come to be? We can't manufacture that. It has to be this work of the Spirit of God taking the Lord Jesus Christ and writing him right into our affections and when the Lord Jesus is in our affections.
Then Christ's likeness gets produced in what we do in sin. That's really the secret, I believe, of what we have in this verse.
So we need to take time.
With the Lord. We need to spend time with the Lord in order that our service might feel the effect of that fellowship with Him.
You know, I think about.
How the Lord Jesus when he chose his disciples, it tells us that He chose his disciples to be with him.
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And then he sent him forth to preach well, in order to have something to preach about.
And if they're going to preach Christ, you've got to spend time with the Lord. That's what he chose them first of all, to be with Him.
In any sense before?
Preach so if we think that we can be effective without enjoying quiet time with the Lord.
Get it won't work.
It's so encouraging to see the Saints respond to the word of God, isn't it?
It is encouraging and that encouraged the apostle when he saw that the Spirit of God was working there in Corinth and he was right in Christ on the fleshy tables of the heart. And that's what he expresses then in the verse four. We have trust towards God that he's going to work, that he's going to do that, and the evidence is there that he is working.
And it rejoiced his heart. And the apostle says not that we are sufficient to ourselves. It's not us that did it.
It's the Spirit of God that did it. He takes no credit to himself.
Yes, he penned that epistle, but it was penned by divine inspiration. It was the words that God gave, and it was the work of the Spirit of God in their hearts. And he saw the response and he rejoiced. He takes no credit.
No sufficiency in ourselves. This isn't what we produce. No, this is what the Spirit of God produced. And it is a joy when the Saints rise up and respond to the Word of God.
The Spirit of Christ manifest in their lives and their ways as a result, and it encouraged the apostle and those that were with him.
Those are five beautiful words.
We need to.
Engrave these words in our heart. The last five words.
Verse 5.
Our sufficiency is of God.
This speaks volumes.
Is there anything too hard for the Lord?
Is there?
I see some shaking your head like that.
I think we recognize the fact that with God, all things are possible.
But sometimes we question as to whether.
The Lord is willing to help us. We know He's able to. But is he willing? Well, to him puts it. And we sing this hymn over and over again. It's #23 in the little plateau.
How good is the God we adore? And you know that little hymn says his love is as great as his power.
I really appreciate.
You know my brother gave out that hymn. I just want to read this here #241 Now these are hymns that we sing over and over.
And it's kind of a conviction or a word of my own soul.
That some of the hymns.
That I really don't know.
Are hymns that I have sung over and over and over again without paying attention to the words. And I can sing a hymn and in 5-6 years later I'm thinking as I sing it again, why didn't I see that years ago? These are beautiful hymns, but here in this #241 it tells us.
Power in love.
And G combine verse three with the price I love has bought us Savior. What a love is dying.
The other to thy power has brought us.
Power and love.
Indeed, combined.
One does not outweigh the other. OK, now this is the kind of person that we can trust 100%.
Lord of glory, ever unty households shine.
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Our sufficiency is of God.
The Spirit of God would.
Make us feel how little we are in fact with nothing, but it also makes us understand what a great God we have.
To whom nothing is impossible.
It's a tremendous thing to have God for us, isn't it?
The statement has been made recently by certain politicians. I have your back. Well.
That can't always be accomplished, can it? And so we only, we only have one that we can fully put our trust and confidence in. That is the Ward himself.
He has our back all the time.
In connection with our sufficiency is of God.
I want to.
Give a phrase that I come across recently and see if you think you know where it is. It goes like this.
The power of that the power of Christ might rest upon me.
You know where that is.
2nd Corinthians 12 The very passage that you were reading before 2nd Corinthians 12. So how might the apostle Paul is Speaking of a manner in which the power of Christ, Mount Rastipano, the power of Christ, we think of as ability to do something wonderful.
What is it that made him?
A candidate for the power of Christ to rest upon him.
Well.
2nd Corinthians 12 as Raleigh says.
And it's in verse 9.
I'll read. I'll read.
I'll read the whole 1St. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
My strength is made perfect in weakness.
That the power of Christ might rest upon me. And then it goes on to say.
Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities.
That the power of Christ might rest upon me.
Now you and I might think, well, I'm not up to.
I'm not up to doing this or that.
I have felt the same thing myself.
Not up to it. Well, the apostle says.
That he was up to it because the power of crisis wrestled on him for the very purpose, for the very fact that he was weak, he had infirmity, he had perhaps a speech impediment of some kind. He was not.
Not some fine handsome guy he was not admired by many for.
Various reasons we might say, but all those things enabled.
Christ to show out from him, not by His.
Strength or power in himself but.
That God was able to use him for those very.
Very weaknesses that he had.
I might add there's another passage that we could connect to that thought and first Peter 4.
Verse 14.
If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you for the spirit of glory and of God rest upon you.
The Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Why? Because you just did something wonderful.
Just made a You just performed a miracle in the name of the Lord.
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No, that's not what it says.
The Spirit of glory and God rests upon you.
When you're approached for the name of Christ.
Or not sometimes willing to do that, Are we?
The Lord never asked us to do anything about what He gives us the ability to do it.
I mean, he loves just too much to require something.
That he's not going to give us the ability to do, it has been said. His commandments always come with his enablements.
Ought to be a comfort to our hearts, like you say. Yeah, Brother Paul, sometimes.
We look at something, we know the Lord wants us to do this, but then we look at ourselves and see, I can't do this. Lord, I, I don't have you. I just, I'm.
A week.
But you know what?
You pass a quote.
He said something and it's in Philippians.
I believe it's Philippians chapter 4. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
And so if the Lord Jesus wants you or me to do something.
Don't look at yourself. Look away. Look at him.
Will enable you to do this.
And you know it's going to rejoice his heart. It can be a blessing to others.
And it's a blessing, encouragement to one's own heart as well.
There's an enablement here, isn't there? As you're saying. And I think that we have that also in the last verse of the Gospel of Mark, it says and they went forth and preached everywhere.
The ward working with them.
So they didn't go out to their own strength, did they? The ward was working with them. And that should be an encouragement to us. When we're somewhat timid or fearful for doing something for the Lord, we have the promise that He will enable.
All speaks of being here. Enable Minister.
Of the New Testament or New Covenant, but not.
Of the letter, but of the Spirit, and then Hebrews.
And chapter 8 we find the details of that new.
Covenant.
The Old Covenant was the law. New Covenant is yet to be brought in.
And so.
He says he's going to make a new covenant, verse eight of Hebrews 8. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, the two divided kingdoms that once formed a single Kingdom in Israel. He's going to bring them back together in the coming day too.
But that's who he's going to make the new covenant with, not like the covenant previously of the law. Verse 9 tells us. Verse 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people, And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying no, the Lord.
For all shall know me from the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Paul says we're able ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter that is, not of its actual ratification with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, that is in a day to come, but of the Spirit.
Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. He will write his commandments in their heart and in their mind. That is what Paul is a minister of the spirit of it. And so if we were to look back at Romans chapter 8.
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And verse four, Well, let's read verse 3.
Romans 8 and verse 3 For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh. God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in US who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
And so we fulfill the righteousness of the law.
Not because the law is written in our hearts, as it will be with Israel and Judah in a coming day when that covenant is ratified, but because Christ is written in the hearts. Because He's written in the hearts, we fulfill the righteousness of the law. Not because the law is before us as an object of commandments, do this and don't do that, but because Christ is before us and we want to please Him.
And we would never want to displease him. All that the law ever contained in far more fulfilled in the believer with Christ written on the heart. So he's a minister of the spirit of it, not of the letter. The letter killeth. And so the letter of the law in the Old Testament was inaugurated with the death of 3000, when it was brought into the camp. They were sinners. Not so with administration of the Spirit of God.
Its administration of life. And so the Spirit giveth.
Life. I just make one remark.
Made to me many years ago.
No letter of the New Testament scriptures ever killed anyone.
No letter of the New Testament scriptures ever killed anyone.
It does not form part of the law of the Old Testament and that old covenant.
But it has many directions for our life and conduct here below, that we might please the Lord as we go on for Him in this scene.
I would just suggest.
There's something that bothered me a lot in this verse.
That the whole verse is speaking about the new covenant and the thing that troubled me was that when I got to the last clause it says the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life. So the question that came in my mind if the new covenant is for Judah and Israel as Brother Steve just read to us from Hebrews 8.
Then how does it kill? Will it not kill them?
And I'd be interested to hear what someone else says about that but a comment a brother made.
I thought was very helpful.
You certainly know how the log hills, but this is speaking about the new covenant here as far as I can see in this verse. And if we take that new covenant that is made with Judah and with Israel, and we apply it in the letter to ourselves as Christians.
It will kill our Christian physician. That was a thought that was expressed, and I think that's right.
I think that is consistent with what we have in this chapter. It's not that the New Testament kills anyone.
They actually receive life, they have new birth as we saw a knowledge of God and forgiveness of sins through it. What the Lord does through that new covenant, the work of this spirit in it, it's not the old covenant. It's different. But if the apostle were to take that and apply it in letter to the Corinthians, it would kill what he brought out as to their true Christian position in Christ. That goes far beyond what Judah and Israel can going to be brought into.
I think that's the sense of it here. Like I said, glad to be corrected if I'm wrong in that.
Thanks brother. Tim, I've had the same question but I've never heard an answer, so I appreciate that very much.
Another brother made a helpful remark about the very fact that Paul's a minister of the new covenant. Why should we have that? And you have it in the Lord's Supper as well. This is the blood of the new covenant, the Lord says, and it is a question. The new covenant was something that was known. And they say, why do we even bring that up here?
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Well, the fact of the matter is his brother Stephen was bringing out, these are Christian blessings that we have in common with the Old Testament Saints. And that already was laid out, a covenant that was going to be made and then it was found and the Lord says it when the institute has suffered that this is the blood of that covenant, this is what it is. And so now we know about that. We come into the good of that covenant. You say, well, how, why would we have a covenant that isn't with us that we only come into the good of? Where is that in Scripture?
Well, that's the way it is. Hebrews 8 is very clear about that. It's a covenant with a House of Judah and the House of Israel. And you go to Ezekiel and you go to Jeremiah. You find it the same. It's, it's exactly what the Scripture says. But the another brother pointed out something that I found helpful in this regard as well. It was from Matthew 20. I'll just turn there for a moment because I think this really shows where we are.
Matthew 20 and justice the beginning of that chapter. And there it says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man that is a householder and went early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into the vineyards. He made an agreement. That's what a covenant is. You do this, I do, I give you money.
And I'm just going to skip through this because I see our time is gone.
Verse six is where we are. About the 11Th hour he went out and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand you here all day idle? And they say unto him, Because no man hath hired us.
And he said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right he shall receive.
We could go on in that these are ones with whom he made no covenant. They came into the good of a covenant that was already made. And that's where we are in Christianity. And we find out not only that, but our blessings go far beyond the new covenant. And that's why that letter of the new covenant would kill our position because of all that were brought into in Christ.
Should we sing him #194?
May the Savior's love and bearing till our hearts, both night and day, and the unction of deceiving.
Oh my God and anxious way.
May we know singles and fighting and the sun won't be adventurous?
She pray.