WEBVTT 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:22.079 Well, good morning everyone. 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:26.559 Thank you for uh joining us wherever you're tuning in from this morning. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:27.519 My name is Mark. 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:32.399 I'm one of the uh the leaders uh at City Church Dublin. 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:34.960 Very welcome here uh with us. 00:00:35.359 --> 00:01:06.000 Um normally on a Sunday like this, uh we would uh uh we would make this uh announcement uh in the Sunday gathering, and there'll be uh cheering and whooping and uh and the telling of the story, but it's worth just giving a shout out to uh to Sartak and to Anya who uh got engaged uh uh just recently and uh announced that uh after all of the things have been recorded and uploaded for uh for Sunday. 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:09.519 But since I'm coming to you live, I'm able to uh to mention that. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:12.239 So congratulations to uh to you guys. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:17.920 Look forward to uh to seeing and celebrating uh with you with you both really soon. 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:26.000 Uh let me pray uh for us as we come to this passage that Young read for us and consider it together. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:33.519 Uh Father, we do thank you for uh for Satak and for Anya and for their love for one another and for their love for Jesus. 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:43.840 We pray uh that uh that you would um uh help them, give them wisdom as they prepare for married life together. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:58.799 We thank you that your word speaks to us uh now and we pray that your spirit would um engender a sense of uh wonder uh in our uh in our hearts uh this morning. 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:01.120 We pray these things in Jesus' name. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:02.079 Amen. 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:14.639 Well, if you've been a Christian for any length of time, you realize that there are various uh temptations and pitfalls to be uh negotiated and navigated uh throughout your Christian life. 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:24.719 There's the uh the allure of sin, uh the temptation towards uh the pursuit of personal gain, the pursuit of pleasure. 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:28.400 I mean, that's the thing about sin, is you wouldn't do it if it didn't feel good, right? 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:37.199 Uh and so there's this constant kind of need to turn away from uh love of self and to uh and to follow what God says. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:03:02.560 Another thing or a temptation or pitfall that needs to be navigated is uh is the uh our anxieties that come and the the pitfalls that that come with our um the concerns of life that they they weigh upon us and and tend to kind of uh pull us away from dependence upon God and reliance uh upon him. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:09.120 But for every follower of Jesus, there is another danger. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:13.759 This danger is subtle. 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:28.800 It doesn't come with the neon lights of lust, it doesn't come with the creeping darkness of worry, it comes in plain clothes and speaks in normal tones. 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:33.199 It may even be in your heart right now. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:39.360 That danger is boredom. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:51.840 The thrill of the faith that you received perhaps years ago is long since gone. 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.319 It is no longer thrilling. 00:03:55.599 --> 00:04:21.519 What has crept in in its place is a discontentment, a disinterest, a restlessness, maybe even wanting something else, something new, something interesting, something that would captivate your attention again, your bored. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:41.040 The uh French poet, 19th century French poet, I'm sure we're all familiar with him, uh, a guy called Charles Baudelaire, uh, he captures the um the danger of boredom. 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:46.319 Well, in his uh poem to the reader. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:50.000 Let me read you uh a stanza from it. 00:04:52.639 --> 00:05:18.480 But among the jackals, panthers, bitch hounds, apes, and scorpions, vultures and snakes and monsters, which scream and howl and grunt and crawl in the sordid menagerie of our vices, there is one even uglier and more wicked and filthier than all the rest. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:30.800 Although it makes no frenzied gestures and utters no deafening cries, yet it would gladly reduce the whole world to dust. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:37.279 It would gladly swallow the whole earth with its gaping maw. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.360 It is boredom. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:58.079 Boredom would gladly swallow your faith, consume the entirety of your interest in the gospel. 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:02.800 And it's a temptation, isn't it? 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:06.480 You get bored with the Bible. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:13.600 We sit in Bible studies and we think another night where I haven't learned anything new. 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:19.199 I'm not learning anything new, and so it must be boring. 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:30.800 We get bored with church, we get bored with Christians, the same people who aren't terribly thrilling to begin with. 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:41.680 We want a church that is fresher, more engaging, music that is more interesting or thrilling. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:45.279 Maybe even a preacher that is less dull. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:51.199 We also get bored with long obedience. 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:53.759 That's the Christian life, isn't it? 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:59.279 It's long obedience, we get bored with it. 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:03.279 Turning from sin and to Jesus time and time again. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:09.600 Maybe even only seeing incremental gains in terms of our holiness. 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:15.199 We get disinterested, we get bored. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:27.759 The Corinthians had found new teachers who they had replaced Paul with, or who were in the process of replacing Paul with. 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:34.879 They had grown bored with him, and apparently it was easy to find Paul boring. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:40.959 He wasn't terribly impressive, he wasn't a wonderful speaker. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:56.399 What's more, these uh, as we see later on, uh their term super apostles, uh, these super apostles had come uh with great oratory and fascinating things, but they'd also come with glowing references. 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:05.439 He said, look at these letters of recommendation that I've got from uh from these people, and these people are very important, and and look what they've they've said about me. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:09.600 Letters of recommendation about how wonderful they were. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:22.959 Paul didn't have any of that, and so they they come to him and they ask, Well, where's your letter of reference? 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:32.960 They come to him who, in an earthly sense, they owed everything to, and they said, Well, why should we listen to you? 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:38.960 Where's the indication that you are a reputable speaker? 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:42.240 Where's your letter of references? 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:51.120 His answer, his answer comes at the start of our passage, his answer comes in verses two and three. 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:52.559 Uh, have a look at it with me. 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:55.200 Get a Bible, have it open, look it up on your phone. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:57.600 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.200 Paul says, let's actually begin at verse 1. 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.200 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:07.759 Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:14.960 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts to be known and read by all. 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:29.200 And 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. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:34.960 You are our letter. 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:42.480 Paul doesn't point to the churches that he has planted. 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:50.480 He doesn't point to the number of people saved who have come from death to life. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:58.080 No, he points at them and to the transformation that has taken place in their hearts. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:05.759 This is how we ought to measure ministry success. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:10.320 It's such a temptation, isn't it, to equate size with success? 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:14.240 To look at a big church and to say, well, it must be a healthy church. 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:17.039 How often that's not true. 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:24.240 Or the impressive international ministry and say that person must be impressively godly. 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:34.720 Yet, even in recent days, we have realized that men can go through their whole lives harboring secret desires. 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:55.039 Paul is saying here that the mark of ministry success or a thrilling gospel ministry isn't its size or the soaring oratory of the speaker, it is the transformed hearts of the people who hear the gospel and respond in repentance and faith. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:06.720 It is not the awesomeness of the pastor that makes an authentic gospel ministry, but the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of people. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:17.279 Are people encountering Jesus by the power of his spirit that he has sent into the world? 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:22.399 Or are they just seeing a man speaking flashy words? 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:34.639 These impressive teachers had come to had come to the Corinthians with new teachings, mysterious things. 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:39.039 Certainly as far as the Corinthians were concerned. 00:11:39.759 --> 00:12:18.879 They were talking about the Old Testament, telling stories of Moses leading a million people through the sea out of Egypt, walking on dry land with walls of water between them, of coming to Mount Sinai, of fire and lightning, of earthquakes and trembling and mighty voices speaking from the terrible darkness, or stories of Moses coming down from the mountain with his face shining radiant with the glory of God, and it was fascinating. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:22.799 How can Paul compete? 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.720 How can Paul compete with that? 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:36.559 He cannot, but his gospel can, and that's what he does. 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:42.159 You see, this is how you combat boredom. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:45.759 You combat boredom with wonder. 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:51.200 The antidote to boredom is wonder. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:00.320 And Paul here does not play their game and show them how impressive he is. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:11.120 No, he shows them the surpassing glory, the surpassing beauty of the gospel. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:15.200 And he does so by drawing three contrasts. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:19.679 He does it by contrasting it with the old. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.960 Let's look at those three ways together. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:31.039 First, two different locations. 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:34.799 Two different locations. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:56.320 And 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. 00:13:56.480 --> 00:13:57.200 Did you catch it? 00:13:57.360 --> 00:13:58.639 Have a look at verse seven and eight. 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:13.919 Now, if the ministry of death carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the spirit, uh will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory? 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:22.399 Stone tablets versus human hearts. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:26.879 The law was written on tablets of stone. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:29.759 Here, this is a reference to the to the ten commandments. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:40.639 You may have seen the Cecil B de Mill film of Moses coming down with the uh the great tablets of stone with the with the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments etched on them. 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:58.720 But the gospel, it's not written on stones, it's written on human hearts, it's not written by the hands of men, but by the Spirit of Christ Himself. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:09.039 Here's why this contrast matters the law of God, the Old Testament, right? 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:30.399 The letters on stone, they told you what it took to please God, what obedience before God uh looked like, but they had no power to enable that obedience. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:31.840 That's the difference. 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:44.240 The law told you that you had to live like this in order to please God, but it gave you no power in order to be able to carry it out, in order to be able to live like that. 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:51.840 Paul, this is why Paul says that the law had glory, and we'll look at that more in a second. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:16:06.159 It was it was the gift of God, it was a good thing, it was good to be told that this is what God requires, but it was never meant to enable them to live that way. 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:24.159 By contrast, the ministry that Paul is proclaiming, the ministry of the gospel, is not written on tablets of stone, it doesn't just merely tell you what you should do, it actually enables you, it actually empowers you to live like that. 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:25.600 That's the difference. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:38.240 It's not just an external law, an external duty to be performed, which you have no energy or spiritual vitality to perform. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:41.759 Is the law written on the heart? 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:50.159 And you are enabled in your heart by the Spirit of God to live a life that is pleasing to him. 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:52.960 This is something that the law could never do. 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:59.600 It was never made to do that, it was supposed to show you your need of God's mercy. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:16.400 Some people go through their whole Christian life thinking that Christian obedience is about obeying the letter, the letter that brings death, as we'll see. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:23.920 That the sum total of the Christian life is about dutiful obedience. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:38.960 No, the message of the gospel is of transformed hearts, of glad obedience enabled by the Spirit of God. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:49.599 Where is the law of God written for you? 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:55.279 Where's the law of God written in your life? 00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:01.519 Is it still outside of you on those stone stone tablets, as it were? 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:05.119 A moral bar that you are trying to clear. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:15.759 Excuse me, a moral bar that you're trying to clear, or a stone weight that is crushing you. 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:35.119 Or is it written on your heart by the Spirit of God who has transformed you by his grace and who enables you to follow him in glad obedience two contrasting locations? 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:36.880 That's the first point. 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:41.039 And have a little sip of coffee, and I just inhaled my own saliva. 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:41.680 You're welcome. 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:44.160 That's how you know you're a fallen creature because that happens. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:51.279 Two contrasting locations. 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:52.240 Second. 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:57.119 Two contrasting effects. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:03.359 The ministry of the old covenant had a different effect than the ministry of the new covenant. 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:05.119 Look at how Paul describes it. 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:08.480 Verse six, have a look at verse six with me. 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:23.440 Um second half of so he's made us competent to be ministers of the new covenant, not by the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:37.519 Now, if the ministry of death, carved in letters of stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze on Moses' face because of its glory, which is meant to be brought to an end, will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory? 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:38.960 It gives life. 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:40.960 There's two contrasting effects. 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:45.200 The letter kills, the spirit gives life. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:54.559 The law, the old testament, the law told you that you needed forgiveness. 00:19:54.799 --> 00:20:00.799 The law told you that you were a sinner who had broken God's law and that you needed to be forgiven by him. 00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:02.640 That's what the law did. 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:07.759 But the law offered you no mechanism for forgiveness. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:14.240 There was no way in the law that you would actually be saved. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:23.359 The whole point of the Old Testament law was that you were supposed to realize, uh, if you're an old testament Israelite, that you couldn't possibly keep it. 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:28.240 And you were supposed to throw yourself under the mercy of God and know his forgiveness then. 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:37.519 But the law itself had no mechanism to forgive you, it could only show you your sin and thus condemn you. 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:45.119 As a result, Paul calls it the ministry of death because it could not bring life. 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:52.640 Religious obedience, empty, dutiful observance can never bring life. 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.880 It can only condemn you, it can only bring death. 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:13.920 Because it produces people who are either wickedly proud in their moral obedience, or it produces miserable people who are crushed under the standard that they cannot keep. 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:15.359 You see that, don't you? 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:26.480 You see that in people who live in this kind of rule-keeping, religious, uh, traditionalistic sort of way. 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:32.000 People trying to please God because of external obedience. 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:42.480 They either become merciless, merciless jerks who are judgmental and condemning of others, or they become miserable. 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:52.640 Maybe that's why so many Christians in various parts of the world, even various parts of our island, are miserable. 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:59.680 Because they're actually operating under the ministry of death, trying to bleed. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:10.799 Please God by dutiful obedience when what they need is the one to whom the law points. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:15.200 The law could only ever condemn you. 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:27.200 In John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, there's a uh there's a scene that is recounted uh by one of the characters. 00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:37.039 That character is called Faithful, and he he tells this story to Christian, who is the protagonist in Pilgrim's Progress. 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:41.359 And and Faithful is recounting this journey up this mountainside. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:54.400 And as he is journeying up this uh this mountain, he says that uh that an unknown man uh overtakes him and turns around and looks back at Faithful. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:23:00.400 And and before Faithful can say a word, the man smacks him and he falls to the ground. 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:05.759 And Faithful gets up again, and the man begins to beat him and he beats him down again. 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:14.400 And Faithful cries out to the to the unknown assailant and he says, Have mercy on me. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:23.119 And the unknown assailant turns to him and says, I do not know how to show mercy. 00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:36.720 And as he's recounting the story to Christian, Christian realizes who Faithful encountered on the way, and he says, You met Moses. 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:44.079 You met Moses on the road, for he does not know how to show mercy. 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:54.960 Faithful goes on and says that another man came, and he he did not know initially, but he rescued Faithful. 00:23:55.039 --> 00:24:00.240 And as he rescued Faithful, he noticed that the man had nail-pierced hands. 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:10.160 The one who rescues us from the condemnation of Moses is the man with nail-pierced hands. 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:16.160 And we see that, don't we, in the life of Jesus? 00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:22.160 Think back to the uh to the story of when Jesus cleanses the leper. 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:23.759 It's there in Luke's gospel. 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:28.720 This leper was a social outcast. 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:32.000 He had uh he had been to the priest, I'm sure. 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:48.240 He'd gone to the priest and he'd he'd shown himself his skin, this dermatological condition that made him unclean, and they and the priest had condemned him, had diagnosed the condition, said, No, you have to now live separate to society. 00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:56.960 The priest had diagnosed his problem, but gave him no remedy. 00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:02.000 There was no mechanism to save him, to welcome him back into the people of God. 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:06.640 All the priest could do was to condemn him to a life of isolation. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:22.000 And then he meets Jesus on the road, and he falls down at his feet and he says, Lord, if you are willing, you will make me clean. 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:47.839 And what we read there in Luke's Gospel is and Jesus moved with compassion reached out and touched the man, identifying with him, embracing him, and said, I am willing to be clean. 00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:59.680 Then he says, Go to the priest and offer to him the sacrifice that Moses requires. 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:10.000 Only the man with nail-pierced hands can rescue you from Moses. 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:14.160 Can rescue you from the sin that condemns you. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:18.720 Only the man with nail-pierced hands can make you clean. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:28.400 Moses can tell you that you need forgiveness. 00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:30.880 But he cannot forgive you. 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:35.920 Only the man with nail-pierced hands can do that. 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:45.279 One ministry brought about death. 00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:49.359 The ministry of the Spirit gave us life. 00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:54.960 Two contrasting effects. 00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:03.119 Thirdly, two degrees of glory. 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:13.920 Two locations, two contrasting effects, and thirdly and finally, two degrees of glory. 00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:26.079 Pick it up with me at verse nine, if you would. 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:34.480 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, that's just what we've been looking at, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:42.799 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:54.960 For if it was being brought to an end, sorry, if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. 00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:56.960 Notice again what Paul says here. 00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:00.720 Paul's saying that the law is a good thing, the law has glory, right? 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:05.200 The law has glory because it is God's gift. 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:11.200 It is God's gift to human beings, his gift to show us our need of him. 00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:27.119 What we were supposed to do is we were supposed to read it and realize our inability to keep it and to cast ourselves upon his mercy and grace and cry out to him like the uh like the tax collector in Luke 18, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. 00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:29.119 That's what was supposed to happen. 00:28:30.160 --> 00:28:39.279 Elsewhere in Paul's letter to the Romans, he just says that the law is holy, righteous, and good, in insofar as this is how it was meant to be used. 00:28:39.519 --> 00:28:42.079 It was meant to show you your need of God. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:44.240 It was holy and righteous and good. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:57.279 Rather, it's it's when it comes, it's when the law comes in contact with the sinful human heart that it kills us because we we think that we can achieve our way up the moral ladder to God. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:15.440 But it had glory nonetheless, but it was a temporary glory, and this is why Moses hid his face. 00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:17.440 Look at verse 12. 00:29:19.279 --> 00:29:28.480 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:32.400 What Paul's referencing here is he's referencing Exodus chapter 34. 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:42.000 In Exodus 34, Moses comes down the mountain after meeting with God, and his face, much like me standing under the light here, is is radiating. 00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:46.079 It is radiating with the glory of God. 00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:50.799 And they uh and the Israelites are are terrified of it. 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:59.839 Uh, and so they they compel him to put a veil over his face to cover his face because they can't they can't bear to look at it. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:01.839 That's the context. 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:16.480 But Paul interprets that and says, No, one of the things that was happening is that Moses realized that that the glory was only ever temporary, that it was fading away, and that's why he veiled his face. 00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:32.960 The reason why he covered his face is because he didn't want the Israelites to see that the glory was passing away, and then and he uses that as an image for the old covenant, that it has a glory that was only ever temporary, that it was always passing away. 00:30:33.119 --> 00:30:41.359 And in contrast, the gospel comes, the gospel that Paul is proclaiming has surpassing glory. 00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:42.319 Why? 00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:53.440 Because it did what the law could never do, it actually forgave and transformed people, and so that is why it has surpassing glory. 00:30:55.920 --> 00:31:04.559 So Paul says here to those who find the old covenant more intriguing, more entertaining, more wondrous. 00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:12.960 He says, it's like it's like obsessing over a candle and thinking, wow, that's that's so amazing. 00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:21.759 When the blazing glory of the sun is there. 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:24.799 They don't compare in Paul's mind. 00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:30.240 You cannot you cannot hold up a candle or a torch next to the sun. 00:31:31.279 --> 00:31:39.839 Because one of the things that will happen is you'll not really be able to see the light, the glory that is coming from this tiny thing. 00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:45.599 The glory of the sun eclipses it. 00:31:47.759 --> 00:31:54.000 Paul is saying that the gospel is like that, it eclipses the glory of the old. 00:31:54.960 --> 00:32:08.559 Why would you get bored with the gospel and go back into musing on these things, on these things that were only ever temporary, that were always just passing away? 00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:17.759 This is what gives Paul boldness. 00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:20.480 Paul is more bold than Moses. 00:32:21.039 --> 00:32:32.559 Paul doesn't veil his message, Paul doesn't veil the gospel or the glory of the gospel, he unveils it and shows its brightness for all to see. 00:32:33.279 --> 00:32:35.599 He is more bold than Moses. 00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:44.160 He doesn't hide it, he lets it shine into people's lives, into people's hearts. 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:51.440 But he says that if there is a veil, the veil is over the hearts of unbelievers. 00:32:55.440 --> 00:32:57.039 Look at verse 14. 00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:11.599 But their minds were hardened, for to this day, when the old covenant, sorry, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:17.359 Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:20.960 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:27.920 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:36.720 And we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:40.559 For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 00:34:01.599 --> 00:34:11.440 This is something that Paul uses another image for uh in chapter four, at the very start of chapter four, that we're going to look at in more detail next week. 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:18.239 But this veil remains. 00:34:22.159 --> 00:34:33.440 And in this context, it remains because the people cannot see that Moses was only ever pointing beyond himself. 00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:37.360 The whole Old Testament. 00:34:39.199 --> 00:34:48.960 Every law, every narrative, every psalm, every prophecy. 00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:57.440 Speaks his name, it points to Jesus. 00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:04.159 You've missed the point, Paul says, of the Old Testament. 00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:07.599 If you do not see that it points to Jesus. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:57.920 Paul is saying that running back to the old covenant and obsessing over that is like looking at the finger. 00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:01.760 You're supposed to look at the thing that the finger's pointing to. 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:13.679 You're supposed to look at the surpassing reality, and the surpassing reality, the thing that the old testament is pointing to, the thing that Moses is pointing to, is Jesus, the gospel. 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:18.480 He is the great high priest. 00:36:18.719 --> 00:36:24.400 He is the temple where God and man meet, where heaven and earth overlap. 00:36:25.280 --> 00:36:28.639 He is the spotless sacrifice. 00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:30.960 He is our better Adam. 00:36:32.239 --> 00:36:36.400 He is our better Exodus. 00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:44.800 He is our better David who sits on the throne forever. 00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:55.199 And we know this if we've ever been caught up in a kind of ritualistic religion. 00:36:56.239 --> 00:37:00.400 There's always a sense of Is this it? 00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:02.320 Is there something better than this? 00:37:02.559 --> 00:37:05.360 Is there something more than this? 00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:09.599 Paul's answer here is yes. 00:37:11.440 --> 00:37:14.000 It is the man with nail-pierced hands. 00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:18.400 He is the one who removes the veil. 00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:22.960 The veil that lies over our hearts by nature. 00:37:23.920 --> 00:37:27.119 That is maybe lying over your heart now. 00:37:30.239 --> 00:37:35.599 And when that veil is removed by the power of his Holy Spirit, what happens? 00:37:35.679 --> 00:37:36.480 What do we see? 00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:38.960 End of verse 17. 00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:42.000 It sets you free. 00:37:43.119 --> 00:37:50.880 You actually begin to see clearly clearly, to feel more fully, to feel rightly. 00:37:58.159 --> 00:38:01.360 Maybe before uh becoming a Christian. 00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:04.559 You were taken to church. 00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:11.519 And when you were dragged along, maybe as a teenager or whatever, you were brought along maybe by a boyfriend or a girlfriend. 00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:14.559 You thought the church was terribly dull. 00:38:15.199 --> 00:38:18.880 The hymns seemed dirge-like and boring. 00:38:19.519 --> 00:38:22.079 The sermon was boring. 00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:25.360 The people were uninteresting. 00:38:27.119 --> 00:38:32.880 And yet when you became a Christian, it was almost as though the songs got better. 00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:37.440 It was as though the preacher became more intriguing. 00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:42.800 And even the people became just a little less boring. 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:48.800 And then you realized that the problem wasn't those things, it wasn't the other people. 00:38:49.679 --> 00:38:50.639 It was you. 00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:56.639 There was a veil over your heart, dulling your spiritual senses. 00:38:57.599 --> 00:38:59.519 And now it has been removed. 00:39:01.840 --> 00:39:05.840 Wonder is always the antidote to boredom. 00:39:07.119 --> 00:39:12.960 Paul wants us this morning to wander afresh at the gospel. 00:39:13.360 --> 00:39:33.519 The gospel that writes God's law on our hearts that brings us to life and has not just surpassing ever-increasing glory as we ourselves are transformed from one degree of glory to another. 00:39:35.840 --> 00:39:39.840 Wonder that what God has done for you in the gospel. 00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:46.480 Wonder that he has done in Christ what Moses could never do. 00:39:47.920 --> 00:39:53.039 Wonder that the man with nail-pierced hands has shown you mercy. 00:39:56.400 --> 00:40:01.760 That by his spirit and through faith you have a new heart. 00:40:02.880 --> 00:40:04.880 And you are being transformed. 00:40:07.280 --> 00:40:11.039 Please, my prayer and with this I finish. 00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:30.880 My prayer today this morning when I was left of the morning is that you don't turn off the computer or your phone and think well I didn't learn anything new. 00:40:32.639 --> 00:40:41.840 My prayer is that you come away and you say to yourself, Isn't Jesus wonderful? 00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:47.039 Let's pray. 00:40:54.480 --> 00:41:19.119 Father, we confess how quickly our hearts become dull and our spiritual senses are dampened such that we cannot see or appreciate in all of its fullness the overwhelming glory of the gospel. 00:41:23.199 --> 00:41:30.000 Father, would you show us again the wonder of the old old story? 00:41:32.320 --> 00:41:46.559 Would you show us the goodness of things like meeting with your people of spiritual disciplines of long obedience? 00:41:48.880 --> 00:42:09.599 Would we see those things as the gifts of grace that you have given us so that we might be transformed from one degree of glory to another? 00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:16.639 I pray these things in the name of Jesus. 00:42:16.960 --> 00:42:17.599 Amen. 00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:20.320 Amen, everybody.