Letters of Commendation (Sermon 9 2024 Camp Meeting Pastor Jacob Robinson)

In the final verse of In Christ Alone, there's a line that says,

Jesus commands my destiny. Jesus commands my destiny.

Question for you tonight. Who would you rather command your destiny?

You? Let me tell you where that leads. It leads to despair.

It leads to eternal death in a very real place called hell. But when

Jesus commands your destiny, we don't preach a prosperity gospel.

Unlike Joel Osteen, most of us have holes in the shoes of our feet. But He commands our destiny.

And we preach His Word. And we proclaim His name. And we do His work. And one day, we will go to be with Him.

Praise God. 2 Corinthians 3.

Turn in your Bibles. 2

Corinthians 3. We're going to read the whole chapter. We won't have time to cover all of it, but we will cover a good part.

2 Corinthians 3, beginning in verse 1. This is Paul writing. 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 letters of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all.

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.

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, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the

Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 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 ministry of the

Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.

For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Since we have such a hope, we are 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 for to this day when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away.

Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the

Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the

Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the

Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful for your word tonight.

I pray that you would help me to preach it boldly, help me to preach it rightly. Lord, that I would be used as nothing more than an instrument and a vessel for you.

Father God, that I would not rely on man's wisdom,

Father God, but on your word of truth. I pray Lord that your word would go out tonight.

Lord, that those that are lost tonight, Lord, that you would soften their hearts, that you would help them to see their need for you.

They would repent of their sins and trust in you. Pray that Christians might be encouraged and strengthened tonight.

We ask all these things in your Son's name. Amen. So a little bit of background of Paul's relationship with the church of Corinth.

I believe that's important to really understand what he's saying here. In Paul's second missionary journey, he spent 18 months with the

Corinthian church. After leaving, he heard that there was immorality in the church and wrote a letter to confront that sin.

We read of this in 1 Corinthians 5 -9. This letter has since been lost. While Paul was in Ephesus, he received word that there were divisions in the

Corinthian church, and the church wrote him a letter asking for clarification on some issues.

And so Paul wrote what we know as 1 Corinthians. Paul then sends

Timothy to Corinth and receives word back that the

Corinthian church had fallen under the influence of false teachers, of false apostles.

And these false teachers, they began to insult the character of Paul and tried to convince them that the gospel

Paul preached was a false gospel. Paul, he then leaves Ephesus and made what he describes in 2

Corinthians 2 -1 as a painful visit. And he writes that on this visit, on this painful visit, somebody caused him great pain.

They had ignored the letter that we call 1 Corinthians and they were united with men who opposed

Paul and ridiculed him and his apostleship. And so Paul returned to Ephesus and wrote what is known as the severe letter.

We read about this in chapter 2, verse 4 of the book that we're in. And then he sent it back to Corinth by way of Titus.

This letter's also lost. In this letter, he does mention enough where we know that he strongly rebukes the

Corinthian church and the ones who opposed him. And Titus later meets Paul and tells him that the majority of the

Corinthian church has repented. We read that in chapter 7, verse 7.

In order to put to rest any future thoughts of rebellion against the gospel and to address the few problems that still remain,

Paul writes 2 Corinthians. In this letter, he commends the repentants.

He defends his apostleship and he confronts the false apostles. And this letter was in preparation for his third and final visit.

And then here in chapter 3, where we get our text, Paul begins his defense of the gospel and of his apostleship.

And it was important. It was important for Paul to defend against these false teachers.

He was battling the satanic work of these false teachers. And today we are very much in a battle against false teachers, against false doctrine.

We confronted a little bit of that today. They're running rampant today, spreading a false gospel that is different than that in the

Bible. And we are in a battle. We are in a battle. And for that battle,

I believe we can learn a lot from Paul's defense here in chapter 3. In the battle against false teachers and teachings, we may be tempted to go to different means to prove them wrong or to prove what is true, but I want to tell you that Christ and His Word, they are sufficient.

They are sufficient for truth. And so Paul starts here to get into our text. He starts with two rhetorical questions to the church.

He says, are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

The answer to this was obviously no. Paul was not interested in himself being recommended, but rather the true gospel being presented.

And he defended his ministry not because of anything of himself, but because of the great gospel of Jesus Christ that made up his ministry.

They had sufficient support and defense that was greater than any introduction or any letter of recommendation.

Now, I want to look at a few points that Paul makes from our text that he uses for their defense.

In the first comes in verses two and three, look at it with me. You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all.

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.

As promised in the new covenant, which we read in Jeremiah 31 -33, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the

Lord. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people.

In verse two here, he says that you yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all.

His defense of the Gospel and his God -called ministry was the

Christians in the Corinthian church. They were his letter of recommendation. What did he mean by this?

What he meant was through their preaching of the Gospel of Christ came salvation and a true changing of hearts and lives.

And it was greater than any ink letter that could be written down. A letter of recommendation written by Caesar himself would have been laughable compared to this type of recommendation.

The recommendation here is beyond comparison. The fact that these people had been radically changed by the

Gospel spoke to the truth of the message and the power of God. Ezekiel 36, verse 26.

It says, "...a new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you." That's what had happened. That's what had happened to these believers in the church of Corinth.

Here we read in Romans 12, "...do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind and by the testing that you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect."

A transformation of the heart had taken place in their salvation.

This is true of everyone who is saved. Every believer. This is true not just of the believers in Corinth.

A real and a lasting change can be seen in the life of every believer. It was seen here in these believers.

It will be seen in all true believers. There will be evidence that can be seen.

The desires of the heart change. We are given a new heart. We are given a heart that is of stone is replaced with a heart that is of flesh.

And a changed heart is one of the greatest supports of the truth of the

Gospel and the power of God. This is contrasted by a false change.

Not lasting. You can think of things such as simple reformation of your life and habits.

Doing more good deeds or trying to make sure the good outweighs the bad, which alone you can never do.

A following of rules or getting rid of one sin for another. Maybe getting rid of one sin that is more evident for one that is more private.

You know, I don't sleep around with my wife anymore. I don't have sex outside of marriage anymore.

But I watch pornography. I don't get drunk at bars anymore, but I get drunk at home.

I don't disrespect my parents in public anymore. Just at home.

Just when they're not watching. Just when they're not listening. When they're not around. Morality does not equal salvation.

Christians will be moral. And it's impossible, but it's impossible to truly be moral according to the

Word of God without a transformation of the heart. Without being made new. Building on something else other than Jesus and His Word is a false change.

Building on your own works is a false change. These things are not evidences. And they're not proof of salvation.

They're not evidence of a supernatural work of the Father. Because salvation is the children of wrath being changed to sons and daughters of love for God who desire to be obedient to His Word.

Paul Washer in a sermon one time said, how do you know that one's spirituality comes from God?

It conforms to what is written. It conforms to His Word. And so I ask you tonight, do you share the same loves as the world?

Do you share the same interests as the world? The same music and filth of the world?

Do you dress in the same sensual ways of the world with no obedience to the

Word of God? Because if you claim to have been transformed, but you continually conform to the things of the world, then you have been deceived.

And a supernatural work of the Father has not taken place in your life. You will not be perfect.

You will struggle. You will still sin. But there will be a change in your conforming to the world because you have been transformed by something that is so much greater than anything in this world.

It is God who saves and it is God who transforms. And there will be change in your life.

I've used this illustration many times. Many other pastors and preachers have used it.

It is not mine. Y 'all probably will recognize it. I don't know if you used it here. I was supposed to preach tonight at 6 o 'clock or 6 .15.

If I showed up tonight at 7 o 'clock, no call, nothing. Y 'all are sitting gathered around waiting on me.

Gunner gets done preaching or gets done singing. Gunner gets done singing and y 'all look around and I'm not here.

And they say, where's Jacob? He hasn't shown up yet. And I pull up at 7 o 'clock.

I show up and I'm like, all right, I'm ready to preach. He said, where you been? You're supposed to be here at least by 6, 6 .30.

Where you been? I said, well, I was on my way and Taylor's got a flat on her car.

She really does. And we were driving on our way here and he got a flat blue tire.

I pulled over. I go to change it. I'm taking the lug nuts off. And one lug nut rolls out into the road and I go out there.

And Highway 10, it's full of log trucks. I go out there and I'm fumbling around. I pick it up, boom, I got hit by a log truck.

That's why I'm late tonight. You look at me and there'd be one of two things that is true.

Either I'm a lunatic or I'm a liar. For you to claim that you have been transformed, that you have been saved by a supernatural work of the

Father and there is no change in your life, there is no evidence in your life, then you are either one of two things.

You are either a lunatic or you are a liar. No change, no desire for obedience, no chance of love for God, then there's no conversion.

Too often, we reform ourselves what we think morally rather than being transformed by God.

Christian, believer, we are called to purity. We are called to holiness. I understand that you're not perfect.

I understand more so in me than you that I am not perfect, but we are called. He says, be holy, for I am holy.

We are called to desire holiness. And to walk in His Word and desire to be obedient by the working of the

Spirit. He has not left us alone in this. But through the sanctifying work of the

Holy Spirit, He doesn't leave us. And that transformation that happens in the life of the believer is a great defense of the

Gospel. This change in the believers in Corinth offered defense because of the author of the change.

Look at me with verses 4 and 5. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

Not that we are sufficient ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.

Their sufficiency and their defense came in Christ Himself. We have absolutely nothing to stand on.

Without Christ Himself. And we could have sermon after sermon and series after series of how

Christ Himself is our sufficiency. And He is our defense. Colossians 2 .10,

you have been filled in Him. Or the KJV, King James. I don't think

Charles or Randall either were here. King James says you're complete in Him. Who is the head of all rule and authority.

1 Corinthians 1 .30, because of Him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that as it is written, let one who boasts, boast in the

Lord. I will sum up everything a person needs in one word.

One word to sum up what is most absolutely necessary for a believer.

Who is the remedy for the rebellious sinner? It's Christ. Christ.

You need Christ. He doesn't need you. You need Him. He and His Word are the defense of your faith.

They're the defense of the gospel that we preach. Minister there to the defense of your ministry.

Without Him and His payment on Calvary, we are of all men most miserable.

So what do we do? We trust in Him. And we cling to His Word above all else.

We don't have to have any more than that as a defense. We don't have to have seemingly clever philosophy of man.

You can look at and you can ponder many things that many apologetics say.

If you wonder what I mean, you're an example of one that I've heard. I don't have time to go into everything about it, but you think of one that has been popular that you've heard probably many people say is

C .S. Lewis's trilemma, liar, lunatic, lord. There's three options.

Either he's a liar, he's a lunatic, or a lord. But if he's a liar, then most of the time liars before they're killed are going to give it up.

Or he's a lunatic, but his words, and people have marveled for centuries of his words that are written, the words spoken by Christ.

That's why they claim he's a great teacher even if they deny his lordship. Or that he is exactly who he says he is, that he's lord.

That's a summation of it. But we don't have to have those things. Those things are not perfect.

They have flaws in them. They have holes in them. We have the written word of God that proclaims

Christ from front to back. Look at chapter 4, verse 2. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.

We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.

But by the open statement of truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

Their defense came in the Word. Their defense came in the infallible, inerrant

Word of God. Look at verse 5 in chapter 4. For what we proclaim is not of ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as servants for Jesus' sake.

It was based upon the Word. But they proclaim Christ. We have the written

Word of God from front to back, and it proclaims Christ. Christ is not something that was declared later in the

Word. The Gospel was not presented later in the Word. He was prophesied from the beginning, and we see the

Gospel throughout. He was the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent in Genesis 3.

He was the Lamb to be provided in the place of Isaac, in our place.

He is the Passover Lamb. He is the Rock. He is the Great Rock. He is the

Great Cornerstone. He is the Branch. He is the Captain of the Lord's Host. He is the

Messiah. He is the risen and returning Savior that lives. He is the

Redeemer. He was born of a virgin. He lived a perfect life and a holy life. And He died the sacrificial death of the cross.

And He gloriously rose from the dead victorious. And all of this was exactly as it was prophesied.

And He was proclaimed as the Gospel was proclaimed. They had the Gospel to proclaim.

As believers, we put our hope, faith, and trust in the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And if you need more than Christ as a defense for your faith, then you are lost.

The world can say that Christ Himself is not enough of a defense.

We've heard that this week. That's not enough! He's not enough of a defense.

And they say that simply because they do not know Him. That is why we preach in the face of adversity.

That's why we preach in the face of people screaming and threats. He is the only way.

He is our righteousness. We look to Christ. He is the Giver of life. Their sufficiency came in the giving of life.

Look at v. 6 -8. Who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the

Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 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 ministry of the

Spirit have even more glory? Their sufficiency came through the giving of life.

And their heart changed through Christ because Christ was not making okay men good.

They were given life through Christ. Paul was confident because the

Gospel that he preached was the only thing capable of giving true life.

He had seen it happen. He had seen it happen in the lives of the Corinthians. He spoke of this in his letter to the

Ephesians. I don't know if you've heard of that letter. Here at Providence. The letter of Ephesians.

Ephesians 2. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air.

And the Spirit is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love which He loved us, pay attention right here, even when we were a life support, we were just barely getting by, even when we were dead in our trespasses, has made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved through faith.

Through Christ comes true life. And not just true life, but sustainability. Sustaining life.

Leonard Ravenhill put it like this, Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good.

He came into the world to make dead men live. John 7, verse 37, on the last day of the feast, the great day,

Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the

Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. What did He say to the woman at the well?

He said, if you have asked, I will give you living water. And you will never thirst again.

He is the living water, and those who drink of it shall never thirst again. The problem exists with those who may look different or even act different, but inside they are as dead as they ever were.

Another Leonard Ravenhill quote on this, the tragedy is that we have too many dead men and pulpits giving dead sermons to too many dead people.

Those who remain dead, no matter how much you reform your life and your actions, you are just as condemned by the law as they ever have been.

The law brought death and damnation. We see that in verse 7. There are many

Scriptures that I could read, but for the sake of time, I will not. Romans 3, 19 -26.

Romans 8, 1 -4. You can see this in John 3, 16 -18. These are just a few places.

The law brought knowledge of sin. It showed us who we were.

The law was a mirror that showed us our imperfections. It showed us our failures. And no one can satisfy the demands of the law.

We are condemned by it. Don't get me wrong, the law was glorious. The law showed the character of God.

It is the standard given by God. The standard that we have failed in every way. In every single way.

We are condemned by it. But the standard that we failed to meet,

Christ succeeded in. Every part of it. He succeeded in it.

And the Gospel of Christ brings life. John 5, 21.

For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom

He wills. John 6, 63. It is the Spirit who gives life.

The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. In Him was life.

John 1, 4. And the life was the light of men. This life was given in the

New Covenant in the Gospel of Christ. Heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

New life. Born again in Christ. That's the whole point of John 3.

Jesus is talking to Nicodemus to be born again from dead to alive. And through this giving of life, one thing

I'll mention, look at verse 17. Through this giving of life in the

Gospel, there's freedom. Verse 17, the Lord is the

Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. What type of freedom? Freedom to sin?

Romans 6, 1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin where grace may abound?

By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? To still live in sin?

That is a mark that maybe salvation is not taking place.

If someone continues in their sin with no repentance and turning from their sin, no, that is not what it's saying.

No, through salvation we are not given freedom to continue in sin, but rather we are given freedom from the punishment of sin.

Freedom from striving and failing to be justified by the law. We are justified by the blood of Christ.

Those who are in Christ are free from the punishment they were due. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our

Lord. And that freedom that we have, it gives us access to God who is the orchestrator of this

Gospel. The Gospel that has been preserved through ages. Through wicked men, through kings, and even entire governments who have sought to destroy it, but yet the

Gospel remains! His people have been locked up, ridiculed, harmed, and even killed.

And the spreading of the Gospel continues all the more. And His people remain free.

Ridicule us. Persecute us. Lock us up.

Execute us. They can take your life, but they cannot take the freedom we have in Christ.

Christ is not only the author and perfecter of our faith, He is also the defender of our faith.

And dear Christian, as I close, when you are faced with the persecutions of the world, when you are ridiculed by false teachers as Paul was, when you are mocked or maybe even thrown in jail, or if you are led to the gallows to be killed, rest in this.

He has conquered and is conquering. Look to Christ.

The defense of your faith is not in a weak man's hands. It's not in my hands.

If it were in my hands, you're in trouble. The defense of your faith is not in my hands.

The defense of your faith is not in a preacher's hands or in a theologian's hands. They would fail.

The hands that your faith are in are mighty. And they were nail -pierced as the wrath of God was poured out upon Him for sinners like me.

Those hands, they belong to Christ. And He arose victorious and purchased

His people. 1 Peter 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though for a little while, if necessary. You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may not be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. What is the best defense of this

Gospel? It's Christ. It is

Christ. And it is evidence of the power of the

Gospel to change the lives of those who believe. Romans 1 .16

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. Believer, this is your defense.

Unbeliever, you have no defense. You have no defense.

You are in a helpless state. An eternal death and hell awaits for you unless you repent and trust in this

Redeemer. Trust in Christ the Defender. You will either bow now and confess that He is

Lord in reverence and adoration, or you will bow in fear and judgment as you are cast into hell.

But rest assured, either way, you will bow. So sinner, cry out to Him.

Be saved and be forgiven. Let us pray. Father, we thank

You that our defense of the faith is not in the wisdom of men, the clever thoughts and schemes of man.

Lord, that the defense of our faith is not in our failed morality.