Glory of the New Covenant

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Well, if you have your Bibles, please open them with me to 2 Corinthians 3 and find your place at verse 7.
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2 Corinthians 3, 7, and we're going to read when we read down to the end of the chapter.
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Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at what the
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Bible teaches about the new covenant. Paul says in chapter 3 of 2
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Corinthians, verse 6, that he has been made a minister of this new covenant.
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And after having said that, he goes into an extended explanation of the comparison between the
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Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And your Bibles are divided between what we call the
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Old Testament and the New Testament. Well, the word testament is simply another word for covenant.
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So when we're reading the Old Testament scriptures, we are reading the scriptures of the
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Old Covenant. And when we get to the New Testament, beginning with the Gospels and through the history of the book of Acts and then through the
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Pauline epistles and then through the general epistles and even into Revelation, we find ourselves reading the scriptures of the
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New Covenant. And so this study, this little series within a series, this study of the
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New Covenant that we have been doing, is understanding the distinction between the Old Covenant and the
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New Covenant. And I had a four -point outline that I have been following, and it began a few weeks ago with the promise of the
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New Covenant. We looked at the fact that the New Covenant was promised in the Old Covenant. The book of Jeremiah tells us very explicitly that God was going to make a new covenant with the house of Judah and with the house of Israel.
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And in this new covenant, certain very important changes were going to take place. Not every man would have to tell his brother, know the
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Lord, for they would all know me. Everyone in this covenant knows the Lord.
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And the most powerful and important part of this covenant is that everyone in it has their sins forgiven.
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What a wonderful and blessed truth that is. Last week, we looked at the inauguration of the
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New Covenant. We asked the question, when did the New Covenant begin? And when Jesus, on the night before the crucifixion, held up the cup, he says, this cup is the
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New Covenant in my blood, indicating to us that what would inaugurate the
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New Covenant would be the work on the cross. And then three days after the cross work, he would come out of the tomb demonstrating that he had power over death, hell, and the grave, and that he was, in fact, the mediator of a new covenant.
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Well today, we are going to, in following our outline, look at the exposition of the
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New Covenant. And what I mean by that is we're actually going to look at what Paul says in 2
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Corinthians 3, and we're going to follow his line of logic, beginning at verse 7 and going down to verse 18.
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We may not get it all today because I have a lot to say in only a limited amount of time, but we will look at as much as we can today, and then perhaps next week, look at the members of the
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New Covenant. We'll see how time avails us. But one thing I want to make a point about before we read this.
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The book of Hebrews is the most elaborate explanation of the
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New Covenant that we have in our Bibles. In fact, John MacArthur, in talking about 2
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Corinthians 3, he said it's like as if Paul has taken the book of Hebrews and given it to us in miniature.
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Because what he's done in 2 Corinthians 3 is he's taken the truth of the book of Hebrews and he has condensed it down to only a few sentences.
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Because the truth of the book of Hebrews, the message of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better,
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Jesus is greater, the New Covenant is better, the New Covenant is greater, and the glory of the
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New Covenant should not be left to go back to the old. And you think about all of those warning passages in Hebrews.
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The warning of trampling the blood of the covenant underfoot. Well where were they trampling it? They were trampling it on their way back to the old.
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On their way back to the old covenant. No, the old covenant has been made obsolete according to Hebrews 8 and verse 13.
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Because that which is greater has come. Greater sacrifice, greater priesthood, greater promise.
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And it's all come through the Lord Jesus Christ. So with that being said, let us now read what
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Paul has to say to us. And we will do that while standing as we give honor and reverence to the word of God.
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The ESV is the translation I'll be reading from. It will be on the screen if you don't have a Bible. But if you do have a Bible, I encourage you to read along with me as we read.
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Beginning in verse 7 it says, Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the
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Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the
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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.
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Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to an end, or excuse me, has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.
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For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
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Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the
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Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened.
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For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted.
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Because only through Christ is it taken away. Yet to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.
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But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. But when one turns to the
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Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
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And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord and being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
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For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Father in heaven,
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I thank you for your Word. I pray even now that as we seek to have a better understanding of your
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Word and we look at what many have said is a very difficult text, I pray,
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Lord, that you would give us eyes to see, that you would give us ears to hear. More important,
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Lord, that you would give us a heart to understand your Word. Clear our minds of the obtrusiveness of the world and give us a desire to dive into your
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Word even now. I pray, God, in this moment also that you would keep me from error.
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For Lord God, you know that I am capable of error. I'm capable of missteps.
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I'm capable of saying wrong things and doing wrong things, Lord. And in this moment, I pray that you would keep me from that for the sake of your people, for the sake of your name, for the sake of my conscience, for the sake of your
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Son. And I pray, Lord, that in the preaching of the
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Word, that believers would be edified, encouraged, that they would be challenged. And Lord, if need be, that they would be brought to a point where they would repent if repentance is needed.
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And Lord, if there are unbelievers here, if there are those who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ, if there are those who are still trying with no possibility to achieve a righteousness of their own,
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Lord, may they abandon any righteousness that they may seek on their own and cling to the righteousness of Christ, for it is only through His righteousness that we will see you.
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So we pray, O God, bring that gift of regeneration today to those who are so desperately in need of it.
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In Jesus' name, Amen. It is very clear when you read through the
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Pauline epistles and you see the interactions that he was having with his most ardent opposers, that one of the most problematic parts of Paul's ministry teaching was his belief that the
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Old Testament, the Old Covenant had passed away and that it had been replaced by the
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New Covenant. In fact, if you read through, as I've mentioned in the weeks past, if you read through Galatians, you will see that that is at the very heart of the issue there in the churches of Galatia.
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If you read in the book of Colossians, which I preached through last year, you'll remember in Colossians chapter 2, he warned about those who would go back under the law, who would submit themselves again to the yoke of slavery, who would go and try to have the shadow rather than the substance.
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You'll remember he said all of those things, the feasts and the Sabbaths and all of those things were a shadow of what is to come, but Christ was the substance.
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You see, this problem that existed in Paul's time was throughout the church and it seems everywhere he went he had to battle this same issue.
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The passing of the Old Testament, the passing of the Old Covenant was rejected by Paul's enemies and it is rejected today.
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There are many churches which try to impose upon the New Covenant church some form of Old Covenant ritualistic keeping, ritual keeping.
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There are many churches and some of them are obvious. We see this in churches like the
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Seventh -day Adventists who enforce the dietary restrictions and the day -keeping restrictions and all of these other ceremonial things of the
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Old Covenant. They try to enforce them upon the New Covenant church and then they add on to them the writings of the
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L. N. G. Wyatt and others who try to increase upon them even more restrictions than the
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Scripture gives. Why? Because when you start going down the road of law, it never ends.
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When you start trying to find your righteousness according to the law, you will find yourself in a battle that never ends.
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It's like Christian at Law Mountain and there's the, I don't know if you've seen it, the film version of the
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Pilgrim's Progress. It's a digital film and in that digital film as Christian is facing
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Law Mountain, every time he tries to ascend Law Mountain, a new law would hit him in the face and knock him back down and every time he tried to reach up and grab a foothold, another law would knock his hand off the purchase and he could not make it up Law Mountain.
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Because if you try to establish your righteousness by the law, you will find yourself an utter failure.
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Because the law is a killer. Oh, and by the way,
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I didn't invent that. Look at verse 6. Notice what Paul says. He says, for the letter kills, but the
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Spirit brings life. Now, it's important to note that when
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Paul says the letter kills, he didn't say the law kills. But what he is saying is this.
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He is saying those who seek to find their righteousness through the keeping of the law, or the letter of the law, those who seek an external righteousness through ceremony, those who seek to try to find their righteousness through any other avenue than Christ, they will find nothing but death.
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When it comes to the righteousness of Christ, like the man who once told me, Pastor, you have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.
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And I said, Brother, I don't have any boots, and I ain't got no straps. Now, when it comes to righteousness,
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I don't. I ain't got nothing to grab hold of, nothing to hold on to. And therefore, when
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Paul, in writing this, he says the letter kills. The letter does kill in that regard.
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The letter of the law. The seeking of trying to find our righteousness through the law kills. But the
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Spirit gives life. And so Paul explains to, in just that little short sentence, the distinction between the
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Old Covenant and the New Covenant. You see, you have to understand something, and I don't know if I've made this clear, so I want to make sure
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I make it clear now. Old Covenant saints weren't saved by the law either.
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And that is really confusing to some people. I remember I had a professor once. I was sitting in class.
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This guy had a degree. And he said, oh yes, the
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Old Testament saints were saved by the law, and the New Testament saints are saved by faith.
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And my brain was like that record scratch that you hear in movies. I'm like, uh, no.
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In fact, if you want proof, go to Paul's letter to the
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Romans, and go to chapter 4, where he explains Abraham's righteousness. And what did he say was
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Abraham's righteousness based on? Faith. He says Abraham believed
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God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. In fact, that became Paul's go -to verse to prove the doctrine of justification by faith, as he uses that verse over and over and over to defend the doctrine of justification by using
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Abraham as the supreme example. If Abraham was justified by grace alone, through faith alone, so too are you.
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Justified by grace alone, through faith alone. That's the principle of Scripture, even Habakkuk.
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The just shall live by faith. And you know, that's one of the most quoted passages in the New Testament.
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Paul quoted, the just shall live by faith, the just shall live by faith. For the righteousness of God through the gospel comes not by works of the law, but through faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Old Testament and New Testament. No one has ever been saved by the law, but that doesn't mean the law didn't have a purpose.
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Paul tells us in the New Testament that the law did have a purpose. The law was a, the
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King James says, a schoolmaster. More modern translations use the word tutor.
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And the word, it was the disciplinarian word. That was the word.
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It wasn't just like somebody who teaches you math or somebody who takes care of you.
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But it was somebody who carried a rod around. And the rod was used to smite you when you got out of line.
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And the law is that tutor. The law shows us our desperate need of a
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Savior. That's why I love that verse. That's why we had that banner made. You know, we have two banners, law and grace.
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What does the verse say? The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Now that's the King James Version. It's a little different in some other translations, but I like that one.
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Because the law does show us our need. And in that it does convert because it shows us to quit looking to the law, but to look to Christ.
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And therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And understanding the distinction between law and grace.
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Understanding the distinction between law and gospel is essential. Because if we keep going back to the law as our righteousness, if we keep trying to find our righteousness in something we do, we miss the very purpose of the law.
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The Judaizers were desperate to do that. That's a term the scholars have used. It's not a biblical term, but it is a term which has become fairly common in the vocabulary of scholarship.
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The Judaizers were the first century people who would go into these churches and would seek to enforce upon the congregation
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Jewish ceremonial practice. They would try to enforce the circumcision.
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And when they went in to enforce the circumcision, Paul said, no, if any man seeks circumcision as a way to be right with God, let him be cut off.
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Circumcision means to cut around. Circumcise, to cut around. Paul says, no, let him be cut off.
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He uses a very vivid image there. He says, if you're trying to find your righteousness through circumcision, let you be cut off.
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Because that ain't the way it works. Well, let us find our righteousness through what we eat.
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Let us find our righteousness in our dietary laws. And then we have that wonderful passage in Acts where Peter sees that sheep brought down with all the different animals.
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And what does he say? The Lord says, take, kill, and eat. Nothing unclean has ever entered my body,
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Lord. And what did God say? Do not call unclean what
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I've made clean. The book of Mark tells us Jesus said when he was speaking about the food laws, it said he made all foods clean.
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People say, no, no, no, if you eat pork, that's unclean because the Old Testament says it's unclean. That is an
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Old Covenant law that is no longer enforced. It has been made obsolete.
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Enjoy the pork. I hope that's not all you take away from today, but at least take that.
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But what Paul does in this section, as we are now going to begin walking through this text,
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Paul is showing us in this text the transient nature of the
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Old Covenant. Transient means it comes and it goes. It is not permanent.
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That's the opposite word. The word transient means it comes and it goes. The word permanent means it comes and it stays.
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And if you're taking notes or if you want to put something in your mind for today's sermon, then this be the thing you take home, it is this.
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The Old Covenant was intentionally transient because it was meant to give way to a new covenant, which is permanent.
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And that's what Paul is going to show us today. But before he does, we have to have a preliminary reading.
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If you have your Bibles still open, hold your place in 2 Corinthians, because we are going to come back and walk through the text.
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But before we do that, I need to go to Exodus 34. And the reason why is because the way
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Paul explains the transient nature of the Old Covenant, the way he explains the transient nature is he uses an
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Old Covenant example. And the Old Covenant example is in Exodus 34, verses 29 -35.
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And this is the story of Moses putting a veil over his face to cover the shining, reflective glory of God which was on his face after being in the presence of the
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Lord. By the way, such an amazing story. Moses glowed with the glory of God.
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Is that the right use? Am I getting that verb tense correct? Glowed? Is that the word? Okay, just making sure.
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It didn't sound right. It sounded like I should say another word. He illuminated. No, because that's from within.
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He reflected. I like that one better. He reflected the glory. So this is what it says beginning in verse 29.
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It says, I have so much
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I want to say. I'm not preaching this text. This is just the example. But just for a moment, I want to know how he didn't know. Or not all the trees lit up with his face.
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I mean, as he's coming down, he's glowing. He's got like a spotlight in between his eyes. It's just all over.
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But somehow, he missed it. Probably because his eyes are still adjusting to the fact that he was just in the presence of God himself.
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Verse 30. Makes sense.
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So he gives them what God told him. Whenever Moses went in before the
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Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining, and Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him.
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Alright, so this is the narrative. Moses is in the presence of God. And in the presence of God, the reflected glory of God is shining on his face.
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He comes out and he speaks to God's people with a face lit up like a spotlight.
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And the people see it. But when he's finished speaking God's word to them, he covers his face with a veil until he's ready to go back into the presence of the
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Lord. And when he goes back into the presence of the Lord, he removes the veil, receives again the message of God, and the reflection happens again.
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He comes back out. He reflects. He speaks. He veils himself. And apparently this was something that happened a few times.
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Well, that background of this very interesting
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Old Testament story becomes the analogy that Paul is going to use in his message.
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And Paul's going to give an inspired, expanded application. He's going to get...
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I came up with that term. It's an inspired, expanded application because he's going to apply what happens in this story to the transition between the
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Old Covenant and the New Covenant. He's going to talk about the fact that the Old Covenant had glory. He says if the
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Old Covenant didn't have glory, then Moses wouldn't have shined. But because Moses' face shined, we see the glory was there and it was shining off of his face.
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So the Old Covenant had glory, but that glory was transient glory because that glow didn't last.
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Moses didn't glow forever. And Moses covered his face, which was a picture of the fact that it was going to end.
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The veil became a picture of the covering of the Old Covenant glory. And so this is the example
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Paul gives us. So let's begin now at verse 7 and walk through the text.
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Beginning at verse 7, it says, Now, if the ministry of death, carved in letters of stone, came with such glory that the
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Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the
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Spirit have even more glory? So, let's stop right there just for a moment, stopping at verses 7 and 8.
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The first thing we notice in this text, in verse 7, is that he calls the Old Covenant a ministry of death.
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Well, this shouldn't surprise us because we looked at verse 6 already, and in verse 6 he says that the letter of the law, the letter kills, and therefore he now calls the
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Old Covenant a ministry of death. I just want you to, for a moment, think about how his enemies would have heard that.
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If you call the Old Covenant a ministry of death, will not the people you know who engage in Old Covenant ceremonies and things, won't they get angry?
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This is not death, this is life. But you have to understand the context in which
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Paul is speaking here. He's comparing the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. He's comparing the law and the gospel, and he's showing that the
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Old Covenant did not bring life. In fact, what the Old Covenant did was it brought death.
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The letter kills. It is important to understand the law is not evil, it's insufficient.
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Because Paul actually says good things about the law. I mean, we're not going to turn there, but probably many of you are familiar with Romans chapter 7, when he says, the law is good and holy and righteous, and I would not have known coveting if it were not for the law.
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But when the law came, what did it do? It killed me! Because I realized that when
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I realized coveting was wrong, I found out I covet all the time. And therefore the law became like an anvil around my neck, and I'm in a sea trying to tread water, and all it does is keep pulling me under and under and under, and it's killing me.
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The law is an albatross over my neck. Not that it's bad.
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I'm bad! Not that the law is unrighteous. I'm unrighteous, and the law itself works like a mirror.
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It shows me my failures. It shows me my sins.
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We sing a song. Some people don't like it, and it's okay, you don't have to like everything, but we sing a song called,
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Lord, I deserve thy deepest wrath. And when we sing that song,
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I think any time we have new people, I always think, Lord, I deserve thy deepest wrath.
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Ungrateful, faithless, I have been. No terrors have your law dissuaded me from my sin.
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The law shows us our sin. And when we look at the law, what does it do? It shows us that we deserve death.
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One of the most difficult things in the modern world is men's incessant desire to claim their own righteousness.
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We're about to go into another political season, and what are we going to see over and over and over but people who will get on television and make advertisements about themselves proclaiming the righteousness of their life and position.
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When every one of them's a sinner, and they're politicians, so they're twice as bad.
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Wouldn't it be great if just one of them got up and said, you know what, I'm bad, you're bad, we're all bad, and we all need Jesus. He'd last 30 minutes.
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But what a glorious 30 minutes, right? It'd be great. Have somebody just tell the truth. You know, the whole reason why our government is set up the way it is is because nobody trusts anybody.
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We have three branches of government all with the ability to veto the other or have some power over the other.
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Why? Because nobody, when we put this nation together, thought anybody was able to be trusted with it all.
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Can't have a king because can't trust him. Can't have anybody who has ultimate power, can't trust him.
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We've got to separate the powers because power does what? Power corrupts.
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No, it don't. Power demonstrates corruption. I've said for years, power corrupts. It doesn't. We're already corrupt.
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It just demonstrates. The more power you get, the more you're able to demonstrate that corruption. So Paul says here that it is a ministry of death.
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The law. Trying to find our salvation in the law. And by the way, if we wonder what he's talking about, he literally says carved in letters of stone.
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What's carved in the letters of stone? The Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, right?
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That's carved in letters. So he's not in any way being confusing here. He's telling us exactly what he's talking about.
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He says if the ministry of death carved in letters of stone came with glory, and it did.
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And how do we know that it did? Because when Moses received it, he glowed. Yes, he glowed.
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And when he came down, he was glowing. And that glory that glowed from him was the glory of being in the presence of God.
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And it was demonstrating the glory of this covenant. Paul says the law came in glory.
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In fact, the radiance of the glory was so great that its reflection was blinding.
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But it was transient. It didn't last.
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Notice what it says. He says if the ministry of death carved in letters of stone came with such glory that the
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Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory. What's his point? It has glory.
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It has true glory. The glory is reflecting on Moses' face. But then he says this, which was our ghetto.
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In English, which was in the ESV, which was brought to an end. But the reason why
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I said the Greek word qatar ghetto because some of your translations say it was fading. I don't think fading is the best word.
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Some say it came to an end like the ESV. I think that's closer. But it literally does qatar ghetto means it stopped.
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There was an ending point. There was a point at which it went and it didn't go any further. There was a point at which it stopped.
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And so he says if this glory which stopped will not the ministry of the spirit have even greater glory?
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Why does the ministry of the spirit, which is the new covenant, why is the ministry of the spirit greater?
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Because it doesn't stop. That's the juxtaposition
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Paul is making here. He's making the juxtaposition between that which is transient and that which is permanent.
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He's saying one stopped and one doesn't stop. In fact there is no stopping the new covenant.
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The new covenant came and it is forever. There is no new new covenant.
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There's no third act. There's not another Jesus coming.
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And as the Mormons have another testament of Jesus Christ no you don't. The word testament means covenant.
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There's one new covenant and it cannot be added to, it cannot be changed, it cannot be taken away and it doesn't need another covenant because it is a forever covenant.
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And by the way in verse 8 when he calls the new covenant the ministry of the spirit be reminded why.
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The old covenant. Was the spirit present in the old covenant? Absolutely. The spirit is present at the creation of the world.
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.
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The spirit of God has been present throughout the history of the world. However the ministry of the spirit is different under the old covenant than the new covenant.
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The ministry of the old covenant spirit, the spirit would move on people for a purpose and for a time and we see this in men like Saul and men like David and others but in the new covenant all believers would be indwelled with the spirit of God.
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It's a new administration of the covenant and a new administration of the spirit and that's why he calls it the ministry of the spirit.
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The ministry of the spirit is more glorious because it's permanent and because it is the ministry of the spirit not of the letter.
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Now the next three verses, verses 9, 10 and 11 compare the glory of the old covenant with the glory of the new covenant showing the greater glory.
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So like I said last week, I think I mentioned this last week in my message there are comparisons where we compare bad to good and then there's comparisons where we compare good to better and then we can compare the great to the greatest.
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Right? Well this is a comparison of good to better or great to greater.
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Paul's not saying the law was bad but what he is saying is the greatness, the glory of the law is far surpassed by the glory and greatness of the new covenant.
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So let's look again in verse 9. In verse 9 it says for if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, oh wow
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I can't go three words without saying something. He calls it the ministry of what?
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Condemnation. What did he call it in verse 6? The letter kills, right? He called it a killer. Then later he calls it the ministry of death.
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Now he calls it the ministry of condemnation. Paul was not afraid to say what the law was.
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He didn't say it was evil but he said it had a job and it's job wasn't saving, it's job was condemning.
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He says so if the ministry of condemnation, if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.
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Okay, that's the sermon. This one verse. Because why does he say it's a ministry of condemnation and then he doesn't say the ministry of the spirit, he doesn't say the ministry of life but now he uses an entirely new phrase to describe the new covenant.
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He calls it the ministry of what? Righteousness. Why does he call it the ministry of righteousness?
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Because beloved, in the new covenant we learn how righteousness comes to us because the righteousness that comes to us is an alien righteousness.
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And I don't mean aliens like out of space aliens. The word alien means something that comes from outside.
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And the apostle Paul says this. He says I have a righteousness that does not come from keeping the law but a righteousness which comes through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God which comes by faith.
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I will tell you this. There is huge debates within reformed scholasticism about the doctrine of imputed righteousness and there are some people who outright reject the doctrine of imputed righteousness.
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And they may be intelligent men. Men like N .T.
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Wright who are not stupid men, who are not foolish men but who are men who in their writings have denied the imputed righteousness of Christ.
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Beloved, if you don't have the righteousness of Christ, you don't have any righteousness at all.
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Think of the parable of the man who went to the wedding feast who was clothed in a garment that wasn't the one that he was supposed to be clothed in.
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What happened to him? He was sent out into outer darkness. Why? Because he did not put on the wedding garment provided to him by the king.
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That is a picture of the righteousness of Christ that we put on when we believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ we are told we put on Christ and we are then justified.
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The word justified means to be declared righteous. Roman Catholics don't believe that.
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They call it a legal fiction. They say God can't declare you righteous unless you are righteous and because you are not righteous you have to have righteousness infused unto you and that's called infused righteousness.
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That's the doctrine of Rome and it's not the doctrine of the Bible because the Bible does not teach infused righteousness.
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The Bible teaches imputed righteousness and the difference is infused righteousness makes you righteous.
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Imputed righteousness takes the righteousness that isn't yours, Jesus Christ, and gives it to you as a gift and thereby you stand clothed in his righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne.
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That's how you are made righteous. It's not by you. It's by the righteousness of Christ given to your account.
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That's why we call it the ministry of righteousness. The law condemns Christ makes us righteous.
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Not because we're righteous but because we have his. Verse 10.
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Indeed in this case what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.
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I mean verse 10 says it all. It had glory. Now it has no glory. It didn't fade into a little.
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It faded into nothing. It didn't go into a little. It went into nothing. What had glory, how do we know it had glory?
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Because it reflected off Moses' face. We know it had glory but that glory is gone. Why? Because the greater glory has come.
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The greater glory has come and it's surpassed it. Again, Hebrews 8 .13
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The new covenant makes the old covenant obsolete. People get offended.
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I'll never forget. I was sitting, I was back when I had my t -shirt company I used to go to San Mar which is a t -shirt place over on the west side and I'd have to go sit and wait on the shirts to be boxed and given to me and one day
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I remember I was sitting in the lobby of San Mar waiting on the t -shirts to be given to me and I'm sitting next to a man and the conversation as it often does inevitably went around to Christ and the gospel and I think
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I was wearing a shirt that says do you understand the gospel that's a shirt to you Mike and I have one where when you have that shirt people like you know will ask you about it and you know shirts are good tracks sometimes but as we began to talk he was telling me about his faith background and he began to talk about how he believed that he had to hold to the old covenant ceremonies and he believed that that's how he was pleasing
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God was by holding to the the feasts of the old covenant and holding to the laws of the ceremonies of the laws and he was kind of just going down how this is how he thought
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Christians ought to live and I said to him and I was I mean we were not contentious
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I'm thankful that God has given me a disposition that I'm able to have difficult conversations in a way that doesn't always lead to people cursing at me
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I have an ability sometimes to just talk and as we're talking I did say to him though I said what do you do with Hebrews 8 13 which says the old covenant is made obsolete by the new covenant and he just sort of stopped and he sat back and he looked at me and he said
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I hadn't really looked much at that and I said well maybe you should maybe you should actually think about what the new covenant says about the old maybe it's time to realize that those things did have a purpose but that purpose was fulfilled in Christ the shadow is no longer needed the substance has come and our faith isn't in ceremonies it's in the one who the ceremony is pointed to and that's
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Jesus verse 11 for if what was being brought to an end came with glory much more will what is permanent have glory by the way the word brought to an end there again it's the same
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Greek word used again by Paul in this place so not only does he use that up in verse 7 when he says about Moses' face and the glory that was being brought to an end he says it again here in verse 11 for what was brought to an end what stopped came with glory much more will what is permanent have glory much more will what is permanent have glory this again stresses the transient nature of the old covenant it came for a purpose it came for a time and I am not telling you beloved please don't hear me today and leave this place especially if you're a visitor or a new person and you think
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I'm just nuts don't leave this place thinking he told you the old testament doesn't matter
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I didn't say that I preached 3 years in Genesis but what did I do through that 3 years in Genesis pointed to Christ pointed to Christ Abraham points to Christ Noah points to Christ Adam points to Christ everybody points to Christ because the transient nature doesn't mean it's unvaluable doesn't mean it didn't have a purpose doesn't mean it doesn't have something to teach us but what it teaches us is it teaches us to look to Christ if the transient thing keeps you going back to the transient thing you've missed it the transient thing is meant to point you to the permanent thing and the permanent thing is
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Christ now I have no intention to get through the last all the way to the end in fact verses 14 -18 really deals with the last point on my outline my last point of the outline is the members of the new covenant because I'm going to look next week and I'm going to ask this question
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I hope you come back because I want to really deal with this question how do we understand the relationship of the Jews and the new covenant because Paul is going to say here about a veil being over their face and why is it that when somebody like Ben Shapiro who's so smart and such a brilliant young man when he reads the
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Old Testament he says Jesus is not there why it says right here it says a veil is over his face right it's like a veil it's covering as smart as that young man is he reads the
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Old Testament he doesn't see Jesus not because Jesus is not there because there's a blindness in his eyes and we're going to look at that more next week and we're going to ask the question next week does
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God have a future for men like him get you to come back
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I ain't going to give you the answer but let's look now let's finish today by looking at verses 12 and 13 so 12 and 13 says this since we have such a hope and boy do we have a hope don't we have a hope a hope that this life is not all there is and by the way hope in Christianity doesn't simply mean like oh
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I hope I'm going to get a new this or I hope I'm going to have that no a hope means an assurance that's what hope means it means assurance
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I love your name since we have such a hope we are very bold and this is the part verse 13 is the part that creates so much confusion among people and I get why the confusion is there and I'm going to try to clear it up for you as best
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I can but I will tell you there are times when even I look at things and it's a little bit of a struggle because I'm not perfect either but this is where people have the struggle
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Paul says we have a hope we are very bold not like Moses which sounds like he's saying
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Moses didn't have a hope and wasn't very bold and I don't think that's what he's saying but that is how it could be taken that Paul is sliding
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Moses saying he lacked hope or he lacked boldness and that's not what he's saying what he says is this he says we have a hope we are very bold not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the
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Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was coming to an end what Paul is doing here as I said earlier he's giving an inspired expanded application of the story that we read in Exodus 34 see we read the story in Exodus 34 it doesn't say anything about the glory going away but it's implied in the story that it would go away because eventually he didn't need to wear the veil no more and every time he went in he would it was almost like and I know this is so silly but it's like an electric car he goes and charges up he goes and charges the battery and he comes back out and he's got the people can't gaze on his face so he puts the veil over his face but eventually that goes away he doesn't need the veil anymore so Paul is pulling that application out of here to show that the glory is transient he's not in a sense he's not he's not saying
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Moses was bad Moses lacked boldness and we know Moses was bold we know Moses was a man of God he's not calling into question
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Moses' integrity he's saying what Moses had wasn't meant to last but we have a different kind of boldness and even a greater hope because what we have is built to last right what he had would fade away in fact
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I thought about this as I was preparing I thought about when when
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Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration remember when Jesus went on the mount of transfiguration what happened it says his face shone his clothes were whiter than anyone could launder them
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I preached recently and I talked about the word launder there's kind of an interesting word that that's the way Mark would describe it that his clothes were whiter than anyone could bleach them but when
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Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration his glory was shining forth when
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Moses came out of the presence of the Lord his glory was reflective and this may seem like a cheesy example but it's a good example
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I think it's the difference between the sun and the moon the sun inherently glows its glorious brightness and the moon has no brightness of its own it simply reflects the brightness of the sun and Moses' glory that he had on his face was reflecting the glory of the presence of the
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Lord Jesus had an internal glory and again it's the picture of the difference in the old covenant and the new covenant one fades one goes away one stops and the other is forever the other is permanent and Paul is going to make several applications of Moses in this veil all of which
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I believe are expansions on what is in Exodus because what is in Exodus doesn't really give any application it just tells us what happens but Paul uses this as a ongoing explanation or application he says that Moses covered his face because he was covering what was coming to an end and then he says there's a veil over the hearts of those who read the
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Old Testament and they don't see Christ he then later says that we are like those with an unveiled face that's verse 18 and then even in chapter 4 he's going to say the gospel is veiled to those who are perishing
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Paul has grabbed an Old Testament illustration the Old Testament illustration of the veil and he is just using that illustration over and over and over and over the veil that was on Moses' face becomes a picture for Paul of the veiling of the truth among the
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Jews and so this is why Paul is latching on to this
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Old Testament illustration and again Paul's not the ultimate author here, who's the ultimate author?
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The Holy Spirit of God the Holy Spirit of God is giving us an inspired, expanded application of this one small story, the story of the veil and again what is the application that's being made in verses 7 to 13 the application is this that the
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Old Covenant has come come to an end and the
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New Covenant has come well beloved as I said earlier that does not mean the
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Old Covenant had no purpose the Old Covenant teaches us so much about God, it teaches us so much about Jesus because it all points to Him it teaches us where we came from, who we are and why
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God created us it teaches us about what true worship looks like, it teaches us about what
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God has called us to do in living lives that are pleasing to Him it teaches us so much so don't anyone as I said leave this place today and think that I have told you to only start your
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Bible in Matthew, only read the Revelation and throw away the old, I haven't said that but what
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I have said and please take this as the words of Paul is we need to understand that the
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Old Covenant had a purpose and that purpose that it served has come to an end and it has given way to a new and better covenant next week who are the members of this new covenant, who is the person who is in this covenant
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I have to finish by saying at least tell you this short version and you will get the longer version next week the person who is part of that new covenant is the person who has repented and trusted in the
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Lord Jesus Christ you do not enter the new covenant by ceremony now there is ceremony the new covenant does have ceremonies that we do we have a ceremony called baptism where you go into the water of baptism but guess what baptism does not make you a member of the new covenant, it is the external picture of your entrance into the new covenant but what makes you a member of the new covenant is not the water but the blood the changing of your heart this is why if somebody says
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I need to believe in Jesus, we don't automatically baptize them we counsel them, we talk to them we go over the truth with them make sure they understand that because we want to know that they truly understand the gospel but we also tell them if you believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ right now you are saved, you are in the new covenant, you don't have to have the sign to have the reality the sign accompanies the reality but if you are two months, three months waiting on a baptism trust me, you are not waiting on salvation some churches believe you have to be baptized, some churches they keep the water full and the towels ready because they believe if you are not baptized you are not saved and if you come forward at the end of the service they will immediately put you in the water because they are concerned for your soul beloved, we are not a religion of ceremony but we are a faith of faith the just shall live by faith and we come now to another ceremony there is two ceremonies in the new covenant we don't have to keep the seven feasts of Israel we don't have to do all of the old covenant ceremonies of circumcision but Christ did hold up that cup and he says this cup is the new covenant in my blood and as often as you drink this cup, you show forth the
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Lord's death until he comes again and then he took the bread and he said this bread is my body it represents my body and when it's broken it represents that my body was broken for you and as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you show forth the
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Lord's death until he comes so now as we turn our attention to the table and if you are a believer this morning you are welcome, you don't have to be a member of this church but you need to be a believer in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and you need to have examined yourself according to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and if you're prepared we invite you to participate with us as we prepare for the table, let's pray
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Father I thank you for your word I thank you for your truth I thank you Lord that you have given us ceremonies to remember but Lord not ceremonies to establish righteousness but ceremonies to be reminded that our righteousness has come through Christ and it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved and I pray even now
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Lord that as we prepare to participate in this table that Lord you would be glorified in our eating and drinking and that we would eat and drink this table to the glory of God and Lord if there are unbelievers here as they see the bread pass them by, as they see the cup pass them by and they're not yet ready to extend a hand and receive the bread and receive the cup
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Lord let this be a reminder to them that Christ has called and said come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest, the rest of God the
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Sabbath of God exists in the person of Jesus Christ let us find our rest in Him and it's in His name,