His life and ministry is manifested through epistles of Christ
2 Cor: 3:1-3 · Bob Eckel · Mar 12, 2017
2 Corinthians (2017), No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261726414466

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So let's turn to chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians. And remember, as Roger reminded us last week, this is kind of the beginning of sound doctrine that Paul is continuously revealing now for the next three or four chapters. So this is just part of that. We started that kind of last week. And today in verse 1 in chapter 3 we read, Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men, and clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, and not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. All right, initially kind of read this and say, hmm, OK, let's read on.

But then you pause here a little bit. And again, I said to Roger coming down the steps this morning, maybe we should just listen to Hal's lesson. I can sit and enjoy that again here, probably for the third time. Right, Roger? So Jim Poole, who's no longer with us, and Hal and I co-taught secondary, I guess a decade ago, 2004, I think. Yeah, so 12 years ago. Wow. Alright, first verse.

Do we begin again to commend ourselves or do we need some other epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Okay, so the question comes up. Why does Paul begin by asking this question? He wasn't around Mormons. They had letters of recommendation. We'll accept that for what it's worth. Could have been more sticky. Yeah, it could have been. Don't go there, please. So why is Paul asking this question? I mean, he's kind of set the stage for what follows, but I mean, let's kind of look at this. What was the practice at that time or even maybe today?

I mean, let me tell you, one thing in my current job that I get asked frequently is to write letters of recommendation for people who are going on to that next level. And sometimes you're, you know, the tenure process in academics is one in which Sometimes you're asked, or sometimes, it seems like more often of recent, you're asked to write a letter of promotion for someone to say to a full professor with tenure, somebody you don't know, you have no idea who this person is, but you're looked at as the objective individual because you don't know them. So you can look at their CV, curriculum vitae, and decide whether they meet the criteria for promotion of where they're up for promotion. I just finished one for a woman at Stanford. and so I didn't know Tracy McLaughlin but nevertheless I provided this letter and you do it kind of grudgingly because you know to write a good letter of commendation takes about three or four hours it's not kind of something you just put a quick paragraph down and say, gee, she's great. No, you have to document it and review her entire CV.

Anyway, back to this. So, a letter of commendation. Why is Paul asking this? Well, the practice at that time, and as I alluded to even today, is ultimately looking at commendation defined as are they worthy, what are their credentials, and are we all kind of on the same page. That's kind of jargon, but that was the rationale for asking for letters of commendation.

So let's look at the history here a little bit. Acts 9, 1, and 2, this is when Paul was Saul. Then Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, notice where he's going, he went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them down to Jerusalem. Letters. What documentation do you have about these people who are following the Lord Jesus Christ? Letters.

Now Paul saved, and he describes, or actually Luke describes it in Acts, and when he, not Paul here, but Apollos, desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him, and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace. Alright, so, gotta get Apollos into Achaia. So he needs some letter of commendation. Who is this guy? Why should we let him in?

Let's go on, 2 Corinthians 10.8, we'll get to this probably in three months, maybe five or six months.

Or even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed. Okay, well, the idea, you know, There is some commendation that relates to their ratification and not for their destruction, ultimately that needs to be documented. In verse 18 in chapter 10, for not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. So we are seeing this kind of transition that ultimately Paul's writing about in second Corinth when we move forward another four or five months. And then Matthew, this is how related this I think very very accurately and I'll hopefully do it some justice in Matthew.

And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. So where's the authority? So Paul's kind of setting the stage, why do I need some letter of commendation if I'm in Christ and Christ says I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth? Do you understand why he's asking this question? It's kind of a redundant question. Why do I need to have some documentation when in fact this is where I'm going. My Lord and Savior said I have all authority and I'm is epistle.

That's what we're going to look at now going forward. Therefore, I'm going to conclude here that the Lord Jesus Christ is Paul's and today our commendation. We need no letter of documentation. This is not a courtroom, but our authority is heavenly and no longer do we need anything but the witness that the Spirit provides through us. We are an epistle and that's what we're going to study here.

Any other thoughts on this? I was thinking, maybe an additional thought was that the Lord still desires that we are like the Bereans. We're careful when a brother or sister that we don't know comes into our body, we listen to where they come from. They don't need to bring a letter with them, but we do test them against the scripture. So our method seems like is that We look at the scriptures and we see what a brother or sister says and we use scripture to measure them, not some other document or some written thing by man. So you're testing them against God's word.

And what about the criteria for being an elder in this church? There are like 70 questions you have to answer. How do you put that into perspective? I mean I didn't I didn't think about that until 10 seconds ago. But in a sense you're measuring the potential for an elder based on scriptural soundness and good doctrine, right?

The bottom line is we still have to decide. Man has to make decisions. In fact I was having a discussion with Gary the other day in James talking about our faith. The way we see a man's faith is we see him acting as a faithful man. We see him exercising his faith. But God looks in the heart. He knows So there's two aspects to faith, what men see and what God sees. This seems like this is kind of in this realm. God has written on the hearts of every believer so that men can see that. So there's that aspect and then there's the aspect of what can men do? Men can ask questions and measure it against God's word. That's kind of what the seven questions are about.

Okay. Other thoughts on this? Anyone? All right, so the question I asked is one that relates to our elders in this church. There's a whole series of kind of doctrinal statements that one needs to buy into if, in fact, you meet the qualifications for an elder. Is that wrong, based on what Paul's saying here? I don't think so. I mean, we're looking at our leaders in the body, and the leaders in the body must meet what Scripture says. It all goes back to are we on the same page.

What you don't want in a body of believers is that different men or different women are not on the same page. We don't agree with what's being taught and there's a problem there. Well realize one of the greatest criticisms against our faith is in fact all of the adversity they see in the quote Protestant faith. Main lines were maybe just a social gospel all the way to very legal, certain traditions and certain Protestant church lines.

Anyway, the issue is, it's what the scripture says and the right interpretation. Alright, let's go ahead now to the more relevant section to follow, but I think what Paul is saying is, the Lord Jesus Christ is my authority, and he has all authority in heaven and earth.

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Wow, that's kind of humbling, isn't it? How you doing at this? And we are, present indicative, us now factual. We're epistles. Or, if you will, we're letters or messages of Christ. Isn't that kind of interesting? We're letters. Or, by the way, if you think of a letter, what's its intent? Its intent is to inform someone of something or someone else. So we're that. Written. Perfect participle. Continues. It continues to be written in us. So this letter is never done. It's kind of ongoing in terms of us being a message to the world around us. And it's where?

It's not in our minds. And I often say that when we try to intellectualize scripture when we have trials and tribulations that come up, it doesn't make it when we intellectualize scripture. This is an act of faith and it's written deep down in. It's not some, oh gee, I'm in Christ now, I can't think or do that. I mean, it's kind of just kind of brain dead to kind of try to intellectualize. It's really an act of faith that's the epistle written in our hearts. It's not simply mental gymnastics we go through. known. Interestingly enough, who's knowing this? All men. It's not the body of Christ. We're talking about all men. It's kind of like the Lord would have all to be saved, right? The message of us as believers as we walk day in and day out by faith is a message to the entire world.

Wow. That means it's just not factual knowledge, it's really an experiential knowledge. So the world is experiencing you, Gary. Or you, Cheryl. I mean, we're all in this business of being experienced by the world around us. And red, present passive. How is this occurring in a present passive manner? I put the verb tenses here because I think they're kind of interesting.

People form opinions of you. That's passive? Is that accurate? You're the one that's... I think through us it's passive because it's really that other life lived out in us, right? Yeah. Any other thoughts about verb tenses here? Yeah, Renny. Oh, verb tenses? Go ahead.

You know, I've been grateful or the teaching that I've learned since coming to Holly Hills about trials and suffering and how the Lord uses it so that we can react with the mind of Christ. And that way when the world does read us, then they see how we react. They can be truly shocked. But we can explain why. Where's our hope? Where's our faith?

Not to be too anecdotal, but on Thursday I found out I'm being restructured. I will not have a job on April 10th. So my boss called me in, and that's a funny story, but I won't tell it. He called me into his office, and he said, unfortunately, your position's been eliminated. And I said, what a relief! And he was just like, the look on his face was like, something is wrong with you, kid. But it was one of those things where it was like, not knowing was annoying, but I know who has my family.

I know who has every dollar and cent I'm ever going to need to be a steward of, and all of those things. And so, what they will read, hopefully, as a believer being put into this experience will be a freak show in what the world understands. but it will be with the glory of Christ.

It sounds like it already has been. I hope so. So another prayer request, right? Yeah, but God has already got things lined up. You've got some things lined up. Yeah, so it's good. But when you're being read by all men, I forget the day-to-day, but sometimes these monumental things happen and you're like, oh, okay, Lord, this is your chance to shine. Nice example. Good. Thanks for sharing that, Randy. Any other thoughts here?

Alright, 2 Corinthians 8.23. It's interesting we keep going forward using 2 Corinthians to relate to the passage we're in. That's because we're in a book of the Bible that's so relevant. If anyone inquires about Titus, he's my partner and fellow worker concerning you. Or if our brethren are inquired about, they are messengers of the churches.

What end? To the glory of God. Glory Christ, dear. So, you know, Hal really emphasized throughout his teaching over the many years here at Holly Hills that really the bottom line is the glory of God for all of us under all circumstances and everything we think and do. To God be the glory. Great things he has done, right? Alright, Hal.

And we may be the only epistle people ever read, right? Or the only Bible people ever read. In his lesson 12 years ago, he made this statement, so I quote him again. It's one of the things he said that I will always remember. How true. Remember, thinking of us as epistles, we're messengers. It's a message that our lives are portraying.

The part that is always, and you bring it out really well, every time he teaches that we can't try to do this. We say, oh, this is great, hey, I'm going to be a, here, read me. Ah, Superman, read me. It just doesn't work that way. If it works, our focus is always on the Lord through every situation. If it isn't, then we're going to try to do this.

The danger here is you'll try to be an epistle so men will read you. And you'll say, well I better not do that, better not do that because people are going to read me. And not to say we shouldn't be careful. I'm kind of convicted when I have to. What did I say? Should I have said that?

But if your focus is on the Lord, that will be the right dynamic. Your focus is on the Lord, men will read you, and that's what the Lord desires. If that gets off focus, your focus is on men, I want to focus on you so you can read me, it's not going to work out.

It's just not true. Really true. And think of those things in your life that ultimately come to bear frequently that are part of the old nature, and they keep resurfacing, whether it be vanity or pride or whatever it is. And I'm going to work harder. It's all in the flesh. If you intellectualize it, there's no victory there.

I mean, the Lord calls us to faith, and we have some role to play in that. We respond by faith. We're not robots. And we don't intellectualize, but we respond by faith. And that's believing what God's revealed. Remember what faith is. Faith is believing what God has revealed. It's that simple. So are we new creations in Christ Jesus or are we not?

Anyway, today's Hungry Heart, we may come back to that, was quite good in terms of the spirit-led life for the epistles we are. We may return to that near the end. And as Hal pointed out, and I'll use it in terms of the post office example of dead letters.

What's a dead letter? I've got to go anywhere. Why is it dead? That's a bad address. Wrong address. OK. What else? Insufficient postage and they don't want to mess with it. Yeah. Yeah. Postage is insufficient. Tom, you go to the head of the class here. It sounds like he's very comfortable with dead letters. I'm going to find out a lot. So a dead letter is one that just sits there and there's no message delivered, right?

It isn't as upright as you think. Return to Sender was the song I kind of made Mom laugh out loud when she was taking me to a child psychologist. Do you want to lay down on my couch over here? So Return to Sender, who did it? And what year? 57 and it was re-run in 61. Now I thought it was 61, so you say it was done originally in 57.

Anyway, we've gone astray here, right? In my opinion, one of Ellen's better songs. Anyway, alright. 1 Corinthians 9.2.

If I'm not an apostle to others, yea, doubtless I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. So in a sense it's back to this issue of commendation. If I'm in Christ, and ultimately you're my apostles, then you're in me. I think 1 Corinthians 11 says, be followers as I am of Christ or something. It's not like we follow him walking in his footsteps, he's really identifying himself with a walk that comes from above. I think that's what he's saying here.

The seal of my apostleship is the Lord and that's what you have too, being ultimately messengers on behalf of the scripture. Okay, we're going to spend the rest of the time here on verse 3. Clearly, some versions say, for as much as you are manifestly declared, I'm not sure what your version says, you are an epistle of Christ, kind of repetitive here, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the spirit of the living God, and not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the flesh, that is, of the heart. Wow, a lot stacked into this verse. Notice that again, we're declared as epistles. I'm thinking, you know, this is a profound truth, but what does it mean? I think we've touched on that, but any other thoughts about us being epistles or letters or messages? Well, there was one instance at the airport when I was just walking along and then somebody just stopped me and said, well, he sounded like he was from Nebraska or someplace rural, extra rural. He said, I can tell you've got something going on.

I think it's the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. I didn't try to build on that. I just said, that's nice to know. Hope you catch your flight. So what was it do you think you noticed? Well probably maybe at that instant I was just a sense of mission but with peace mixed in and I'll give God the glory for that because otherwise it would be an unfocused effort. Okay. Sometimes we're rewarded but that's not what we should be looking for but it's kind of neat. It was unexpected. I wasn't rooting for it. We're not getting red, yellow, and gold ribbons here in terms of our performance.

God is the only metric that ultimately relates to our lives here. Any other thoughts? Alright, compare what's written on the tablets of stone versus on our hearts. The tablets of stone were the commandments that were, I think, given to the Jews. I think that's what he's referring to here. a legal thing. This is total dependence on the Lord and faith.

And the principle is? Grace. Grace, okay. Other thoughts? Tablets of stone. Is there anything about God's, we're going to come to this, but is this with ink? It kind of makes me think of, you know, with the tablets of stone, with the laws, And the tablets of flesh is something that's living and breathing and changing and growing and things like that. As opposed to just laws that... Do you think Paul in any way is discounting the tablets that's down here? Gary, what do you think?

I think if you take the high priest in the Old Testament, which I think there were like 83 of them or whatever, they were insufficient. The high priest of Christ of the Maccabees, was THE high priest in the picture of who Christ would be eventually. And that should be the emphasis in our lives is the high priest of grace, basically. Okay, so what I'm hearing is the Tablets of Stone, were they there to make men righteous? Not to make them righteous, to observe Why if they weren't righteous? Reveal not sin.

Yeah. Okay. Other thoughts here comparing the two? Well, obviously God's, you know, Romans talks about this a lot, you know, God's law is wholly righteous and just. Absolutely. Can't dismiss that. But when it was written down, man looked at that and man should have looked at that and said, I can't do that. Man didn't do that. I can do that.

Some people run across, Vern mentioned it, you mentioned it. Oh yeah, I know Jews mostly. I can do those 600 and something laws. 6.3 is that? I can do that. Not I can do, I do. This guy with a beanie on going from New York to Sydney a few years ago who was keeping all 613 laws. had them all tucked in.

We didn't talk about the animal sacrifice, right? And Paul says in Galatians 1, he said, what's the purpose of a law? It's a schoolmaster to do what? To bring us to Christ, right? So the law is perfect, holy, and righteous, but this is a whole kind of different message.

It's written in our hearts. Not on tablets of stone. You're going to get to the significance of the fact that God's law was written on tablets of stone. What I like is what was brought out in 2004. God's word is written by an ink. So this is written in ink.

God has even a more special plan. He's going beyond this. He says, I don't just want to stop at this. You are to observe this. But I want to write this in your heart. And that, whoa, I mean, that's just... A whole different ball game, isn't it? It's just a whole different way. It moves from the red page into your heart. So that's pretty cool.

That's what he also says that will happen to the Jews, that it will all be written in their hearts. Okay, we're going to look at that. And so we're kind of describing what's written on the tablets and we've kind of answered this in part. Is there anything wrong with what's written on the tablets of stone? No, the purpose of the law was to bring men to Christ. I mean, and yes, Tom.

I think the way this, This is a little bi-play, but it seemed like Cecil B. DeMille used a great simile when the tablets were being manufactured on the movie set. A fire of God was literally convicting him commandment by commandment. He could have just dropped down dead at 80 years old going through this. But the Lord sustained him and grew him. Thanks for sharing that, we all have seen the Ten Commandments probably several times, and that's pretty dramatic the way it's shown in the movie, isn't it?

Alright, was it written with ink? No, I think Roger just addressed that. No, the ink is actually what you have there before you, right? And the epistles obviously were written with ink. But the Lord ultimately used his finger. No ink. So these are the laws as I declare perfectly holy and righteous. Randy?

One of the things that I think sometimes we forget with the tablets of stones is that they're a covenant or a contract. So Paul is making this massive contrast about two contracts. But what's the responsibility of the contract? Well, the responsibility of the contract to the person who's responding to the contract or signing the contract? Is that your question? Paul's analogy here is this idea of one thing is a contract on tablets, and the other one is this thing that's written on our hearts. And I want to be careful to say I'm not saying that's the new cup that's being applied.

The contract by the Jews, they were agreeing that they were going to have to. Correct. They signed on to the contract. As believers, we're going to see next week, not to steal my lesson from next week, but we're going to see something that's happening that we're the recipients of, not the doers of of our own accord. Right. So the contract, in fact, was not kept by the Jewish community, right?

But in effect, the contract's already been completed. when it's written in our hearts. Because the contract declares us being righteous, all we have to do is agree with that, and it's the beginning of eternity for all of us, here and beyond. Alright, good.

So, another question that's related to what we've kind of touched on to some extent, how do we respond to what's written on stone? We realize it is perfectly holy and righteous, but yet it's not the pathway to our salvation. And it's amazing how much of, I mean, neo-evangelism, covenant theology, there's so much of this that's in the church today.

And why do you think that has occurred the way it has? Because man wants to do something. It's really hard for a man to just believe what God has already done. And so he thinks he has to be involved. Why do you think we have these prayers? Help me do this. Help me do that. Because we take too many supplements. Don't take the bait. No comment. That's a fishy story. Randy, you have your hand up back there. One of the things I've observed, like for example, John MacArthur is a prominent figure. Yeah, good example.

There is a desire in the flesh for accountability without recognizing what was accounted by Christ. That accountability issue, oh I can just outline what needs to be done, all the things you've got to do at work, right? By what time, what do you got to do, and what's the consequences if you don't do it? And then this is when you're going to have to reckon for what happened in this time frame. Jesus did all of that. The time frame is, I believed it, and so my history is his history. But see, the criticism of a person who brings covenant theology into the church is ultimately that, what are we?

Let go, let God? I mean, that's where this position we're taking doctrinally, which we believe strongly is true, It's not let go, let God. Why is it not let go, let God? Why is it not that? You have to believe. We have to live a life based on faith. We have a responsibility to believe what God has revealed. We don't believe it intellectually, although we have brains, but we reveal it in our day-to-day life as epistles, messengers, that by faith ultimately God's about his business bringing his glory through us to the world around us.

It's a whole different ballgame. Men in general, I'm using that for men and women, need credit for what they're doing. And so covenant theology makes you feel better because when you have the subtle kind of rules or metrics, you feel like you're performing better.

But I would contend that what Christ said is wrong. When I will make you free, I will make you free indeed. And what's that freedom? What's the freedom that Christ talked about? Free to sin? Paul would say, God forbid. What's the freedom that Christ promised for us as believers? The freedom is to live a life free of the penalty and actually perseverance of sin. That's the freedom. The freedom of our sins, having penalties, and also our sin nature being crucified. And boy, when you live by faith in that, you know, we really are pistols to the Lord around us.

Randy, another thought? I was just nodding my head in agreement. Any further conversation? I mean, I think that's what Paul's really getting at here. We're epistles based on the principle of grace. And grace is the foundation by which we walk. Yes, Roger. Another way to look at this is we take the truth of God's word and we make it, people say it very well, we make it real in our lives. We read his word, written with ink, and we take that, we make it it becomes part of us.

It's not just, it says, love thy neighbor. How do you do it at that? And I can't love my neighbor, but Christ can love my neighbor. Another nature in you can love the whole world around us. So I make that, I take that from the realm of the ink to the heart, which can love my neighbor, and Christ will be living through me. So that's a dynamic.

That's a constant challenge we have as believers, not to get hung up on, how am I going to implement? How am I going to do this? It says this, how am I going to do this? Now I do it, I read it, and I say, Lord, I see what you say, you're going to have to do it. Because I realize I cannot, I think realizing you can't do it is a beginning point. I cannot love my neighbor because I can hardly stand my neighbor's man. A person who I won't mention by name said, you don't have to like people, you just have to love them.

I think that does bring in the human element. To build, Randy, on what you said, in our jobs or in our earthly existence, we are measured by the world system in terms of how we perform with the standards of operation within our job description. It's not that we kind of look at it in a way, boy, I'm pleasing God by making all these requirements in my work. No, but it's expected that we have a job description, that we fulfill our job description. That doesn't mean we're lax and let go. We're measured in the world system based on the governmental system we live under. So we don't discount our responsibilities in the world, but yet we're citizens from a different kingdom, right?

And don't misinterpret that. This is not the kingdom of God that ultimately will be a thousand years to come, but our kingdom is heavenly and that's where our citizenship is. So there's a lot of application here. Cheryl? Yeah, I just want to make a comment. Is it true that we were crucified to the sin nature? We're dead to the sin nature. The sin nature is just rendered inoperative. It's still there. Right.

And we need to reckon that truth, Romans 6.11, right? So keep in mind, and we have to be clear on this, I'm crucified with Christ, buried with him with baptism unto death, and risen with him in newness of life. But we need to reckon that truth.

So before God, we're perfectly righteous and fully accepted in the Beloved, with eternal blessings that are infinite in heavenly places. However, the sin nature has not left us. So we need to account what he has said he's done as true and allow that to be part of our daily existence. God sees us as righteous. There's nothing you will ever do to fall short of your position of truth. The condition is influenced by that other nature that we all have.

And I think, you know, I said this, Margaret, when did I? I had lunch with Mike Doyle on Thursday and Mike and I were talking about good things always, it's really fun. There's somebody, again I won't mention by name, but there's one thing he said that's carried with me for a long time. Our lives are not lived to kind of say, gee, was that coming from, was that old nature?

Or was that my new nature in Christ Jesus? When we're there applying metrics to our life, we've kind of fallen short already. Our life is to be lived by faith and Randy's who Randy is, Patty's who Patty is, I mean we're all unique individuals and our personalities reflect that glory in different ways. Only God is measuring the glory that returns to him through our lives. Randy? always. Should we look for a nursing home for you?

When I was younger, in my teen years, I remember at one point in time thinking, I need to pray about every decision I need to make. I just really want to do the Lord's will so I should pray about it. And I can, to my embarrassment now, but it's funny I guess, I can remember praying about tying my shoes. Because I was like, I want to do everything to God's glory.

But the thing is, if we recognize as believers, we can be abiding entire shoes to God's glory or we can be walking in the flesh entire shoes well it's still to God's glory that's quite an accomplishment you have in the flesh there but it's one of those things where if we try to be legalistic or spiritualize something that doesn't need it we're focusing not on Christ But you know that's what Christ meant when he said, when I make you free you will be free indeed. That's a life that we have a rest and a comfort and a security that's based on sound positional truth and therefore the life begins to live out in us. And that's where covenant theology falls so far short because that security, although people know they're saved, they at times doubt it because of this sin nature that shows up. And so they're working on their condition without the right position of truth. So you can see why these three verses are just all we're handling here today. All right.

How do we measure this response? Back to the last slide. How do we respond to what's written on stone? Well, if you're there, how are we going to measure how we're doing? I mean, effectively, we've just been talking about it, haven't we? Gary, how are you doing today following those things that are written on stone? Jack, you told me you've got those pretty well accomplished, right?

And how permanent is this, meaning having it written in our hearts? A lot more permanent than a BDR. But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, interesting, written and engraved on stones, this is a verse you'll be covering next week, Randy, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away. I mean, so this whole, I mean, stones, what's written on stones doesn't make it.

Because, again, remember the law was the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law was never meant to be kept. Oh yes, the Lord would have had it to be kept, but he knew when he declared his perfect word of righteousness and holiness and pure that it could not be kept. So, you know, the skeptics about our Christianity or sound doctrine would say, well, why would God do anything like that? That seems absolutely ridiculous.

We can't question the way he's done it. We just have to believe that that's the way it was done. And remember, we have Old Testament saints who live by faith and ultimately will maybe cross our paths in some existence in the future. Has God's glory changed really over time? I don't think so. Thinking again of how he could spend two years talking about God's glory and how our lives really reflect that.

So what's written in our hearts? You said that it's not on stone, it's not with ink, but it's in our hearts. I said law, I was thinking about the law. Is the law written in our hearts? Well that's what I say, it's in the Old Testament that way, so it's not that. Okay, we're going to come to that in a second actually. What's written in our hearts? Tom, what's written in our hearts?

The emerging glory of Christ in our lives. Okay. Make it more simple. I mean, that's true. We're apostles. The truth about Him and who we are is written in our hearts. Okay. Any other thoughts? What's written in our hearts? What's written in our hearts is, by the power of the Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ is written in our hearts. It's all about Him. And it's all about His life being lived with us. Maybe it's a good time to do this. How many read None But the Hungry Heart this morning? Anybody in here? Okay, we're not measuring performance. Let me see. I won't read the whole thing.

Roman 6 is one of the most blessed portions of the New Testament, teaching us that our old man, and our old nature that is in us was actually crucified with him so that now we need no longer be in bondage to sin but remember it is only as the Holy Spirit makes Christ's death a reality within us that we shall know not by force of argument or conviction but in the reality of the power of an endless life that we're very much dead to sin. Power of the Holy Spirit.

Remember Paul in Romans 6 declared all the truth of the old man being crucified, dead and buried? We need to reckon that. Romans 7 is, gosh, who's this guy that's living out in me here? And then Romans 8 is where the Spirit starts to control Paul's life. It's just not the intellectual fact that he's been crucified, dead and buried, but it's the Spirit-led life. and that's what's written in our hearts. We have Christ and his nature in dwelling and the power of the Spirit.

So, question again for the class. Is it Jeremiah 31? But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Is this the fulfillment now of having his message written in our hearts? Randy says no. Are we all okay with that? That this is not what Jeremiah was talking about. That's the law. The key part of this is the house of Israel. The length of a flash. Ding, ding, ding.

But Roger, you know how often if you read commentators, and I read several on this, they're saying that this is a fulfillment in the life of the believer. That the law is being written in our hearts. Isn't this for the law? Yeah, this is all millennial truth, right? I mean, this is kingdom age stuff. But often, I can't, I've looked at about, you know, I have this whole list of commentators that I scroll through and just kind of see if there's anything worthy. And sometimes there is something worthy. I'm not being overly critical of everything.

But I would say a good 40 or 50% of people thought that this was really reality, that God has written in our hearts his law so that we could believe. Of course the house of Israel, the covenant theology would say that the house of Israel, in fact we're just offspring of the Judaizers or Jewish faith. We're simply part of them now in the Christian era in which we live. I think that's one of the key elements of that passage in Acts with Luke. being told by God that you can't operate under the law, you need to be calling holy what I've called holy and don't call unholy what I've called holy. The key thing with this is that with Israel having this covenant written on their hearts by God, it's the law. This is contrasting that. Oil and water. Keep in mind the law is perfectly holy and righteous, we can't deny that. But the whole impact of how the life is lived is oil and water.

Romans 7.23, But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. So Cheryl, here's what Paul's saying. I got this kind of other nature that's playing out, and it's not being reckoned to be true. And Paul, of course, he goes on to say, what he said, you know, thanks Christ, but what's a wretched man that I am, you know, who should save me from the power of this death or something like that. And of course, Christ is who saves him. And he doesn't say written in his heart, he says Christ himself, because it's not the law, it's Christ's crucifixion and resurrection takes care of it. Jack?

What keeps it pounding in me is the fact that we haven't mentioned The fact that when Christ comes to live in your heart, when you believe in Him, you change. And that love that you have is His love. That's the main thing that makes it all worthwhile, because you know that it's because He loves you. Right, there's a security there, isn't there? A position of truth that ultimately can be conditional.

1 Timothy 1.19, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and the insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, and for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. That's what the law, I mean, laws in our school master bring us to Christ. And as we covered last week, and we are, are we not the sweet saver, and to whom? Sweet saver of Christ, to whom? To everyone, the saved and the unsaved. And remember, today's lesson is to all men. This epistle is to all men. And we'll let the Lord measure how effective that message is being brought across.

One of the things that I love about this You are a letter of Christ. And the idea of letters, I think we kind of forget this sometimes. There's an author and an author has a purpose. That author is doing something. In that letter, it's not just like nonsense. That's good.

It's a good reminder in terms of the importance of what we studied today. Any other closing thoughts here? Alright, let's close in prayer. Father, we're grateful for the Scripture. What a powerful set of verses this is that we've looked at today. We've probably just touched the surface, but our life is not like robots where you zap us and we show up for you. No, it's more than that. We have a role to play by just believing what you've revealed. from that perfect accomplishment and rest we have in the Lord that we live by faith and that makes us epistles to not only the body around us but also to the world that extends even further. We're thankful for the power of the Spirit in our lives that ultimately the message might be seen and we may be the only message of your righteous and holy word that people ever see. So may we live by faith and apply this by faith to each and every day of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.