 And the title of our sermon this morning is You Are a Living Letter. You Are a Living Letter. We're in part 2, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. If you remember from last week, we described this section of 2 Corinthians as walking, if you will, into a beautiful room. It's a lavish room. It's a warm room, hopeful, encouraging. It's a theologically rich room. And we walk through the open door of this great room, if you will, in chapter 2, verse 14, after Paul recounts the restlessness in his heart over this beleaguered church in Corinth. And, if the Lord wills, we will have the blessing of walking through this beautiful room over the next several months, admiring the furnishing, so to speak. And so we reach chapter 7, verse 5, where Paul circles back around again to the same subject and his concern over the Corinthians. What we have then from chapter 2, verse 14 to chapter 7, verse 5 is something of a parenthesis in the argument of this book. A glorious room, so to speak, containing some of the most helpful, beneficial, and blessed instruction regarding the nature and scope of gospel ministry in all of the New Testament. This is Paul's exposition of Christian ministry. By God's grace, these sections of text are packed with helpful doctrine, with reproof, with correction, with instruction and righteousness in studying these passages together over the next several months. We'll know more about God's plan of redemption. We're going to learn how to think more rightly about persecution and suffering. We'll learn about the resurrection. We'll learn about the coming judgment. We'll learn about the light of the gospel, of the glory of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God. All for the purpose that you and I can then become theological eggheads? No. So that we can marvel at how much we know having gone through all those texts of Scripture? No. So that we can go back to our life during the week with the thought that I've put all the time I need to in on Sunday. Why would I do any more? No. So that you can win a theological argument with a friend on Facebook? No. All these things Paul says are written so that those involved in gospel ministry may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So now who are those then who are involved in gospel ministry? Is it simply the pastors of the church? Maybe the pastors and the deacons. Pastors, elders, deacons. Pastors, elders, deacons, and teachers. No. Every single professing Christian. If you are a professing Christian then you are employed in the work of the ministry. You're employed by the Lord in new covenant gospel ministry. You may not be called to be a full-time pastor. You may not be called to go into the foreign mission field. Some of you here likely, very likely, are called to be a pastor. Some of you here very likely are called to be a missionary. But every single blood-bought saint, man, woman, or child is called to the work of ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord's cause. Both loving, serving, edifying your brothers and sisters in the church and loving, serving the lost with the preaching of the gospel outside the church. You are a new covenant gospel minister, so to speak, right? We know that from what Paul says in the scriptures. So now as we consider that together, as we consider our personal ministry to the body, our personal responsibility to preach the gospel to the lost, we have the excellent example of the apostle Paul in this section of text. And the apostle Paul says, imitate me, right? As I imitate Christ. So now, without understanding in our hearts, in our minds, if you're arguing with that in your heart or in your mind, come see one of us. We would love to spend some time talking to you about that. As we come back now to our study in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 6, we're going to consider now Paul's exposition on Christian ministry. And we find the apostle Paul once again engaged in what has become for him a necessary defense of his ministry, right? False teachers have crept into Corinth unnoticed like wolves among the sheep. False apostles, deceitful workers, ministers of Satan, they transform themselves into apostles of Christ and ministers of righteousness. Not sparing the flock in Corinth. They are speaking perverse things. Paul describes it in chapter 11 as they are preaching another Jesus that Paul has not preached. They are preaching a different spirit which the Corinthians have not received and they are preaching a different gospel which the Corinthians have not accepted. They are bringing in destructive heresies with the intention of drawing away disciples after themselves. This is serious business in Corinth. It's serious business in any church and we as a church must guard ourselves against it. We have nothing to say to you but that which the word of God says, amen? We must preach and teach from this word and nothing else. These wicked word peddlers in Corinth, these ungodly hucksters, as Paul calls them, they know that if they intend to plunder the house in Corinth, so to speak, they're going to have to bind the strong man. And so they wage all out war on the authority and on the credibility of the apostle Paul himself. They attack the man, they attack his ministry, and they attack his message. In opposition to the man, they say that Paul's weak. They say that Paul lacks integrity, that Paul is duplicitous and fickle, that he changes his plans on a whim. He's being dishonest in the way that he handles the money and Paul can't be trusted. In opposition to his ministry, these false teachers in Corinth say that Paul's preaching isn't up to par. His speech is contemptible. He's harsh in his letters. He lords it over the Corinthians. He suffers way too much, way too much to be a genuine apostle. He suffers way too much to have a ministry that's actually approved by God. In fact, his suffering proves that he's not a true apostle. And then in opposition to his message, they say that Paul's gospel of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone isn't enough to be right with God, isn't enough to be saved. They would say, these wicked Judaizers, that you have to be circumcised to be saved. You must follow the law to be saved. You must follow the feast days, observe the calendar, keep the law to be saved. In the face of this blistering assault against the apostle Paul, this blistering assault of lies and slander, many in Corinth begin to doubt Paul. They begin to doubt their confidence in him. Their trust in him begins to wane. Not only their confidence in him, not only their trust in him, but also their confidence in the gospel that he's preaching begins to wane. There are those in Corinth who have already made shipwreck of their faith, already have become apostate. They've been enticed by these wicked liars. Others are faltering, souls are at stake, and the church is dangerously close to coming apart at the seams. There's much at stake, much at stake in Corinth. And Paul is their connection to divine truth. So Paul now compelled by circumstance begins a reluctant but necessary defense of his ministry, and he says in chapter 2 verse 17, we are not as so many, Paul says, peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God we speak in the sight of God in Christ. Now with that statement in chapter 2 verse 17, Paul distinguishes himself from Timothy, or distinguishes himself Timothy and Silas from the so many in his day that came peddling the word of God, as it were, for profit. The many of his day have now been multiplied in our day. Today there are ministers of Satan behind pulpits all over Orlando, all claiming to speak for God. And again, how are we to distinguish the difference? God's people need discernment, don't they? That person that you're standing there talking to, sharing the gospel with, that person needs quick discernment, don't they? Even illustration with respect to that. We're watching a National Geographic documentary on these turtles being hatched on a beach, right? You've seen the pictures of the video of that before. Those turtles, as soon as that egg hatches, need to make a mad dash for the water, don't they? Why? Because these scavenging birds or scavenging snakes come in and snatch up those little turtles before they can make it to the water, right? It seems like that, doesn't it, sometimes in sharing the gospel with people, right? You're sharing the gospel and you're just, you're pleading with them to turn to faith in Christ, and the same time knowing that if they go back to that wicked church they came out of, right, or if they turn this direction or that direction or that direction, they're going to run headlong into a bird, right? A wicked bird sweeping down to take the seed or a wicked snake sitting there waiting to devour them. Like, they need discernment. God's people need discernment. That comes from the preaching of God's Word. They need to sit under the biblical preaching of God's Word. They need to do that right away, right away. Their soul hangs in the balance. Paul understands this in Corinth, right? He understands the need for discernment. Listen, brother and sister, you and I in the church, we need to exercise discernment. Discernment with what we listen to, right? Discernment with what books that we read, who we're going to put ourselves under. We need discernment from the Word of God. It begs the question, doesn't it? What distinguishes an authentic Christian ministry? You may be coming here today and you're visiting from another church. What distinguishes genuine, true, authentic Christian ministry? How do you tell the difference between true and false? If it doesn't line up with God's Word, it's false. You can take it to the bank, don't believe the lie. John says, little children, let no one deceive you. Why? Because there are many, many, many out there who would. What validates? What authenticates the work of God's messengers, God's ministers? What differentiates the work of God from the work of the Godless? That's Paul's concern here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 6. And he begins to answer these questions in defense of his own Christian ministry and in defense of genuine, authentic Christian ministry, beginning in verse 1. Paul asks the question, 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, Paul says to the Corinthians, you are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. So what validates then? What authenticates genuine, authentic Christian ministry? What distinguishes, if you will, a true laborer for Christ from the false minister of Satan? Paul says, you do. You do. If you're in Christ, you do. You, born again from the dead, right? Made alive in Christ Jesus. A new creation. If you're a new creation, then you are a living letter, a living commendation of the Lord's gospel. You commend our ministry, Paul says. You're engraving on our heart. You're engraving on our heart. You're clearly visible to anyone who would look, right? Remember, coming to this church and just thinking to myself, Lord, thank you. Thank you for just the many, the multitude of good examples to follow, right? The multitude of people here who love the Lord, heart, soul, mind and strength. Not perfectly, right? But they want to serve the Lord. They want to, they want to preach the gospel. They want to preach his word. They want to love one another. It's a joy and a blessing to see that, right? Paul says, you are a living letter of commendation, engraving on our heart. You are a letter authored by Christ, delivered through our preaching of the gospel and wrought by the Spirit of God. Point one on your notes. Living letters commend God's workers, verses one through three. Genuine, God-empowered, new covenant gospel ministry will produce living letters of the Lord Jesus Christ, wrought by the Spirit of God. It works in God's people through the preaching of God's word. If you are truly in Christ, then you are a living letter of commendation for the gospel, a trophy of God's grace, right? Paul says then, in response to that reality, right? In response to that reality, in verse four, Paul says, and we have such trust, that trust that we have, our confidence so to speak, is through Christ toward God. We have such trust through Christ toward God. In other words, this confidence that we have about you, this confidence that we have about the Christian ministry, is through Christ and toward God. Paul says, my confidence is not in myself, it's not in my own abilities, not in my ability to speak, to turn a phrase, to persuade. He asks the rhetorical question in chapter two, verse 16, who is sufficient for these things? Who's adequate, right? Who's competent, who's capable? The overtly obvious answer to that question is no one. No one except, except that one that God himself makes sufficient. If Paul's confidence for Christian ministry, right? If Paul's confidence was in his own strength, in his own ability, then Paul would have quit before he ever made it out of Damascus, right? He is sitting in a basket on the top of that wall about, have you pushed over the edge and Paul's like, I'm out of here. Right? As soon as I get down, I am running for the hills. If, if Paul's strength, if Paul's confidence was in, was in his own ability, it was in his own intellect, his own understanding, Paul certainly would have quit. But Paul's confidence, Paul's trust, is not in himself. Paul's boldness is not in his own abilities, his confidence for Christian ministry is rooted and grounded in the faithfulness of God through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gospel New Covenant ministry is not the work of man. Ministry is not the work of man. There's so many man pleasers, man centered preachers out there, so-called preachers, so-called pastors, so much man centered worship, so many man centered methods for pleading with people to turn to Christ, so many man centered ways of holding them and sustaining them and entertaining them to stick around, so many man centered ways of quote unquote doing gospel ministry. They're not God's ways of doing it, so many. Paul's confidence is not in himself, Paul's confidence is not in his own wisdom, Paul's confidence is not in the way that he needs to say something or he needs to do something, it's not in Paul's methods, it's in those that have been established by God. New Covenant ministry is not the work of man, the Christian ministry is not a man-made work. I tell you, you know, you go to so many churches today, you see so, we have the blessing, don't we, of seeing a lot of this on recording, don't we? You take a couple of clicks and you're watching a recording of some service and what you see is worldly wisdom at work for the purpose of quote unquote gospel ministry. It's simply not gospel ministry. Living letters, point two on your notes, living letters commend God's work. Living letters commend God's work versus four through six. First, I want you to see from this, God is the one who commissions the work. God is the one who commissions the work. Christian ministry is ultimately God's work. Paul said that that gospel was ministered by us or delivered by us, it's preached by us, we are the means or the agency through which the gospel is preached, but this is ultimately, Christian ministry is ultimately God's work. Verse four, we have such trust through Christ, ultimately toward God. Now Paul, he uses the same Greek word in chapter one verse nine, where Paul explains there in chapter one verse nine where they faced a trial so severe that they despaired even of life. They despaired even of life. They thought they were going to die. In verse nine, he says, yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves. Why? So that we should not trust. Same Greek word used for trust or confidence. In verse four, same Greek word here in chapter one, verse nine, so that we should not trust or have our confidence in ourselves. We face death, Paul said, so that we would learn to have no confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. Paul uses that same word again in Philippians, chapter three. Turn there with me. Philippians, chapter three, same Greek word, Paytho, Philippians, chapter three, and look there at verse one. Incidentally, from that example in chapter one, verse nine of Second Corinthians, oftentimes we're taken through difficulty, aren't we? We're taken through adversity, through trial, through suffering to teach us to have no confidence in ourselves. That's a hard lesson for us to learn. We want to grip onto the things of this world, grip on the things of ourselves. We want to take control and sometimes we have to be taught not to be prideful, not to be self-reliant, not to be self-confident. We're taught through sometimes the school of hard knocks to put our confidence in God who raises the dead. Here, Paul has learned that lesson and he is giving us rich instruction from that experience in Philippians chapter three, verse one. Finally, he says, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. And sometimes you can come to church sort of weekend and week out, especially a godly biblical church. You may think to yourself, you know what, I hear the same things a lot. That's true. That's true. It's not tedious for me to say them, the brothers would say, it's not tedious for them to preach the same things, but it's safe for us to hear it, right? There's some things that bear repeating. This is one of them. He's just warned them of false teachers or opponents of the gospel. In chapter one, he's warned them of these wicked charlatans, these wicked liars, and he's about to do it again here in chapter three. It's not tedious, Paul says, for me to write the same things to you, but for you it is safe. Any pastor living up to his calling is going to continually remind you of certain things. This is one of them. Verse two, beware of dogs. That is a kind euphemism for false teachers. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation, three terms for false teachers. Beware, Paul says, of scavenging, rabid dogs, evil workers masquerading as workers of righteousness, right? And the mutilation. Mutilation is a reference to the same opponents that Paul is facing in Corinth, same group of people. These are the Judaizers. They are the false circumcision. These are false teachers, false apostles. Paul says in contrast, look at verse three, for we, who's the we there? The church. Paul, the people of God, those who are saved, we, believers, the church, are the true circumcision. Those dogs, those evil workers, that group of the mutilation, are the false circumcision. Those Judaizers, the false circumcision, verse three, for we, the church, the people of God, are the true circumcision. The circumcision made without hands, right? By putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. Paul says in verse three, we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence, same word, in the flesh. Verse four, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, Paul says, if anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Well, what might give you that confidence in the flesh, Paul? What might lead you to that? Well, Paul says, verse five, I would circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, even to the point of death, right? Dragging people back to prison. Concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, Paul said he was blameless. Essentially, Paul says, my family roots, my upbringing, my heritage, all my education, all my accomplishments, all my rights, all my privileges, all my religion, all my effort, all my work, all my diligence, all my desires, all my righteousness, is as a filthy rag. Paul says it is as dung. He says I place no confidence in myself. My confidence is through Christ toward God. Look at verse seven. All these things that were supposedly gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost. Why, Paul, for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. On that day, on the road to Damascus, in Acts chapter nine, truly changed everything for the Apostle Paul, didn't it? It radically changed his worldview, radically changed him from the inside out. He had a completely different perspective. Christ on that road in Acts nine gripped him by the heart, and he said, you're mine, Paul, you're mine. I'm going to tell you what you must do. I'm going to rule over you, reign over you. Any confidence in the flesh? Out the window, right? At that moment, it's gone. He couldn't even see. He had to be led by the hand into Damascus. And furthermore, Jesus said, I'll show him how many things he must suffer for my namesake. It would be his trust. It would be Paul's confidence. It would be Paul's faith in Christ that would prove to be the means through which God would sustain him through horrific times of difficulty, through great persecution, despairing even of life itself, right? Stoned and left for dead. Where does that confidence come from? Through Christ toward God. The disciples, right, beaten and then found rejoicing over it in Acts chapter five. Stephen praying for his murderers in Acts chapter seven. Paul preaching in the face of death in Acts chapter nine. Peter sleeping on the eve of his apparent execution in Acts chapter 12. Where does this confidence come from? They would say with Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter three, verse four, we have such confidence. We have such trust through Christ toward God. When you're tempted to lose heart, when you're tempted to shrink back from preaching the gospel, right? When you're tempted by a fear of man, when you're tempted with discouragement in a fight against sin, when you're tempted with discouragement in the work, because you don't see the fruit that you think you ought to see, right? When you're tempted to shrink back from a difficult conversation with a brother or a sister, or you're tempted to shrink back into laziness, not wanting to step out in faith and do that which the Lord has called you to do. Maybe you're tempted to laziness, tempted by complacency. Maybe you're here today and your heart is cold toward the things of God. Your heart is cold toward the people of God. Your heart is cold toward the worship of God. Maybe you've slipped back into apathy or indifference when you're tempted to be superficial. How are you doing today? Fine, great, me too, right? When you're tempted to isolate yourself from the body, maybe you're tempted to be clickish and you won't reach out to those people across the aisle or across the room. Maybe you're tempted to despair over circumstances that are simply just beyond your control. Remember your calling in Christ, brother. Remember your calling in Christ, sister, and draw confidence from that call. Draw confidence from that calling. You are exactly where he wants you to be. Trust in him. The one who called you to this work is the one who sustains you in this work. The one who has called you to this work is the one who will supply the grace sufficient to complete the work. You are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You, me, right? Staggering truth. You who once were not a people, now you're the people of God. You who had not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy. And the Lord Jesus Christ says to you, he says to me, Lo, I am with you even to the end of the age. I will not forsake you. I will not leave you orphans. The Lord says, I will come to you. We have such trust through Christ toward God. It's a remarkable statement when you think about it, isn't it? Like if you meditate on that for a moment, we have such confidence. We have such boldness. We have such trust through Christ toward God. Confidence or boldness before the one who made the world, right? Confidence or boldness before the one whose eyes are a flame of fire. The one by whom the world that then existed perished being flooded with water. Everyone, everything except for Noah and his family. And now the one who reserves the heavens and earth for fire until the day of judgment. The one who turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes as an example to the ungodly. Confidence before the one who has spared not his only begotten son, but delivered him up. How is it possible? How is it possible for a wretched sinner like you, for a wretched sinner like me to have such confidence only through Christ toward God, only through Christ toward God, only through repentance and faith in Christ? Can you stand before the God who dwells in unapproachable light, right? The one whom no man can see and live, that one. It's only, only if for you the Lord Jesus Christ has absorbed the blast furnace of his wrath against you for your sin. Only then can you stand with such confidence before him. And why? Because of Christ. He is the king of terrors, and we can stand before him in confidence. Why? Because of the Lord Jesus Christ, what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. In fact, in fact, if you will turn from your sin, if you will turn from living life for yourself, and if you will entrust yourself to him who has made sin, that we might become the righteousness of God and him, if you turn in faith to that one who gave his life a ransom for many, then you can have a boundless confidence in him, a boundless hope, an immeasurable hope, an unending hope, an eternal hope, joy, peace, forgiveness of sins, boundless confidence. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19 says this, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full confidence, full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Boundless, infinite, immeasurable grace to the one who puts his faith, his confidence, his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, if you are cold or indifferent to these things, it means you have your confidence in the wrong place. It means you are self-confident, you are self-reliant. If you're apathetic with respect to that, you have lost your first love if you ever had it to begin with. If you are unmoved by these truths, you are self-reliant. Paul says we have such trust only through Christ toward God. Verse 4, back in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, it is God who commissions the work. God who commissions the work is the reason we can have such confidence through him. Secondly though, in verse 5, it is God who supplies the work. It's God who supplies the work. Look at verse 5 with me. Not that we are sufficient, again, verse 5, not that we are adequate, not that we're competent or capable in and of ourselves, right? Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency, our capability to carry out this ministry, our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. Paul essentially says here, listen, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I just don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I may have confidence through Christ toward God in my ministry, confidence in the work that God has called me to, confidence that it is all a work of God, but that doesn't mean that I am capable in and of myself to accomplish it, right? Don't misunderstand, Paul says. I may be bold in carrying out the work of ministry because I know, I'm bold because I know that it's God who is at work in me and through me to do all his good pleasure. We can't ultimately, Paul says, we can't ultimately take credit for anything. Apart from Christ, you can do nothing, nothing, nothing. First time of the chapter one, verse 12, Paul says, and I think Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, Paul says, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man. You and I don't even deserve to carry the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on our lips. Apart from him, apart from the work that he's done, apart from him taking the punishment of our sins on the cross, we are blasphemous even to utter his name. Paul here, he had a tremendous education. He studied under the leading teacher of his day, he had a tremendous mind, a tremendous intellect. He had the ability to preach and to teach and to write half the New Testament written by the apostle Paul. But apart from the grace of God in Christ, he would have produced nothing but worldly wisdom. Paul's not sufficient in and of himself. His ministry, his sufficiency is from God. Listen to Paul in first Corinthians, chapter two, verse one. And I brethren, Paul says, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness. I was with you in fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. So that verse five, your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Listen, I've heard it said many times, verse three, I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. Paul wasn't always faithful to share the gospel because he was scared. Really, really. Paul preached the gospel to the point where he was stoned and left for dead. Paul was bold not to shrink back from declaring to them the whole counsel of God. What was the reason for Paul's weakness, for Paul's fear, for Paul's trembling? Their souls hung in the balance. His warfare was not with flesh and blood, with principalities and with powers. There's such great things at stake in the preaching of the gospel here. Paul, depending, he must depend on the power of God. Paul himself is weak. His speech is preaching, he says in verse four, not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul says in Romans chapter 15, verse 18, he says, I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient. In other words, Paul saying, listen, take what Christ has done out of my mouth and I have absolutely nothing worthwhile to say to you. That's what Paul is saying there. Paul says, I'm not here because I'm smart. You remember Peter and John before the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter four, they perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men and they marveled, realizing that they had been with Jesus. Paul says, I'm not here because I'm an excellent speaker and God could have used a donkey to say what he wanted to say. Remember Moses, right in Exodus chapter three, Moses said, I'm not qualified. The same Greek word in the Septuagint translation, the Greek translation of Exodus chapter three, I'm not qualified, Moses said, he can ask. Moses would affirm, Moses would affirm with Paul, God is the one who makes me sufficient. God is the one who makes me capable for the task of ministry. Paul is essentially saying, I am right here right now because this is where God has me and in accord with his call on me to preach the gospel, I'm going to stand here and preach Christ and him crucified. My sufficiency is from God. Again, that word for sufficient, the Greek word hekenos, used in the Septuagint, right, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, used there six times for El Shaddai, the name for God, the sufficient one or the competent one. You know, this is a wonderfully diverse church. It's one of the things I love about what the Lord has done here and love about this church, wonderfully diverse. We have people here seemingly, seemingly from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, all over the world, right? But also, not just that, we also have people of various personality types, right? Various strengths, various abilities, various gifts, various backgrounds, various skill sets, and all of us, all of us called together to Christian ministry in the body of Christ. Interesting, isn't it? Wisdom of God. First Corinthians 12, Paul says, there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. In other words, God supplies all we need. God supplies all we need. You can't make excuses and blame it on your Latin heritage, right? Anymore than, I can make excuses and blame it on my good looks. You can't blame your lack of faithfulness on your circumstances. You can't make excuses. God has you in those circumstances and expects you to be faithful in your circumstances. You can't blame a lack of faithfulness on your circumstances. Do you see? God is the one who puts you there. You're to be faithful through them. You can't blame your lack of repentance on God. God calls you to repent. You say, well, God hasn't granted me repentance. No, you haven't repented. You can't excuse the way that you have grossly sinned in your marriage. You can't excuse that, blaming your wife. Or worse yet, blaming it on God, that woman that you gave me. God has given you everything you need to love her, to teach her, to lead her, to provide for her. You can't excuse lust or gluttony or anger or laziness or cowardice and simply say to that, listen, that's just the way that I'm wired. I sin in this way because that's the way that I'm wired. But you're blaming God. That's blame shifting. God is the one who gives us victory over the presence of sin in our lives. Specifically, verse six, he gives us abundant supply for the work of Christian ministry by making us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. God does it for us, in us, through us. He supplies the work, do you see? Verse five, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. Interesting there, he doesn't use the word for apostle, that word there, ministers. He doesn't use the word for pastor or elder or teacher. He uses the word for servant. He uses the word for servant. God makes you, he makes you a capable servant. God gives you the gifts. God gives you the abilities. God gives you the blessings of being in a church like this. And then giving you all that, you say no when you're asked by the church to serve in accord with your gifts. You see how difficult that is? God makes you a capable servant. He gives you gifts and abilities. He instructs you, right? Makes you sufficient. And then when you're asked by the church to serve, you say no, not because you can't, but because you won't, or because you're fearful, or because your priorities are in the wrong place. Do you despise the riches of his goodness? We serve the Lord Christ, amen? So serve the Lord Christ by serving in his church, by serving his people. He graciously supplies for the work to be done. He has graciously supplied. And no greater gift in that than the spirit of God himself, right? He gives us of his spirit. We have absolutely no excuse as we step out in faithfulness to serve him, right? By serving his people, by preaching the gospel. God is faithful to increase our sufficiency. We're never left without. God supplies grace and he keeps supplying grace. As we depend upon him, our love for him grows. As we depend upon him, our desire to serve him grows. As we depend upon him, our capabilities increase. Our maturity develops. Our understanding is cultivated. Our knowledge of his word improves. Our stewardship improves. Our Christ likeness increases. Our holiness increases. Our gifts expand. Our ability to serve and minister to the others becomes more fruitful. Our zeal continues to fire and to burn. We're strengthened by the Lord day by day. Our faith continues to grow. All while his spirit is at work in us to supply every need we have for Christian ministry. Whenever I am faithless, he is faithful. And that is proven over and over and over again. Every time I step into this pulpit, it's a proof. Right? Every time you preach the gospel, it's a proof. When you go out and share the gospel, when you're talking to that brother, talking to that sister, it's a proof that God supplies everything we need. We are insufficient in and of ourselves to do any of it. Apart from him, I can do nothing. It is just an evidence of the grace and mercy of God. Whenever I am weak, then he is strong. The Lord said to Paul in chapter 12, my grace, Paul is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. So Paul responds in verse nine there. Therefore Paul says, most gladly, then, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore Paul says, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches and needs and persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Do you think that's a figure of speech that Paul uses there or hyperbole that Paul uses there when he says that I take pleasure in infirmities? I take pleasure in infirmities, Paul. In reproaches, you take pleasure in needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake? Yes. Yes. Do you think Paul doubted the Lord in his ministry? No. When I am weak, Paul says, then I am strong. Why? We have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant. Interesting that term there, New Covenant, used just a handful of times in the New Testament. The Gospels use that term, New Covenant, as Jesus takes the cup at the first Lord's Supper and says that this is the New Covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ purchases the New Covenant, secures the New Covenant with his own blood. Paul uses it twice here in 2 Corinthians, clearly in reference to an Old Testament promise. I want you to turn there with me, Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. And this will become the concern or the focus of our sermon next week and a couple of weeks that follow as we consider the nature and scope of the New Covenant and our ministry under that covenant. Here in the time that we have left, just to reference this, Jeremiah chapter 31. Look with me at verse 31. Jeremiah 31, verse 31. Paul clearly referencing this Old Testament promise and now claiming this to be the case in his own day preaching the gospel. Look at verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 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. In other words, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is of the heart, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. God continues in verse 33. I will be their God and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. Back in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, the old covenant, the old covenant referenced by Paul in verse 4, as that written on tablets of stone is obsolete. We'll spend some time talking about that. The new covenant, the new covenant, is the one purchased by the very blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ says of that covenant, right? Christ says of the new covenant, listen, I have done everything that is necessary. I have done everything. Take your rest in me. Take your rest in him, right? Come to me, you who are weary, weary over what? It's weary over your sin, weary over the wreck that you've made of your own life. Come to me, you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest, right? My yoke is easy. Learn from me, right? I am lowly, meet in heart. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 6, Paul sets up this contrast between the old covenant and the new covenant. His opponents, these false teachers in Corinth, are falsely and legalistically strapped to the old covenant, which they do not understand. In fact, many, many, many today preach the new covenant, which they do not understand. And Paul's burden here, Paul's concern is to be a minister, a faithful minister of the new covenant, covenant written not on tablets of stone, but on the heart, not of the letter, but of the spirit, because the letter kills the spirit gives life. How many times have you heard that text just morbidly and grotesquely abused? We're going to talk about what that's saying next week, not of Moses, no longer of Moses, but of Christ, not of law, entirely of grace, not of works, blessed you should boast, but entirely of Christ who purchased the new covenant for his people with his own blood. Turn with me quickly to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9 to the Hebrews deals extensively with the new covenant. It's just a glorious book. Hebrews chapter 9 and look beginning at verse 11. But Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats with the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, then how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason, for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. We'll talk about more what that means next week. We enter that covenant through repentant faith in him. He has secured it for his people, having done everything that is necessary, giving his own life, bearing the sins of his people on his body, on the tree. And we will turn, if you will turn from living life for yourself, if you will entrust all that you are to all that he is, you can have your sins forgiven. You can be washed with pure water, declared righteous, declared innocent. You can stand with confidence before the living God in him. With full assurance, you can approach the Holy of Holies. It's an unfathomable grace, right? An immeasurable love, a glorious compassion. How will you respond to that? Paul says, I'm a minister of the new covenant. And he stands as a minister of the new covenants supplied by God to preach Christ and him crucified, that you may have the forgiveness of sins. What will you do? Will you leave here today and turn your back on Christ? If you walk out that door without turning from your sin and putting your faith and trust in Christ, you're turning your back on his free offer of grace. And if you're to die today, you will close your eyes in this life and you will open them in eternal torment. Turn to Christ, have your sins forgiven. Inherit eternal life in him. Become a child of God, right? What mercy, what divine grace, it is a glorious covenant. Amen.