Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 6/26/13
2Co 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
We cannot handle any little thing of ourselves let alone a big
thing. We are living in strength
reducing times but God has the answer for us.
Paul was inspired to write to the church of God. (2 Corinthians 1:1)
I am preaching to the church of God tonight. As spiritual as Paul was and with the understanding
that he had, he had lived by the law and been a legalistic Jew. Understanding all of that, he also had then
come to Christ and understood about Jesus and the Law of the Spirit. Yet, his testimony was, “not that we are
sufficient of our self.”
2Co 3:1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or
need we, as some others, epistles of
commendation to you, or letters of
commendation from you?
Paul was being open, “do we need to hear from you or you
from us?”
2Co 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts,
known and read of all men:
These dear saints at Corinth had a letter written in the
heart of Paul. It was a letter of, “These
people love God. They want to serve and
live for God.”
2Co 3:3 Forasmuch as ye
are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by
us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables
of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
Paul had lived how much ever of his life before being
converted. He knew about people living
under the law and being strict about obeying the law and living according to
the letter written in stone. Then he came
to Christ and found a new way and a whole new path.
The new way was not living according to a bunch of rigid
rules but according to the Word of God written on the fleshly tables of the
heart. It is a marvelous thing when we
live by our heart and not our head, when God has written His word upon our
heart.
He uses His people to write the Word on our heart and He
uses His Word to teach and train us.
None of us is an island.
2Co 3:4 And such trust have we through Christ to
God-ward:
2Co 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
We are not sufficient of ourselves. We are very inadequate for the challenges
ahead of us. As a husband, a grandparent,
a father and a father-in law, I am very inadequate in myself. I recognize this and may God help me and
everyone in this congregation to never trust in our self but to fully lean upon
God.
Our sufficiency is of God.
Dear ones, I don’t know what you are going to be called upon
for even tonight or tomorrow. If you
are where God would have you to be, having sought God, God will be there.
The thought is, “I realize that there are many things that I
could do today. There are decisions that
I make in my planning.” God has given us
discernment and not everything that comes to us is ordained of God. Just because it sounds like an opportunity to
work for God, unless God is in it then you are just being used by someone.
We need to have the knowledge, “My life is yours, Lord. I am in the way. I am right where I know that you want me to
be.” Everyone needs to know that where
we are standing and what we are doing is what God wants for us June 26th
2Co 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the
new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth,
but the spirit giveth life.
The word, ‘Minister’ here is not talking about just a pastor
or evangelist. It is talking of someone
that is sent upon an errand, a helper.
About three weeks from today we are going to start vacation
bible school. We feel our need not just
of the pastor or deacons or those in the skit or telling the story, it is not
just a one man thing. As ministers we
desire to be able ministers of the New Testament. The letter kills but the Spirit makes alive.
An able minister, “I’m living in the Spirit and I am walking
in the spirit. We must have the Word of
God, but if we have the word of God without the Spirit of God then we will
hammer the letter without the Spirit and will starve people to death. There are too many “letterites” in the world
today.
The Spirit of God with the Word of God makes us an able
minister. Instead of people just getting
knowledge in the head, they get a heart change.
2Co 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the
children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory
of his countenance; which glory was to
be done away:
2Co 3:8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit
be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no
glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
2Co 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use
great plainness of speech:
2Co 3:13 And not as Moses, which
put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look
to the end of that which is abolished:
2Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this
day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament;
which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read,
the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord,
the vail shall be taken away.
They looked to someday instead of the Gospel Day because
they did not know that the fulfillment of the scripture, the messiah, had come.
Isa 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it.
Isa 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye,
and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Isa 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and
shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
Isa 2:5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in
the light of the LORD.
Can you imagine reading that before understanding that Jesus
had come? Teach us the word of God for we will walk in His ways. The nations will flow into it: When people will hunger and thirst after
righteousness, they will do anything they can to come in to MT Zion.
2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
When the Spirit of God is moving then it is easy to
move. When It is dealing with our soul
then it is easy to say, “Yes, Lord.”
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord.
Isn’t it wonderful to look into the Word and see the beauty
of Christ? It is wonderful. When we see the beauty of Christ in the Word then
our heart says, “I want to be like that.”
It is wonderful the powerful changes, the heart changes, that the Word of
God makes.
The image of Jesus comes into the soul through His Word and
you portray Jesus first in the home and then out of the home.
We have learned, “I need to go every day and be filled up. Every day, I need to see the goodness of God. Every day, I need to be in the Word.”
No comments:
Post a Comment