Servants of a New Covenant — 2 Corinthians 3-4

0:00 All right, good morning. Good morning. Morning. Morning. Morning.

0:04 All right. Good morning. Open your Bibles, second Corinthians chapter three. We're gonna continue our series in the book of second Corinthians, which is one of my favorites. I'm gonna do just gonna read three verses because what I wanna do is explain that first and then we'll go on to the second part.

0:27 And then I'll turn on this thing and hopefully I can get it to work. It's an Apple product. I'm not used to Apple computer, not mine. I have an Apple iPhone thing, but not this. Do the word.

0:40 All right, let's read second Corinthians. By the way, the Lord's supper was extremely encouraging to me this morning. Some of the things shared were such a blessing to think of Christ being so humble. It's something that's hard to totally grasp, yet it's true. So let's look into the word of God.

1:02 Second Corinthians chapter three in verse one. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need some letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter written in our hearts known and read by all men being manifested that you are a letter of Christ cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Let's pray.

1:34 Father, we pray that the spirit of god would just be guiding the study today and would bring light to what you have for us. I pray that we would speaking with me first starting with me that we would not only listen but but be blessed and obey what your holy word has to say. And we we ask that you will be glorified in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

1:59 What a what an exciting thing to to belong to a local assembly have the body of Christ to bless you. When you don't have it, you're going to appreciate it, when it's there and you have a need, praise God that the body of Christ could be there for you to bless you and to take care of you. Paul, as a missionary, was going to different cities and establishing churches. Corinth is one of the particular ones that he went to, and he preached the gospel there, and that place was particularly tough. There was a lot of sin, a lot of crime, a lot of prostitutes.

2:36 It was just a terrible place and yet, god still was with them and they were there and they they preached the gospel and they started a church and he was there for about a year and eight months. So, sometimes a little under two years. He was there a good amount of time and so he worked hard to disciple and to teach him the word of god to build him up in their faith and and he's working away and then it was time for him to go to another city and start another church as a missionary and so that's what he did. He left. He goes on and a little bit later, he gets a letter from a family saying, all kinds of things are going wrong at at in this local church.

3:17 We need to do something about it and so he writes, he writes a letter, right? First Corinthians. After that letter, there's still things going wrong. There was a second letter which we call the lost letter. We don't know where it's at.

3:31 The Lord didn't, decide to reveal it to us or to bring it to light, so there's a lost letter out there somewhere. Then we get the third letter, which is second Corinthians, actually the the third letter. The third letter, and and and in this letter is very personal. It's very per read it and you'll see how personal it is. Pause, opening up his heart, right?

3:52 Now, one of the things that that Satan did to try to destroy the local church and you have to realize that every local church is under the attack of Satan, right? And so so his desire is for us to be bored and and to us to be indifferent and and not to care that that's his plan and so he's trying to get to this church and trying to destroy it because of what god was doing there and so what he does is he sends some guys to because Paul said, later on, you're going to see it in chapter ten eleven that he says, these men that came in, they're they're false apostles. They're sent from Satan. So, we know that then that that Satan sent them into his local body to try to destroy the work of god. Now, as he's doing that, as they these men come in, the what are you going to do in order to to destroy the work?

4:44 You gotta attack the leadership, Right? And so they start attacking him and saying, he's fickle, as we saw already, that that he's he's not reliable. He says he's going to do one thing and he doesn't do it. And so you know that when someone comes to you and starts to tell you ugly things about someone, it sticks to your head whether it's true or not. Right?

5:03 And you get that image, you know, can really trust Harold? I used to trust him, but somebody told me that, you know, he's not trustworthy, and so all of sudden you're looking at him with a question mark, right? And so that's what happened. They came in and they started saying, well, Pa, you can't really trust him. You know, Pa says one thing and does another, and Pa's trying to lord it over you.

5:22 You can read that also, right, in chapter two. And and as you keep going, they get more personal. They really attack on this. As a matter of fact, he can't even preach. You you can see that in chapter six and on, right?

5:35 They start attacking the way he preaches and they don't like the way he preached And so it was a really a personal attack on him. So in much of the book, he's defending himself and the ministry. Alright? Now, chapter three is no different because he says, okay, I'm the one that that came to this city, established this local church. I did all the work through with our missionary team.

5:59 We led you to Christ and now, you what do you want? Some kind of letter of recommendation from us? I mean, you know who we are. We led you to Christ. We discipled you.

6:08 We build you up. And so you can see that there. He says, as a matter of fact, the the proof that god has used us and worked amongst us is that you are converted. You've been transformed by the Holy Spirit. Notice that the text says, not by letter, but by the spirit who works where?

6:40 The the the proof that I'm the real thing is that not only did I start this church but you have a testimony and you can stand up. All of you can stand up and say, I was lost and now I'm saved. I heard the gospel. I I repented of my sin. I was transformed and the holy spirit is the one that brought this all to to be real and it happened in my heart, right?

7:04 And so, everyone of you should have a testimony. If the lord has saved you, if he's transformed you, yes, that the spirit of god revealed to me my sin. I saw the savior and I was converted and this transformation happened in my heart. Right? And that's the testimony everyone of us should have.

7:27 Alright? Now, as we continue in this book, that's the first three verses and what he's going to start doing is is to start to show the way god changes people. The way god changes people and he's going to give us a correct view of ministry. Anybody heard of Paul Fisher? Anybody here heard of Paul Fisher?

7:48 The creator of? VeggieTales. That's right. The creator of VeggieTales. Well, you know that he was in a phone interview and he was saying that the reason it changed, did you notice that it changed towards the end?

8:01 Right? The content of it, the quality of it. You know what happened? That another company, a party's party sent by Satan, weaseled their way in, and the next thing you know, they took over the company and Paul Fisher, the creator, is on the outside looking in. And then once in a while, they would just call him and ask for some consultation as he said, but I couldn't believe I was hearing that interview where he no longer was in charge.

8:32 And they went on to give the technical reasons how it all happened. I'm not going to explain all that to you, but that's what's trying to happen here with this local church. And so what what Paul's going to concentrate on now is he's going to actually do it like a comparison to show the difference between religion or the law, external things versus the work of the Holy Spirit. So that's what he's gonna do. So let me turn this thing on, and hopefully I can get it to work.

9:05 Wow. It's thin. Alright. Here we go. Am now supposed to hit enter, it should work.

9:12 Where's the enter button on this thing? That's the problem. Right? Right there. Got it.

9:17 I got it. Okay. Here we are. Thank you. I love Bob.

9:23 You bless me, brother. Alright, amen. Alright. So, so so they had a a tremendous testimony and Paul was saying, I don't need to come with a letter because I led you to Christ. My goodness, right?

9:34 You're you're you're converted to my work through our work, the team, the missionary team. And as he okay, let's see. All right, now, what he's going to do then is he's going to start explaining the difference and how God works. And so let's look at this then. Let's read, we're going to read to, let's go to verse 12 for now, and then I'll read the last part.

10:01 And such confidence we have through Christ towards God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. Wow, isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. You know what?

10:28 I'm going to stop right there instead of continuing. Now, when a company gets started, whatever company it may be, you start from scratch, if you will, or you start with very little, and you build it up, and then suddenly you're trying to promote your product, and so you show a video. This is how we started, and look where we're at now, and somebody comes and gets a little silver medal and gives you a prize, entrepreneur of the year. Right? I just went to a thing the other day that that's what they were doing.

11:00 Right? And you can do it too, right? And you have the ability and you just have to dig in deep and you can see that you can do it. And you know, the companies, men that did it can all, you know, show you their resume and what they've accomplished. The interesting thing about being a Christian and about ministry and serving god is that you can never say, ten years ago, you know, I started the business of church and and ten years from now, here's my thing.

11:30 Look what I've done. Paul, it never got to his head. Everything that god was doing through him and he says, the first thing you need to understand is the our adequacy is from god. It doesn't come from us. I didn't do a thing.

11:44 In other words, Paul is saying, I can't convert anyone. I can't change anyone. I can't do anything. I'm just a servant of god, an instrument of god, and god works through me and through the holy spirit. I just spoke the gospel and he did the transformation.

11:59 My adequacy is not from us. It comes from god and and we need to understand that reality that the church is not a business. It's not something that we build up and we have some kind of a resume and look what I've done. It's you do a lot of work for twenty years and you look back and say, look what the spirit of god has done. Amen?

12:20 Amen. It's not what I've done. God and his grace decides to use us as his instruments. As Paul said in first Corinthians, what is Paul? Who's Apollos?

12:34 We're just servants. We're just servants. You know, it would it would have been so easy to Paul for Paul to say, you know, I got my doctorate and I got my accomplishments and listen, I've heard enough of this to make me nauseated. Right? I mean, I've gone to places to speak where someone comes and says, got a doctorate from here.

12:55 What do you have? Like, nothing. I am inadequate. I'm inadequate. If God wants to, he can use me.

13:02 If he does, he's going to make a rock cry out and praise him. There's no adequacy coming from us. Right? And so spirituality is is a work of the holy spirit working in our lives and using us in spite of who we are. And so we never get to a point we start to brag and say, look, because all we can say is, look what god has done, right?

13:28 Look what god has done. Look what he's doing and first of all, the testimony starts, look what he's doing in my life, first of all. Now, look what he's doing in this local body and then now, look what he's doing in the greater body but it's a work of god. Unless the holy spirit moves, nothing's going to happen, right? And so we're all very aware of that reality.

13:52 And so let's look at these verses with that in mind, and I think they'll they'll stick a little better. Verse five. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves. How much of it came from Paul? He said, I don't consider anything.

14:10 Zero. Zero. But wait a minute, but didn't Paul go out and get beat and then he preached the gospel? Yes. Yes, he did.

14:18 But did he, was he able to change one soul? Was he able to transform anyone? Right? I mean, come on. Can you even change yourself?

14:26 Haven't you tried? Haven't you tried? I know I've tried. It doesn't work. And so Paul is saying, I don't consider anything coming from me, my adequacy, my sufficiency, my ability to do God's work.

14:57 Right? Of the spirit, the holy spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But the spirit gives life. And so Paul says, as he's starting out and he's really talking to these false guys who went in there and they were talking talking him down. Look, first of all, when when we preach, the spirit of god is the one that converted you and he spoke to your heart and showed you your sin and you need for a savior.

15:26 The conversion experience, it happened to the spirit, right? That that's in case you missed it. That was verse three. That was verse three. Alright?

15:35 The spirit of living god not on tablets of stone but on the tablets of the human heart. So, the spirit of living god spoke to the human heart and there's that testimony that god save me and change me, right? So then he goes on to say, and it wasn't us, it wasn't that I spoke so well, it wasn't my ability, it was the Holy Spirit who makes us adequate to do this work for God. There's no adequacy coming from myself. All right.

16:00 So then he's going to do a comparison going back and forth. All right. Now, the whole left side is going to be the old and the new side is the new. I think that's pretty obvious by... It says old versus new.

16:15 Did did you figure that out? I just realized the way I said it. So anyway, yes, yes, yes. Lord help me. Okay.

16:26 So old versus new. The law represents self effort. So think about the whole Old Testament, the Old Testament system. It's all about self effort. It's all about self effort.

16:38 As a matter of fact, I want you to quickly turn with me to Jeremiah and verse 31, and we're going to start with verse 31. Because we need to understand this for this to make sense. Chapter three, you kind of have to establish the background first before it makes more sense to us. So just go quickly to Jeremiah 31 and verse 31. Now, before we even read it, let let me explain that Jeremiah is all about condemnation, right?

17:15 Because the people were disobeying god and so god is saying, I'm going to judge you. I'm going to judge you unless you repent. I'm going to judge you and the people would just keep on doing idolatry. They were irreverent and they kept on in their sin and they were murdering and they were cheating and they were doing the whole thing and and after so many years of of having the law, they were not able to do anything to change. And they were sacrificing their children to to false gods.

17:46 Can you imagine? Right? And they were doing all types of things and so this is what god says. Jeremiah thirty one thirty one, behold, days are coming and and they're they're now. We're we're living in those days.

18:00 Amen? Right now, watch what he says, declares the lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah and because of New Testament revelation with the the body of Christ. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, notice please, which they broke. In other words, they couldn't keep it. They would always break it.

18:28 They were always disobedient. They couldn't change. They couldn't stop drinking. They couldn't stop taking drugs. They couldn't stop doing their thing, right?

18:37 Although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. Verse 33, but this is a covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, and with the local body, as he did with the New Testament church, I will put my law within them, and on their hearts I will write it. Doesn't that sound like second Corinthians three? And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Look, these people are not going to change.

19:06 They're not going to change. He put it this way in another text in Jeremiah, Will a leopard change its spots? Right? Can a can a can a black man turn white? Well, I don't know.

19:19 Michael Jackson somehow did it, but that that's an exception. That's an exception. We're gonna gonna we're gonna ignore that. We're gonna ignore. That's an exception to the rule.

19:27 I don't know how to explain that one. I I think he looked... He used lemon juice or something. But but can can we can we change? Can can we change?

19:37 Can we change? Is it possible? No. We can't. And that's the whole point of Jeremiah.

19:43 You're you're not going to change. You're never going to change. It's impossible. You're going to keep doing it. So here's what I'm going to do.

19:49 What is he going to do? I'm going to write my laws in your heart. No, I'm going to save you myself because you're not capable. You you won't change. You won't get saved.

20:01 You won't get converted unless I do it myself because that's how we are. Isn't that true? Isn't that true? Alright. Now, the the the mistake is that that it's not just salvation but it's growth, spiritual growth as well.

20:22 My mistake is I try to do it on my own strength and then I fail. Right? So, the law is self effort. The spirit is lasting change. The work of the holy spirit.

20:35 Alright. It was tablets of stone. Versus human hearts. The new, right? The new on this side.

20:44 Letters of the law kills but the spirit gives life. Let's go back to second Corinthians three and now let's read the text. Verse six, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, The new covenant, by the way, based on the blood of Jesus, right? It's the new covenant is is we put our faith in Christ. It's based on his blood.

21:11 The Old Testament wouldn't do it. It wouldn't change anybody. It wouldn't save anybody. Nothing would happen. It's based on Jesus.

21:18 So we also who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, the old, but of the spirit, the Holy Spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Let's keep reading. But if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stone came with glory so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his faith. I'm sorry. Yes, the glory of his face fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the spirit fail to be even more with glory?

21:52 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed, what had glory in this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. Having therefore such hope, we use great boldness in our speech. Okay.

22:44 The old one had glory, and the new one has more glory. Now, you remember when everybody seen Moses, right? Exodus, have you all seen it? Some of you younger guys, what do you call it, the millennials? Is that what you are called?

22:56 Right? What are you, Diana? Are you a millennial? Alright. There you go.

23:00 Millennial. That's George, TJ. I have millennials. Alright. I don't understand millennials that much.

23:07 Lord, have mercy. Lord, give me understanding. Right? I'm trying to understand millennials. Alright.

23:13 So so here comes Moses goes up into the mountain, to receive the the 10 commandments. You remember? And he comes down with those with those tablets of stone, and and the finger of god had carved them out. You haven't seen that movie, you need to see it. So it'll make more sense to you, but that's what happened.

23:32 But it happened in reality. He wrote out the 10 commandments, the finger of God did it, it says in the Bible. And so he's coming down with them, and when he and when he was up in the mountain, the mountain was shaking and there was thunder and lightning and and and there was it was loud and and the people like, what? And and here comes Moses and he had just been with god and he's glowing. You're talking about a sci fi, right?

23:56 Freaking out. Oh my. What is this? So, this guy is just glowing. He comes down with these two stones and when he comes down, he looks, what does he see?

24:04 They're they're worshiping a bull, right? They're doing idolatry and all kinds of other stuff, right? And so, immediately, he takes those stones and he throws them down and how many people died? How many people died? 3,000.

24:20 Thank you. 3,000 people died. Wow, wow. That's exciting. We're going to introduce the law and it's supposed to be so glorious.

24:29 Moses is glowing and here they come and he throws them down and and boom, 3,000 people die. How do you like that? Let's start a new ministry. We're going to kill 3,000 people at the very beginning. That's what happened.

24:43 So then here comes Peter. Mister Peter, the stumbler that talks too much that, you know, does all that goofy stuff. Here comes Peter the Holy Spirit got a hold of him and he preaches the gospel and how many people got saved when he preaches the first message? 3,000. 3,000.

25:01 So, you so you see what he's saying? He's saying the ministry of death because soon as he came down, the 10 commandments, immediately 3,000 people died. Man, that that's scary. Nobody could do it. You couldn't keep it.

25:15 You couldn't you couldn't match up to what god's demands were. It was impossible but here comes Peter, a fisherman, right? Not glowing, not doing anything, just a normal guy gets up and just preaches. Who's that guy? I don't know.

25:29 I don't know. And he's preaching and and thousands come to Christ. Now was that Peter? Obviously not. You know, Moses would have gotten preached.

25:39 Nothing would have happened. But here comes Peter, the no name, just a regular fisherman guy, preaches something and then thousands come to Christ and get saved. That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Right? It's his work.

25:55 As we preach the gospel, that's all we have to do, teach the word of god and god through his holy spirit does the rest. He does the rest and so, the letter kills the ministry of death. That's why it's called the ministry of death. It had glory. Yeah.

26:09 Yeah, it had glory. The you know, the the mountain shaking and the thunder, the lightning, it was spectacular. But the the ministry of the Holy Spirit has more glory. Why? Because now, you are eternally saved.

26:24 Because now, you're not going to go to hell, right? Now, you can change. You can be transformed by the power of god where they couldn't and so god said, that's it. I'm just going to do a new covenant and where I'm going to write in their hearts because they just won't change. So then, it's called the ministry of condemnation.

26:44 So, the Bible says in in the 10 commandments, you shall not steal, you shall not lie, you shall not dishonor your parents, you shall not covet. Anybody here haven't done any of those? So, it condemns you. It's like, man, I can't keep up with what god wants and then the very first one, you shall love the lord you god with all your heart and your mind and your soul and your strength. Okay, I already failed in that one.

27:08 Anybody else? Right? So, it was a ministry of condemnation. It shows you that you're not good enough for god because it's absolutely perfect and great and almighty but it was a ministry of righteousness is what the holy spirit does. The holy spirit literally makes you right with god.

27:25 That's what it's saying. He makes you right with god. It's what he does and what were we saying earlier, Jessica, is not performance based, right? Has nothing to do with how you perform or you behave. God takes a sinner who's lost, who can't change, and he makes him righteous.

27:43 Amen? Amen. It says, work of the holy spirit. Can anyone make someone else righteous? Has to be the work of the holy spirit.

28:14 He was literally glowing. You Like those glow sticks that you put in the dark and then in the light, then you go into the dark room and it's glowing. That's how Moses was. But something happened though with Moses. He would come out of Tabernacle and everyone like, check out Moses.

28:29 He had a meeting with God. But then a little bit later, I don't know how long it took. I don't know if it was an hour or a couple of minutes. It would start to go away the glow. And all of a sudden, it's like, well, it's just regular Moses.

28:41 So much for the glow, right? It went away, and so he would throw a rag over his head because he didn't want people to see that he's losing it. You know what I mean? I don't have that glow anymore, so let me go back in the tabernacle, get it a little more juiced up, and come back out again. And so he would put a rag over his head.

28:57 It wasn't working. It it would disappear, right? But when the Holy Spirit transforms you and makes you righteous, does that righteousness ever leave? Does it? Don't doubt.

29:13 Let me see. Yes or no? It never leaves. When he makes you righteous, it's permanent. That's what he's trying to say.

29:21 Right? That which fades away but that which remains is the work of the holy spirit. You belong to god for all eternity once he transforms you. Okay. Now, let's let's keep going.

29:35 Old versus new. Now, let's continue reading verse 13. And are not as Moses who used to put a veil over his face that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the end of what was fading away. So, there you go, the veil that he used to cover himself because the glow was going away. Kind of like when you go to camp, know, oh man, I had an experience with God, I met with Jesus, and then, you know, two weeks later you're back where you were again, right?

30:04 We don't want that to happen. All right, so it it was a it was a it was a veil to cover up that that it was going away. Verse 14, but their minds were hardened for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. Okay, but verse 15, but to this day, whenever Moses read, the veil lies over their hearts. I I I met a I was witnessing to a to a student who was going to become a rabbi, a Jewish rabbi.

30:42 And we had long talks, we would go through the Bible, and of course, know the the the real conservative Jews, they don't believe in the New Testament, so we had to stick to the Old Testament. And then they say that you can't go to Isaiah because of this, whatever excuse they had, so we had to stick to the first five books of the Bible. So we had long talks, and they were really good. He was really open, and and as we kept talking and talking, we got to the point where I said, would you put your faith in Christ? Do you realize that he is the Messiah?

31:16 He goes, I understand exactly what you're saying without a doubt, but I still think that God's going to look at me, and you can see all the good things I'm doing, and he's going look at me with favor, and he's going to let me into heaven. That was his conclusion, right? He was keeping the law, he was keeping the Old Testament, reading it, and he was going to be a rabbi. But you know what? He heard the gospel.

31:42 I wonder if one day I might not see him in heaven because he heard it. And so the the veil is is is trying to do something. To get god's approval That's what the law is. That's what religion is. So so so it's in Christ, there's hope and there's liberty in Christ.

32:07 The the the old, the veil is external letters, stones, trying to be righteous but it produces no change. But the ministry of the Holy Spirit is internal. You acknowledge that you need a savior. You repent and you trust Christ by faith. Okay.

32:25 Now, let's look at this. What is the veil? Did you notice that it says that a veil remains over them, over their minds? Their minds are hardened. There's still a veil there.

32:37 And if you look at chapter four and verse three, even our gospel is veiled. It is veiled to those who are perishing in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So so what veil? What is this veil? There's a veil that doesn't let people turn to Christ and be saved.

33:02 What is it? What is that veil? All right. It's the veil of good works. It's the veil of self effort, of reform.

33:13 Maybe if I just stop drinking and smoking, and make some adjustments and change some things, things will get better. A piety of zeal, of rituals, of prayers, of devotion, of giving to the poor, of religion. It's the veil of unbelief, like the Pharisees. Even though God showed them unquestionably that he was the Messiah, they were not gonna believe regardless of how much evidence was there. So it just...

33:45 I just don't wanna believe, period. Then there's also the veil of rebellion. I just don't want Christ. I heard the gospel. I've heard it for many years.

33:55 I don't care. I want to do my own thing. And that's where many people are. And this is I think the one, all of this is what Satan is working behind the scenes as as it said in chapter four. I don't want to steal from whoever's doing chapter four, but it's relevant here.

34:11 Satan is working even now. If you're not saved. He's working behind the scenes saying, you don't need Christ. You don't need to repent. Stay where you're at.

34:22 Don't change. Don't believe the work of the Holy Spirit. Just be religious or or you know, just go ahead and party and do your own thing. He's going to restrict you. Don't turn to Christ.

34:37 And that's that's the veil. That's the veil. For the Jews, it's the law. It's being good. Verse 15, but to this day, whenever Moses is read, Moses is the first five books of the Bible.

34:52 Whenever it's read, a veil lies over their hearts. And that veil is thick. Okay, what removes the veil? What removes the veil? Faith in Christ is that simple.

35:09 Faith in Christ. There comes a point where a man or a woman has to say, I admit that that I'm lost. I I admit that I need a savior, that I'm empty, that that I'm sinful, and so I by faith, I trust in Christ. See, Christ is way better than Moses. Christ can actually change my life and save me.

35:37 So I turned to him by faith. Also, no longer do we need to be concerned about transforming ourselves. We can simply cooperate with being transformed by the power of his spirit. It's the Holy Spirit who transforms us and keeps working in our lives. Now, notice the final verses then.

36:34 One in essence, revealed in three persons. So, where the lord is, the lord Jesus who is a spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Liberty from what? Liberty from sin and the consequences of it. See, because I have the Holy Spirit, he not only frees me from that sin that was going to condemn me, but now he frees me from its control.

37:06 And you can get cold in your walk and stale and stumble, but then the Holy Spirit convicts you, you get back on your feet and you walk again. And that's that's a lot of the Christian walk. Learning to walk in the spirit so the spirit is constantly working and empowering you to live his life. That's the life of a Christian. And notice then, verse 18, but we all, with unveiled face, because we know Jesus now, he's our savior.

37:38 We have turned to Christ. We see that he is the glory of God. He is the living savior. With unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed. See, that's the keyword here into the same image from glory to glory.

37:57 Just as from the lord, the spirit. So, in other words, we keep growing in our faith. You keep reading the Bible. You keep looking at Jesus. You keep studying the word, you keep coming to church, and the Holy Spirit keeps transforming you and growing you and changing you.

38:13 And it doesn't mean you won't get stuck at times, but then you say, Lord, get me out of this stuckness or whatever you want to call it. Right? And help me to get going again, and the Lord will revive you again, and you keep growing in your faith. But the Holy Spirit never gives up. It's permanent.

38:45 I I admit it. Number one, true spirituality comes from god. It doesn't come from us. And how many times I've tried on my own to be godly, to do things, and I just can't. Like, oh god, you have to transform me because I can't.

39:03 That's a great secret right there to spiritual growth. Secondly, true spirituality takes time to develop. It doesn't happen overnight. Right? I've been saved forty three years, and I still feel like a babe in Christ.

39:20 But the Holy Spirit doesn't give up. He keeps working. He will begin a good work. We'll complete it. Amen?

39:25 He keeps working and he keeps working, and you need to allow the Holy Spirit to keep working in your life and keep transforming you and keep changing you. So, how are you doing in your spiritual progress? Lord willing, you are growing in your faith. So, what is the difference between the old covenant and the new? The old covenant, they couldn't change.

39:52 They tried and they tried and they couldn't. They kept going back to the same thing. In the new covenant, with the work of the Holy Spirit, we can be transformed and we can change even when we stumble, you get back up and you keep going. You can't transform from glory to glory. You keep going.

40:09 So, sometimes it's like this, stumble, grow, stumble, grow, but you keep going. You don't stop. You keep asking the Holy Spirit to help you and keep transforming you as you keep looking into the face of Jesus. And I pray that for myself more than anything. Let's pray.

40:29 Father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit and that he not only has transformed us and that he gives us eternal life but he continually is transforming us into the image of Christ. Help us, Holy Spirit, we pray. Keep transforming us, keep working, and thank you that you don't give up on us. In Jesus' name, amen.

40:53 Amen.