Unveiled Faces

So, we are in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Let me just, before I read the passage, say, you know, it is a joy to do ministry here at Redeemer with you.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

You can believe me, not based on my words, you know, sometimes pastors say things and they don't really mean it, but my presence with you, 22, almost 22 and a half years, I think suggests that I like you.

And I hope you keep liking me, if not, like my wife. And keep me here. We really love serving at Redeemer. I know Jewel and Matt do as well.

You know, being honored by you on a Pastor Appreciation Sunday is a little awkward feeling, but it's really a good thing. It's a good thing for you to do. Not that we need your honor, but it just is a reminder of your love.

And really for us, it's a reminder of our responsibility that God has given us over your souls for this time. And so, we're thankful you're a part of this church. Let's get into the Word.

We've got a really good passage today. It's a big one, too. 2 Corinthians 3, let me begin reading for us in verse 1. And we're going to take the entire chapter. I told you we were going to speed up. Here we go.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts to be known and read by all.

And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered 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.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be the ministers of a new covenant.

Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now, if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face,

because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. Not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face, so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.

Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And we all with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Let's pray. Father, as we look into your word, will you lead us, teach us, and illuminate, and clarify for us what you want us to see? We trust your word.

We trust in your power to change us. Lord, we pray for those among our congregation who have needs today. Father, we just want to gather together as one family and pray for those who are looking for work.

We want to pray for those who mourn the loss of loved ones. We think of the Sudlow family. We think of the Gregor family. Lord, we pray that you would comfort us.

Lord, we love you, and we trust in what you have given us. So open this word that you have given to us by your Spirit, and we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

It might be a pastor appreciation day, but I'm a glutton for punishment, and I've decided that my gift back to you is that I'm going to extend the punishment to all of you.

Did you read that passage with me? Did it have a few things where you're scratching your head saying, what is going on here? This passage right here, I've got to tell you that most agree that this is probably the hardest part of this whole letter, 2 Corinthians.

Not only that, most scholars also think this is the hardest passage in all of Paul's writings, and there are a few out there that would say it's the hardest passage in the whole Bible.

I don't know. But it's been likened to, get this, it's been likened to the Mount Sinai of passages in Paul's writings. What they mean by that is it's a little scary, it's shrouded in a cloud of mystery, and it seems like a lot of fireworks are going on here.

And funny enough, but Paul actually talks about Moses here several times. So let's try to dig in as I do my best to explain some things to us, and we're going to trust that even if I might not be able to chase out every jot and tittle in this passage in our time right here, that the Lord is going to speak to us.

So it all starts off in verse 1, and probably the easiest thing to detect is the note of sarcasm that Paul begins with, right? Can't you hear the sarcasm as he says in verse 1?

Seriously, guys, do we need to get reintroduced again? The Corinthian church. Church, it's like, church, are we all the way back to this point where you want, like, a resume from me?

Do you want my CV? Do you want my references? Some letters of recommendation? You see, we suspect that the so-called super apostles who were there in Corinth making trouble for Paul, that these guys are doing this very thing, that they're showing up with their resume, that they're throwing around their credentials,

and basically providing letters of recommendation for each other, convincing this rather messed up, vulnerable church that, hey, this is how you know people are legit.

We're legit. See all our letters from each other? What about that guy Paul? I mean, who really recommended him? We, in fact, know this was happening because a little later on in this letter, Paul's more direct about it.

Here's what he says later in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 11. I have been a fool. You forced me to it. For I ought to have been commended by you, for I was not at all inferior to these super apostles, even though I am nothing.

2 Corinthians 12:11

And how does Paul respond right here? Well, here he simply says, all right, I'll play that game. You need some letters of recommendation for my gospel ministry being legit?

Take a good look and read over your own hearts. Verse 2, you guys are my letter. Every one of you that I have led to Christ. Remember, Paul did just that.

He led these people to Christ. Because of my ministry with you, Paul says, you've got the spirit of the living God living in your heart, written on the tablet of your heart, verse 3.

But then looks at what happens now because no sooner does Paul mention tablets and letters. And he turns to talk about tablets of stone and the covenants.

Verse 4, sufficient. That's what he says. That's what we are. We're sufficient. But it's not in ourselves. Not in any human accolades or recommendations.

No, no. What makes us sufficient, verse 5, our sufficiency comes from God. We've been saved by God. We've been called by God. We've been commissioned by Him to minister to all of you in this new covenant.

And just like that, Paul begins what some might call a major digression. A major theological digression. Because it's frankly some pretty lofty theology that he follows with here.

Which makes us wonder, and appropriately so, is there a reason why Paul digresses on this topic? Could it be that some of those super apostles there in Corinth, that they were not only challenging Paul's legitimacy,

they were also possibly challenging the clear and simple, straightforward gospel that Paul brought? Were they confused about some things? Yes.

And thus, they do what confused people do. You know what confused leaders do? Confused teachers? Confused people who they teach and lead. And that's what they're trying to do.

We have a sense that there is some Judaizing going on here. Judaizing meaning some of their would-be teachers are saying things like, hey, you know what?

Jesus was great and all, and we love His work, but the law, people, Christ never meant to abolish the law. You know, He said that once. He's all about every jot and tittle.

He lived as a faithful Jew, you know. So, and you Corinthians being mostly Gentile as you are, yeah, there are a few lifestyle changes you're going to have to make.

Because look at how Paul goes on. We can't be for sure. You know, I want to be careful when, we should all be careful when we try to reconstruct a scenario, an original context, because we really do only get glimpses of it, and we need to be careful about doing what the text gives us warrant to do.

But I think we've got pretty good ground on this one. Look at what he does. He goes on like this in verse 6. He says, It's God who made us sufficient to be ministers of this new covenant, and it's not of the letter, but of the Spirit, guys.

Because the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. This language Paul uses of the new covenant, it's new in contrast to old. But, you know, it's not really original to Paul.

It's not like Paul the Apostle someday, you know, woke up from a dream and came up with this. I know, a new covenant. Do we realize that this was actually talked about hundreds of years earlier in the prophets?

Take the prophet Jeremiah, for example. Here's Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 33. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 31:33

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Ezekiel also spoke of a new heart and a new spirit that would come with this new covenant.

Here's Ezekiel chapter 26, verses 26 and 27. And I, the Lord, will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you and will cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. The letter, which is code for the whole Mosaic law, the letter kills, Paul says.

Now, does that mean that Paul thinks that the law is now somehow bad? No. Does Paul think that the law is wrong or incorrect? No, not at all.

Over in his letter to the Romans, in fact, Paul will talk about the law and how it's good. He'll say in Romans 7, the law is holy and righteous and good.

But what he's saying is that the letter does not give you the ability to obey. The law doesn't give you and I the power to break the chains of sin.

The letter of the law only specifies what God requires. And then it prescribes the punishments for what happens when we fail to meet it. Or I should say for what happens when God's people in ancient Israel failed to meet it.

The steps that it would be necessary to try to atone for it. Emphasis on the word try. Because there's this picture throughout the Old Testament given to us as if this sacrificial system really is atoning for sin.

Kind of. And then we get the clarity of the New Testament in the book of Hebrews. Where we're very directly told that it really didn't. It was just like a temporary stay.

In Galatians 3, Paul even says that the law pronounces a curse on everybody who fails to obey it. It's a curse from which Christ redeems us.

And the reason that it's a curse, the reason that Paul would say in Romans 7, 10 that the law proved to be death to me. It's a curse because the law has to be kept and kept in its entirety.

Do you realize that? You don't get to pick and choose with law. Oh, I like that one. I think I can keep that law. That one's going to be hard.

We'll wait on that. You don't get to do that. It's not a you try to keep the law. Or as you sometimes hear people say, keep as much of it as you can.

I'm aware that there are movements now. Contemporary, modern day movements. Sometimes called Jewish roots, Hebrew roots. They get really caught up in this.

And they say, we're trying to keep as much of the law as we can. It doesn't work that way. It really doesn't work that way. Just ask the apostle James.

What does James say? In chapter 2, verse 10. James chapter 2, verse 10 says that whoever keeps the whole law but fails in just one point has become guilty of all of it.

James 2:10

There is no try or try harder or try your best with the law. In the wise words of the great philosopher from Star Wars, Yoda, do or do not. There is no try.

And I'm not going to do the Muppet voice. I can't do it. You can imagine it. Although I have been told I sound like it sometimes. And when you can't do, and by do we mean perfectly, every time, completely, every last part of the law, Paul is correct.

It leads to death. Because death is the penalty for sin. Death is the wages of sin. So when Paul says the letter kills, he knows what he's talking about.

This is why over in Galatians, where Paul also is arguing against the Judaizers, who want to force new believers to try to have to keep the law.

This is why he describes the law as a temporary guardian. Check this out. Galatians chapter 3, verse 24. He says that so then the law was our guardian until Christ came.

Galatians 3:24

In order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. We're no longer under the guardianship of the law.

What he's saying, to use modern language, is the law was like your foster parent. Right? You were orphans. The law was like your foster parent.

Just kind of took care of things as a temporary custodian. Took on a temporary parental type role. But it wasn't the real parent. It wasn't the permanent parent.

Or as they say, the forever parent. But when faith came through Jesus Christ, that's when you were adopted. That's when you came into the family as a full son and daughter.

And it means that you really are in the family fully because you're an heir. And we obtain that standing, Paul stresses. Not by the letter. We obtain it by the Spirit.

Our new covenant is administered by the Spirit who is alive and giving us life from the inside. Well, by verse 7, we can see that Paul is getting into it.

And we can see there's really no stopping him now. It's like one thought just kind of triggers the next. No doubt, of course, led by the Holy Spirit.

And he goes on now to talk about these two types of ministry that these two covenants represent. The one a ministry of death. The other a ministry of life.

The one a ministry of what he says is condemnation. A ministry carved in letters on stone. And we'll get to that in a minute. The other a ministry of righteousness written on human hearts in the Spirit.

Sometimes we have to stop and say, like, what would first century Jewish Christians have been thinking when they heard Paul talk like this? They would have been saying, what?

What are you talking about? A ministry of death? Paul, what are you saying? This would have been confounding for a Jew to hear. That the ministry of Moses, the law brought death.

They routinely said, no, the law brings life. But what Paul was saying here is that insofar as the law only outlines transgressions and gives us a standard of right and wrong,

whenever and however we fail and we do inevitably fail to meet that standard, it is death. I mean, listen, the entire Levitical system given in the Old Testament to the Israelites, was designed to convey this very truth.

Do you realize how much death was involved in that system? The Old Testament has a lot of bloodshed around it. Because what are the Israelites doing with all the sacrificial animals and various kinds of offerings?

Death and the shedding of blood was required to cover their sin. We ask ourselves, what are the Israelites doing at a national level in the book of Leviticus chapter 16?

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

The annual day of atonement. The annual day of atonement. Two goats. The sacrificial goat. The scapegoat. The ceremony outlines that one was to be a reminder of what sin does.

It brings death. And the other of what sin requires separation from God. So the one goat has its throat cut and it dies on behalf as a symbolic national substitute.

While the other goat has hands laid on it by the priest and it is sent off symbolically with the sins of the people off into the wilderness.

Symbolizing how sin separates us from God. Paul goes on in verse 7.

Now if the ministry of death carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory which was being brought to an end.

And hold on a hot minute. What's going on with Moses' face? It's like Paul here is taking things to a whole other level. Moses' face is shining?

Yes. And if you're not familiar with the Old Testament, let's go back to the book of Exodus for just a minute because it's back in Exodus 34 where we learn about this very strange and spectacular phenomenon.

Let me just kind of set the stage for us here. Imagine here we have the Israelites. God's chosen people. They're fresh out of their Egyptian slavery.

God rescued them at the Red Sea. Brought them into the wilderness. And now they come here to Mount Sinai and they have set up camp. What happens next is Moses is taken up to the top of Mount Sinai and there he receives the law from the Lord.

The Israelites don't have the law yet. He gets it up there summarized you could say in these Ten Commandments. And he's up there for a bit. You're like, well how long?

A few hours? No. A few days? No. 40 days and 40 nights. That's over a month. Back down below, being that he's been gone so long, terrible things start to happen.

The Israelites grow restless and they compel Aaron, Moses' brother, to fashion them a golden calf idol. Bad idea. Moses comes down. First he hears all the commotion.

Then he sees it. And suffice it to say, he is not a happy camper. He smashes the Ten Commandments, the first two tablets. He really did that.

That's not just in the movies. He really did. And then he gives the people a punishment from the Lord. And then by Exodus chapter 34, Moses is back up on the top of Mount Sinai.

Exodus 34 · chapter mention

You didn't like 40 days and nights? How about another 40? That's 80 days and nights. And he gets the law for a second time with two new fresh stone tablets.

Only something happens this other time, the second time. As Moses descends from Sinai and first meets up with Aaron and the elders, his appearance has changed.

And it really freaks them out. The passage is worth a read. I'm going to read it to you. This is Exodus chapter 34, verse 29. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands, as he came down from the mountain,

Exodus 34:29

Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

You ever had somebody tell you, your skin is radiant? Well, this is different. And yeah, I would be freaked out too. Probably you would be as well.

The way the Hebrew reads, it's not just that he has a glow-in-the-dark face, like Moses will now be convenient for the Israelites when they need to get up and go to the bathroom.

It's more than that. But his face actually shines out and emits bright light. Think like transfiguration in the New Testament. It literally produces radiant beams.

You know, it's funny, we're coming up to Christmas time, and baby Jesus gets all the credit for the radiant beams streaming off his little holy face, which, by the way, is completely unbiblical.

There is no scriptural evidence for that. Totally made up for a Christmas song. But for Moses, it really was true. He had radiant beams from his face.

Lit up like a flashlight just from being in the presence of the Lord. What's happened is the Lord's glory has literally rubbed off on him, on the exposed skin of his face.

So seeing as he's got everybody freaked out, and you know, probably Moses is unaware of this until they point it out. He immediately speaks to calm their fears.

Verse 31. Exodus 34, verse 31. Now that's interesting.

Exodus 34:31

Now that's interesting. And this is where Paul picks things up with this veil.

Because Moses' veil would go on to be a long-term feature and a regular part of Moses' wardrobe. Here's what it says in verse 34. Exodus 34, verse 34.

Exodus 34:34

Now scholars are divided on a couple things here.

One is whether that glorious shine on Moses' face diminished over time. Did it fade after a bit? Was it like Moses was going into the Lord's presence in the tent, and each time he went in there, he got like a recharge?

Some think so. And some scholars even go so far as to suggest that Moses has a couple of reasons for covering his face. One, for it to be less distracting to his fellow Israelites.

But also, two, to cover up the fact that his face was fading. The problem with this view is that there really isn't anything in the text of Scripture, either in Exodus 34 or here in 2 Corinthians, to support this.

Besides, is Moses the kind of person who tries to hide things? Well, except for Egyptians in the sand. But he's past that. He's past that. But is Moses a shady guy that's trying to deceive the Israelites?

Again, there's nothing like that at all mentioned in Exodus. We never hear mention of his face again. So maybe it was a permanent thing, and everybody just kind of got used to Moses wearing the veil.

But what Paul talks about here in verse 13, of how Moses would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

That's a good translation. If you have like an NIV, there's some other translations that say that what was fading. But that's not actually what the Greek here means.

The Greek here means completion, designed end. And it's not the face glow that Paul is talking about. Paul's talking about the glory behind it.

The glory of that ministry that Moses had. The glory of the old covenant. That's what was passing. That's what was being set aside. In fact, Hebrews 8, verse 13, even describes the old covenant as becoming obsolete

Hebrews 8:13

and growing old and ready to vanish away. So understand, this is not a statement about the light beams emanating from Moses' face. Again, for all we know, his face continued to shine as much as it ever did,

consistently right up until the day of his death. What this is, is it's Paul here talking about the old covenant passing away. That was temporary.

That was fading. Yes, it had glory. God's law had glory. But Paul's point is to say, in comparison to Christ, in comparison to the new covenant sealed in his blood,

in comparison to the Spirit's work in God now being able to write his law internally on every human heart, there's no comparison. This is why Paul contrasts the glory of these two ministries like he does in those verses 8, 9, 10, and 11.

In that paragraph, he says, ministry of the Spirit has even more glory. Oh sure, the ministry of condemnation had some glory. The ministry of righteousness in Christ far exceeds, far surpasses it.

So much so, verse 10, that it's almost as if that old covenant ministry of Moses had no glory at all, by comparison.

If you've ever been in a storm and lost power, and you've had to go to the basement, maybe you know what it's like. You know, you go down there, of course you don't have anything, you can't find the flashlights, you manage to find maybe one small candle, and you light that candle, and it gives you enough light

that you don't stumble around into things. But if you've done what probably everybody does, which is leave all the lights of the house on, and then if you've even got like some kids who insist on going around to every single light switch in the house just to check to make sure that some of them aren't working,

then you know what happens when the power comes back on. It comes on and it just lights up the whole house like a spaceship. In fact, the light is so much greater in comparison, you might almost forget to blow out the little candle in the basement.

This is what Paul is saying. But what about the veil? What's Paul say about the strange veil that Moses wore? Well, here is where Paul takes some creative liberties, spirit-inspired liberties.

Paul now compares the veil that Moses wore to something that lies over human hearts. He's kind of allegorizing it. Veiling the hearts and minds of people who are still reading that old covenant every week, and they still can't see the brilliance of Christ as Messiah.

Verse 14. He says their minds were hardened. And he says, he goes on to say, even to this day. For to this day, Paul goes on to explain, when they, he's talking about those in Judaism, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ

is it taken away. Paul's talking about his fellow unbelieving Jews. Those who had maybe become proselytes to Judaism. And really, even those who might be Christian, but had these Judaizing sympathies who are still running around saying, you've got to follow the law.

You've got to follow the law. Yes, verse 15. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. So they can't see the glory of Christ.

They can't perceive the glory of God's new and better covenant open for us by the torn flesh of Jesus.

A person has to turn to the Lord, he says, for that veil to be removed. Verse 16. And when they do, when they turn to the Lord, that veil gets lifted.

Verse 17. They find freedom. The freedom that there is in the Spirit of the Lord. And that freedom changes us. Paul says that does something to us.

The power of Christ by the Spirit does something transformative inside of us. As promised by the prophets of old, we get those new hearts. We get those hearts of flesh.

The Spirit can convict us of sin now in ways that wasn't happening in the Old Testament. We all received with unveiled faces, verse 18, the ability to behold the glory of the Lord in ourselves and in our fellow believers.

We see transformation. Again, in ourselves and in others around us. Because we are all being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

That's the Lord now manifesting His work, not in the written letter of the law on a stone tablet, but in the work of Christ applied to us by the Holy Spirit.

Okay, that's a lot. And we could probably take several weeks and unpack every last detail here, but in the brief time that we have left, let me leave you with something practical.

Because I want you to know that in the complexity here, there really is a simplicity too. There's some very simple things that Paul wants the Corinthian church and every church to take away from this.

So very quickly, I want to offer you three things, three takeaways from the deep, profound theology of this passage. And you're going to find the first takeaway is a rather simple one, but I think it's one that we see in the first three verses of our chapter here.

And that takeaway is this. Takeaway number one, remember what really matters and lasts in this world. Remember what really matters and lasts in this world.

Look again at how Paul starts off this whole chapter. Talk about credentials. Talk about letters of recommendation. How silly. It's like Paul saying, really?

You need some? After all this time? Well, read yourselves. Do a printout of your own life and see how they have been changed, your lives, by the power of God and Jesus Christ.

You can read each other. Everyone around you can read you too. You've been changed by the power of the gospel and that's my letter. And that's what really matters.

And that's what's going to last in this world. It's really a pretty simple truth, but I think sometimes we need reminded of this in our everyday lives.

What matters most? What really, truly lasts in this world? Is it your credentials? Is it my credentials? Is it your career? Your job? Some important position you might have?

Is it our accomplishments? What we've done? Is it the accomplishments of our children? Or our grandchildren? Our education? Our experience? All of us?

Is it that we're all trying to live like our best LinkedIn-worthy lives? Right?

No, those things are fine. And please hear me when I say, I think we as believers want to perform well. We want to do our best in this world.

And we want the best for our children too. But Paul, first and foremost, reminds us that the most important accomplishment of any of our lives is what Christ has accomplished for you.

Your faith in Jesus Christ is the number one thing in your life, or it should be. The number one thing about your life is that you've been saved by Jesus.

And it's the most important decision a person can ever make in their life. I often say marriage is the second most important decision. But having faith in Jesus Christ matters more than anything else.

Please hear that. It's what's most important for you. It's what's most important for your kids and your grandkids or whoever is in your family.

It's not their grades. It's not their awards. Or accomplishments. Or their popularity. Or their success in life. Listen, they can have the whole world and still lose their souls.

So what's the first takeaway from Paul here? It's this. Then he gets into the theology, doesn't he? The theology of the covenants. And here we have two takeaways.

Second takeaway is this. Number two. Remember that ours is not a ministry of condemnation. Not a ministry of condemnation.

Sounds obvious, right? Not a ministry of condemnation. Not a ministry of death, as Paul puts it. But I would argue that's a really, really important point.

Because the law, listen, the law was really good at something. It was really good at delineating right from wrong. What God wanted from what missed the mark and was called sin.

And it was really good at spelling out the consequences for failure. Again, there's a whole system in place to deal with that. You break my commands, you sin, and here's what you're going to need to do, Israelites.

You got bad memories, you don't have the Holy Spirit reminding you of stuff, you're going to have all these festivals and all these routines and rituals.

And I fear that sometimes we can make the experience of our Christian life, even today, too much like that. We can make our churches too much like that.

We can even make some of our homes too much like that, about standards and rules and consequences. Listen, whenever a church becomes more about what's wrong, more about rigid rules and requirements,

and only reminding people of how far they fall short, whether it's excessive legalism or even an excessive emphasis from a particular theological camp, we run the risk of making our churches feel like places of condemnation.

We are more than law, folks. More than just singing about our sin or reminding ourselves that we are but filthy sinners. We are, and we don't want to circumvent that or gloss over that or mute that.

The reality of the human condition is that we are sinful and in need and we can't save ourselves, but it is all meant to point us towards something more glorious, right?

It's not a ministry of condemnation. It's a ministry of surpassing glory in the gospel because Jesus came and perfectly walked where we could not, and he offers the benefits of that perfect life for you if you'll receive him.

We need only to come and confess and trust in his work on the cross. Our ministry is not about rules and regs. Now, we do have standards. I'm not saying that we erase all the do's and don'ts and rights and wrongs.

Not at all. But I'm saying we don't want to succumb to legalism and simply wallowing and how far we fall short. There's also the ministry of life in the Spirit.

There's newness in Christ, forgiveness, and ongoing transformation. And this kind of ministry should extend its way not only into our churches, but also into our homes.

What I'm suggesting is that if you have a family, you need to teach and live out the gospel in your family relationships. Yeah, every house that functions well has rules and expectations, but is the gospel present too?

Moms and dads, this means that you don't just criticize each other, but you also bear with and encourage each other.

This means that family members don't just, you know, have their fights and then offer that half-baked apology. Say, you're sorry. Okay, I'm sorry.

We teach forgiveness. We teach to bear with. We teach forgiveness because we've been forgiven by God in Christ. Ephesians 4.32. I forgive you in your home, in your personal life.

Is it one of grace and gospel and forgiveness? Is it a ministry of life going on inside your household? A ministry of life that you are walking into your workplace or your school bringing every day?

I just want you to remember that ours is not a ministry of condemnation. There is now no more of that in Christ. And finally, number three, a third takeaway, and we're going to close with this one.

Takeaway number three. It's a bit of a mouthful. Protect and boldly proclaim an unveiled gospel as you pray for God to lift veils from hearts.

Protect and boldly proclaim an unveiled gospel as you pray for God to lift veils from hearts as only He can do. It basically captures the thrust of the last paragraph in this chapter.

Protect the unveiled gospel. We don't need veils on it anymore. That old covenant is gone and don't let anyone tell you that you need to go back and try to live out as much of the Old Testament law as you can.

We are not under law. We are under grace. Jesus transforms everything and ours is a new covenant. Jesus is the better Moses. The book of Hebrews makes this very clear.

So don't go adding things to the gospel.

You are not bound by Sabbath laws. This is not the Sabbath by the way. It's Sunday, the Lord's Day. It's not the seventh day. It's the first day of the week.

Are we breaking the law? Are we supposed to worship yesterday like some of our friends up north in Berrien think that we need to? Berrien Springs?

No. They're wrong.

You are not required to observe any feasts or festivals from the Old Testament. Did you know that? You're not required. They're not for you.

You find some meaning and value in that? That's fine. That's fine. Have at it. Just don't go from saying you could to saying you should.

Someone you know tells you this. This is when you need to stop and take a step back. Listen, as a pastor of a local church I like the idea of tithing.

I personally practice tithing. My wife and I do. I think at least 10% is honestly a very realistic goal for a household in America that has rightly ordered priorities.

And I think it's a great illustration. And for the person wondering, you know, maybe a new Christian or someone just getting into church who's wondering like, how much should I be giving?

I think 10% is a great suggestion. It's the Bible's suggestion. But we are not under tithing laws.

Protect the unveiled gospel and boldly proclaim it as Paul says in verse 12. Since we have such a hope, he says, since we have this hope, we are very bold.

The word here means like, we're really open about it. We're not hiding anything. And I would say, pray for those who still have veils over their hearts.

Sure, yeah, in this passage, Paul's thinking about his own countrymen, his fellow Jews, the ones who were sitting in those Jewish synagogues week after week, maybe hearing an apostle like him pop in once in a while and preach Jesus and who still refused to accept that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

That's who he's thinking about. They still had veiled hearts. But today, the people around you and I, probably the vast majority of them are not Jewish, but they still have veils over their hearts, don't they?

And next week, we're going to hear Paul talk more about other ways that the gospel is often veiled to unbelievers who are perishing. For now, I would simply say that we pray for such folks pray that they would turn to the Lord

because as Paul says in verse 16, whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. He removes the veil.

I'm going to ask our worship team if they would come and lead us in our final song. And as they do that, I'm going to ask you if you would stand with me.

Let's look to the Lord and pray.

Heavenly Father, first thing we want to say is thank you. Lord, thank you for an unveiled gospel. Lord, all of us, we could have lived on the other side of the covenant, we could have been in the Old Testament, and how much more difficult it would have been to not have your Holy Spirit

dwelling inside of us, to not feel and sense the leading and guiding of your Spirit in us, to not know internal conviction from the heart. All of the things that we have now that you've given us hearts of flesh.

And so, Lord, we thank you for Pentecost. We thank you for the coming of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the Savior, for Jesus, your Son, who made the way, who bridged the gap, who is the founder and mediator of our new covenant.

We thank you and we praise you. And so, Lord, for any of us, wherever we are, whether single or married or with a young family or in the advanced years of life, Lord, help us not to veil the gospel.

Our prayer is you would help us, Lord, not simply convey a sense of a ministry of only condemnation. Lord, let there be life in us. A ministry of righteousness.

And Lord, give us wisdom. Equip us as your people, the church, with wisdom to know how to protect and boldly proclaim an unveiled gospel. We know you'll help us.

We know there is strength for us in our need. And so, we pray this with confidence and we pray this in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen. Amen. Amen.