Transcript for:
2 Corinthians 3:1,11 -Living Epistles- Pastor Rick Beaudry

Living epistles, second Corinthians three one through 11. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Revelation chapter three second oh, excuse me. Second Corinthians. I like Revelation three. Let's do that. Revelation three ten. One verse that proves the pre tribulation rapture. Alright. Second Corinthians three one through 11. I only had two cups of coffee. I need a I need another one. Alright. Do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we as some others epistles of commendation to you or let letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as you 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 fleshly tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ, to Godward, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excels. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious. Father, thank you for your holy word. Lord, we ask once again that you be our teacher. Lord, we thank you and praise you and worship you for this little body of believers. Thank you that you are our teacher. Thank you for your gift of healing upon Sally as she's doing better with her her cancer, Lord, free of cancer. And we rejoice in that, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the way that you're working in our hearts and lives and our families in these last days. And, Lord, we just commit this time with you and ask again, Lord, that you edify, that you build us up and strengthen, that you speak to our hearts, that we'd be doers of your word, not hearers only, that, Lord, we'd live for you, that we'd deny ourselves of this world. Take our cross up daily and follow you and enter into the abundant life of the spirit, Lord. We desire the life of the spirit to be your living epistles. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? Paul was being undermined, if you can believe that, by, false prophets. Some of whom we call Judaizers. So you would see people get saved and, and then after that point in time, these guys from Jerusalem would come on down and they would try to impose the law upon the new gentile Christians. And so in Acts chapter 15, there was a a meeting with James, the brother of our Lord, and with Peter and, some of the heavies. And they determined that, you know what? We Peter said, why should we put a burden upon the Gentiles that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? Meaning, you're a Christian, but we gotta still keep the law. And, so that wasn't the case. There's a new covenant. But the Judaizers would come and put this burden upon the people and, that you have to be circumcised. You have to keep the law and all that. And the, the leadership of the church in Jerusalem, Acts 15, they determined, you know, just try to get the Gentiles to abstain from fornication, which means these Corinthians, these Gentile people still did a lot of messing around as we saw in first Corinthians five. So get them to stop doing that because that stumbles us. Not that the Jews weren't involved in that also. But, and also from things strangled and from drinking blood and stuff like that. So and the purpose of which is if you're a Gentile eating with Jews, you could stumble the Jews by eating, you know, foods that the Jews in the in their dietary, you know, such in the law and stuff. So 613 precepts in the Old Testament law. And, and so, basically, you're free with this new testament. You're free, of those, of of that way of relating with God. You know, it's not that we're antianomian that we don't meet believe there is no law. Like, even though we have a new covenant, if we love, love is the fulfillment of the law. We don't murder. We don't lie. We don't cheat. We don't steal. It's because of law. So I mean, because of love. So we're according, we're living according to a higher plane. But the most important distinction is that we have the help of the Holy Spirit as God has written his law within our hearts. So we're the living epistles in that we know what we're to do because God has inscribed, his word within the tablets of our hearts. And so these guys were legalists. They were pompous. They were religious professionals whom Jesus referred to as a brood, excuse me, a brood of vipers. Jesus described them further as whitewashed sepulchers. So a sepulcher is a place of burial and you'd whitewash the outside of it, but full of dead men's bones on the inside. And so very corrupt on the inside. So in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus kept pointing out the the Pharisees and they're, looking good outwardly, but inwardly, they were corrupt. And so he would interpret the law form in such a way to so they could see the guilt. The intention of the law was to make stop every mouth and make every person guilty, so that they'd be forced to cry out to to Jesus. Say, God, be merciful to me a sinner. But they were masters at the outward. And so Jesus would point out that, no. The law deals with the inward also. And so if you're angry with your brother, you're already a murderer. You may not have murdered, but you're already a murderer because you're angry with your brother. If you've lusted after a man or a woman, then you have already already committed adultery within your heart. And so it's to stop every mouth, to prove that there's none righteous, no, not one, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we talked about the the last few weeks here is that we don't we don't run around, trying to sin sniff. We just know that every single person in here is a sinner. And, I could get a sin sniffing dog, I guess, and it'd go to the person that's the biggest sinner. You know, I could teach them. We could all marvel and look, but that isn't the work of of what we do. The Holy Spirit does the convicting of sin. And, and so we we recognize that we're all sinners. In first John, it says, if you say we have no sin, we're a liar, and the truth isn't in us. But, you guys are worried I'm gonna bring that dog in. Aren't you? Yeah. I got one. Just be ready. You get all self righteous, I'm gonna have to let the dog in here. As long as you're humble and transparent and broken before the Lord, God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. And so it's a delight and a blessing to be with people that desire to be holy and recognize the only way to holiness is yieldedness to the Holy Spirit. Not the external religious emphasis upon, you know, I can do it in the arm of the flesh. And so that's what was being imposed upon these guys. And And they were undermining the apostle Paul and, his credentials and such. And so they were confusing the Corinthians by insisting that they must keep the law, that faith alone in Jesus Christ was not enough to save them. They were challenging the authority of Paul. He's an apostle. They were boasting of their letters of recommendation, those given to them by the so called experts. So these were your YouTube prophets. They were the ones that went online and got their online doctorate degrees and, you know, doctorate and casting out demons or whatever it may be. And, they're running around with signs and wonders and miracles and seven mountain mandates and all that sort of thing. And so they're you know, like, today, they would be apostles of today. So they're more authoritative than your pastor, the pastor teacher. They have a higher rank because, you know, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors, some evangelists, pastors, and teachers. So the pastor teacher is way down on the list. You know? So, hey. The Lord is is still, putting forth these apostolic gifts out there that are the apostles, if you will. And the apostles, the credential to be apostles, you needed to see the risen Christ. Have any of you seen the risen Christ? Some people say they have. Some people say they've, you know and I do believe people hear the Lord's voice audibly, some of you. I haven't. But, it doesn't mean that the Lord doesn't still speak audibly to people that he just can't get through to. I mean, if you gotta go that route, just speak audibly. Right? But we can hear the still small voice of the Lord. Right? If we're yielded and listening, the Lord can speak to us through his word as the primary way. And, his spirit bearing witness with our spirit. And, so he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches as Jesus went over the churches, you know, throughout history, the church of Revelation. So when we pray, it's not just, you know, a monologue. I'm lifting my voice up to the Lord, but a dialogue. I should be able to hear from the Lord, as best I can, and the Lord should be able to lead and guide me in my walk and relationship with him, as I study the word of God and as the Holy Spirit speaks to me and bear witness to me. You know, if I if I read the word of God in such a way that I let it speak to me, instead of me imposing upon the text what I want it to dance around and say, then I can derive from the Lord, I can receive from the Lord, the logos communication of his word. Sometimes Rhema, man shall not live by bread alone, but bear every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Sometimes the Lord will speak to your heart and, like it may be okay for you to move to California and, to live on the beach there. You know, you've got a huge windfall and got and you're praying. The Lord says, you're go. You know, it's okay for you to leave. And I pray the same prayer and, and I look at you and I think, wow. Wow. The Lord's released you. You get to go to paradise, you know. But for me, as I pray about that, even if the Lord provided for that, I would have to listen to the Lord as to what his specific will is for my life. So man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So God's plan and purpose for my life is distinctly different than your life. So I may be in disobedience to the Lord even though there's no word in it, you know, no law in here that says, thus sayeth the Lord, Rick Beaudry can't live at the beach anymore. It isn't in here. You can't find it. But in my heart, the Lord may be speaking to me that, Rick, you're in my will. You don't wanna be outside my will, do you? No. Well, Lord, look, they got to move down there. How come they get to go to San Diego and work for six months down there? How come I don't get to do that gig? You know? And, so I I whine and all that. But no. I, I recognize that I'm in God's will. And as you're in God's will, you continue to hear from the Lord. Because in Mark four, that revelation or that light that's shown into your life, if you're obedient to that light, he gives you more light, more illumination of his plan and his purpose for your life. So although I've been a Christian since 1980, I want to continue to be able to hear from the Lord and walk with the Lord. But I don't want a mechanical relationship with the Lord based upon law. That, oh, I'm I'm doing good because externally I'm keeping the law. No. I want an internal relationship with God that's unique for Cathy and I. That's just for us. Just just Cathy and I, this is your my will for you. And so I'm learning to enjoy. I'm learning that godliness with contentment is great gain. And I'm learning to enjoy more and more, as I'm getting older, just a day by day walk of faith, you know, with the Lord. I got to watch the grandkids the other night. If I live five miles away or or, 50 miles or 1,500, I wouldn't get to do that. And, they come up and they want, hot chocolate, papa. Hot chocolate. And and, man, it's on. I mean, I'm having so much fun. And so I've been meditating upon that thinking about that. You know? This is pretty cool, Lord. You designed this. You you planned this. I get to see him play sports and all that thing. And then you meet with people and, you know, they don't get to see their grandkids. They don't get to be with them, and that breaks my heart. It shouldn't be that way. And, and then, of course, the devil, if he came along, he might put it in the hearts of your kids to move away, you know, because I know I'm here. But what if they moved away? How would I deal with that? You know, how would I how would I adjust if Wayne and Britney decided, we're moving. We're moving. You know? Can we go too? And then the Lord says, no. So you've gotta be obedient to what the Lord's call is for you. And these guys were undermining the apostle Paul. They were boasting of their credentials, boasting of their authority. And, and Paul, defends his ministry. Now pastor Chuck tells us guys, let the Lord defend you. And, that's a that's a good thing when your ministry comes under fire, your life comes under fire, when people are undermining you and gossiping and slandering and such. The Lord will defend you. And, you might it might take a little while, but God will defend you. And one of the ways I've seen that the Lord has defended Cathy and I, there's times where there's been demonic storms and it seems like we're sheep given over to the slaughter. But the way that I see his defense of us is that we are still here. That he sustains us through those trials. So Paul defends his ministry in three ways. Number one, his commendation is from God. Number two, his competence is from God. And number three, his confidence is from God. So notice, first of all, his commendation. These guys were boasting that they had letters of commendation, that I'm doctor Rick Beaudry, you know. And, they were running around trying to impress, the, Corinthians of these credentials and such. And I have to say this, I do love very heady teaching. I love guys that do have true doctorates in theology. Guys that that are teachers' teachers. I just so love because I because I recognize I recognize as they're teaching, these guys have done the work. And they know Greek. They know Hebrew. They know, how to gain a context and all the different things I was taught when I was in school of ministry. And, so many of the guys I can't listen to because they're not teachers. They've got a garage band. They think they're a pastor, you know. And, I'm gonna be a big star because I got a garage band. And, it's but the people don't know any better. And I'm not that kind of Christian. I like to learn. And so I'm I'm drawn to guys like that. So if somebody has a doctorate and they're doctor so and so, I appreciate that. I know that they spent some time, hardest one of the hardest times in my life was going through my, time at the school of ministry as an adult. It's very difficult as an adult to continue in, you know, education, having time to work, to take care of your family, and continue to go to school. And I and I do agree there there are some great online classes for people to take nowadays, like Dallas Seminary and things like that. Some credible, bible teaching, seminaries that, that a person can gain, you know, a master's or a bachelor's degree or a doctorate in theology. And, and you gotta earn it. When I asked Carl, my teacher, you know, Carl, why do you make it so hard? Why do you load so much work? And the guys that had already been to Carl say, this is a full load. This is a huge full load. Why do why do you do that, Carl? Why do you overwhelm us? We can't possibly get all this done in a week. And, he said, because, to prepare you you know, this is hell week. This is to prepare you for the ministry. It's like, oh, thanks, man. I haven't been in school in ten years. And the first year, the first six months, was just trying to learn the study skills, Trying to relearn the study skills of how you do this. How do you go to school? How do you take notes? How do you how do you streamline? How do you get ready for a test and all that? And so, but a lot of us, we learn in the school of hard knocks. We learn in the wilderness. We just go for it and we learn as we go. So Paul defends his ministry, number one, his commendation is from God. Verse one, do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you. Think about this. He planted the church. Eighteen months he spent there planting this church. And these people have the audacity to turn on them now and to say, hey. There's some eloquent guys rolling on through here, you know, Apollos or whoever, and they've got credentials. They've got the right kind of clothes and, you you know, you're you you're pretty ugly, Paul, and your speech is, you know, contemptuous, you know, and all. And they begin to cut Paul down. And, Paul's like, hey. I spent eighteen months here planting this church. You guys got saved. What don't you know? Why are you giving in to this celebrity mentality of celebrity Christianity? Is my credibility being challenged again? You need my resume? You need to look at my resume once more? You know, how many churches have I planted? How many, you know, epistles later on will you see that I've written in the New Testament? And, Psalm seventy five six and seven says, promotion doesn't come from the South or the East or the West. It's the Lord that putteth down one and raises up another. So today, many pastors build their ministry, build their brand through public relations. They hire promotional companies, and they'll do advertising. If a pastor falls, if a pastor makes a mistake, they will do like Bill Gates. They will pay Christianity Today and other Christian, communicating magazines, maybe Charisma and all. And they'll they'll write some favorable articles about you as the pastor. And they'll try to mitigate. They'll try to under, minimize, the things that former employees and people are saying about that ministry, the dirt, you know, if you will, and try to paint them in a, you know, in a good mode. And, always trying to pump their name out there in Christendom and get them to be some of the big guys. And, guys and gals, the women's ministries do the same thing. They hire promotion PR firms just like anybody else in the world. So they're promoting a brand, and then they get to fly around in jets and and write their books and be these celebrity Christian Christians on, you know, radio and all that sort of thing, and on television and all. And, and then you got a podunk pastor in Bremerton that nobody knows. You know? I can't tell you how many people love to boast about who their pastor is. And I'm sorry you're unable to do that, you know, here. But, I hear people from here that listen to a lot of the celebrity pastors. And, and that's good. They're worth listening to. I listen and I watch JD Farag, you know. I love, listening to him. And I like the fact that he has, been kicked out of a few groups. They don't like him because he just he refuses to back down and and to compromise. And so I love I love the information of his prophecy, update to every Sunday. He spends about four days getting ready for it with staff, helping them to get ready for it. And, and he's not afraid. And so I can I can connect with a guy like that? So many of them, the Jam Raquel and her guys, some of it I can pick and choose, but a whole lot of it, they're still deceived. And I'm waiting for them to come up to speed, but they're so afraid because they'll lose people. They'll lose nickel noses. They won't be popular. And so those kind of guys, I'll I'll pick and choose. Alright. That, I can receive that. Now you're still deceived. You you you you're still, being pulled along in that way. And, I don't care how big they get and how many people follow them if they're if they're deceived in that way. I'm not going there. I'm not gonna give into it. Not gonna go. And, and so a lot of them, their their popularity is built on evaluating the audience of what does the audience wanna hear. If I say this, how many people will I lose? If I don't say it and just say some other good stuff, Nobody can really say I didn't say some good stuff, but a lot of heresy is what you won't say. It's what you won't and I'm not calling them heretics, but I'm saying there's a whole lot of things that they're afraid to talk about, lest they lose people. And then the deception becomes greater and greater and greater as time goes on. And, I'm praying for a great awakening, a real awakening, where people finally wake up to what's really happening out there. And, and it doesn't have to be so costly for us. It's it's tremendously costly when you're, running against the grain trying to wake people up. And there's so many other voices, the celebrities especially, that, have caught the drank the Kool Aid and all. And, when the COVID was happening and some of the churches were opening back up, I was just so thankful. I was so thankful particularly for, John MacArthur and his boldness in LA County, a difficult county, and his standing firm that he wouldn't close the doors. I was so thankful for for what he was doing as one of the big pastors and all. And, and so the apostle Paul, he's a big dude, but these guys are treating him like he's nothing. Jesus said in John twelve forty three, they love the praise of men more than they love the praise of God. Jesus said in Matthew six two, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. Last week, I said I'm not a politician, and I wasn't talking about anybody. What that means is, I preach and I live for an audience of one. I'm not a a guy that's trying to gain a following by telling you what you want to hear, and you know that. I'm not gonna compromise. I'm not gonna water it down. I'm not gonna try and, look at Kitsap County and say, how can I how can I design this ministry and strategize it and market it in such a way that I can fill every seat? Not gonna happen. I'm preaching for an audience of one. The narrow way, narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and few there be that find it. I know I'm gonna have very few people that resonate and connect with the way that I preach and teach. The Broadway, if I want to be popular, then I go down the broad way. I go down the big way of really anything goes. And, you don't want to leave, you want to water it down and make it really easy believism and, you know, no repentance, no sin, just kinda do. If it feels good, do it. So it's a it's a worldly approach, if you will. And men seek the glory of men. They wanna be well known. They wanna be liked. Matthew 23 verse five, all their works they do to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogue, and greetings in the markets, and and to be called rabbi, rabbi, you know, which means master, master. And so these guys wanna be revered and loved and and very popular. Jesus said, I receive not honor from men. Can you imagine Jesus going golfing with Herod? Can you imagine Jesus being invited to Mar A Lago? Didn't happen, did it? Didn't go golfing with all the presidents. Jesus said, woe unto you when all men speak well of you. Jesus said, if they hated me, they're gonna hate you. Well, if they don't hate your Jesus, if they love your Jesus, invite him over for coffee and all that, then, your Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. Because, he didn't he didn't rub elbows with these kind of guys. You know, he had, Herod, he told him he called him a fox, not as in good looking, but as conniver, you know. And, he'd expose them. And so, Pilate, you know, he's there with Pilate. Pilate says, don't you know that I have power to crucify you? And Jesus said, you have no power except that which is given you from above, a delegated authority. And I've come to bear witness of the truth. And Pilate says, what is true? So Jesus is standing before these guys, but they're the ones that are going to execute him and judge him in that way. He said, I do always those things that please the father. I do always those things that please him. And that's the way we need to be, an audience of one. And you're not gonna be very popular. If you want to be popular, you gotta be a people pleaser. You gotta be a politician. Paul was not a politician. He was not trying to be the most famous guy in town. In fact, he's one of the most hated. Everywhere he went, a riot would break out. These that have turned the world upside down are here. You know, he was in prison and beaten and all these different things, wherever he went. But these false prophets are lauded and applauded and they get awards and they, work the people for money making merchandise of them and all. He says verse two, you ye are our epistle. You want a letter? You want a resume? You want a letter of commendation from some school or whatever? You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. You're our resume. A living epistle, known and read of all men. So your conversation, your life says it all. You were transformed. You were changed. Why don't you like me now? You were an idolater before I met you. You were a prostitute before I met you. You were in the most wicked city, that of Corinth, and the Lord saved you. He transformed and changed you from within. It's irrefutable proof of the power of God, of the power of the gospel, the power of his spirit working in you. It wasn't external. I didn't give you 10 rules to do, 10 things not to do. I told you believe in Christ. Believe in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit come in your heart and life, and transform and change you, and write his love letter within your heart. What happened? How did you get off course? And the answer is they've been seduced by these players. And so every now and then, you gotta reel them back in because you as a shepherd can see they're being seduced, they're being deceived. And they're going the way of the world, the way the world thinks. And, Jesus said, the greatest among you be the servant of all. The disciples were all fighting about who is gonna be the greatest. Who's gonna sit on the left and the right hand? And it's the world that jockeys and competes and does that sort of thing. And so Jesus demonstrated that of servanthood, of washing the disciples feet. And happy are you if you do this, you know. And, Jesus said he didn't come to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his life a ransom for many. So he set the example of being poured out. And that's how the apostle Paul and it's funny. The humbler you are, the kinder you are, the more you serve, the more you pour yourself out, typically, the less people respect you. Why do people so respect a narcissist or a psychopath? Why do they just, like, they're so afraid of him and so mesmerized by him, you know? They're liars. But people are drawn in. And then some yokel local comes in, you know, and and, you know, Paul Paul reminds us that God chooses the foolish things to confound the wise. Things that are based. Not many noble, not many mighty. So not a whole lot of the world's greatest people, you know, wind up being Christians. Some, yes, few. But typically, it's that which is based, that which is poor, that which is just middle class. You know? How difficult it is for rich men to enter heaven because their dependency is upon themselves. They don't need to trust God. Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. So those that are poor are rich in faith. So we learn to walk by faith day by day, dependence upon him. We grow more and more in faith. But, many of these people became puffed up and proud and and self satisfied. They were drawn to these these places. And, so your conversion, your life says it all. In second Corinthians five seventeen, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things are become new. That's probably one of the greatest privileges as a Christian is to see that your life was used of God to foster or bring about change, lasting eternal change in another person's life. And what did you go with? You went with the gospel. The power of the gospel. You just shared Christ with him. And you also shared your testimony. All I know is I was once blind and now I see, man. I was once a drunk. I was once a womanizer. I was once this, that, or the other. But God saved me. Jesus Jesus, man, he overwhelmed me. His holy spirit overwhelmed me. God began to send people into my life to stop me. I was having trouble in my marriage, having trouble with my kids, having trouble at work, everything. And God began to send Christians in my path. And they began to minister to me, and I began to look at their lives. And some of them I knew as before as drunks, people I partied with, but they changed. How did how did you change? How did you do that? What kind of school did you go to to learn that? No. The Holy Spirit changed me from within. God transformed and changed me. And he continues to transform and change me. He says, verse three, for as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us. So you're a living epistle. Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. He changed you. Jesus changed you through our ministry. What don't you understand? I can't tell you how many people have come through this ministry broken, even divorced and really broken. And then the Lord does a miracle of salvation. And then if after a couple years, they're too good for Calvary Bremerton and they move on. But that's okay. That's okay. If we're here to help them at at their worst, when they need the Lord the most, you know, whatever, that's fine. But we recognize we're we're not one of the polished tools in the community. You know, there's a whole lot of other amenities and things other churches have to offer to people, And they want to network and enroll and and move and shake with the winners in the community, you know? I used to watch when we're in downtown, in Downtown Bremerton. You'd see these families come in. Mom, dad, those kids there all dressed just right, look real baptisty, you know. And then one of my one of my crazy people would come in. And, they because they live downtown. Downtown's where a lot of the mentally ill live. They rent houses down there. And they don't all stay at Kitsap Mental Health. Some do and then they walk over to the downtown area. But I'll tell you, that's a real test of your Christianity. Parents grabbing their kids, you know. Be careful, you know. Look at look at the drags, you know. I'd have people from, Bainbridge Island come over to some of the concerts and they'd say, you know, we hate driving down here. We hate coming to Bremerton. Don't you know that? Why are you here in downtown? Nobody wants to come downtown. Over and over, you'd hear that. They're better. They're better than Bremerton. And, but that's not how Jesus rolls. That isn't how he look at he didn't come for the righteous, but for sinners. And I could be preaching and a girl would come in on her her meds and her meds are off. And she'd come in down the aisle and she'd stand in front here and she's got a big shawl on like Moses with a big walking stick. And she'd just sit there, you know. And woah, you know. And then I have another one over here demon possessed on a Wednesday night, and all that, and screaming and all that. And then later, she's clothed and she's sane and she's just amazing servant in the church there. She's so love love Cathy. And, and to me, I consider it a privilege that the Lord would entrust these people with us for a week, a month, a year, however long it is. But it's a hospital, and he's got doctors, he's got nurses, he's got, servants, people there. Kat used to be there every day during the coffee house would be open, and she'd be there just to pray with people, walk ins. People just walk in. And a lot of us pastors aren't available anymore. People just walk in. And a lot of us pastors aren't available anymore. You only find us on Sundays. But in the day, the door was open, and they'd come in, just walk in. They get a cup of coffee, and they sit down, and they'd have problems and wanna talk. And and, and just she'd pray. And Diane would pray also. And, and it was just such a sweet, sweet, ministry. And I just I just thank the Lord that he brings us all in all different shapes and sizes and all in types of people. And and, you can never be too small for God to use only too big. And so in first Corinthians nine one, are not ye my work in the Lord? He says verse two, if I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. So Paul's saying in chap you know, in second Corinthians, we gotta go through this again? You remember back in first Corinthians nine? You remember this? You guys don't consider me an apostle. You don't consider me worthy of speaking into your life? And he says, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. So Jesus marked you by his spirit, this internal change that's taken place in your life. He says, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. So it's not a legal document, but a letter written in your heart. We could give you a church membership letter, and we could sign you up and do an ET transfer of your money into our account, and we could make merchandise of you in that way, or you could be born into the kingdom of God rather than joining. You could just be born again and be free to do what you feel like you're the Lord's leading you to do. You see what I mean? It's not a business. It's not a nickels and noses. It's gotta be a work of the Holy Spirit. And so we people say, how do I how do I how do I join? Well, you don't join. You you gotta be born again. Are you born again? Alright. We're not a club. We're a body, the body of Christ. Figure out where you fit within the body. Just grow, rest, experience his peace. We're not gonna plug you in and make you work. We want you to be in the pews learning. You guys, when you leave here, the church you go to is gonna put you to work. Why? Because you know your bible. The people they have there don't know their bible. So now you're in places of leadership because you went to a Calvary Chapel that took you from Genesis to Revelation. You're learning more than you've ever learned before. So you're gonna be Sunday school teachers. You're gonna be ladies ministry, all that sort of thing. That's what happens Because these churches are not teaching the word of God. And then what happens to you? You get so busy serving in these churches, you begin to dry up. Unless you learn how to feed yourself, to be in the word, to be listening to the bible studies from good bible teachers and such, you'll dry up. And the best way to learn is to teach. I encourage you to teach your kids. Husbands teach your wives. Best way to learn is to teach. You have to study so much more to be able to teach. I have to take in so much more than I give out on Sunday morning. Hours of preparation to speak here for three hours. No. Just kidding. Scared you, didn't I? So he took your callous, jaded, stony heart and indelibly made his love known. Man, when you got saved, the Lord made his love known. He wrote it in your heart. And never have you ever, ever, ever been loved that way. Never had you known a love like his love. And you're still learning. You're still receiving. And you're still trying to love the way that he's teaching you to love. Because it's all about love. In Jeremiah thirty one thirty three, the Lord has an unconditional covenant. So you have the Mosaic covenant, the Old Testament with the nation of Israel. And the nation of Israel has been in rebellion against God, turned its back upon God. When Jesus comes, he's cut off because the nation as a whole didn't believe in him. They're crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. Save now. Save now. Save now. But in four days later, they're shouting, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. And so there's a day coming where God is going to purify a one third remnant. And they're gonna go through the time of Jacob's trouble, the great tribulation period. And they're gonna be chased to Basra, the present day. And I've been reading some articles of the archaeologists there in in, Petra, Mount Seir, Basra, in Southern Jordan. It's fascinating what they're finding. But, this remnant is gonna be preserved there where the Antichrist can't bother them. They're gonna flee from Jerusalem. He's gonna chase after them. And Jesus said, except those days be short, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, Jesus is gonna intervene. When's he gonna intervene? When he hears them confess their sin. They have to confess their sin. They have to recognize that they already crucified their messiah, and they will confess that. And then they will say, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus is gonna return. And he's going to defeat the Antichrist and the beast with the brightness of his coming, the sword of his mouth. He's gonna rescue that one third remnant. And what's he gonna do? He's going to write his word in their heart. An unconditional covenant, not based upon your performance, but just like what you and I have received in this new testament, this new covenant where God writes his word within our heart, he's gonna do the same upon their stony heart. So you can read in Jeremiah thirty one thirty three, this shall be the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I'll put my law on their inward parts and write in it their in their hearts and will be their God, and they shall be my people. So his living epistle at that point in time. So Paul says, his commendation is from God. Secondly, he says, his competence is from God. What makes you qualified? What credentials do you want to see? And you guys have read my little thing on the website and there's not a whole lot there. And you kind of look at it and say, well, let's let's check it out. You know? But it doesn't agree with a whole lot of people, does it? And, some people want a whole big list of, you know, degrees and such. And that's fine. That's the kind of people they are, and that's who who they can learn from. But, you're basically learning from someone that's just like you. And, we're just basic basic folks, I guess. So his competence is from God. Now the Apostle Paul is a brilliant man. Probably one of the most brilliant men that have ever lived. A tremendous, tremendous intellect. So these pretenders are throwing letters out there like they're so it. And so it's a lot of smoke and mirrors and fizzle and just, I had a pastor one time tell me, you gotta dress for success and and, you know, all this whole thing of your your outward appearance to people and all. And, and I I didn't care about that. That was high school. I didn't wanna be high school. I didn't want the appeal to be the outward appearance. I want it to be that I could teach God's word and let the Holy Spirit speak to people. That's it. That God would speak through me, minister to people. My pastor, pastor Chuck, he was a celebrity, a star. And I love that he was he was that, all that. And I love the church. The church was like a church you could hold your chest out. I go to Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, man. And, I mean, they were it. They were it everywhere. Nothing like it. And I loved it. And, he, you see pictures of him early on and he's just basic. And then later, as time went on, they become more polished. You know? They get veneers on their teeth and nicer clothes and haircut every week. And I don't think he did the nail thing, but, you know, they they they look nice. And, and I came in and I had two pairs of shoes and I had two pairs of pants and two shirts and I just rotate them every week for years. Brian will tell you. He bought me some shirts. I had a gray pair of slacks, gray shirt that matched, and and another pair of slacks and shirts and shoes. And that that was it. And I gained a lot of weight. My back was hurting me, but man, I was busy. I was working hard, poured every penny into this church. Every penny we had went into this church. I talked to Wayne, my son-in-law, about the first business. This isn't a business, but our business that we established in our twenties, everything went into that business for the first nine to ten years. You you only receive the smallest amount so that the business can have all the equipment and everything it needs. And then in my case, after about ten years, you start to have a little bit of an abundance. Well, the same with the church. The first year of the church, I think I made $400. Second year of the church, I made $500. Third year, like 600. Fourth year, 900. So you're working a side job and you're trying to get this church off the ground. The church needs sound equipment, needs a place to meet. And people come up to you and say, well, we wanna meet on Wednesday night too. And, that means I gotta rent another building. And then you rent the other building and you borrow money from your dad to to be able to do it. Nobody knows that, but then the guy that said that doesn't show up. Man, that bothers me. Everybody always diagnosing what the church needs and then you sacrifice and you do it and you bring it. Alright. I'm neglecting them and they're not there. What happened? It's crazy. But you do the best you can to win people's hearts and to minister to them. I like chairs. You need a place to sit. I like lights. I like sound system, heat. You know, you need a place to meet. We started out meeting in a park. We met for January, Feb no. Excuse me. June, July, August at Elohi State Park. And we rented the kitchen covering because everybody told me it's maybe summer, but it's still gonna rain here. And that blew my mind. I couldn't believe it was raining in the summer. And they're like, Rick, this is Washington. It rains in the summer. And I'm like, oh, man. What did I get into? And then the mosquitoes, bunch of mosquitoes and all that. But but what was interesting was as weak and anemic and as poor as we are and were, the church grew. And they loved one another. And then when it came time to go indoors, the Lord provided a a place in East Bremerton that we could afford. And there were wonderful people that rented it to us and then we rented a school and then we wound up further downtown at the Roxy and such, and down there for about thirteen years. And and, and we came here. And these people have been wonderful. Let us meet here. And so, again, a lot of the pastors, the first thing they want to do is give you a tour of their building. Their building means a lot means a lot to them. It expresses success. And then the amount of people you have, and the radio stations you're on, and all these different things begin to build a a resume for you of who you are. And the apostle Paul, he's he's just a church planner. He's just a hillbilly, you know? And, from Tarsus. So his competence is from God. Verse four. And such trust have we through Christ the God word. So we're trusting in God. We're not trusting in ourselves. This job is way too big for any man to do, or woman. You're fighting against principalities and powers. You're fighting against demons. And they're much more experienced and much smarter than you. And, you cannot change a person from the inside no matter what you do. It's impossible. Only God can do that. Verse five. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. So he asked the question in second Corinthians two verse 16, who is sufficient for these things? What things? The ministry. Who's sufficient? You guys are saying, I'm not good enough. You're saying you got these false prophets there. They're, oh, they're so great. They give us cookies at at at intermission, you know, and melt. And you just keep talking until Eutychus falls down and dies, you know. And, you know, we want it easier. We want it watered down. We want the cotton candy, and that's what they give us. They make us feel good, you know. And, not so much denial of self and take your cross up and follow Jesus. We wanna feel we want the goosebumps, but you don't give us the goosebumps. So what things? The ministry. So Paul's comp competence, his sufficiency for ministry was not derived from self or of man. There's never been anybody that could pull it off in and of themselves. And yet the apostle Paul, who is he? He's Saul of Tarsus. Well, who is Saul of Tarsus? The most brilliant man of his age. Speaks several languages from a college town called Tarsus, the tribe of Benjamin, raised at the feet of Gamaliel. So brilliant people, in many cases, kings, they don't send their kids to public school. They're tutored. And he's tutored by Gamaliel, one of the best rabbis of the day. So as Paul's growing, he's slated to be possibly a member of the Sanhedrin. He said, concerning his contemporaries, he exceeded them all and they were blown away that as they're laying the coats at his feet as they're stoning Stephen, that the soul of Tarsus would come back from Damascus changed. He was once the blasphemer, the chiefest of sinners, concerning zeal, persecuting the church. You don't get more zealous for your faith than going out all the way to Damascus to apprehend Christians and incarcerate them and all. So he'd been there, done that. He did it all. And he concluded as he evaluated his life and what he had before, much like Moses in Hebrews 11, he esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches in all the splendor of Egypt, because he had respect on the recompense of the reward. That's Moses. He's looking ahead. He doesn't need to be the next pharaoh. He's gonna be Moses, the Lord's servant. Well, the apostle Paul, he said he counted all of his accomplishments as refuse, as dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. That day that Jesus met him, that Jesus revealed himself to him, that was a day where he heard, show him what things he must suffer for my namesake. What a calling. What a calling. When you could have had it all like Moses being in Pharaoh's household, but to know Jesus, for Jesus to say, hey, I can use you. I'm gonna use you. What a privilege. What a blessing. But the pretenders, they turn the heads of people. And Paul's trying to get their heads turned back around and focus on Jesus, you know. Get your eyes off of men. He was from an intellectual stronghold, a college of Tarsus. Philippians three verse four. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinks that he has whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. So you wanna go but the flesh? You wanna go the route of the flesh? I more. Circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, the Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. How can you do that? How can you say that you're blameless concerning the law? In the external, he's blameless. That's why Jesus had to come along and pop their bubbles. Because the law doesn't deal with just the external but the internal. So if you look at a woman with lust or a man with lust in your heart, you're already an adulterer. If you're angry with your brother, you're already a murderer. It's in your heart. The heart, Jeremiah seventeen nine, deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? God's got to transform and change your heart. He says in Galatians one fourteen, I profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in mine own nation. So Paul knew he was grossly inadequate for ministry? Yeah. Because he's fighting against demons. When you compare yourself to other men, there's a pecking order, but you're unwise. It's unwise to compare yourself with other people. You just be you. You grow where you're planted. And you rely upon the holy spirit. God will many times pass over people that are far more gifted and far greater than you are in the natural in their abilities. And he'll choose you because of your humility, your brokenness before him. Why? Because when he uses your life, you're not gonna be all puffed up and boasting. Look at me. You're gonna always know, always, always remember that you were the chiefest of sinners, that you were a blasphemer, that you were nothing. DL Moody was an overweight Chicago Sunday school teacher and evangelist. And people, he had that kind of persona that looked that whole thing that wasn't polished. Nothing wrong with being polished if that's your thing. But he said, never too small for God to use, only too big. And so your big britches, God's gonna just pass over you because you're gonna take the glory. People come up to you and they'll say, it's gotta be God because I know who you are, Rick. I remember you when. It's it's gotta be God. And that's right. That's what the Lord wants. He'll take the most foolish thing to confound the wise so that he gets the glory. Lessons of competence must be learned. So our sufficiency is of God. Jacob had to be broken of God. He got his hip dislodged. He walked away with a limp. His name transferred and transformed and changed to Israel, governor of God or prince of God. Before that, he's a conniver. He could get things done in the natural being a conniver. He met his match in Laban. Laban did the switcheroo in his wedding night. Never forget that. But when he was gonna meet his brother Esau the next day, tricking Esau with his mom and all, he needed help. And he went across the brook to get a night sleep and laid his head upon a rock and the Lord Jesus met him there and wrestled with him. Hosea tells us that it was a lot of crying going on, a lot of tears, a lot of agony going on. And the way that Jacob won was by losing. He tapped out. He quit fighting. And the Lord transformed and changed him. And Moses, he tried to be a deliverer. He tried to deliver the children of Israel by killing an Egyptian. And then word got out to the pharaoh and everybody that Moses killed this Egyptian. And Moses is 40 years old. And he's evaluating his life. Hebrews 11 tells us the evaluating that he did. He esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches in all the splendor of Egypt. That's what's going on in his heart. I could be a rich man. I could be a well known, you know, have it all that the world offers. I could be a globalist. One of the elite. One of the one percenters. Instead, he went out to the deserts of Midian and tended the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, for another forty years. By the time he's 80 years old, Stephen told us that he is an eloquent man when he's younger. Very good speaker. Polished intellect and all. Being groomed to be somebody important in Egypt. Forty Years of tending sheep out in the deserts of Midian, the school of hard knocks, the school of the wilderness. Maybe the Lord has you for a season in the wilderness. He's schooling you. He's teaching you. He's emptying you of your confidence that you have in yourself. He's gotta break you, Moe. Gotta break you. To the point that when the Lord shows up at the burning bush, and the Lord reveals himself and lets Moses know that you're gonna go to Pharaoh and tell him, let my people go. Moses is arguing with God in Exodus chapter four saying, I got a speech impediment. I can't speak. I'm not good at public speaking. Send somebody else. And God says, you're gonna go. And Jeremiah tried the same thing. I'm too young. Send somebody else. No. You're gonna go. And you're gonna say what I'm telling you to say. God will empty you. As pastor Chuck said, he tried seventeen years to get a church of 200 people together. He said he exhausted the prime best years of his life trying to figure out how to get 200 people to attend church that he pastored. And he was moving every couple years in the denomination that he served in. They moved him about. And right when he was ready to quit, ready to become a full time manager at the Alpha Beta Markets in Newport Beach there, he began to teach a home bible study. And he found out in Haley's bible handbook that when you run out of sermons after two years, try just teaching the bible verse by verse. There's plenty of sermons in the bible. And as he began to do that, just simply speak and teach the bible in simple language, the people just devoured it. And he knew. He knew at that moment. So he began to move in that direction and the Lord began to bless because healthy sheep reproduce. He had evangelistic messages. Everybody was saved. He wasn't feeding the sheep. But as he began to feed the sheep, they did the evangelism. They went out and got their friends, brought people. And the church began to explode in growth and that's that's what God tells us to do. Haley's Bible Handbook suggested it. That's what the Bible says in Acts 20. Paul says, I give you the full counsel of God. Take heed over the flock which he's purchased with his own blood. Paul's a brilliant man, but he's got to learn these lessons. David knew the battle belongs to the Lord. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Upon this rock, I'll build my church. The pronoun my, it's not my church, it's not your church. Upon this rock, I'll build my church, Jesus said. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's huge for me. You belong to him. It's his church. So my prayer has always been, Lord, bless your church. Grow your church. Lord, add to your church daily such as should be saved. Not my church. It's his church. I get to serve here. Psalm a hundred and twenty seven one says, accept the Lord build the house. Whole lot of board members, whole lot of people build a church. Except the Lord build the house, they that labor, labor in vain that build it. Just a big club. No moving and working of the Holy Spirit. No power to transform and change lives. Just a social club. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. Without me, you can do nothing, Jesus said. In verse six, who also has made us able ministers, able servants of the New Testament. So the Lord's not gonna call you to do anything that he doesn't enable you to do. So in your life, be a man or woman of the word. Simply read God's word. Get to know him through the study of his word and watch the other doors that begin to open for you of how you might serve him. We also, as made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, so not in the natural, but of the spirit. For the letter kills. So the letter of the law, the Old Testament, kills, Condemns. The job of the old is to condemn, to shut your mouth, so you wouldn't be puffed up and prideful. To stop every mouth. In in Galatians, it speaks of the law was a tutor, a pedagogue, to drive you to Christ. That in your infancy, yeah, there's laws there to protect you from running out in the street, but as you grow, it's forcing you into a corner where you say, I can't live. I can't be perfect. I'm trying to be perfect so I can get into heaven. I can't do it. And the Lord says, no, you can't do it. That's what I've been waiting for you to understand. I'll do it through you. Call unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I'm meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That burden of the law is heavy. Don't carry that burden. I went to the cross. I said it is finished, tetelest I paid in full. I did the work. Now I'm sending the comforter, the Holy Spirit to help you, to live and dwell within you, to change you and transform you and bring my word to remembrance and put my love within your heart. All the law is fulfilled in one word, love. And I'll give you the capacity to fulfill all the law, because I'm gonna give you the capacity to love. Not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Abel ministers made by God, not self. God enables. He makes us competent. To him be the glory. Our sufficiency is of Christ. So he made us able ministers of the New Testament. Jesus said in Matthew twenty six twenty eight, this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. So ministers of the new, not of the letter, not of the old law. He says, but of the spirit. So God does the work. God saves. God changes lives. And it's such a blessing, as I said, to watch your children in the Sunday school. I once taught Sunday school for four years and I had the fifth and sixth graders. And every week, those kids were giving their hearts to Christ. There's something about that age. And then every week, these kids are coming to Christ and it's so fascinating, so exciting. Pastor Chuck said that if you can teach Sunday school to children, you can teach adults. Think about that. Whole lot of guys wanna bypass Sunday school. I'm great, man. I graduated school ministry. I'm waiting for pastor Chuck to step down because I'm gonna take over this church. Pastor, where can I fit in? Where can I help? Why don't you go down to the Sunday school? They need a couple Sunday school teachers down there. What? You know who I am? God gave me a vision. Well, go down to Sunday school and you go down there. Kathy and I, when we first got married, we saw in the bulletin they needed help. And so we volunteered and they gave us the two year olds. Do you know what 22 year olds can do in an hour? And I'm supposed to teach them. I did well to keep them from biting each other. You know? But it was servanthood. You're learning servanthood. You're learning to dye to self. And how many diapers can Kathy change in an hour? You know, I don't know. So ministers of the new, God does the work. The letter kills, the law condemn, but the spirit gives life. So it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts in Zechariah four verse six. Paul defends his ministry. Number one, his commendation is from God. And if you know that you know that you know that, it doesn't come from men. My calling is from God. My qualifications come from him. My competence is from God. He gives me the ability and I struggle with that for a lot of years. I didn't know I didn't know where I fit within the body. And I didn't know what my gifts were. But I was seeking the Lord, and then he began to reveal to me. He sent other people to come talk to me and tell me and I was like Peter, I just step out of the boat. Let's see if I can walk on water. So his commendation is from God, his competence is from God, and thirdly, his confidence is from God. Verse seven. But if the ministration of death written and engraving in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, so a fading glory. Verse eight, how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? So if the ministration or the ministry of Moses was glorious, how much more my ministry? His ministry was of the old, of the letter. And when he went up to get the tablets of stone, his face glowed. The Shekinah glory of God, you know, emanating from him. The afterglow, so to speak. And we'll see next week a fading glory and that he put a veil on his face, so they couldn't not so that they'd have to wear sunglasses, but they wouldn't see the fading glory. It's fading away. So the old is glorious, Paul's saying. But the new, the new ministry hit the ministry of Moses' glorious. How much more mine? I get to watch God do the work. We simply tell people about Jesus. We're witnesses of his saving grace. Our lives testify of what he can do. We're the living epistles, the witnesses of Jesus, known and read of all men. In Exodus thirty one eighteen, Moses received two tablets of stone. The finger of God recording as his law, his legal binding contract with man. And Moses saw the depravity of the people as he came down from the mount after forty days. And Joshua was sitting at the base. He couldn't go on the mount. Darts would go through animals and stuff. It's a holy place, Mount Sinai. And they could hear some reveling in the distance. And Joshua says, oh, that's the voice, the sound of war. And Moses says, no, that's a sound of idolatry. A nice word. They were inflamed sexually. They were having a burning man party. Just as decadent as burning man. And Moses went there and broke the 10 commandments, the decalogue. Took the calf that his brother Aaron said, oh, we just put the gold in the ground and it came out a calf, a golden calf like Egypt. Yeah. Right. Grinds it up, makes him drink it, and all brings him to the place of repentance, and goes back up and gets a second pair, the finger of God, writing on those on those tablets. How will this ever work? How are we ever gonna get this to work? We've got the tablets. We've got the instruction. The finger of God, the binding contract with man. How's it gonna work? What are we gonna do? Well, maybe we need to be like Jonah. Maybe that's our methodology. Maybe we jump out of the boat and get swallowed by a whale. And we spend three days and three nights in the belly of that fish going down to hell. And we're in torment. We're in anguish and we cry out to God in repentance. Alright. Alright. Alright. I'll go to Nineveh. And what happens? God spoke to the fish. These fish can hear God. Can you hear God? Can you hear the voice of God? Spoke to the fish and said, hey, burp him out on the shore there. So he's got seaweed all around his hair. He's got albino white skin from the gastric juices and all. Is that our methodology? Are we gonna be a shock jock that goes through the town and says, forty days and you're gonna perish. And from the king on down, they all repented. What a great methodology. The greatest evangelistic campaign recorded in the bible, except Revelation six and seven, innumerable multitude of people. Wow. What a methodology. Let's get the pastor to get all by note out and scary, and then let them shock jock the kids into the kingdom, you know? No. Moses face shown because God revealed his mercy to him. His grace that saves. That's why his face shone so bright. The law worked in showing Moses his need of a savior. The fact sacrificial system pointed the sinner to Christ, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus in Matthew chapter 12 verse 41, when he's speaking to his generation, He said, the people repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold a greater than Jonah is here. And you guys won't repent. They were masters externally of the keeping of the law, the religious leaders and all, but their hearts weren't transformed and changed. Jesus could draw big crowds if he would throw a potluck, if he would take the loaves and the fishes and feed people. Big crowds of people, huge crowds would follow him. Church that feeds everybody, entertains. But when he began to show them the cost that they'd have to eat his flesh and drink his blood, that they'd have to die to self, it says that many of them no longer walked with him of his disciples. And he turns to the 12 and he says, are you gonna leave me also? Very small group of people get it. By the time they're getting ready for the, you know, the Holy Spirit to be poured out in acts one, there's only a 20. There's only a 20 in the upper room waiting for the promise of the father. So from big huge crowds, when the shepherd's spitting, the sheep scattered. Very small small group of people getting it. Then later, there's the thousands, the three thousands, the five thousands with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit being poured out. The miracles, the walking on water, the food, all that, that didn't draw the people. It drew them, but it didn't keep them. When Josiah made reform, when Josiah made reform and got rid of all the Sodomites in the city, and they kept doing it up in the hills, when Pharaoh Necho killed Josiah, everybody went back to how they were before, because there's no change in the heart. When Jonah preached and the whole city repented, and when there was a 20,000 little babies that didn't know from the left hand or the right hand, God gave a reprieve to the Ninevites, but they weren't transformed and changed from within. They later fell back into sin and judged eventually by God. It's not the external, it's the internal work of the Holy Spirit becoming an epistle of God, his word written in our hearts. This was glorious. Man could be saved but not by the law. God's law is perfect and glorious but we're undone. We're dead in our sins. Jesus said in Matthew five verse 20 in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll in no wise enter the kingdom of God. What's that mean? They were masters at the external. They would tithe of gnats, swallow a gnat, eat a camel, whatever. They tithe of their little tiny spices and everything that minutest details, they were to the letter of the law, but they didn't know Jesus. He came under his own and his own knew him not. People in Nazareth didn't know him. People of the Jews didn't know him. He was in the world, the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came under his own and the Jews and the Jews received him not. Mind blowing that of unbelief. This transformation and change has taken place in your life and my life. For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. So this ministration of condemnation, the finger of God that wrote the law, that wrote the 10 Commandments, the finger of God in Daniel five that wrote upon the wall, and Belteshazzar, the grandson of King Nebuchadnezzar. And nobody could read it and the queen mother says, there's a guy here, Daniel, and he can read. And King Belshazzar, his knees are quaking. He's he's having a hard time. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Eupharsen. Your kingdom has reached its shelf life. Your kingdom has taken from you this night. You've been weighed in the balance, the condemnation. You've been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Your kingdom's given over to the Medes and the Persians. And that very night, Darius, Cyrus, the Persians, and the Medes went underneath the Levy Gate and came into the city of Babylon and took over the city and the people and destroyed Belteshazzar and his guys. That very night, the finger of God, the finger of God in John eight that was riding on the ground, The Pharisees, the religious leaders came and caught a woman in the very act of adultery. Didn't bring the man, brought the woman. Caught in the very act. And the law says, the finger of God says that she should be stoned. The ministry of condemnation, the letter kills. What's the intention? To stop your mouth, to make it so you're guilty, so that you cry out to Jesus, God be merciful to me a sinner. That's the intent of the law, to stop every mouth from boasting. There's no boasting. There's nobody that's good enough. There's none righteous. No, not one. All we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He that is without sin cast the first stone. Jesus stooped down again, the finger of God raining upon the dust of the ground, and from the eldest to the youngest, they walked out again. Woman, where are thine accusers? The devil's the accuser. He uses the letter of the law to accuse you. Even still to this day, he's a liar trying to accuse you, to condemn you, to try and convince you you're unworthy, that you don't deserve God's love. And you disagree with him. You're right. I am unworthy. I don't deserve it. But it's grace, man. It's unmerited favor. It's the blood of Jesus. And I don't have to work to deserve it. I don't have to work to keep it. It's just who he is. It's his love. It's his covenant. It's his desire to write his love letter upon my heart. I was going astray. I was headed to hell. He intervened. I didn't choose him, he chose me. He predestined me. He foreknew me. He elected me. He invited me. And now he keeps me. Nobody can pluck me out of his hand. And there's now, therefore, no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Nothing can separate me from the love of God. Not height, nor depth, nor principality, nor power. Not things present, not things to come. Nothing can separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. That's a good place to be. Wonderful place to be. Paul had the utmost confidence in God. He knew that the old covenant left people condemned. The new brought righteousness exceeding glory. Verse 10, for even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels. So the moon loses its glory in the face of the sun. The old testament, there was that glory, but it's a fading glory. The glory of the new, of Jesus in this plan of redemption, that he would be the one that received the wrath of the father, the wrath that we deserve upon himself, that he would be punished in our place. And that we, by grace through faith alone, would receive so great a salvation in the measure of faith to believe, not of works, lest any man should boast. There's no working. There's no going up the Sistine Chapel on your on your knees, Martin Luther. The just shall live by faith. Justification is by grace through faith alone. Not of works, no works. If you wanna go by way of works, then you need to live a perfect life from the womb to the tomb. But even that won't work because you were shaping in iniquity and in sin did your mother conceive you. You have an old fallen nature, an Adamic nature that you can't even fix. You need to be born again, to be born of the Spirit. You need to become a new creation in Christ Jesus. Verse 11, for if that which is done away was glorious, much more than that which remains is glorious. So the old was temporary, the new permanent. We're his living epistles known and read of all men. What can people read? Can you read people? Cathy has a gift of discernment. Can you read people? What do they read of you? By this, shall all men know you're my disciples, that you have love one for another. Can they see that? Can they see that you have love one for another? Can they see that you're changed? That you're not so so such a narcissist, selfish person as you once were, that God has transformed, changed you, that he's humbled you? Are you treating your wife the way they're supposed to be treated, men? Can people see that you're a Christian by the way that you love your wife? How do you communicate this relationship with Jesus that that your relationship as a husband and wife typifies your relationship with him? Let me say that again. Marriage typifies your relationship with Jesus. You're the bride of Christ. Is your life a written, living epistle where people see that unity, that oneness, and they crave that intimacy that you have with Jesus? When they say, hey, what's the secret of your strength? It's Jesus. The two become one. He's written, he's united us in our hearts. We're cleaving. We're cemented together. We're experiencing communion because Jesus is at the center. He's changed us and he continues to change us. And when we get off course, we remember to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross despising the shame, and is seated now at the right hand of the father. And we wanna be a living epistle. We wanna be his witnesses. And there's a whole cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12. Shelley and Mark, we had the privilege of fellowship with them the other day and and had to go to the oak table. I mean, had to suffer through that. And started out with one of those big apple pancakes, baby. And, let me boast about what I ate. I had a chorizo omelet, coffee, orange juice, a side of four sausage links, a side of four bacon with potatoes because I had that big apple pancake. So think about that as you're leaving here today. And as we're fellowship, and she had a question for me. Rick, what do you think of a cloud of witnesses? Do you think the people that have gone before us can look down and see us? Or what's that mean? And I said, well, I don't know. I I can't think of a particular verse that says they can. I know the angels can. The angels look, you know, down. I said, I'm not sure. And, Mark says, well, Chuck Missler said that it was the mezzanine where they looked down upon us. And then I began to study it because it was bothering me. And it ties in with our message today. You and I are living epistles. Jesus said in Acts one eight, you're gonna be my witnesses, which is a martyr in Jerusalem, Didaea, Samaria, the uttermost. So when it says a great cloud, it means a huge group of people, but it starts out chapter 12 verse one, wherefore, wherefore speaks back to chapter eleven, and eleven is by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. All of these witnesses who please God because they walk by faith, they're now in heaven. When we get to heaven, we are his witnesses now, his living epistles, but there's a whole cloud of witnesses in heaven who please God because they walk by faith. So he's letting us know as you continue to be living epistles, as you continue to walk by faith, you're gonna be a part of those one day, those witnesses that already made it to heaven. You see? So you're living epistle. And we don't die. We're more alive when we get to heaven than we are now. So we're the living epistles known and read of all men. Jesus said, you're gonna be my witnesses. People are gonna look at your life. They're you're to emanate. You're to reflect. You're to shine Christ onto people. So allow God to take your heart of stone and reveal his love to you. Allow God to mark you forever, marking you as his living epistle. For all to read, for all to agree. To him be the glory. Great things he has done. So why would John Newton write a song like Amazing Grace? Because he's a ship captain of a slave ship, and he knows how decadent he was. He knows how filthy he was going and grabbing hold of human beings and bringing them to Britain to be slaves. And then the Lord saved him. And he remembers he remembers the song the slaves would sing down in the hole. He remembers the melody and he takes that melody and he puts it together with words, amazing grace that God will save a wretch like me. He become a living epistle and a pastor, and God used his life in a great way. That contrast that contrast of this is who you once were and this is who you are now. His living epistle, known and read of all men. Let's pray. Father, thank you once again for the simplicity that's ours in Christ Jesus. Lord, the work's been done. We don't need to strive. We don't need to struggle. Lord, you give the priests. You have them wear linen because they're not gonna be out there sweating. And Lord, we as kings and priests, Lord, we too, we operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not by might nor by power, our natural might or power, but by your spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. We shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon us. Living within us and upon us, empowering us for service, enabling us, giving us the capacity to love, even those who hate us, even those those who smite us on one cheek, we're able to turn the other. Because lord, you give us that capacity. You work within. No longer us living but Christ living through us. So father evermore continue to transform and change us into the image of your son. Thank you for the work that you've begun, lord, and thank you, lord, that we have confidence. Being confident in this very thing that he that has begun a good work in us that you're gonna complete it, lord. Thank you, lord, for saving us. And while your heads are bowed and as you continue to pray, if there's anybody here this morning, you don't know Jesus as your lord and savior, just lift your hand. We wanna lead you in prayer. We wanna introduce you to Jesus. He said, as many as received me, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. Are you ready to receive Christ? Has the law done its job, the letter of the law? Has the law brought you to the end of yourself? Where you're no longer trying? Where you're ready to trust? Where you sense your guilt? Where you sense your need of Jesus? Where you're crying out for a savior? That's who Jesus is. That was his work. That was the work of the Holy Spirit to come alongside you, to convict you of sin, that you would know that you need Jesus. Anyone here this morning responding to Jesus, Whosoever calls upon the name of the lord shall be saved. Are you calling upon the lord? Do you want to be saved? Anyone here? Father, thank you. I know each one here, Lord. I know they're saved. Yes. I hope so. Lord, I just pray that you bless each one, that you bless us as we partake of communion, that you fill us to overflowing with your love, that we go away from here, Lord, being living epistles, that, Lord, we not study theoretically, but, Lord, that we study to know you and to apply these truths to our lives, to trust you and yield to you and allow you to transform and change us as we cooperate with the working of your holy spirit in our lives. Lord, bless our children, our grandchildren, our families. Lord, be with Karen Menard as she had to say goodbye to Raleigh today. Lord, comfort her. Watch over, protect her. And Lord, prepare each of us, Lord, for that day that you're coming for us. Let us be ready, watching, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.