Will you please turn to 2 Corinthians 3? We will read the whole chapter.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you?
Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men;
being made manifest that ye are an 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 tables that are hearts of flesh.
And such confidence have we through Christ toward God:
not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;
Who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
But if the ministration of death, written, and engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which glory was passing away:
how shall not rather the ministration of the spirit be with glory?
For if the ministration of condemnation hath glory, much rather doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
For verily that which hath been made glorious hath not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasseth.
For if that which passeth away was with glory, much more that which remaineth is in glory.
Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness,
and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away:
but their minds were hardened: for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth unlifted; which veil is done away in Christ.
But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart.
But whensoever it shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we do praise and thank Thee for what Thou hast done on Calvary’s cross. We just come and say, “Lord, open our hearts to understand, and bring us into all that Thou hast accomplished there.”
We look to Thee, to Thy Spirit, to illumine us and to bring us into the reality of all that Thou hast done and what Thou art. We offer ourselves afresh to Thee and say, “Lord, have Thine own way. We are in Thy preciousness.” Amen.
I hope we still remember what we have shared last. We are talking about being saved to serve.
We are not saved just that we may enjoy ourselves. We are saved with a purpose, and this purpose is a glorious purpose. It is the purpose that our God has purposed in Himself, even before the foundation of the world.
What is that purpose? What is the work that God has been doing throughout the centuries? What is the work that our Lord Jesus did when He was on earth? And what is the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in and among us?
To put it very simply, God’s work is one. No matter how many works He has done, it is all centered about one thing. That is what our Lord Jesus has revealed to us. He said, “Thou art Peter.” You are one who has been transformed. You are not just a man of dust; you are now a precious stone. You have now My life, and I will build My church upon this rock; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
So, dear brothers and sisters, thank God He has saved us. Thank God we have His life in us. It is what the Lord wants: that we may live no longer by our self-life, our fallen life, but every day live by the life of Christ in us.
As the apostle testified, “For me to live is Christ.” Brothers and sisters, we emphasize again and again: there is only one living that is worth living, and it is, “For me to live is Christ.”
To put it another way, if I try to live a Christian life by myself, by my own goodness and by my own effort, it will not be counted before God at the judgment seat of Christ. It will be burned up. Only the life that is lived by Christ—only when Christ lives out in and through us—is Christian life. That is Christian living. That is the only living that is acceptable to God.
And in the same principle, we are saved to serve. But it is not that whatever we do is accepted by God. Our Lord Jesus said that many will come to Him and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy name cast out demons, and by Thy name do many mighty works?” But the Lord Jesus will say, “I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”
Brothers and sisters, there is a standard that God has set for us. Whether we live or whether we serve, it must be Christ and not ourselves. I hope that this principle is understood and, by the grace of God, kept by us.
Now, this morning we would like to see what service, or ministry, is. Everybody serves. We may serve in different areas and in many different ways, but it is all serving the purpose of God.
When we are serving, just as when we are living, there are two different kinds of ministry or service. We can serve according to the old covenant, or we can serve according to the new covenant. This is what we find in 2 Corinthians 3.
Paul mentioned at the beginning, “Do we need any commendatory letters?” In the early days, because Christians were scattered everywhere and did not know each other, when a brother or sister was traveling to another place, they would be given a commendatory letter, saying that this is a brother or sister in the Lord. Hopefully, they would then be received by the Christians in other places.
So whenever a person traveled, he would ask the church to give him or her a commendatory letter. Paul said, “Do I need such a letter to you?” So far as Paul was concerned, there was no need for him to have a commendatory letter to the Corinthian believers, because he was the one whom the Lord used to bring them to the Lord.
Here you find ministry, or service, in principle, is like writing letters. In 1 Corinthians 3, we find that ministry is like building a house. But here Paul says that ministry, or service, when we are serving the Lord in various ways, is like writing letters.
This letter is written in our hearts. The apostle Paul said, “I am writing letters when I minister to you, but this letter is written in my heart to be read by all people, so they know what I have written.”
Strictly speaking, ministry or service is writing Christ’s epistle. It is writing the letter of Christ. So whenever you serve, you are writing the letter of Christ to be read by all people.
It is a serious thing. There are two ways of writing that letter, and because there are two ways of writing it, the result will be two different kinds of letter. Either you are writing the letter of Christ, or you are writing your own letter. It is to be read by all people; it cannot be hidden.
In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul tells us that there are two kinds of letters written. There are two different ways of ministry. One he calls old-covenant ministry, and the other he calls new-covenant ministry. This morning we want to share together the characteristics of these two different kinds of ministry.
In verse 3, he says, “Being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written.” Now, how do you write it? With what kind of instrument are you writing it? He says, “Not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.”
In other words, the first difference is this: you can either write with ink, or you can write with the Spirit of God. What does it mean to write with ink?
Whenever you think of ink, probably you will think of a scribe. He has an instrument with him, and he is writing with ink. To put it in a spiritual way, when you are writing in ink, that is your instrument.
What does it mean? It means the work of a scholar. You study, you consult many concordances, you use your mind, you try to reason things out, and you try to come to a conclusion and understanding. After that, you pass it on to other people. That is by ink.
Or you can write with the Spirit of God. In other words, it is not by your own searching or research; it is by the Spirit of God. When you are studying the Word of God, the Spirit of God gives you wisdom and understanding. He reveals it to you. He speaks to your spirit, and He works in you until, out of the work of the Spirit, comes ministry.
So this is a different kind of ministry. As a matter of fact, everybody begins by writing in ink.
For instance, in the Old Testament, I think Moses is a very good example. When he was fed by his mother, somehow his mother gave him the impression that he was miraculously saved with a purpose, and that purpose was to save the children of Israel.
So when Moses grew up in the palace in Egypt, he learned all the learning. He was mighty in words and in deeds. We are told in secular history that he was a mighty general.
When he was forty, he realized that he had a divine mission. He was supposed to save his people. So he went out and tried to save his people by all that he had learned. He was mighty in words and mighty in deeds.
He went out and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He looked around and saw that there was nobody else there. He was mighty in works, so he beat the Egyptian to death and buried him under the sand.
The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting with each other. He was mighty in eloquence, so he tried to separate them and said, “You should not hurt one another.” He thought they understood, but they did not. He was pushed away, and they said, “Wilt thou kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?” The news was out, and he had to flee for his life.
Brothers and sisters, this is writing in ink. In other words, what he had learned, researched, and gathered, he used. He used it with good intention—not for himself, but for serving God.
But, brothers and sisters, thank God that God allowed him to fail. If he had succeeded, then what would have happened?
Thank God, after he left Egypt, he was in the wilderness for forty years. There, in those forty years, he unlearned everything he had learned in Egypt. So when God called him at eighty years old, he said, “Who am I? I am nobody. What can I do? I cannot even speak.”
Now, it is true: when you speak to the sheep for forty years, you lose your eloquence. Now, that is Moses.
If you want to go to the New Testament, there is another example: Saul, Saul of Tarsus. A young man, brilliant and different from other young men. Even in his youth, he wanted God. He wanted eternal things. He despised the world, as it were, and he sought to know God and to know His law.
He studied the law. He became a Pharisee, a Pharisee of Pharisees, zealous for the Lord. He thought he was serving God by persecuting the Christians. He was sincere, but he was in darkness.
He thought he was serving God; actually, he did God a great disservice. Until finally, on the road to Damascus, the Lord appeared to him and called him.
This Saul the Pharisee now became Paul the apostle. He served no longer by his own strength; he served now by the Spirit of God.
So, brothers and sisters, when we begin in our service, it is mainly writing letters with ink. That is what I find in myself. Even before I was saved, I preached. But I preached other people’s sermons, not my message.
I tried to serve God the best I could, but it was according to my way. I thought, “This is what God wants. This is what I would like to do for Him.” Everything was self-centered. Brothers and sisters, this is the way we begin our service.
But we cannot continue in this way all our lives. If we do, then all our life’s service will be in vain. We have to learn how to serve with the Spirit of God—not out of ourselves, but out of God Himself. That is the only service that is acceptable to God. Have we come to this conclusion?
Then you find a second characteristic: on what are you writing? You can write on stone, or you can write on hearts of flesh.
We remember when God gave the Ten Commandments, the old covenant, it was written on stone. It was there, but it was outside of human beings. It was something you could read, memorize, and understand, but there was no feeling, no sensation, and no life experience.
Brothers and sisters, strangely, you find that the stone here does not refer to Paul’s heart anymore; it refers to the hearts of the Corinthians. It was written as if on stone: no feeling, no sensation, no reaction, no change—hard, cold, something outside of you.
It did not reach into the very heart of man. It did not reach your spirit. Everything was just surface—nothing deep, nothing true, nothing living. That is the second difference.
If we minister with old-covenant ministry, we are writing on stones. There is no effect. But if we minister with the living Spirit of God, that should touch the heart of man and bring forth change and transformation.
The third difference is found in verse 4: “And such confidence have we through Christ toward God: not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.”
When you are serving with yourself, you are confident. You feel yourself competent to do that. You even pride yourself in it: “See what I can do.”
But if you are really serving in the Spirit of God, you always have a sense that it is beyond you. You are not competent at all. If there is any confidence, it has to come from God Himself.
Brothers and sisters, when you are serving, do you feel confident in yourself? If you do, you are doing old-covenant ministry. No one who is really serving the Lord feels himself or herself as competent. We know our weakness. We cannot, but He can.
Then number four. He says in verse 6, “As ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
In other words, when we are serving with old-covenant service, it is a ministry of letter, and the letter kills. Only the Spirit gives life. Why does the letter kill? Because nobody can keep the letter.
But the Spirit gives life. The Spirit will enable us to see that, even if we cannot keep it, He has kept it.
Then you find again that one is the ministry of condemnation and of death, and the other is the ministry of righteousness. Why? Because when we are giving people law, it condemns people. The law reveals that we cannot do it and cannot keep it. It is a ministry of death; it brings people into condemnation.
But only when we minister in the Spirit of God is it a ministry of righteousness, because it brings the righteousness of God to us.
Finally, you find that even the ministry of the old covenant begins with glory. Why? Because it comes from God.
Moses, after he was with the Lord for forty days and forty nights the second time, came down with his face aglow. The children of Israel dared not look at his face, so he had to put a veil upon his face. Only when he went into the tent of meeting did he take the veil away. Gradually, that glory faded.
But the ministry of the new covenant is from glory to glory. It brings God into us more and more.
So, brothers and sisters, you find that even in service, it is not because we are serving that we should think it is acceptable to God. On the one hand, He encourages us to serve; on the other hand, He only accepts one kind of service, and that is new-covenant ministry.
I think, brothers and sisters, this is a very serious question. We need to be before the Lord and ask Him to show us whether we are serving according to old-covenant ministry or according to new-covenant ministry.
But here you find the apostle Paul saying in verse 12, “Having therefore such hope, we use great boldness.”
In other words, probably when we hear such things, we say, “Well, that is too high. Let us be honest: it cannot be that we are able to do that.” No, that is not why the difference is revealed to us.
God reveals this to us to give us hope. In other words, He is expecting us gradually to come out of old-covenant ministry and enter into new-covenant ministry. It is a hope before us.
If there is hope, then we should not faint, but we should have much boldness. We should see that if God has made it and God has provided it, why do we not have it? We too should go in this direction instead of falling back and saying, “It is beyond us.”
So what should we do? We should turn ourselves to the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, is that not an irony? We think that if we want to serve God, we have to turn to ourselves.
True, we need to diligently search the Word of God. We need to use every effort to know Him, to know His character. But it does not depend upon ourselves. The most important thing is that we turn to the Lord.
Do not turn to yourself and make a double effort. That is useless. Turn to the Lord.
If we turn to the Lord, the veil will be dropped from our face. The more we draw near to the Lord, the more we turn to Him and say, “Lord, I am hopeless. I am helpless. You have to enlighten me. You have to reveal to me. You have to change me. You have to conform me to Your image.”
As you really go to Him and turn to Him with unveiled face, all the veils will be taken away.
What is the veil? You remember that between the holy place and the holiest of all there was a veil, a very heavy veil. This veil separated the holy place from the holiest of all. You could not see through it.
In other words, the way to the holiest of all had not been opened. Only the high priest, once a year, with sacrifice, could enter into the holiest of all. No one could live in God’s presence.
But then, when our Lord Jesus was crucified on Calvary’s cross outside the city of Jerusalem, one marvelous thing happened.
When our Lord cried out, “It is finished,” the work was done, and He gave up His spirit, the heavy veil in the temple in Jerusalem was torn from top to bottom into two. It was not man’s work; it was God’s work.
In other words, the way to the holiest of all is open now. The veil has been torn. So in Hebrews 10, we are told that it is not only through the blood of our Lord Jesus that we can enter into the very presence of God; it is also because He has opened for us a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh.
So, in other words, when our Lord Jesus—when His flesh was broken on Calvary’s cross—the veil was opened.
You know, the flesh of our Lord Jesus is like a veil. The veil has two sides. On one side it faces the holiest of all; on the other side it faces the holy place. It separates them.
So far as our Lord was concerned, when He was in the flesh, He always saw His Father. He always pleased His Father. But at the same time, because He is so perfect, He prevented everybody else from seeing God.
But now His flesh was broken, and as His flesh was broken, the way to the holiest is open. In other words, He has opened a new and living way for us. He is the way, and He has opened the way for us.
How can we really see God face to face? How can we really allow Him to be our all in all? How can all our service and ministry be out of Him and not ourselves? There is a way we have to go, and this is the way of the cross.
“Deny thyself, and take up thy cross, and follow Me.” Brothers and sisters, there is no other way.
As long as we depend upon ourselves, our own flesh, no matter how good it is, it puts a distance between us and God. It has to be broken.
As Paul said, “We have no confidence in the flesh.” Brothers and sisters, how much confidence do we have in our flesh?
Remember, good flesh is as much rejected by God as bad flesh. Flesh is flesh. So anything that is of ourselves has to go through the cross. Deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Him.
Brothers and sisters, when the veil is taken away, then we can see Him face to face, and we will be transformed from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
So in this chapter, 2 Corinthians 3, I believe that God has shown us very clearly that our ministry, our service, just as much as our life and daily living, has to be of Christ and not of ourselves.
I believe it is time for us to really go to the Lord and ask Him to examine us: whether we really live by Christ and not by ourselves, or whether we minister by the Spirit of God and not by ourselves. This is what we find in 2 Corinthians 3.
I know that when we really see the difference between old-covenant ministry and new-covenant ministry, it will really stir us, stir our hearts, and cause us to cry to the Lord, “Lord, deliver me from old-covenant ministry.”
“I do not want just to speak something correct and true, but condemn and bring people to death. I would like to share something living and operative in our lives, and really bring Christ into you, that we may know Him.”
May we know Him and the power of His resurrection, and be conformed to His death, that we may share in His resurrection from among the dead. So may the Lord have mercy upon us.