[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfreda, Georgia. This is the next message in our series in the book of 2 Corinthians, entitled, We Faint Not.
[0:15] Amen. Well, where sin is great, grace is greater still. Not a more wonderful message anywhere than that. Amen? And thank the Lord for it. Take your Bible, go back with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 3.
[0:26] And I'm going to kind of go off script here just a minute and let you go back and go with me through this passage of Scripture just a little bit more. And hoping that we can make sure that it really, that you understand some of the most beautiful truths.
[0:40] Take your Bible if you would, and I hope you marked it. I hope you did. Look at what the Bible says, if you would, in verse 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 7. And we're talking about the ministration of death.
[0:52] Alright, I want you to, I want you to mark that, if you would, in your Bible. Ministration of death. Then skip down, if you would, to verse 9. And mark ministration of condemnation.
[1:03] Ministration of condemnation. And the Apostle Paul is setting two kinds of ministry. He's separating them. He's making a very clear, he's making a very clear difference between the law and grace.
[1:16] The law and grace. And Christians need to learn this major difference between law and grace. So now if you would, I want you to know that law, that's going to be on this side right here for a minute.
[1:28] That's on this side of the room. The law is the ministration of death. How many, would you repeat this? The ministration of what? Excuse me. The ministration of what? Death. And let me explain to you.
[1:39] When the law does its job in your life, it kills you. When the law does its job in your life, it kills you. When the law did its work in your life, it killed you.
[1:50] How many of you got to the point that the law put you on your knees and made you realize, Man, I am nothing. I need help. How many of you got to that point?
[2:01] Say, Amen. You know, we got to the point in a minute, the law killed us. It's our schoolmaster. And it takes us to Jesus. Look at verse 9. The ministration of?
[2:13] Come on, say it with me. The ministration of? I can't hear you. Ministration of? So it's a ministration of condemnation. It's saying to you, you can't.
[2:24] You are going to be condemned. You are going to be sent to hell. You are a failure. And that's the job of the law.
[2:34] And just look at this. Wait a second. The law is wonderful. It's fantastic. It was glorious. It was glorious. To get to see God and to see his face was like one of the most wonderful things.
[2:46] For him to write down the law, that was a wonderful thing. And the apostle Paul says that right here in the passage of scripture. Look at verse 7. He said, But the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones.
[2:57] That's how we know it's talking about the law. The law was glorious. So that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses. For the glory of his countenance.
[3:09] Which was done away. Was to be done away. See? Moses goes up. Moses gets the stone tablets. Moses gets the law written down. Moses comes down.
[3:20] Moses said, Man, I have seen God. I've spoken with God. And the glory of God was all on his face. They put a veil over his face. So no one would be blinded.
[3:31] They couldn't even look at Moses because of the glow that was on his face. So it was glorious. But look at what it says in verse 8. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?
[3:44] Do you not realize that the law had a job to do in your life? And the law showed you death. And the law showed you punishment. And then on the other side of the room, there was this ministration of the Spirit.
[3:55] You couldn't get to the Spirit until you found out you was sick. You couldn't get to help until you knew you needed help. And so God gave a ministry. A ministry. That's just a smaller word for ministration.
[4:06] God gave a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. And it was glorious. I needed to know what was right and wrong. I needed to know what was right and wrong so I'd know I was wrong.
[4:20] By the way, the Ten Commandments weren't given so you could click them off and say, Yeah, I'm doing good on that one. The Ten Commandments were given to say, You stink. The Ten Commandments were given to say, You can't cut it.
[4:31] In James chapter 2, I believe verse 10, If you have broken one of the Ten Commandments, you are guilty of all of them. Fact is, we've broken more than one of them. And he said, Boy, wasn't the giving of the law a wonderful thing?
[4:43] If it was, say amen. It was. But then he said, Well, don't you think the ministry of the Spirit will be glorious too? Will it or not? All right, take your Bible now. Take your Bible now. Why don't you go on down?
[4:54] If you would, to verse 9. For the ministration of condemnation be glory, Much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
[5:05] Would you read that verse with me? It's right here behind me. I want you to read it out loud with me. Are you ready? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, Much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
[5:16] Exceed The ministration of righteousness What? What is that? Ministration of righteousness What? Exceed in glory You see what happened was Over here Over here you found out you were sick Over here you found out you were in trouble Over here you found out you couldn't Over here you found out you were worthless Over here you found out Man I'm nothing but a sinner And you say well that was bad No it was good Because if you didn't find out you was bad You could have never got good And so you found out how bad you were And then when you found out how bad you were The schoolmaster took you to Jesus The Holy Spirit came And by the way the Holy Spirit Was who made you understand What the word of God said And made you see you sin And then you came over here And the Holy Spirit did a work in you And the Holy Spirit and God and Jesus Made you righteous In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 I believe it is the last verse And I've just forgotten what verse that is Maybe 18, 17 You go read it You know what happened?
[6:11] He took the righteousness of Jesus He that knew no sin became sin For those of us who knew sin So we could be made the righteousness of God And we were made righteous I didn't I've never been righteous on my own I'm righteous through Jesus Christ Now I want you to get this I want you to understand this Okay And I really I try to think of illustrations And I hate to use this one again And I will quit I promise But you know I woke up And I urinated in blood That was a really bad day for me But you know what That was a really good day for me Here's what happened When I got to the doctor I said Doctor what have I done?
[6:49] I said You know I drink Mountain Dew By the bucketfuls And he said Well it had nothing to do with the Mountain Dew Hmm And I started naming everything I said What about caffeine?
[7:00] He said It didn't have anything to do with that I said Well what caused this? He said We don't know I said Well what could we have done to find out? He said There's only two ways to find out A coincidental scan Or you're going to urinate blood Otherwise the cancer is just going to keep growing And it's going to get out of your kidney Get in your lymph nodes It's going to go through the rest of your body So the day I went to the bathroom And it was blood there I was like Oh my goodness And it But it made me know I was sick Boy I was terrified I really was I scared death But then I went to the doctor's office I go in the doctor's office Doctor looks at all my scans Looks at everything And he does Just like he says Not a problem I can handle this Not a big deal I'm just going to open you up I'm going to send it out We'll put a little plastic bag in there We'll tie your kidney up in there We'll sew it together We're going to pull that thing out You're going to be alright About six weeks from now You're going to be just as good as new I said Am I going to have any more problems?
[7:51] He said Nope You're not going to have any more problems Everything's going to be fine Now Well doctor What if I hadn't found out about it? He said Well you just had Your cancer would have just kept spreading Sooner or later You had to find out It was already four inches long Did I need the condemnation?
[8:06] How many of you think I needed it? Say amen I needed it And the condemnation made me go to the doctor And the doctor fixed me I've even lost 30 pounds Come on I mean this is a good deal I lose the other kidney I bet I could go down another 50 Say amen So So I want you to understand God sent the law And the law condemned us God sent the law And it brought death But out of death Jesus gave us life Now I don't want you to leave I'm going to get you Just a minute We'll get you to the real thing See the reason I wanted to go ahead And do some more tonight Is because you could easily Get the idea From what I said this morning That we aren't under law And the law was the ministry of death And the law was the ministry Of condemnation And you could easily get the idea We don't need the Old Testament The Old Testament is important And God's law is not important So I wanted to kind of show you What the Bible said about that Before we go on So look in your Bible If you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3 2 Corinthians chapter 3 If you would And look at verse Look at verse 3 2 Corinthians 3 3
[9:08] For as much as ye 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 heart Of fleshly tables of the heart Now watch this And I hope you wrote down In the margin of your Bible External Internal How many of you wrote that down Did you write it down Anybody write that down At least write it on a piece of paper And throw it away when you go home Make me feel good Write down external internal Watch this Let me see here Ed come up here just a second Jeff you come up here just a minute And Take that back Y'all just sit down I changed my mind Let me think here Catherine you and Mike Can come up here a minute And I need Catherine's mom and dad And they're not here So Jeff you and Mindy Are going to be there mom and dad Come on up here And And Mike you just stand over You've done this with me so many times You already know this tale Don't you Come on over here Catherine Look at your mom and daddy Boy Did they get uglier Or better looking Step on up here Don't you dare
[10:09] Throw them Honeymoon Get on up here They're on a honeymoon A 28 year honeymoon Over in Denver So they might Shoot me for saying that But anyway That Jeff's better looking Than John That's a questionable Anyway that's right Amen Yes Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah Okay watch this Little girl in the house Little girl in the house Bus Home Little girl in the house When does a little girl In the house go to bed She goes to bed When mama or daddy say so When does a little girl In the house Wash dishes Talk to me Help me Help me Help me Help me All the time Says daddy and and and uh and these are external rules these are external rules and and would you be honest you probably won't be honest but did you ever you won't will you see there she's a she's honest to say she won't be honest did you ever have a little bit of an attitude because kristen didn't do some of the work she should have done maybe and you got stuck with it or was it always her getting stuck oh you're not gonna say you're not gonna say did you ever have a little bit of an attitude about being told i mean you know your dad can be kind of like how many y'all think he could be say amen her her brother her brother says amen and and those were external rules and you had to wash clothes and you had to clean house and you had to and you had to cook or whatever right was it ever sometimes you just might have had just a tad of attitude did you ever have one this is a jerry springer show and i'm going to tell your daddy then she got married step over this way now i don't know what she sees in him but she thinks he's good looking do you think he's good looking no you're you told me you wouldn't tell the truth so you just said did you say you wasn't gonna tell me the truth did you say that yes and and uh do what i was truthful oh you're truthful oh okay all right so she thinks this guy's good okay now let me ask you a question do you do you wash the dishes uh-huh does he tell you to no he doesn't why do you wash dishes then let me ask you this if they hadn't told you to wash dishes would you have washed dishes uh-huh how many of y'all think that at home she might not have washed them if she hadn't been told to say amen but something changed over here this was external and this over here is internal can you see the difference if you can't say amen thank you y'all have a seat now then ed you come back up here and uh jeff you can just come on back up here you make a good law man come on up here watch this watch this here's here here's what the law did the law showed you we've already gone over so i'm not gonna go over that again i want i want you i want you to see this this judaizer what was a judaizer help me what was a judaizer he came down from judea he came he was he wanted to make them jews he wanted to get them living under a system of rules he wanted to get them living under a system of laws uh what did a judaizer want them to do what was the except you be what come on is it acts 15 one i showed you this morning except you be so i said out loud that's right say it out loud except you be circumcised so this guy comes along and he says ed you just got born again but if you really want god to be pleased with you you've got to get circumcised and if you're not circumcised you're not really saved and then this guy this judaizer he's going to keep laying all kind of rules on him he's going to tell him that he can't eat pork he's going to tell him that he that he has to keep the sabbath day he's going to tell him a whole lot of external rules and a lot of it would have been good stuff he he would even tell him honor your father and your mother but let me show you the major difference in the old testament where were the rules written help me it's in the bible you read it just a minute ago in the old testament where were the rules written maybe you
[14:13] ought to go with me to chapter three if you would verse three where were they written help me second corinthians chapter three verse three where were they written i can't hear you say it again tables of stone they were written on tables of stone i don't know if you ever got the idea but stone's hard and it was outside it wasn't inside and the apostle paul said but the holy spirit of god did a different work in you step back step over here ed and on this side the holy spirit of god says you know what ed you don't have to keep any of those rules because you're saved by grace and i love you and where your sin abounds my grace is even greater now what beats different in ed's heart now on this side of the room than it did on that side of the room and please remember my little illustration with katherine what what what illustrates what beats stronger in his heart right now help me what beats stronger love he's in love with he's in love with jesus you know what over there he was like get over here go do what you're told do what you're if you don't we'll kill you you understand me we'll beat you you do what you're told you hear and that's the and that's what these legalists want to say to him but when he came over to serve god here's what god said to him god said man i love you and ed's heart was a new heart it was a new heart it and the law didn't go away it just got off of a stone tablet onto a heart tablet it didn't go away it didn't like hey i'm saved i can fornicate if i want to that's not it no no no no no no no see over there it was external you will not fornicate over here it is i don't want to fornicate talk to me talk to me it's a totally different person the lost guys over here saying i need rules i need rules the guy over here said i don't need rules catherine says mom and dad better tell me what to do the fact is if they don't tell me i have to wash the dishes i probably won't on this side of the room catherine will wash the dishes because i don't know what's wrong with her but she's deeply in love with that guy and on this side of the room on this side of the room i i won't do i won't do what i ought to do i'll even pick up sticks on the sabbath when i'm not supposed to and i'll break all kind of rules i will even figure out tricky ways to get around the rules boy once you become a legalist what you do is you figure out ways around rules and so the pharisees and the pharisees had said you can't walk more than a certain amount i'm just going to say a mile from your property so they said servant take that over a mile from here and lay it on the floor there and then here's what it could actually be two miles go over and lay it down over and so on the sabbath i'm not supposed to walk if i walk more than a mile from my house i've walked too far and it's work but as long as i'm going as long as my property is i'm on my property i'm okay as long as i'm within a mile of it so i get over here and i say hey that's my property i hadn't worked somebody put another piece of property over there about another mile just a way to get around the rules they go walking through the they go walking through the cornfields with jesus and they reach up and they grab a piece of corn and they they break off some corn they're chewing the corn and the pharisees said that's work that's work they pull that corn off the stalk and they they're eating that corn that's work and jesus said good night you guys are ridiculous you remember the story he said hey how about this one do your your disciples eat with unwashing hands you guys are ridiculous you just won't rules so here's the difference you can pick the book up and y'all can sit down for a second watch this if you would look at you got your bible out got you got your bible out i hope what did you write down beside verse three what'd you write down what two words you write down help me what words you write down external internal you see i don't serve god i don't serve god because i'm told to i serve god
[18:13] because i want to and if you're not careful church turns into preachers are like they won't serve god unless i kick their rear ends a lot and so real good preaching becomes face ripping salt thrown in the wound kick them in the stomach i mean honestly honestly bruce lee and every guy who can fight and beat up people on tv or in a movie has not chuck norris has nothing on a good bad this preacher because the time of service is over he'll leave you bruised and battered and on the floor telling you bless god keep the rules external and here's what jesus said internal holy spirit not that it went away not that god's word doesn't have value not that we aren't going to keep the rules not that we wouldn't do what's right but that it is internal not external now go down if you would to verse 14 go down if you would to verse 14 you see what happened is it was starting 13 see what happened was there was a veil over the face of moses because the children of israel couldn't look at him and the reason verse 14 their minds were blinded their minds were blinded you're going to find out people's minds are blinded in chapter 4 also the lost people's minds are blinded these guys are their minds are blinded the bible says for until this day remained the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament which veil is done away in christ look at this you got to understand this listen to me please get this in the old testament it's never about keeping the rules not even in the old testament it's never about keeping the rules it's never about keeping the rules it's can i would you see this say this with me it's never about keeping the rules did you say it with me watch watch what happened when an old testament guy didn't keep the rules what happened i can't hear you i can't hear you he's punished but watch this here's what happened they they built into their calendar by god's orders they built in a day of the day of atonement say that with me the day of that was built into their calendar days of sacrifice adam and eve sinned against god ate of the tree they weren't supposed to eat of they were cast out of the garden and what got them right you know what do you understand this when they ate of the garden it was law you will not eat of that tree the devil came along like a good like a good legalist who wants to get you tripped up and not know about grace and the devil said you ain't supposed to touch it and eve said you ain't supposed to touch it they'd already figured out they'd already added rules to it wasn't in the bible wasn't in what god said but when they messed up guess what out on the outside of the garden god met them jesus met them and said hey adam where are you and adam said uh i'm ashamed i'm embarrassed i'm i've hid i'm naked and and jesus said well who told you he was naked they was naked all along who told them that's naked well we know we're naked and they had made them they had made them covers of of leaves things they could produce and he said no no throw that away what covers your sin will never be what you can do boy you should say amen right there what covers your sin will never be what you can do it'll be what i can do and he gave them coats of skins and animals don't freely give up coats of skin without dying and blood being shed without the shedding of blood there's no remission and the and all the book of leviticus is nothing more than let me tell you how y'all can sacrifice you know how wonderful he is you know how wonderful he is you know how wonderful he is this is what he said he said bring a lamb bring a lamb and they say we're too poor he said well well bring a dove bring a dove can't afford can't afford a lamb just bring a dove no we can't afford
[22:13] that well just bring some flour it's not the idea of what you bring it's i'm the savior i'm the savior you can't i can't just come and i'll forgive you so it's a beautiful thing i need the law to show me my need for christ but i need to know it's the spirit that's doing a work in me i need to know it's the spirit that's doing a work in me and the veil why can't they understand the old testament because when they look at the old testament all they see is rules a lot of you got that problem man old testament god was mean no he wasn't no he wasn't no he wasn't no he wasn't not from one one none of it he wasn't mean he was wonderful all the old testament preachers do it they all kept saying he's a wonderful god he's full of mercy long-suffering and gentleness and kindness he's a wonderful god because he's always the same yesterday today and forever by the way say amen there he's a good god why do they think he was bad because they didn't realize what was going on he was given rules but every rule was to say you can't by the way the creation and the time in the garden of eden and when they messed up it was a wonderful thing you know when they messed up they had a provision looking unto jesus the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy set before him he died on that cross he paid their sin debt you can't understand the old testament you can't understand the old testament till you get to that now once you go over to verse 17 and we'll give you a few things and i'll close for tonight look at verse 17 now now the lord is that spirit now the lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty let me tell you something katherine would you like to move back in with your mom and dad hold your hand up get way up in there way up there let everybody sit if you want to move in with your mom and keep that hand up you want to move in with your mom and dad leave your hand up you do want to move in you don't go back to mom and dad's house you don't no you know here's the deal hey living with mom and dad was wonderful i mean be honest she has two of the most loving wonderful parents on the planet but let's just be honest you want to where's liberty where would you say there's a spirit of liberty back at the pearson household or at the rostelli household at the rostelli household amen there is liberty do you not understand this whole thing over here was the law telling me i was sick and in need and i need to get saved and when i got saved the lord holy spirit said man i love you and by the way you're going to live a holy life because i'm going to i'm fixing to show you because i'm going to live it through you because it's god living in us i am crucified with christ it didn't say i need to be crucified with christ it said i am galatians 2 20 i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ lives in me you know what was happening paul said we're we're dead we're dead in romans chapter 6 paul said we're dead to sin we're dead we're not the same guy we got saved we're not the guy we were how many of you would say you're not the same person you were before you got saved say amen you know you didn't change you there was no 12-step program that changed you he changed you the holy spirit changed you the ministry of the spirit changed you and where he does it there is liberty now let me if i could give you some things the only way you can understand the old testament is to see jesus which the jews and legalists were unable to do the spirit gives liberty not laws the spirit gives liberty not laws and rules we serve because we want to well austin if if you're if you're free why'd you want to go as a missionary because i wanted to austin if if you're free why do you give so much money because i want to austin if you're free why don't you fornicate why don't
[26:14] you get out and sin sorry i don't want to i think i got it better than any of those sinners i like i like what he did for me i like this life he gave me i'm in love in this life he gave me they couldn't give it to me but he could say amen right there it's good stuff we enjoy but we enjoy doing right because we have new natures we are not who we were before we were saved there is now in us a hunger and a desire to do what pleases god the law couldn't change us and we couldn't change ourselves but jesus and the grace of god can and does change us something happened on the day you got saved i could tell testimonies if you've ever been around me much if i've spent any time if i've taken you out to eat i ask you everyone tell me how you got saved and i can tell you some of your stories i can tell you about a guy in this room who was a lutheran boy and he accepted christ and immediately his desires and his heart changed i can tell you about a guy in this room who grew up with a with a with a with a with a pastor's wife's sister who made fun of christians and made fun of badness and said he would never be one and the other day he sat back there in that little corner with me and he said you know we're just not like them we don't think like they do we don't act like they do he said he said we're a weird bunch because god saved us can you say amen right there now watch this he works in us how does he do it he does it through your circumstances in romans 8 28 the bible says all things work together for good you know that verse 29 says because he is whom he did for no that's me he did predestined to be conforming to his image do you know that god's going to take you all the way he saved you he's going to take you all the way if you're a born-again christian he's going to take you all the way my son and his wife brought home the baby from the hospital today the baby is at home you know they didn't bring that baby home to dump that baby tomorrow they're going to take that baby all the way to adulthood and lord willing to the day she like katherine can find somebody she loves and wants to go and be with you understand it's a beautiful thing the holy spirit said i saved you i saved you you didn't save yourself i saved you and i will change you and i will conform you to my image the bible says in philippians chapter 1 and verse 6 he that begun a good work in you will perform it he that begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of jesus christ the guy who saved you jesus the the one who saved you he's the one that's changing you i'd like to tell you that i'm doing it i'm not i'd like to tell you the church is i'm not they're not tell you who's doing it the holy spirit of god's doing it he's changing you i got you need to look up two verses i'm ready to quit i know it's time watch this colossians 129 where into i also labor striving according to his working listen this which worketh in me mightily you know what paul said paul said man i'm serving god i'm working hard but it's really according to his working in me it's really according to his working in me if you look back on your life and you'd say i remember when this sin had power in my life and i really don't exactly remember when it happened but all of a sudden i had victory over that sin and i was living holy i left that and i and i and i started walking like i was supposed to and now i'm kind of embarrassed about who i was when i was back there and you'd be like and if i said well how'd you change it's oh yeah uh uh um i don't know i just didn't want to do it anymore it's the holy spirit he's doing a work in you he works in you mightily listen this verse listen to this verse ephesians chapter 3 verse 7 wherefore i was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of god given unto me by the effectual working of his power paul said boy i am a minister i am a servant of christ i am a preacher i'm a man of god he said but it's according to his working in me it's his working in me let me remind you that that law gives you right to brag
[30:21] see anytime you keep rules you have a right to be competitive and you can brag you could easily say well they said tithe but i give 10.5 percent the other guy walks up and says you give 10.5 i give 15 percent i get the cookie today the other guy walks up says 15 percent my name is latourno i give 90 percent and we're all like oh wow he must really be something well the truth the matter is god's up in heaven saying oh he stinks the only way he smells good is i saved him the only way he smells good guess what it says in ephesians 2 8 and 9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it's a gift of god not of works lest any should boast my hair is shorter than your hair i weigh less than you can't say that one let's go to another one you see you see it's a comparing thing but grace says this no we all stink but he sure does do a great work in us isn't that sweet isn't that beautiful isn't that wonderful let me give you one more verse ephesians chapter 1 and verse 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power by the way how did i get saved it was his mighty power how do i live a holy life it's his mighty power you say well you're not where you're supposed to be i know but i can trust the guy that saved me i am persuaded that he is able to keep me i am persuaded that he will take care and do a work in my life did i say that the rules aren't important did i say did i say the law is not important no it was written externally here and internally there it was written on stone here it was written on tables of flesh over here over there you said do it or die over here it's do it because you want to you remember be do serve train i am therefore i want to do i am born again because and therefore i want to do so many preachers have turned it backwards and i turned it backwards so many years from my life and we're saying somebody said what's that preacher's mad about he's always mad does he ever have a happy day does he ever have a happy verse ever is there any verse that the bible's not mean yeah there is he skips all them because he's got to find the mean ones and by the way if he finds a sweet one he's got to twist it but you know you preach through the bible like i do it's really hard i mean i was wanting to preach i was wanting to preach on homosexuality in this passage but it just doesn't get mentioned what am i gonna do so listen listen what i'm gonna say to you he's working in you so let me give you some review real quick this was a ministry of two words what is it ministry of death ministry of okay you didn't get it so that means we got to start over this is a ministry of death and this is a ministry of but on the other side there's a ministry of two things he compares them this is a ministry of the spirit and this is a ministry of righteousness okay watch let's do it again this is a ministry of and a ministry of but on this side where god's doing the work this is a ministry of the spirit and of righteousness over there i wanted to be righteous because they told me all the rules i had to keep but over here i am righteous there i try to be righteous here i i am righteous by the way on my worst day on my worst day when i don't act like a christian i'm still righteous not acting righteous but i've been made righteous by him and you know why i want to live righteous because that's who i am boy you're gonna hate me after this i got told that this morning's message was mean
[34:23] i didn't know it was mean but i he said they said you said we was all we all stunk you you used to stink but you've been saved and born again and you don't stink anymore because of the grace of god amen but watch this on this side no matter how many rules you give a pig no matter how much you work on training him he's gonna go back and do what a pig does he will do what his nature is you can perfume him you can put a ribbon on him you can put him in the house don't let him get near a pig get near a a dirty pit a muddy pit don't let him get there he'll be right back to where he was perfume him you say you don't know that i bet i raise more pigs than most of you and he's going back to the mud and you can say all that you need to buy buy like a sheep and you need to stay clean like a sheep and you need to be like a sheep but he said they're going oink oink don't get it oink oink don't get it because he's he's not the right nature but then you get saved and you come over here and he changes you and now you're not a pig you're a sheep you're a lamb like the lamb of god and all of a sudden you're like baba i don't say oink oink anymore i i don't like mud pits anymore i'm different what made me different he changed me that was the ministry of death and the ministry of condemnation this is the ministry of spirit and the ministry of righteousness that's what's going on in in second corinthians chapter three boy when you get to chapter four paul's going to say and we have received this ministry let's not faint you the ministry we've received is so wonderful we get to tell people what god will do in their life we're not here to tell people what they need to do in their lives what's hard for a preacher it's very hard for a preacher to trust god to change people's lives it is very hard for a preacher to say god can do something because i can see me and i know me and i'm flesh and bone and i can i can act but to believe that god who i don't see could really change somebody i need i think i really think we need a we need 50 rules around here got to make up a bunch of rules and the holy spirit said wait wait wait wait that was just to show you that you needed me when i move in i'll help you could i just say this if you don't believe me why don't you read the new testament and just find out how many of the chapters are wonderful beautiful fantastically wonderful truths about how great our god is and how our new nature is and how wonderful it is serving god and even paul even said hey the law was glorious but boy the ministry of righteousness and the spirit it will exceed it in glory everything about our god is you're born again you're a child of god your name's written in heaven you're accepted in the beloved god's done a work in you katherine wash the dishes and katherine says you don't have to tell me that i want to wash dishes at my house i like my husband it's a whole different ball game whole different ball game new creature so don't fall into the trap don't you fall in boy i fell into it i fell into it big time i spent too much time picking my verses i wanted to preach to make sure you straightened up your life not here before you knew me maybe but listen to me it's a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation versus a ministry of spirit and righteousness and paul said and i have made an able ministry not of the old testament but of the new testament and that's in second corinthians chapter three go home and read it and you'll find a wonderful truth there father in heaven i pray you'd work in our lives i thank you for this passage of scripture i thank you for the wonderful things you say and i just pray god that you'd show your power in a real way and i pray you'd magnify yourself and i pray god that your people would fall in love with you and i pray god that we would just look at you not the law
[38:27] but look at you as we look at you we will be changed to be like your image god help our people to see that help us to trust you with your heads bowed and your eyes closed have absolutely no idea if the holy spirit has dealt with your heart about anything that you need to pray about or if you just need to say thank you for wonderful truths he taught you but i pray that you would take these truths home and i pray you'd let god do a work in your heart with them won't you tell him thank you thank you for saving you thank you for getting you out of death and into life out of death and into life thank you for making me a new creature thank you for living in me so i could live the christian life thank you for your exceeding great power thank you for your great promises to tell me your great promises to tell me that you began to work in me and you will fulfill the work in me father do a work magnify yourself speak to your people and i will give you all the praise you have been listening to austin gardner pastor of vision baptist church for contact information location service times or more audio and video recordings log on to www.visionbaptist.com