The curse of modern Christianity is to
acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the
Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own
understanding in such high esteem.
Do we know
God and his love and remain unchanged?
Read 2
Corinthians 3
For a good
portion of the New Testament, Paul discusses the Law and Grace, the flesh and
the Spirit, or the Law and the Spirit.
Can’t we just believe in Jesus and be done with it?
You could.
Many have and many miss out on life—abundant life.
So why all the
confusion over the law and grace or the law and the Spirit? There’s a lot of
gaslighting going on these days, and I am not talking about politics but the
church.
You have
seen the memes, “If the law was nailed to the cross…” Stop right there, gaslighters. That’s a false
premise used to manipulate an audience of people who don’t want to read their
Bibles but want to be right because they keep up with their memes, reels, and disinformation
dump of the week.
The law
was not nailed to the cross, so don’t set that up as your premise. Our sins
and debts were nailed to the cross, but never the law. The false premise is
used to bolster the status of the law, directives surpassed by the glory that
we know in Christ Jesus.
The law
showed us our sin. It was given so that our trespass
might increase—now that sounds weird. The law showed us just how far away
from God and his goodness we had come and were going. The law showed us what
our human eyes instinctively turn a blind eye to—our own sin.
I think we
better understand this whole increase of the trespass like this. The more intently
we look into God’s law, the more we see the gulf between us and his righteousness.
Our knowledge and awareness of our sinful nature and lives become more and more
evident to us.
So too, does
the awareness of how much greater God’s love for us is, much more than our sin.
God’s love has overcome our sinful nature. In comparing ourselves to the law,
we see two things very clearly.
1. We are like filthy
rags. We can stop thinking highly of ourselves. We are humbled.
2. God’s grace goes beyond our worst
sins. He didn’t create us to throw us away. He desires an eternal
relationship where we are in right standing with him.
The law
brings us to death. The law convicts us of our trespass. The law says that
the wages
of sin is death, and so it is, but God did not end the story there.
We were already
dead in our trespasses but God saved us from our disobedience, wickedness,
and rebellion. God did it all so
that no one could boast.
The law
shows us that we are dead in our trespasses. Christ is our only hope for life.
We have crossed
over from death to life when we believe in Christ Jesus.
But how will
we live?
If we genuinely
want to please God, we will live by the Spirit he placed inside us. In so
doing, we will instinctively live by the guide to good living, otherwise known
as the law.
If we truly
love God, following his commands will not
be a burden. And if God’s Spirit within us leads us to live a life of love,
we will have fulfilled
the demands of the law.
So, why was
the law even necessary?
God’s law
serves to mitigate the evil in our hearts. It reduces the effects of our sinful
human nature, but the law is not the end of the story. Mitigation is not the objective.
God desires to
replace the heart
of
stone—our
hardened,
sinful, self-serving, and comfort-governed nature—with a heart of love.
God desires that
none perish but all repent and come to life in Christ Jesus. The longevity
of life does not matter as much as the love that proceeds from our lives in
Christ.
How can we
live such lives? By listening to God’s Spirit.
You both live at the same address. God’s Spirit lives within you. Let God’s
Spirit lead you to live by love.
Consider
Paul’s words at the beginning of the chapter.
Are we
beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters
of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on
our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from
Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of
the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such
confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in
ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new
covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life.
We are all Letters
from Christ, but how does our letter read?
The curse of modern Christianity is to
acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the
Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own
understanding in such high esteem.
I stole this
from my Marine Corps brethren and adapted it to my purposes here.
If you
were accused of being a Marine, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
To us, now:
If you
were accused of living a life of love, would there be enough evidence to
convict you?
If you
were accused of living by the Spirit of God who resides at your place now,
would there be enough evidence to convict you?
If you
were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict
you?
The law
shows us that we were dead.
The Spirit
shows us how to live with Jesus as Lord.
The law
shows us what we once were. We were sinners at best. I think Isaiah nailed it
with filthy rags, but sinners at a minimum.
The Spirit leads
us to live as a new creature.
The law had
a glory all its own.
The Spirit
shows us how Jesus surpassed the law.
The old self
is gone.
The new has
come.
One is about
death and the other about life. The law
brings death. The Spirit brings life.
Choose life.
Live by the Spirit!
Amen!
Read
2
Corinthians 2
We will take
the first part of the chapter here and the rest at the next service.
Forgiveness
for the Offender
If anyone
has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to
some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the
majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so
that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to
reaffirm your love for him. Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would
stand the test and be obedient in everything.
Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there
was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,
in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
OK, you
remember that guy I told you to kick to the curb? Check on him see if he has
come to his senses. It might be time for forgiveness and reconciliation. I’m
ready—and I’m the guy who told you to give him the cold shoulder—and so too
should you be ready to forgive.
Forgive.
That’s a powerful verb and we need to wield it more. Yes, sometimes we do the
cold shoulder thing in extreme cases so that someone's soul might be saved on
the Day of the Lord.
If we do it
out of selfish motivations, we are playing for the wrong team. We have fallen
for the Devil’s schemes and have taken his yoke.
We all have
enough screwball issues of our own. We don’t want to discount this forgiveness
thing. God, through Christ, has forgiven us. Let’s not heap problems on top of
what the world throws on top of people.
Forgive.
Let’s cover the
part about Satan outwitting us. In the name of Jesus, get away from me,
Satan!
That should
be our standing conversation with the devil. You’ve got nothing good for me. Go
to hell. Go directly to hell. Do not pass go and do not collect $200. Some of
you are too young for the reference.
You play
Bunco now.
In the
name of Jesus, depart! That’s all we need to say to
Satan. We don’t discuss things further with him.
But we do.
How. It’s the devil. We know it’s the devil, so how can we listen to him?
We let our
own understanding lead us into temptation and conversation with the enemy.
The military
adage is to know your enemy. It is sound advice for the warrior
of any age.
But this is
what you need to know about your enemy. Don’t talk with him. Don’t reason with
him. Don’t expound on anything.
Satan is the
Father of Lies. Don’t try to outwit him. Tell him to go away. In the name of
Jesus, go away.
If we need
to talk about something, talk to your Father in heaven.
If we need
to wrestle with some of our thoughts, do it with God’s own Spirit first. You
both live at the same address.
If we need a
sounding board, we can talk with fellow believers.
The only way
that Satan can outwit us is if we play his games.
Go to bed
angry.
Don’t
forgive.
Trust our
own understanding over what God is telling us.
Be known by
your pointing fingers instead of your love.
Do you ever
get the urge to tell someone to “Shut Up!”?
You can tell
the devil to shut up. Make sure you tell him to Shut Up in the name of Jesus,
not your own righteousness.
Tell him to
go away, then walk away from the conversation you're not going to have. Satan
is not entitled to equal time.
But, but,
but, I’ve never had a conversation with Satan in my whole life… Yes, you have. It takes place in your mind.
We have all engaged in discussions that we should never have begun.
Why do you
think Paul directs us to take every thought captive and make it obedient to
Christ?
Most of
Paul’s counsel is in the realm of forgiveness. Elsewhere, we are told not to
give the devil a foothold. The failure to forgive as God has forgiven us is an
embossed invitation for Satan to take a seat at the decision-making table of
our lives.
That dog
don’t hunt. Forgive and tell the devil to hit the road in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Read
2
Corinthians 2
We looked at the first part of this
chapter during First Light. Let’s consider the last part here.
But thanks be to God, who always leads
us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma
of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of
Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one
we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And
who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God
for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as
those sent from God.
I read this some years ago. Some of you might
have even stayed awake for it. It’s called simply, A Manifesto and it’s by Dr. Morris Pepper. Yes, the sermon this morning has a message
from Dr. Pepper.
Morris Pepper was a Cumberland Presbyterian—a CP. I will
preface this by asking you to consider that we are all ministers, so when you
hear minister in this reading, put that in the first person.
I have nothing to sell. Many people think the minister is a peddler whose commodity is
religion. Preaching is making a sales talk. Visiting means cultivating
prospects. Evangelism is doing a “hard sell.”
I have nothing to sell. Religion is not a commodity. God is not on the
counter or in a catalog. God’s love and mercy are not Wall Street
items. God’s blessings will not be found in bargain basements.
I have nothing to sell. I have a witness to make. There are some things
which I believe, convictions arising from my thought and life, which I know
from within. Of these I witness. They are not mere
blessings of tradition. They are real to me because God is
real. But they cannot be bought or sold. They can only be
witnessed.
I have nothing to sell. I have a message to communicate. It is a story of
Jesus Christ, a story of redemption. It is a promise, a promise of
what can happen here and now. It is the gospel, the good news of
God’s love told by one who knows it firsthand. I am a storyteller, a
proclaimer, an announcer—not a cocky salesman with a hot line.
I have nothing to sell. I have a friendship to offer. Some are like Job
who would like to recapture the days when “the friendship of God was upon my
tent.” Others have never known such a relationship. Many
are afraid of God. Still others are rebellious. To these
and others I say, “God loves you. Won’t you let God be your friend?”
I have nothing to sell. You can’t buy salvation. You can’t buy
faith. You can’t buy heaven. You can’t buy
God. Nor can you sell them. My job is to offer you an
adventure, not to sell you a bill of goods—to invite you to join a mission, not
a Cosmos Club.
I am not doing hard sell, soft sell, or using psychology. I don’t have any tricks to pull out of the
bag. So don’t raise your sales resistance. I am an
educator, a teacher, a pastor, a counselor—but please, not a
huckster! I am a witness, a communicator, an announcer, a reporter,
but never a peddler.
For we are not like so many, peddlers of God’s word; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from
God and standing in his presence
Witnessing is a mindset. What I have
in my relationship with God is too good to keep to myself. If I don’t believe
that, I should question whether or not I believe in the one true God. If I say
that I believe in God and his forgiveness, but am not compelled to share that
with others, do I believe at all?
When I consider the mercy of God
poured out in the blood of Jesus for my sins, I must testify to love.
As I consider the grace of God applied
to my life, I cannot be so selfish as not to tell others whenever I can.
When I think that God himself,
speaking as the person of Jesus Christ his Son, said be known by your love, how
can I grow deaf to his command?
We have nothing to sell. We have good
news to deliver. We have an example to make. We have believers to disciple.
We are not a country club.
We are not entertainment.
We are people who have repented.
We are people who carry the Spirit of
God inside of us.
We were sinners.
We have come out of our disobedience
to believe in the Son of God.
We were saved by grace.
We are a new creature—a new creation.
And that new creature can’t keep its mouth shut about the goodness and glory of
God that we know firsthand in Christ Jesus and the Spirit that lives within us.
We are people who walk by faith, not
by sight.
We have nothing to sell. We have a witness
to make.
But will we? Is this starting to sound
familiar?
The curse of modern Christianity is to
acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the
Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own
understanding in such high esteem.
If we have been changed, then we have
stories to tell, witnesses to make, and a message that we cannot contain within
us.
Amen.
Read 2
Corinthians 3
Paul talked
about the glory of the Old Covenant and the Law that came through Moses. Moses
had been in the presence of God, and he veiled his face because the people were
not ready to look upon one who had been in God's presence.
The Law that
came through Moses was glorious but could only show us that we were dead in our
sins. Its actions only mitigated the evil in our hearts, but the glory that
comes through Christ has surpassed the glory of the Law so much so that there
is no comparison.
Jesus wants a
wholesale exchange of our hearts of evil for hearts of love.
Listen to
where Paul goes next.
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are
very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent
the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds
were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is
read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to
this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone
turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with
unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his
image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
To this day,
people see the rules established by God without seeing the heart of God. They
have checklists but do not understand the divine intent. In the vernacular of 2025,
Paul was saying, “Prove you’re not a robot.”
We don’t
just go through the motions. Jesus has opened our eyes to the divine love of
God. He has brought us from death to life and is with us to the end of the age.
He is with us in the Spirit of God that lives within us.
People ask
me, “How to you make one person out of three?”
They are referring, of course, to the God in three persons
verbiage by which we know the Trinity of God.
The answer
is that we can’t make one out of three, but we can understand God, who is very
much beyond our understanding, manifest to us in three different persons. It’s
still one God but revealed to us as Father, Son, and Spirit.
So when
Jesus said that he would be with
us to the end of the age, he is very much present in the Spirit that lives
within us.
And Jesus,
the Spirit, and every part of God that we know intimately are working to
transform us. We don’t hide from the glory of God. We desire it. We seek it. We
want to live
a life worthy of the calling that we have received.
The law will
not transform us. It will show us that we have no standing before God on our
own merits. He made us good and we made a mess of it. The law will show us that,
but it can only mitigate the evil in our hearts.
God, who
lives within us, transforms us into his divine image. If we would just follow
his lead…
But our own
understanding says:
· The law makes more sense.
· I need to do something tangible for my
salvation.
· There’s got to be more.
We should celebrate
a life led entirely by the Spirit of God; instead, we are showing off our
acceptance letter to the School of Hard Knocks.
Yeah, I know the Spirit was leading me to do things God’s way, but…
Following
the Spirit that he placed inside of us can lead to freedom—that’s a good one
for this Independence Day weekend, peace, fulfillment, and pleasing God. Why
would we resist that?
Life and
Abundant life reside in following the Spirit’s lead. Why would we not want
that?
Anxiety,
fear, worry, and the things of the world that debilitate us are kicked to the
curb when we follow the Spirit of God, who lives at our address now. That seems
like a good trade, right?
If we follow
the Spirit's leading, he will lead us to love-filled actions. Our love will
make us known as followers of Jesus. Let the Spirit lead.
That’s the
model we have be given. Let’s follow God’s Spirit.
Amen.
