Before we look at the text, I would like to remind you of why we do what we do right now; why do I stand before you and open up the Word of God and preach it to you? Well, certainly there are many reasons. But first of all, we must remember that sinners cannot be saved, apart from the hearing of the Word. They need to understand it so that they can believe in it. Secondly, saints cannot be sanctified, unless they understand the word and apply it to their lives. And then thirdly, because Satan is so deceptive, it's important for us to understand the truth so that we can spot the counterfeits. Weak preaching will produce weak Christians. And so it's very important that every pastor, fulfill the role of a pastor teacher, as delineated. For example, in Ephesians, four, beginning of verse 12. My role, my responsibility, my calling, my gifting, is to equip the "saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God." The text goes on to speak of how that is to bring you to a place of maturity, so that you will, "no longer be children tossed here and there by waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming." And certainly, that is one of Satan's greatest tools to fill pulpits, and Bible colleges and universities, with those who are going to teach things that are false. And shallow preaching that does not deal with the word of God systematically, and exegetically, will ultimately banish believers to an island of spiritual infancy. Most Christians today have very little understanding of Bible theology, and so they have very little spiritual discernment. And they get sucked into all kinds of crazy things that are out there. Perhaps one of the most graphic manifestations of this can be seen in the typical American, quote, "Christian" teenager. I was reading an article on this, Christian Smith and his fellow researchers with the National Study of Youth and Religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducted interviews with 3000 American adolescents to learn about their religious beliefs. And they discovered what they identified as moralistic therapeutic deism; a concept by the way, which is summarized in his book, Soul Searching the Religious and Spiritual Eyes of American Teenagers by Christian Smith, along with Melinda Lundqvist Denton. But according to the researchers, moralistic therapeutic, deism consists of beliefs like what follows. They discovered that they believe number one, that a god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on Earth. But secondly, God wants people to be good; nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. Thirdly, the central goal of life is to be happy, and to feel good about oneself. Fourthly, God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life, except when God is needed to resolve a problem. And then finally, good people go to heaven when they die. And frankly, that's how most people think today. This is consistent with deists. "Deist" comes from "Deus" in Latin which is word for God. And deists believed basically those things, they believe in the existence of a supreme being, but even though he's the creator, he's not really involved that much with his created world. And we know a lot of diests today. President Trump is a deist; he is not a Christian. He is a deist. Our founding fathers were deist; they weren't born again Christians, most of them. The researchers went on to say quote, "That in some," referring to those five concepts, "when it came to the most crucial questions of faith and beliefs, that in some, is the Creed to which much adolescent faith can be reduced. When it came to the most crucial questions of faith and beliefs. Many adolescents responded with a shrug and quote, 'whatever'." As a matter of fact, the researchers found that American teenagers are incredibly inarticulate about their religious beliefs, and most are virtually unable to offer any serious theological understanding. As Smith reports, quote, "To the extent that the teens we interviewed did manage to articulate what they understood and believed religiously, it became clear that most religious teenagers either do not really comprehend what their own religious traditions say they are supposed to believe, or they do not understand it, and simply do not care to believe it. Either way, it is apparent that most religiously affiliated US teens are not particularly interested in espousing and upholding the beliefs of their faith traditions, or that their communities of faith are failing in attempts to educate their youth, or both." End quote. And as the researchers explained, quote, 'For most teens, nobody has to do anything in life, including anything to do with religion, 'whatever' is just fine. If that's what a person wants." End quote. Well, beloved, we must do better with all of our people, certainly with our young people, but with everyone, we are not a social club. We are not a social activist organization, preaching a social gospel, trying to promote social justice, we're not a word of faith, prosperity cult, learning how to manipulate God so that we can pry goodies out of his stingy fingers. But rather we are the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth, as Paul said, In First Timothy three, verse 15. And as elders we are, "to preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction; Second, Timothy four, two. So that's why we're here right now. That's what I'm doing. That's why I'm doing what I do every Sunday morning. So just a reminder, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I just want you to really grab a hold of that, because it is so important.

Now as we come back to the word, and this text in Second Corinthians three, may I remind you of the context here; Paul, has been defending himself against the scurrilous and the satanic attacks of the false apostles that had invaded the church at Corinth. They were for the most part Judaizers that insisted obedience to the Mosaic Law was necessary for salvation. And so they mixed elements of the old covenant with the new and so forth, trying to blend it together. And in this section of his defense, Paul provides a short summary of the new covenant that underscores some of the amazing blessings that are inherent in it. And we have looked at the first two of five that I have described in weeks gone by. We looked at number one: the new covenant is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. In other words, as we studied, it is the Spirit who causes us to be born again, he delivers us from the slavery of sin; the power of Satan. He causes us to be more and more conformed to the likeness of Christ and so forth. But secondly, we celebrate the blessings of the New Covenant because it is the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. The old covenant could not do that. But you have to have the righteousness of Christ or you cannot be saved. And now, thirdly--that we're going to look at today--is that it is also the source of eternal glory. Number four, it is the source of courageous hope. And number five, it is the source of unveiled gospel clarity. So let me read the text beginning in Second Corinthians three in verse 12.

"Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person 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 liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." And I pray that the Spirit of God will give us real understanding, as we look at this text. As I was thinking about the blessings that we can celebrate from the New Covenant my mind, for some reason, went to the Publishers Clearing House commercials. You've seen those where all of a sudden, this van pulls up, these people get out with this great big check, and somebody gets $5,000 a week for life. I assume that's true. I'm not even really sure. But that's beside the point. But you see these people, they're just overwhelmed with joy. It's like the greatest thing that's ever happened to them. Well, folks, the greatest thing that could ever happen to anybody is not winning $5,000 a week for life. It's coming to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the blessings of the new covenant. My point is simply this, we need to have the same kind of exhilaration at least that the people have when they win Publishers Clearing House.

So we've examined in days gone by, that the new covenant is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. It's also the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. And now we're going to look at the final three in the series of five, beginning with--it is the source of eternal glory. Now, you will recall that when Moses received the law on Mount Sinai, he came into the presence of our infinite, holy, transcendent God, and the Shekinah glory of God encompassed Moses. And of course, that glory of God--that dazzling light--in the Old Testament, and even in the new, is always a picture of the visible manifestation of the power and the perfections in the presence of God. And according to Exodus 34, beginning in verse 29, we read how that blazing light of God's glory stayed with Moses. And it emanated from his face when he came down off of the mountain. And that light was so blinding, it was so terrifying, that he had to put a veil over his face. Imagine what that would have looked like. And what is even more fascinating is to note that the effulgence of God's glory that encompassed Moses was only a tiny fraction of the total glory of God. He saw only a partial glory, not the full glory. Of course, that would have destroyed him had he seen that. Let me remind you of this. It's written in Exodus 33, beginning in verse 18. "Then Moses said, 'I pray You, show me Your glory!' And God said, 'I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.' But he said, 'You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!' Then the Lord said, 'Behold, there is a place by Me and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while my glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.'" It's amazing, isn't it? Despite Moses veiled exposure to that tiny, little portion of God's glory, his face shone with such devastating brilliance that it terrified the Israelites and he had to wear a veil. By the way, what will it be like when one day we see the Lord face to face. Because you'll have to be in a glorified state before that can happen or we’d just be disintegrated. But the veil, you must understand, served another purpose, not only to prevent them from just kind of passing out in fear, as they were horrified, it's such a sight. But what we're going to see a little bit later in verse 13, it says Moses "put a veil over his face, so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away." A reference to the Mosaic Covenant, the old covenant. You see the concealment prevented them from seeing the fading splendor that accompanied the old covenant. Let me take you back to verse seven of this chapter. There we read, "But if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones,"--which by the way is reference to the old covenant law, that which God Himself etched on the stone tablets we read about in Exodus 32--"If the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?" A reference to the new covenant. "For if the ministry of condemnation has glory,"-- a reference to the law--"much more it is the ministry of righteousness abound in glory"--a reference to the new covenant.

Now friends remember the old covenant could only damn, it could never justify. It was the basis of condemnation, not the basis of salvation. It could only expose our unrighteousness; it could never impute the righteousness of Christ. And without the righteousness of Christ, no one can be reconciled to a holy God; nobody could be saved; nobody could be redeemed; nobody could enter into the glory of heaven and so forth. And Paul went on to say in verses 10 and 11 of Second Corinthians three, "For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory." You see, dear friends, the old covenant law faded after it served its purpose. And its purpose was to expose man's sin and his utter inability to save himself; his utter lack of righteousness and need for the righteousness of God that only he could give. And so its purpose was to bring conviction and to bring repentance, not salvation. But the new covenant, the Gospel, superseded the old covenant and so therefore, as the text says, it "remains," its permanent; it will never fade away. And that's Paul's argument here. He's saying, essentially, to the saints there in Corinth, who are being deceived by these people who are wanting to take elements of the old covenant and add it to the new he's saying, Folks, why do you want to return to that which was obscure; that which was veiled? Yet it was glorious, yes, the Mosaic Covenant, but all of its symbols and types and mystery-- all of that pointed to the new covenant. In fact, its glory was intended to diminish. Its glory would ultimately be superseded by an infinitely greater glory in the glory of the new covenant, a permanent glory. So why resort again to all of the external rituals and ceremonies and sacrifices and diet restrictions and Sabbath restrictions. The old covenant was intended to curse, not to bless. Hebrews 9:12, we read that we are saved, "not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." And when we come to saving faith in Christ, that's what we believe. We are saying, Father, I have no merit of my own. I have nothing to contribute to my salvation. I am wholly dependent upon your mercy and your grace and so I cry out to you in faith, asking you to save me. And on the basis of such a profession of faith, we obtain, as we've seen here in the text, eternal redemption, access into the glorious presence of God.

Now remember Old Testament saints were saved the same way New Testament saints were. They were saved by grace, through faith alone--grace alone, faith alone, but on the basis of the new covenant that was promised in Jeremiah 31, for example. You see, the new covenant was ratified at the cross, but its benefits were appropriated by faith that believed that God would fulfill his new covenant promises, that were given in the Old Testament. So you might say that the Old Testament saints were saved on credit. Hebrews nine, verse 15, says, "For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." So dear friends, because of the new covenant, we are glory bound; it is the source of eternal glory. I was thinking of that great hymn, "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine, oh, what a foretaste," of what? "Glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood." So we celebrate the new covenant because it is also the source of eternal glory.

But number four, it is the source of courageous hope. Notice verse 12; "Therefore, having such hope, we use great boldness in our speech." You know, all you have to do folks is look around and you see a world that has no hope. It's really sad, isn't it? People hope in their political ideologies, they hope in their politicians, they worship the god and goddesses of government. I think of all of this chaos that we see around the country today. The people that basically say, Look, folks, we can have Utopia on Earth, if everyone will just agree with our presuppositions with our agenda. And if you don't, we are going to silence you. We're going to force you to agree with us. What kind of hope is that? Other people hope in their religion; their personal efforts to impress God with their good works, with their rituals and ceremonies. And of course, that's what was going on in Paul's day with Judaizers. We see this in many branches of Protestant evangelicalism, even today. Jesus came to make salvation possible, but only if you do your part. And folks, that's not the gospel. You have nothing to contribute. All false religions have their list, don't they? Do this, do that; earn your salvation. And of course, all of those are counterfeits. These are people that really have no hope. You've heard me say before that when I encounter Jehovah's Witnesses, or Mormons or Muslims, I will always ask them somewhere in the conversation, “So I'm curious, do you think you're going to make the cut?" And it's always fascinating to watch the reaction. Because down deep, they just don't know for sure. And sometimes they will tell you that. And I always love to be able to say to them, "boy, I know I couldn't. But I trusted Jesus who made the cut for me. He paid a penalty I could never pay. So my confidence, my hope, is in Him; in what he has accomplished." I always like to tell people; the law says here's what you must do. But the Gospel says here's what Christ has done. And therefore, we can sing "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ, the solid rock I stand all other ground," is what? "Is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand."

Back to verse 12. "Therefore, having such hope, we use great boldness in our speech." The term "boldness" here is a reference to the fearless proclamation of the gospel even in the face of great adversity. You know, I've given you a tract here that you can hand out. Or you can link it online to somehow plant the seeds of the gospel. And it's easy for us to be filled with fear--oh I'm not sure what somebody might say. And then suddenly we become more afraid of man, have fear of man more than we do of God. We very subtly become ashamed of the gospel. But folks, when your heart is absolutely consumed with the Gospel; the triad of the gospel, which is faith, hope, and love, then you will have boldness. I mean, think about it, you have to have faith, otherwise, you have no hope. And if you have no hope, you will have no real love for other people to share the good news of the gospel with them; you're too concerned about protecting yourself. So if you're afraid of opposition, you need to think about this. You need to be obedient. First, Thessalonians, five, eight, where Paul says, put on "as a helmet, the hope of salvation." I see a lot of the police out there, they've got these helmets and the masks, they keep the bricks and all the other opposition coming at them. Well, we've got a helmet too. And it is the hope, the helmet of the hope of salvation. So again, the new covenant is the source of courageous hope. Romans 15:13, Paul says, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Folks, this is the hope according to Colossians, one five that is "laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel." According to Hebrews 6:19, this is the, "hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope which is both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil."

You see, this was the new covenant hope that Paul preached that absolutely infuriated the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. But also, it was the new covenant gospel that saved many of them, as it has us. Aren't you thankful that people were bold enough to share the truth with us? Paul prayed for the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:18, "that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened, so that they would know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." This is, according to Hebrews seven and verse 19, "the better hope through which we draw near to God." This is, as Peter said, In First Peter, one, three, "the living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And for this reason, he went on to say in verse 13, and verse 21, he said, "fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ....Your faith and hope are in God." You know, as I was meditating on that passage, I just thought to myself, Lord, when you come to take me home, I want to be found as a bold, indefatigable, wounded, perhaps, soldier who just never gave ground; battle scarred, but refused to give up the post. And folks, I want you to be with me. And I know so many of you are. But what drives that kind of boldness? It's the hope that we have in Christ. It's the new covenant. It's the gospel. We serve the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the victory is ours. I know a lot of times it looks like we're losing the war. You know, it's kind of like playing in a football game, and they just keep moving the goalposts. It's like, you're just never going to win. But ultimately, because of Christ, we win. So we fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, our faith and our hope are in God.

So, the new covenant is the source of eternal glory. It's the source of courageous hope. And number five, it is the source of unveiled gospel clarity. Again, verse 12. Notice, "Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech." Verse 13, "and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away." What's going on there? Why do the veil? Why would God have him do that? Well, verse 14 says, "But their minds were hardened." In other words, what he's saying here is, in contrast with Moses--who wanted them to understand the impermanence of the law; who wanted them to understand that its purpose was to reveal sin and our inability to keep it; to expose our need for a Savior, to expose the fact that it was a covenant that was going to fade away and be superseded by the new covenant--Unlike them, you know these truths. Of course, the Jews had lowered the moral standards of the law. They came up with creative, superficial ways of keeping the requirements externally. When I think about that, boy, that's me, my heart just naturally goes to that. I can always come up with some way that I think God is going to be impressed with me. Kind of the shortcut, you know? We've all got a little bit of hypocrisy in us, right? And that's what they were doing. And like all legalists, they invented ways to be righteous in their own eyes. And it's for this reason that God hardened their minds and their hearts. I mean, after all, think about it, who needs a savior if you can save yourself? That's what he's saying to them. So in verse 14, we read that God judicially hardened their minds. "Mind" in Greek, it comes from the word, "noema." Which refers to our faculty of thought; our ability to apprehend or understand things. And because they were playing this ridiculous game, trying to come up with ways of being obedient to the law, and thinking that they were righteous in God's eyes, because of this, God rendered them unable to recognize the significance of the fading glory symbolized in Moses' veil. They just couldn't see it, they didn't get it. So their ability to apprehend, their ability to perceive the truth of the new covenant was dead. And as I say, two plus two is five. We run across that all the time. You give people the gospel, you explain it to them--two plus two is five. Unless the Spirit of God does something in their heart, it's always going to be five or six, or seven, or whatever, but it will never be four. Unless the Spirit of God changes their heart. It says, verse 14, that their "minds were hardened." "Poroo", in the original language. It comes from a Greek word "poros." It was used to describe a stone, for example. A stone that would be used in, in construction. But it was also used to describe the formation of that kind of bony callus that forms around a fractured bone. That's the idea. And in that sense, and especially because it's a passive verb, there's the indication here that their unbelief caused their minds to become calloused over, or to become hard. Metaphorically, they became insensitive, blind to the truth. We see this concept of hardening in numerous passages in the Old Testament. Let me give you one, Deuteronomy 29. If we go there, we would see that the context describes how the despite all that God had done for the Israelites, and rescuing them, delivering them from the bondage of Egypt, they still did not fear the Lord. They still disregarded His glory and the awesomeness of his character. They still disobeyed him; tried to pursue righteousness on their own. And so in Deuteronomy 29 four, we read, "Yet to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear." And of course, we saw this in the first century and it continues to this day.

The same spiritual blindness continues among most--not all--Jewish people. Paul spoke of this in Romans 11 and verse eight. He said, "Just as it is written, 'God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.'" Jesus described this as well, you may recall, John five, Jesus excoriated the Jews for their fastidious rule keeping, where they thought that they could somehow impress God and obey the law even though they were mucking around with it to get it where they could; obey it superficially. And, of course, this prevented them from seeing the truth of the new covenant. And so in John 5:39, Jesus says, "'You search the Scriptures because you think that in them, you have eternal life.’” Then he says this, "'it's these that bear witness of Me.'" The point is, you can't see it.

And by the way, Christ is the main theme of Scripture. In verse 46, of that same chapter--in John five--Jesus said "'For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.'" So in other words, you just wouldn't see it in the Old Testament. And ultimately, we see that God blinded them--judicially hardened their heart because of their unbelief. If you go to Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, we see the Lord clearly there. "'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.'" It's as if Jesus was saying to the Jews, I mean, what do you think when you read that? You couldn't see me in that? You couldn't see me and the new covenant promises in Jeremiah 31? You couldn't see me in the royal messianic psalms and the Psalter? You couldn't see me in Isaiah 52, verse 13, through Isaiah 53? Paul tells us that Israel's blindness is going to continue until the Messiah returns and saves a remnant of his people. Romans 11, verse 25, and following, here's what Paul says, "For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation." In other words, you Gentiles, I don't want you to get cocky here. I want you to understand what God has done with the Jewish people. And he says this, "that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until great word of hope there until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS."

So indeed, back to our text in verse 14, "their minds were hardened." I see this as well in Luke 24. Remember, when Jesus met with a couple of his disciples on the road to Emmaus? You know, I mean, they were they were frustrated. They were talking about, well, you know, Jesus, we thought he was the Messiah, we thought the kingdom was going to be brought in, and then all of a sudden, I mean, He's crucified. And now there's rumors that he's been risen from the dead? What's going on here? They were astonished at all of this. They had no idea they were talking with Jesus, until later. And Jesus said to them in Luke 24, beginning in verse 25, "'O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!'" He went on to say, "'Was it not necessary for the Christ,'" the Messiah, "'to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?' Then beginning with Moses, and with all the prophets, Jesus explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."

See again, if only the Jews had embraced the purpose of the law, and the passing glory of the Old Covenant, that would be superseded by the new--had they done, so that veil would have been removed. And fortunately, someday, for many it will be. And some are having it removed now. But Paul's point with all of this, with the Corinthians, is to say, look folks, unlike the hard-hearted Israelites in the days of Moses, your hearts have been softened by the Holy Spirit who now dwells within you. Verses two and three speak of that in this chapter.

Back to his Jewish kinsmen, in verse 14, at the end, he says, "for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant," which by the way, they would do in the synagogues, "the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lives over their heart." I've got Jewish friends that have come to faith in Christ and I love to hear them describe how the Spirit of God lifted the veil over their eyes. But how sad, think about it, even in Paul's day. People knew who Christ was, he had healed everybody in Palestine, basically. They knew of his crucifixion, his resurrection from the dead, or at least claims of it. They had all this new covenant clarity from his preaching, and the preaching of the Apostles and others, that explain the purpose, and impermanence of the old covenant. And yet, despite all of that, they still would not believe it. And in their arrogance, they believe that they could somehow accomplish their own righteousness by keeping their version of the law. And of course, this is totally contrary to anything you would read in the Old Testament. I think of Isaiah 66. You may recall the context there is how God is not looking for a temple of stone to dwell in, he's looking for tender humbled broken hearts. And in verse one of Isaiah 66, he says, "Thus says the Lord, 'Heaven is my throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being.' declares the Lord. 'But to this one I will look.'" In other words, this is what gets God's attention. "'To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.'" That's what the Lord's looking for. He dwells in that kind of a heart. And ironically, Israel's unbelief actually fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies that he would have to suffer. Really an interesting thought. Paul described this to his Jewish audience in Antioch. He was speaking in a synagogue; they're telling them all of these things they certainly didn't want to hear. We read about it in Acts 13, verse 27, he says, "For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Christ nor the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him." In other words, fulfilled the fact that Messiah would have to suffer. And I must confess, I fear that some of that same hard-hearted unbelief may exist even among some of the people here at Calvary Bible Church. I mean, you want to ask yourself, am I humble and contrite of heart? Is my heart tender to the reality that I have nothing to offer God to earn salvation? And I'm wholly dependent upon his grace. Do I tremble at his word? Or am I indifferent towards it, like the typical American, quote, unquote, "Christian teenager," and just say, "whatever, no big deal." You hear the gospel, but it really doesn't impact you. You kind of wish the preacher would just hurry up and get through it all. You don't embrace it wholeheartedly. Folks, if that is you, you're spiritually dead, and you will perish in your sin.

Dear friend, examine yourself. Don't be deceived. Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 28, says, "Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses." But then he adds this, "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God." In other words, rejected the Gospel. "And has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" Then he says, "For we know Him who said, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.' And again, 'THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE." It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Folks, we must remember that God only saves those who are absolutely convinced that they have nothing to offer. Those who are desperate for mercy and grace. His grace is only available to those who know they cannot earn it. He only saves the broken and the humble and the contrite and the desperate; those who mourn over their sin; those who hunger and thirst for righteousness beyond their own.

In verse 16, he says, "But whenever a person turns to the Lord," here it is, "the veil is taken away." I love that. You remember when the light came on in your life? I do, when I was a young boy. Gospel clarity. When suddenly you could see the horror of your sin, the glory of the cross and all of a sudden it made sense. By the way, when that happens, that's called regeneration. Reminds me of an old bluegrass song we used to sing--"I saw the light, no more darkness, no more night. Now I'm so happy, no sorrow inside, praise the Lord. I saw the light." That's what verse 16 is. Whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Paul spoke of this in Second Corinthians four six, he said, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness.'" A reference to creation. That same God is, "the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Folks, that's what the new covenant does. That's the power of the gospel.

I'll deal with verse 16, or 17, and the end of 18 the next time we're together, but jump down to verse 18. He says, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord." The analogy here is this-- When Moses was in the presence of God on the mountain, his face was unveiled, even though he was only allowed to see a tiny portion of the glory of God. But now, new covenant believers--those who have placed their faith in Christ--can behold the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face. That's the idea. O child of God don't miss this. We celebrate the blessings of the new covenant because it is the source of unveiled gospel clarity. Think of it this way, regeneration produces illumination. It causes us to be born again, as we see the light of the amazing truth of the gospel. So what was once concealed in all of the types and the mysteries of those symbols, and the pictures; all of that's now clear. The New Covenant explains what was once a shadow of what was to come-- the glory of the gospel. So Paul is saying, you people are being duped by these false apostles. Why go back to the shadow when you have the reality? That's the point.

Well, may I challenge all of you to celebrate the blessings of the new covenant in your family and in your life. Fathers, especially you. Real men, godly men, shepherd their families. Men that don't are wimps. That's all there is to it. So many wives, so many children are frustrated because their husbands and fathers don't shepherd their people. Godly men are going to take these truths and understand them, make them such a part of themselves, that they're gonna share them and teach them to their children.

First Corinthians 16:13, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." And that's my encouragement to all of the men here on Father's Day, but to all of us. Let's see, let's examine, reexamine and celebrate the blessings that emerge from the new covenant, because it is the source of eternal life by the Holy Spirit. It is the source of the imputed righteousness of Christ. It is the source of eternal glory, the source of courageous hope, and the source of unveiled gospel, clarity. And all God's people can say, Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these truths. May they bear much fruit in each of our hearts as we celebrate them in our lives, as we live them out, so that others can see the hope that is in us. And because of our faith and our hope, and our love, may we be bold in our proclamation of the gospel. We commit all of this to you in the name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen.