First Corinthians, chapter...
just First Corinthians, never mind the chapter, if
you'll go there with me.
Please, I'm going to be speaking about the
glorious ministration of the Spirit.
First Corinthians, and we're going to be all
through Corinthians.
Now, I'm, this morning, going to do a
small introduction, I guess, to the teaching that
Pastor William is going to be doing in
much greater detail.
He's going to be teaching on the book
of First Corinthians, and possibly into Second Corinthians.
Now, that would happen most Friday nights, but
it'll also be mixed in with Tuesday nights
and Sundays as well.
So, for those of you who are trying
to figure out when Pastor William is speaking,
you're just going to have to be here
for every service.
And you'll be able to hear this teaching
from First Corinthians.
This is very pivotal to us, especially the
time that we're living in right now.
I pray that you give the Holy Spirit
your best ear this morning, and hear what
he is speaking to the church.
Now, Father, I bend my knee before you,
and Lord, I acknowledge that all knowledge and
wisdom comes from you.
There is no knowledge apart from you, there's
no strength, there's no anointing, there's nothing of
eternal value unless you place your hand on
it.
I'm asking you, Lord, to place your hand
on these thoughts that you've given to me.
Place your hand on my physical body and
my mind, and enable me today to speak
this in a manner that will cause a
deep and lasting impression in the hearts and
the minds of the hearers today.
Lord, you are so good to us, because
we are hungry as a people, you will
feed us.
And Lord, we acknowledge that every good thing
comes from your hand.
This is all about you, it comes from
you, and I pray that with hearts of
faith we can bring it back to you
in a manner that truly honors your life
within us.
Quicken me now, give me the grace that
I need, Father.
I thank you in Jesus' name.
The glorious ministration of the Spirit.
Now, Paul wrote two letters to the Corinthian
church, of course, First and Second Corinthians, and
Corinth was an ancient city of Greece.
And Corinth was the New York City of
its day.
It was a prosperous, it was a central,
it was a material affluent city, and very
intellectually arrogant against the knowledge of God.
Everything that you found in Corinth, I'm sure
you find in modern day New York City.
If Paul the Apostle were to be brought
back from where he is now with the
Lord and were to walk the streets of
this city, he would more than likely call
this city Corinth.
As societies often are, it's probably a place
where people sought for fame and advantage over
others, and most likely there was a significant
man focus among the population.
We're living in a day like that.
This is a tremendously man-focused hour.
All you have to do is buy groceries,
and you can see it at every, all
the magazine racks where you buy your groceries,
even if, even focused even on people whose
lives are an absolute mess, but still focused
on this.
I have to walk down 53rd Street to
come to the church throughout the week, and
I'm surprised at the number of times that
there have been lineups of people virtually almost
down to the corner at times, rain, snow,
wind, or cold, to catch a glimpse of
some person who's come in to perform.
Names that I've never even heard of in
most cases, but people seem to know who
they are.
And they will line up just so they
can scream and wail when they come out
the stage door and get into their limo
and are whisked away, just to catch a
glimpse.
This is a society that is people-focused.
Corinth was undoubtedly one of the most problematic
of the churches that Paul had founded, because
in great measure of this focus, his personal
visits and letters most often centered around issues
of faith and practice.
And this faith and practice was always in
danger of straying, or had strayed, or was
threatening to stray from apostolic authority.
You see, this church had been established on
the Word of God.
It was built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets.
And Paul's theology, absolutely and unarguably, was Jesus
Christ.
Christ is everything.
Our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.
Paul's gospel was not in the wisdom of
man, but in demonstration in his own life
of the power of God.
Not just the ability to do miracles in
the miraculous, as wonderful as that may be.
But when Paul said to the Corinthian church,
follow me as I follow Christ, he was
speaking about this inward embracing of Jesus Christ
that he knew was transforming his life day
by day, making him into another person.
That's why Paul had the authority to say,
if any man be in Christ, he's a
new creation.
Paul was a man who could say, reasonably,
look at me and see Christ in me,
and see what Christ is doing in me.
I, Paul says, who am the least of
all saints.
He did not consider himself to be any
great one.
He said to the people himself, I stand
before you in fear and trembling.
He knew his own frailty.
He knew his own weaknesses.
He knew his own history, his own background.
He knew the great evil that, apart from
God, that he was capable of doing.
But yet he knew that the life that
he had was a life that had been
given to him freely of grace.
And he was growing in this grace and
knowledge of Christ that was within him.
And so Paul was a man who stood
before the people, not with enticing words of
men's wisdom, but in a visible demonstration in
his own life of the spirit and of
power, the power of God to change a
man.
That's why quite often you find Paul simply
sharing his testimony in the most difficult of
situations, telling the people, I was this kind
of a man and this was the focus
of my life.
And this was the rage as it is
in the lust that had gripped my heart.
But I had a living encounter with the
living Christ.
And this living Christ not only spoke to
me, but came and began to live his
life within me.
And now, Paul says, in him, in the
book of Acts, that we live and move
and we have our being.
It's Christ in us that he tells the
churches that is our hope of glory.
In first Corinthians, chapter four and verses 14
to 16.
Paul says, I write not these things to
shame you, but as my beloved sons, I
warn you.
For though you have 10,000 instructors in
Christ and there were no shortage of teachers
trying to get into the church, this church
that Paul had founded in Corinth, yet have
you not many fathers for in Christ Jesus,
I have begotten you.
He said through the gospel, wherefore, I beseech
you, be ye followers of me.
Paul says, I warn you, you have instructor
upon instructor upon instructor upon instructor coming your
way.
But you were founded on a foundation that
made you what you are today.
And he said, no matter what others may
come in, no matter how they may try
to preach the gospel to you, no matter
what they profess to be Christ, you have
been placed on a solid foundation.
You've seen my life and you see all
the way through first and second Corinthians, this
thread that Paul is warning the Corinth church
about because they are a man watching society
and they don't realize that this man watching
this is going to lead them astray.
And many, many of them are going to
go astray because they simply are not willing
to understand that it's not about men.
The Christian church is about Jesus Christ and
Christ alone.
The rest of us are doomed and damned
without his grace.
Not one of us could stand and speak
to you.
Not one of us would have any wisdom
or any power, any anointing, any ability to
change.
It's Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.
His is the only name that is to
be exalted in the Christian church.
Hallelujah.
Now, in first Corinthians chapter one, Paul begins
his letters to the Corinthian church by addressing
a deep centered root problem that is in
this church.
The people don't really see it perhaps as
a problem, but they don't realize what this
is.
This focus is going to lead them into
first Corinthians chapter one and verse 10.
He says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
you all speak the same thing, that there
be no divisions among you, that you'd be
perfectly joined together in the same mind and
in the same judgment.
For it has been declared to me of
you, my brethren, by them which are of
the house of Chloe, that there are contentions
among you.
Now this I say, that every one of
you says, I am of Paul, I am
of Apollos, I am of Cephas, which is
Peter, and I have Christ.
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Then Paul goes on in verse 14.
He says, I thank God that I baptized
none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest
any should say that I had baptized in
my own name.
You see, the man focus of Corinth was
still very much a part of their makeup.
They most likely didn't see this as a
problem, because after all, their focus was centered
at this time on godly men.
That's an amazing thing.
Focus, a focus doesn't always start wrong.
It can even appear to be right.
You can be in a church body and
Corinth was a church.
And of course, they still had this, this
man focus was very much part of their
society.
And these people are getting together and they're
saying, no, Paul is my man.
I'm telling you, if I could figure out
when he's preaching, I'd be there every time
Paul is preaching.
Another guy says, no, Apollos is my man.
Apollos is articulate.
Apollos is incredibly intelligent.
Apollos can take the scriptures and just dissect
it and divide it in a way that
it's like an artist painting a picture.
Another one says, no, Peter is my man.
He's just a he's just a meat and
potatoes kind of guy.
He just stands up there and says, you
can go through these fiery trials.
You can make it through.
I've been there.
You can go through there, too.
He's a prime exhorter.
I'm a I'm a I'm a Peter kind
of a person.
Another one says, no, I'm of Christ.
And all this division is here and they
don't necessarily see it as the wrong thing.
But it was a a root cause of
much of the heartache that was going to
come in to the Corinthian church.
Now, I pray that we'd be better than
this at Times Square Church.
I pray with all my heart that nobody
here is sitting and trying to figure out
when Pastor Neil is speaking, because that's your
man.
And others would say, well, Sister Teresa, now
this is really this is revelation like none
of these guys have on this platform whatsoever.
And if I could just figure out when
she's speaking, I'd be in those services.
And folks, these can appear to be holy
divisions, but they are necessary.
They are divisions nonetheless.
And if they're not dealt with, they will
open the heart to super apostles and prophets
that will come into the city.
Because you see, there's a there's a man
focus already there.
The enemy has already planted something.
Folks, you got to understand, Paul is telling
the church.
Look at first Corinthians chapter three.
I'll let let him speak for himself in
verse five.
Paul says, who is Paul and who is
Apollos?
But ministers by whom you believed, even as
the Lord gave to every man.
Paul says, listen, folks, get your focus off
of men.
Who are we?
We are just people like you are saved
by grace.
And God, in his mercy, planted something of
himself within us and set us in the
body.
Not that we would lead you to ourselves,
but that you would be led to Christ
for everything we have is yours as well.
There is a liberality in the heart of
God.
There's not an exclusiveness in the body.
There's not great big people and little people
in the body.
It's equal access to the throne of God
now.
And we're only here as a minister.
In other words, we're here just to make
a declaration to you.
As Paul says that what God has done
for us, he will do for you.
So don't look at us.
If God hadn't done anything for us, we'd
be out on the street with a tin
cup in our hand begging for a living.
Don't look at us.
It's not about men.
It's about the God who, in his mercy,
has chosen to redeem and inhabit man and
makes us thousands of times more than we
could ever hope to be in ourselves.
Gives us what we could never have.
Makes us, as you've heard me say hundreds
of times, what we could never be.
It's all about Jesus Christ.
Verse 6, he says, I planted, Apollos watered,
but God gave the increase.
God.
If God wasn't here, it doesn't matter what
I preach to you.
You wouldn't change.
You would have no hope if God wasn't
here.
I could tell you all about God.
I could open up Christ in a magnificent
way to you.
But if he wasn't here, you couldn't change.
It's all about God.
I stand and have the corner as it
is on the diamond that God gives me.
And Brother Dave stands and Pastor Neil, Pastor
William, Pastor Patrick and Teresa and others that
visit.
We all are given this measure of understanding
according to the giftings that God's given us.
And it's all really to bring you to
that place of fullness and maturity in Christ,
because Christ is the only one who can
give you life.
Verse 7, he says, So then neither is
he that plants anything, neither he that waters,
but God that gives the increase.
Now, he that plants and he that waters
are one.
And every man shall receive his own reward
according to his own labor, for we are
laborers together with God.
You are God's husbandry.
You are God's building.
Paul saying to the Corinthian church, No, it's
not about us.
It's about you.
You are what God is building.
God is building you.
And he only uses us as instruments in
his hand to open up your hearts to
faith that his life might become your life
as it is ours.
Now, their focus on personalities, Paul knew was
going to open their hearts to another breed
of self-appointed, ambitious preachers who would come
to their city.
These preachers would challenge apostolic authority.
They would draw them people to themselves and
lead the people of God deeply into their
own error.
And folks, exactly what happened in Paul's day
is going to happen in our day.
You can be sure as we get closer
to the end, there's going to be an
influx.
There probably is already of ambitious men and
women coming to the city of New York.
They're going to have their own agendas.
They are self-appointed.
They're not appointed by God.
They are greedy.
They will go after your wallets.
They will not present Christ to you.
They will challenge the apostolic authority.
They will challenge the authority of the word
of God.
Their very presence, their very ministries are a
challenge to the authority of the word of
God.
Paul says, let me read it to you
in Romans chapter 16, verses 17 and 18.
Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which
cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine
which you have learned and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not our
Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and
by good words and fair speeches deceive the
hearts of the simple.
Now, folks, listen to me.
These are good speakers.
These are extremely charismatic people who are coming
into the Corinthian church.
They were challenging the authority of Paul and
they were saying, listen, now you've heard us
speak.
We are polished.
We articulate.
We are entertaining.
We we speak about life and we speak
about God and we speak about God's goodness.
Now, look at Paul in contrast to us,
how weak his words are and his bodily
presence is even worse than his speaking.
Why should you even listen to Paul?
And they began to overtly challenge the apostolic
authority that had been placed in Paul's life
through which the church in Corinth had been
established.
Now, in First Corinthians, chapter four gives us
an evidence that this theology of man focus
had already begun to make an imprint on
some in Corinth.
Now, if you if you follow through with
this teaching, the pastor William is going to
do, you're going to see that Paul is
addressing these things.
There's a thread that goes right through first
and second Corinthians.
It starts in chapter one.
Here's a church that has gotten a man
focus and they've never gotten it out of
their hearts.
And if you follow that thread, you're going
to see Paul all the way through having
to defend the apostolic authority, having to defend
apostolic ministry, having to defend truth against charismatic
leaders that were coming in.
And Paul says, you suffer fools.
These are fools coming into your midst.
You suffer if they take from you.
He says, what what have I done?
What offense have I committed to you?
He said, I've come in to preach to
you.
I've not made myself burdensome to any of
you.
Paul says, bear witness.
I've not gone after anybody's pocketbook and neither
has anybody that's come in under the authority
of the ministry that God gave to me.
And these come in and they smite your
face and they take from you and they
promote themselves.
And you suffer these fools to stand in
pulpits and to gain access and entrance into
your hearts.
And we see in chapter four that this
theology of man focus had already begun to
make its imprint.
First Corinthians, chapter four, verse six.
Listen to the theology that many in Corinth
were now beginning to embrace.
And he says, in these things, brethren, I
have in a figure transferred to myself and
to Apollos for your sakes, that you might
learn in us not to think of men
above that which is written, that none of
no one of you be popped up one
for one against another.
For who makes thee to differ from another?
And what has thou that thou didst not
receive?
Now, if thou didst receive it, why does
thou glory as if you've not received it?
Now, here's the theology.
Verse eight.
Now, he says, Paul says, you are full.
Now you are rich and you have reigned
as kings without us.
Here's the theology.
The theology has come in of men who
draw to themselves and they're telling they're proclaiming
this fullness when in reality it's a nakedness.
They're talking about a richness when in reality
it's deep, deep inbred spiritual poverty because it's
all about money and it's not about the
work and the passion of almighty God for
fallen humanity.
And everybody's reigning without pain.
Paul must have been so incredulous.
Paul comes to the Corinthian church and everybody's
reigning.
They're all kings now.
They're all kings and priests and everybody's reigning
everywhere.
And Paul, he's beaten up.
He's bruised.
He's probably limping into town.
He's suffering as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
And he says, verse eight, second half.
He said, I would to God that you
did reign, that we might also reign with
you.
You'll find a lot of sarcasm in Paul's
writing.
He says, I wish you were reigning.
It would be delightful to finally reign with
you.
He goes on.
He says, I think that God has set
forth us the apostles last as it were
appointed to death.
Verse nine.
We're made a spectacle to the world, to
angels and to men.
We are fools for Christ's sake, but you
are wise in Christ.
We are weak, but you are strong.
You are honorable, but we are despised.
Even to this present hour, we both hunger
and thirst and are naked and are buffeted
and have no certain dwelling place.
And labor, working with our own hands, being
reviled, we're blessed, being persecuted, we suffer it,
being defamed, we entreat.
We are made as the filth of the
world and are the offscouring of all things
unto this day.
I write these things not to shame you,
but as my beloved sons, I warn you.
For though you have 10,000 instructors in
Christ, you have not many fathers.
For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you
through the gospel.
Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of
me.
Now, this instead of being drawn together in
Christ as a body, if you follow through
the thread now through Corinthians, you'll find the
Corinthian Christians were in secular courts suing one
another.
First Corinthians chapter six.
You'll find them in first Corinthians chapter 10
offending the consciences of the weak in the
name of Christian liberty.
They're all free now.
Everybody's free.
They're free to drink and dance.
They're free to do anything they want to
do because this is a new era of
Christian liberty and freedom.
And yet it means nothing if they are
offending a brother's conscience, if they are eating
and drinking things that maybe they feel they're
allowed to, but are causing others to stumble.
There's there's this this disconnectedness under this man
centered ministry that from the body, they're not
seeing themselves as part of a much larger
whole called the Church of Jesus Christ.
Every man now is being drawn to what
they're hearing from the pulpit and they're all
becoming individual superstars.
You find in first Corinthians 14, they're using
spiritual giftings in some measure for their own
personal glory.
They're first Corinthians chapter 11.
They're pushing aside the poor and they're starting
to gravitate now around social status and money
and wealth and power and who can do
what for me and with whom can I
associate in the church that will enhance my
position and make me feel better about myself
and increase my self esteem.
And they're pushing the poor to the sides
of the church.
They're marginalizing them.
And this all comes because they've allowed themselves
to sit under the ministry of men who
draw to themselves and not to Christ.
If they were being drawn to Christ, they
would have an inner understanding that we are
part of a body, a body that cannot
say where the hand cannot say to the
foot, I have no need of you.
A body where we bear one another.
We believe with one another.
We endure with one another.
We rejoice with one another.
We weep with one another.
If one member of the body hurts, the
whole body hurts with that member of the
body.
We're drawn together as a church moving through
a godless world as a living testimony of
the reality with an inbred love that can
only come from God Almighty himself that causes
the world to stand up and say, surely
Jesus Christ is alive.
Surely he has a people in a body
on this earth.
You see, this is the fruit of man
focus.
Men who draw to themselves cannot make you
any more than they are.
Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and
verse 12, We dare not make ourselves of
the number or compare ourselves with some that
commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves
and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.
Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, please, with
me, if you will, where Paul goes on.
Here they are, these men, pleasing preachers, they
travel in packs.
They quote from one another.
They pat each other on the back constantly.
They're always commending each other.
They're looking for references and recommendation everywhere they
go.
They bore each other's messages.
They repeat the same dribble over and over
again and just add another twist of deception
to it.
Paul says, Do we begin again?
2nd Corinthians 3, one to commend ourselves or
do we need is some others epistles of
common nation to you or letters of commendation
from you?
Paul says, Do we need letters of recommendation
to come to you?
Do we have to go around to the
other churches and have them write out things
so that we can send you our glossy
brochures and tell you what kind of wonderful
men of God we are?
Now, he says in verse 2, you are
our epistle written in our hearts and known
and read of all men.
Now, this is what Paul is saying.
As we spoke to you, God, with his
own finger, began to write the story of
his life in your hearts.
This is the evidence that we're men of
God.
It's a supernatural infusion of God's life into
your life.
You were not drawn to us.
You were drawn to Christ.
And as you were drawn to Christ, an
invisible finger came from heaven and began to
write the nature of God in your hearts
and minds.
And you were given a new heart.
You were given a new mind.
You were given a new spirit.
You were lifted out of hopelessness, taken out
of prison, drawn out of despair, brought out
of confusion.
You were brought into the life of Almighty
God.
Paul said this is the only recommendation we
need.
God wrote his life inside of you as
you heard us.
Paul says, I don't need a letter of
recommendation.
I don't need somebody telling me, telling you
that I'm a man of God.
You know it.
Paul says, I spoke to you.
You heard God when I spoke to you
and your life was changed.
You weren't drawn to me.
You were drawn to Christ.
I stood before you in weakness and trembling.
But the power of God radiated from every
word.
The God Almighty planted in my lips and
you were changed.
Verse three, second Corinthians is as far as
much as you are manifestly declared to be
the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written
not with ink, but with the spirit of
the living God, not in tables of stones,
but in fleshly tables of the heart.
And such trust have we through Christ to
Godward.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God.
Paul says it this way.
Our supply became your supply.
We didn't draw to ourselves.
We didn't have a methodology.
We didn't have seven steps to this and
four steps to destiny and greatness.
We had a supply and we opened to
you the treasure of that supply and our
supply became your supply.
We simply showed you where to find it
in Christ.
We became guides to you.
And halfway, any man or woman of God
who is a true preacher of the gospel
halfway through or less of their message, they
should virtually disappear and Christ should appear.
They should be diminished and decreased and Christ
should be increasing in your mind and heart.
And when you leave this church, Jesus should
be the only name that's on your lips.
The only one you're talking, the only power
you're talking about is the power of the
Holy Spirit.
The only truth you're talking about is the
truth of God's word.
The only tomorrow you're talking about is the
tomorrow that God has promised you to the
indwelling life of his son within you.
Verse six, Paul says he's made us able
ministers of the New Testament, not of the
letter, but of the spirit for the letter
kills, but the spirit gives life.
Not not of methodology.
That's the letter.
He's made us ministers, but not of methodology,
not not some new muttering, peeping revelation as
it is.
Oh, just do this or just do that
or just send one hundred dollars for a
vial of holy water and drink it three
times a day and you'll be over all
your depression and all your problems.
No, not of the letter, not of human
effort, not of devices contrived of the human
mind and out of the human spirit.
But Paul says, no, you see, we are
ministers of the spirit.
It's the ministration of the Holy Spirit that
is radiating through our lives and through our
lips, leading you to the source of your
life and the source of all your strength,
which is in Christ.
Now, in verse seven, chapter three, he says,
but if the ministration of death now you
have to see this in the context of
of what Paul has been speaking about, Paul's
been speaking about a ministry that leads to
Christ and life and another ministry that sounds
like God and has.
A sense of glory.
But it doesn't lead to any change.
I'll explain it to you in verse seven,
he says, but if the ministration of death
written in engraving and stones was glorious so
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory
of his countenance, which glory was to be
done away, how shall not the ministration of
the spirit be rather glorious for the ministration?
If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much
more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in
glory.
For even that which was made glorious had
no glory in this respect by reason of
the glory that excel it.
For if that which is done away was
glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Now, seeing then that we have such hope,
we use great plainness of speech and not
as Moses, which put a veil over his
face that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly look to the end of that which
is abolished.
Now, let me paraphrase this in the way
that I'm seeing this in the context of
how the Lord has given me this message.
There was a glory on the face of
Moses.
Yes, Moses had had some measure of an
encounter with God.
But this glory was covered by a veil.
And because of this veil that was on
the face of Moses, men could not see
that the intent of God was not to
destroy them, but to give them life.
They couldn't see it.
They couldn't see beyond the veil.
Moses, yes, is coming down from the mountain.
And yes, he's he's telling them what it
is that God is saying.
But there is a veil.
There's a glory.
But there's a veil covering.
Now, just follow this trend of thought.
In verse 14, he said, but their minds
were blinded until this day remains the same
veil untaken away in the reading of the
Old Testament, which veil is done away in
Christ.
But even to this day, when Moses is
read, the veil is upon their heart.
Now, Paul uses this, I believe, as a
type of when people sit under the ministries
of those who have not had a face
to face encounter with Christ.
The truth of Christ is hidden and the
real face of these Christ pretenders is behind
a mask.
They talk about God.
They they stand.
But their ministry is death.
They speak of glory.
But you can't see Christ in them.
You can't look to the end.
There's methodology.
There's talk about God.
There's whispers and peeps from heaven as if
there's God has some great big master puzzle
and they're the only ones that have the
key.
And they will they will whisper vaguely these
these truths and they are truths about God.
But there's a veil.
You can't see Christ in them.
This is what Paul is trying to convey
to the Corinthian church.
They stand.
And yes, they've had some measure of encounter.
But you can't see beyond the veil.
Their faces are covered.
They're not honest men.
You can't look beyond the flesh and see
Christ.
You can't see to the end of what
the truth that they're professing as it is,
is supposed to be bringing to you.
And those who sit under their ministries become
partakers of a form of godliness that is
without power, traveling the circuit, hearing these superstars
day in, day out, year in, year out,
never changing, no power, no authority.
And the end result is a sarcastic heart
towards the things of God.
So you've God, you've spoken to me about
all this revelation, all this glory, but it's
all behind a veil.
I don't see it.
How do I get to the end of
it?
But Paul says, no, you see, we bear
this treasure in earthen vessels and we use
great plainness of speech.
Paul says, we're not trying to draw to
ourselves.
We're not here to dazzle you.
We're not here to stand here and appear
so theologically brilliant that you go out speaking
our names all over the city.
No, we use great plainness of speech because
we have found a supply that God says
is for you to as well.
We have seen beyond the veil.
If I am a genuine man of God,
you have to see Christ in my life.
You have to see him.
You look beyond the flesh, you look beyond
all the things I say about God and
you have to see him.
If we are genuine men and women of
God, we truly do disappear.
And you look and you see this momentary
touch of God that comes on our life
when we preach the gospel.
And there's got to be a stirring in
your heart that says, Lord, I you can
do that for me.
I see I see something beyond the words.
I see, God, that you are willing to
touch my life.
I see that you are willing to change
me and transform, not just lay before me
methodologies and theories about God and rules of
Christian living that I can never attain to
in my own strength.
Paul says we use great plainness of speech.
No veil is necessary.
We have seen him and we live.
Now, verse 16, Second Corinthians, Chapter three.
Nevertheless, when it turns to the Lord, the
veil shall be taken away.
When my mind, folks, do you hear me?
When you are focused on Christ, the veil
is taken away.
This this this mistiness, this hiding of God,
the longer you're focused on people, the more
you're not going to see Christ.
It's as simple as that.
But when you turn to the Lord, God
just parts that veil one more time.
It's me you want.
Here I am.
Let me show you who I am.
Let me show you how I think.
Let me show you what I can do.
And all of a sudden the preacher is
gone and Jesus Christ is in plain view.
Now, the Lord is that spirit for 17
and where the spirit of the Lord is,
there's liberty.
And, you know, the word liberty in its
original text means generosity.
The Lord is that spirit.
And where the spirit of the Lord is,
there is this incredible generosity of God that
comes into view.
So, God, you can make me a man
of love.
You can make me a woman of faith.
You can make me the father.
I've never been.
You can make me the husband, the wife
that I've never been in my home.
You can take away my gloomy song and
give me a song of joy.
Oh, God.
You say, if any man lacks wisdom, just
let him ask and it will be given
freely and you won't withhold, Lord, all you
have to do.
You tell me all I have to do
is ask and seek and knock and everything
I need of the Holy Spirit will be
given to me.
Oh, God, I see this generosity.
I see this calling that you placed on
my life.
I see the giftings you want to give
me.
I see where you want to take me
and what you want to make me.
Oh, God, how can you contain it when
you begin to see the generosity of Christ?
How can you contain it?
How can you contain the joy?
The best thing that preachers of the gospels
can do is get out of your way
that you can see him.
You see him.
You see him as our wisdom.
You see him as our righteousness.
You see him as our sanctification, our cleansing,
our redemption, our all in all.
There should be something in your heart when
you come into this house.
This is my God.
It's all mine.
Heaven is open to me.
It's all mine.
The life of Christ is mine.
Everything you bought on Calvary is mine.
Every promise of God is mine.
Every victory over the enemy is mine.
It's mine.
Verse 18 says, But we all with open
face, no veil, beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord.
The glory, the word in the Hebrews, kavod,
means the weight, the magnificence of God, the
generosity of God.
That which brings Christ in us to reputation,
we see him and we don't have to.
There has to be nobody telling us about
God.
We can see him for ourselves.
We are changed into the same image from
glory to glory.
From weightiness to weightiness, from image to image,
from Christ like this to Christ like this,
from weakness to strength, from powerlessness to Christ's
life in us, even as by the spirit
of the Lord.
We're changed from our own image to the
image and character of Christ, a transformation which
causes Christ in us to be recognized by
the world for who he is.
The world has to stand up and take
notice that Christ is in you and is
the hope of glory.
Now, beloved, let me tell you this.
If the Lord's been speaking to you today,
you can see beyond the veil.
If he has, you can.
If I've stood as enabled minister of the
New Testament, I've disappeared at some point in
this message.
The veil has parted and you've seen him
and you can see the end now of
some things.
You can look beyond that which simply agrees
with what you are.
You see, because that's all the law could
do under Moses, the law could only bring
you into an agreement with what you are.
The law could tell you you're an adulterer.
The law could tell you you're corrupt.
The law could tell you you're weak and
immoral and all these other things.
And all you could basically do is agree.
And God's glory, all it could do is
really condemn you, because you remember in those
times to see God was to die.
But no, now we see beyond the veil,
beyond that which simply agrees with what we
are to that which is in Christ, you
will be.
And this is the hope of the gospel.
There's this constant advance into the life of
Christ.
Oh, yes, I know what I am, but
I'm and the enemy is always there on
either ear saying this is what you are.
Don't listen to this.
This is what you are.
And you just push him aside.
So, yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree with that.
But but I'm seeing something that I will
be.
I'm seeing something beyond the veil.
Now, I'm seeing this incredible supply which is
called Jesus Christ through the power of the
Holy Spirit.
And I'm looking beyond the veil to what
I will be in Christ.
The Holy Spirit has come and he's unfolding
to me things that it will be.
He's showing me what is Christ and now
what is mine because of Christ.
And I'm not limited now by what anybody
has told me.
I'm not limited by my education.
I'm not limited by my language, my culture,
my background, my country, no matter anything.
I'm not limited by an evil words that
have ever been spoken over my life.
No, I see now beyond the veil.
I see something in Christ.
As a matter of fact, he calls those
things which are not yet as if they
are.
This is the God who said, let there
be light when there was no light.
And he said it before light came and
immediately light appeared.
This God is speaking to me.
This God is calling things in me that
are not as if they are.
I see something beyond the veil.
I'm not staying where I am.
I see the supply of Christ has been
open to me.
It's been open to me in simplicity.
It's not complicated.
Jesus died for me.
Jesus rose from the dead.
Jesus sits at the right hand of all
authority and power.
Everything he inherited in that victory is now
mine.
The veil is open.
I see the end result of this thing.
I see myself coming out of despair.
I see myself coming out of weakness.
I see myself coming out of self-loathing.
I see myself walking out of powerlessness.
I see myself with a life that is
so intertwined with the life of God that
all my family have to stand up and
take notice that Jesus Christ is alive.
I see myself walking with God.
Paul says Christ is wisdom.
He's all that the human mind needs to
find life.
Christ is righteousness.
His declaration that we are forgiven and accepted
is sufficient.
We're accepted with God.
We're covered by the Father through the blood
of Jesus Christ.
Paul says he's our sanctification.
He's the one who cleanses us and sets
us apart for his glory and for his
use.
He is our redemption.
He sets us free from all the power
of sin and death.
He sets us free from the power of
sin.
And death.
Hallelujah.
Do you know, can you see the incredible
life that is yours?
Can you see it?
You can only see it if you're seeing
Christ.
You have to be seeing Christ to see
it.
If you're listening to the wisdom of man,
you can't see it.
If you're personality focused, you're going to miss
it.
But if you're looking at Jesus, if you're
saying, my beloved Christ, speak to my heart.
You see, he'll answer that cry.
If it's him that you want, he'll open
the veil and he'll say, come.
It's an invitation.
Just like Peter in the boat.
He'll say, come, walk on the water.
I know it looks impossible, but it's not
possible with man, but it's possible with God.
Come to me.
Don't look at what you aren't.
Look at who I am.
Don't look at what you can't do.
Look at what I have done for you.
Look away from yourself.
Look away from all human effort.
And by faith, come and receive the life
that I have for you.
Today, I believe that there's many here who
are going to see.
You can see to the end of your
struggle.
You can see it.
I can't explain it.
It's miraculous.
I've been in services where I've been.
You know the expression, I've been lured in
a snake in a wagon, right?
Well, maybe that's not a New York expression.
And I have seen something.
I've just seen something.
I have no tangible evidence in myself to
make it happen, but I have seen something.
I've seen the end of my struggle.
And just in faith, I move towards it.
That's the way it's always been.
God won't disappoint you.
If you ask him for bread and he
gave you a stone, that would make him
a liar.
And he can't lie.
He's never lied to me.
Never failed me.
Some people today, you need to behold him
one more time.
You need to see how incredibly generous Jesus
is.
He's incredibly generous.
He'll lift you, carry you, speak to you,
empower you, change you.
His life becomes yours.
Not a concept, a reality.
He begins to walk with you.
I'm giving an altar call today.
Annex Main Sanctuary to everybody who you are
in a struggle, a terrible struggle.
But today, the veil has parted and you
know that the end of your struggle is
found in Christ.
Your others are living in weakness.
You're living under besetting sin.
You can't seem to escape.
He is the way out.
He said, I won't allow you to be
tested above you're able to bear, but I'll
make a way out for you that you
might be able to bear it.
Don't look to man's methodology.
Look to Jesus Christ.
Look to him with all of your heart.
If the Holy Spirit today is drawing you,
if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you,
I'm going to ask you to get out
of your seats in a moment.
In the annex, you can stand between the
screens in the main sanctuary.
Just come and meet me at this altar
and catch a glimpse of Jesus Christ one
more time.
Let's stand together, please.
In the balcony, you can go to either
exit in the main sanctuary.
Make your way down.
It's about Jesus.
Can we sing that song?
It is Jesus, only Jesus.
Let's sing it.
I don't know it, so somebody will have
to lead it.
Jesus, every burden becomes a blessing.
Hallelujah.
I'm speaking to those this morning who are
in him.
You might be in an impossible situation.
You're just tired of people's theories about God
are getting annoying.
It's a good place to be.
Come to Jesus now.
Come to him and to him alone.
Let him be your strength.
Let him be your glory.
Let him be your life.
Let him be your focus.
Let him be your song.
Let him be your testimony.
You're not going to be telling people, go
down to the continental arena and see so
and so.
To have your questions answered.
No, it's come to Jesus.
Open this book.
Thank you, Lord.
Let's get prepared to sing.
We proclaim him.
What are you all looking at me for?
I can't do anything for you.
Now it's now it's time just to love
Jesus.
You've heard the word.
Respond now in your heart.
Respond in your heart.
There's no magical formula here.
He is everything that you'll ever need.
Just love him now.
Ask him just to open the veil and
you're going to see your way out as
you begin to proclaim him.