I want to read you the second installment in Chapter 3. I want to read all the verses there, verses 1 through 18, to set the stage and refresh our minds from what we began two weeks ago. We began to look carefully into what New Covenant ministry is. And this morning, we want to particularly look at verses seven to eleven and understand the ministry of righteousness as opposed to the ministry of death, the old covenant, a ministry of death, the new covenant, a ministry of life, a ministry of righteousness for the people of God. We live as privileged members. We who are believers in Jesus Christ, we who have Have by God's grace seen our sin turned from our sin and place our complete trust in Jesus Christ, our Lord, as our only righteousness. We who have done that are now members of the new covenant. This era of the spirit, this age of of God's people in this movement from old to new covenant, this age of the new covenant is a great privilege. We upon whom the ends, Paul says, and first Corinthians 10, we upon whom the ends of the ages have come. What a privileged age we live in, the age of the spirit. Now, then, this drawn here, then, to see about new covenant ministry. And where we fit in all of this, Paul says, are we in verse one, are we beginning to commend ourselves again or do we need, as some do, letters of commendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts. to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Now, if the ministry of death carved in letters of on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses's face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end. Will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory for if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness much far exceeded in glory? Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end. Came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope. We are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed and now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom or liberty. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that you have enabled us because of your son, Jesus Christ, to to be members of the new covenant. And that we have come to live in this era and to live under this administration that is indeed a privileged time in the work of your unfolding plan of redemption. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have written your law on our hearts and that the law has gone inside. We've been set free from the curse of the law and been set free because of your righteousness. to go live for your honor and glory alone. Well, we ask that you would move us, O God, to be especially sensitive, Lord, to these two covenants and to understand their roles in our lives. One to reveal sin, to exasperate sin, to show us the sinfulness of sin and then to lead us to show our need for Christ. And then, of course, under the new covenant, to know of her being set free by your righteousness are now to live by the grace of God for your glory alone and your honor. What a privileged people we are. What a saver we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Redeemer. Bless us now, Lord, as we as we now look carefully into your word, edify us, equip us What I pray you would even save those who have yet to enter this covenant to know your grace and mercy in Jesus name. It says, of course. In the Old Testament, particularly in two great texts that stand out to me, not exhaustively, but they stand out to me as being very apropos and setting the stage for today's time in Second Corinthians three, seven to eleven. What I've already read to you in Psalm 19, the words of David through the Holy Spirit said this. The law of God is more to be desired than gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Now, he said that right before he emphasizes that the law of God reveals to us our sin. It's sweet because it shows us the character and the beauty and the holiness of God. It shows us again the display of his glory. And so the law is is beautiful to the people of God, the law of the term, the law and the word of God are synonymous terms all through the Old Testament. In fact, when we look back in Second Timothy three, we see that all scriptures inspired by God and profitable that, of course, that also is another way of saying the word of God, the law of God. God's spoken word under the Old Covenant, that which has been summarized in the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The David was a man after God's own heart, and David said in Psalm 197, because he understood the law's work in the life of the Old Covenant believer, those who had Abrahamic faith. He said, oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day long, loving God's law, seeing it as. Lovely and wonderful is something special as well under the old covenant and even unto us when we read our old testaments under the new covenant age. We are to desire, again, God's law in our life to do its law work and then to show us grace and our need for grace each day. How beautiful it is. Now, the law was also called the Torah in Hebrew. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy was, again, the foundation of understanding the law, the Ten Commandments, was God's summarization of his holy character, of his righteousness, of his, again, pristine glory, the Ten Commandments. And so when we read God's law, the Ten Commandments, we understand his moral law or the Mosaic Covenant. Now, that was given again after God gave his covenant to Abraham. Four hundred and thirty years after not undoing the Abrahamic covenants, it says in Galatians at all. But again, they can revealing those sin. Paul says in Romans three, the law was given to. Reveal sin in our lives, Romans three and ten, Galatians tells us in Galatians chapter three that, again, the law was given to show us our need for Christ. So, by revealing our sin, our need for a sin bearer in Jesus Christ, our Lord. After Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai in Exodus 32-34, we read that whole section of awesome revealing of God's glory on that great mountain. It says that the law was taken in from Moses and placed into the Ark of the Covenant later on, and that was placed into the temple when that was, of course, built placed into the Holy of Holies, especially where only the high priest could go once a year to offer sacrifices both for his sins and the sins of the people. No, but that's not the end of it. If you go with me to the Hebrews chapter 10, we see the transition to the better covenant, as the language says, a better priesthood, a better sacrifice pointing to the age of the new covenant. In Hebrews chapter 10, we read in verses 11 to 16 this, and every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifice. Watch now, which can never take away sin. It could only reveal sin. Show you your need for Christ, but it could never take away sin. But when, verse 12, Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time on until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected For all time. Those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying this is the covenant, the new covenant that I will make with them after those days declares the Lord, and I will put my laws on their hearts. and write them on their minds. It's a powerful what an age we live in, the age of the New Covenant. So now we want to turn to that particular section now and see three things that stand out, showing this one little snapshot of the amazing contrast of old to new covenants. Amazing. What a privileged era we live in, the superiority then of the glory of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant, the ministry of death, the New Covenant, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, we want to see the surpassing glory of the New Covenant. Old Covenant condemnation, New Covenant righteousness. Thirdly, the supremacy or the supreme glory of the New Covenant, the Old Covenant, a temporary administration, the New Covenant permanent, eternal. Bible can't be any clearer than this. Some packing now than versus seven to eleven. Verses seven and eight, the superiority of the glory of the new covenant. Now, if the ministry of death. Carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses's face because of its glory. which was being brought to an end. Will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory? The reason why I use the word here in our first point, superior, because the word superior conveys to us the idea of a higher station, a higher rank, a degree, not not supremacy yet, but it conveys superiority. So now when we look at it from the language here, we see that this language standing out here, we see that in verse eight particularly, it says, will it not have much more glory superiority? In verse nine, it says the new covenant must far exceed the glory of the Old Testament, Old Covenant, and then in verse 10, it says the glory that will surpass the Old Covenant, verse 10. So the Old Covenant, played its part in God's unfolding of his plan of redemption. But the new covenant era has now come and the old covenant has been brought to an end, some of your transition might even say this, the glory is now fading. It's fading, brought to an end, fading. diminishing when I think of the covenants of the Old Testament, pointing ultimately to the covenant of the New Covenant, which is the finality of the covenantal scheme of God, beginning with the Abrahamic covenant, the promises to all who have faith like Abraham. When I look at that and I see the culmination in the New Covenant era, we have to ask ourselves, what was the point of the covenants? And the covenants all played their part in God's unfolding plan of redemption. Like you use an earthly illustration, somewhat earthly illustration. And when you look at the space shuttle, when it takes off, right, the space shuttle has at least it had these four orange tanks that are boosters that gets it to a certain point in the atmosphere. And then the next some fall off and the other ones boosted forward. More and more until finally it's in space without any of those large four cylinders carrying all the power to bring it to space. It's the same way the covenants all played their part in bringing us to the era of the New Covenant, the finality. The freedom of the New Covenant, they had their part, they had their role. The New Covenant is superior. to the old covenant, he calls it a ministry of death. A ministry of death, it could only curse you for your sins, it could not save you from your sins, it could reveal your sins. Notice it saves no one, but reveals instead our sin. Romans three, let's go there. So we get our thinking on the same page. This is important because you might say to yourself, well, then why should I read the Old Testament? I mean, if it's if it's all about what's the point? And again, as we'll see clearly, all scriptures inspired by God, second Timothy three sixteen. That's the Old Testament and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training and righteousness. That the man of God may be thoroughly equipped, ready for every good work. There's the benefit because it's God's breathed word. But the old covenant system. Pales and fades away compared to the new covenant. In Romans three, right on the on the tail of Paul describing the plight of the unrighteous, no one is righteous. He says in verse 19, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be accountable to God. for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So no one could be saved by the Mosaic Covenant. No one to be saved by keeping the commandments and merit a righteous standing before God, it's impossible. Why? Because the law can't save you, but it can reveal to you the simpleness of your sins. It can show you how you fall short of the glory of God. God's standard of perfection and glory revealed in the Ten Commandments summarized again, the two tables of the law. Can only be, again, seen as being. God's grace. Against the law, which reveals sin. So it's a ministry of death. Secondly, it also exasperates and go to be the Roman seven. This is important because when we think practically, you say, well, wait a minute, it reveals him. What else is it exasperates him in our lives? Roman seven versus seven and eight, what then shall we say that the law is sin? I reveal sin is sin. Curses me, condemns me by no means, yet if it had not been for the law, I would have not known sin. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness, for apart from the law, sin lies dead. Now, all of us were sinners before the law. Obviously, we've fallen short of the glory of God. But now, again, there's another way of illustrating this. When I was an unbeliever, I felt the guilt of my sin. I saw no remedy for my sin, no redemption for my sin as an unbeliever. I had no hope for my sinful state, apart from the gospel of God. I was in trouble, right? Well, then, but I couldn't put again tags on the sins of my life. I just knew that I felt guilt, but again, no relief. And I felt condemned by God, but yet no relief. Then Christians began to witness to me. I began to read the Bible and all of a sudden now I could say, wow, that sin is this. And also, I began to be awakened. And instead of being guilty and a little bit troubled, I began to be miserable. You see. Troubled. Because now I knew I was against the law of God. I knew that I had sinned against God. I knew that I could just play games and downplay things. I was against the holy God. I was troubled and burdened over the sin of my life. Coming to the point where I said I must be saved, you see, delivered from the curse of the law. It shows you my sin and then just festers the sin to reveal to me the sinfulness of sin, to which I must be saved by the grace of God. So the law does it, it reveals sin, it festers sin in your life, it shows you your need for Christ. And by the way, when a believer is converted, he doesn't reach a sinless state, we all would agree with that. But again, the word of God comes in and convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment. But by the grace of God, because we have the spirit of God living inside of us, we have the righteousness of Christ. We're able to see that sin acknowledges against the Holy God and repent of it. And be cleansed under the new covenant. Powerful, what a reminder. Who am I to Galatians? This is very, again, very clear as well about the law and its role in our lives as believers. In Galatians 3, notice here, I'm going to read the whole section here to kind of, I just want you to catch the whole flow of this because many people in our day just kind of, they just are antinomian, they're against the law. It's all grace, you know, and they don't understand the law's place in revealing sin and therefore they react and they're antinomian. Notice here in Galatians 3, this really helps us here. Verses 15 and following to give a human example, brothers, even with a man made covenant, no one annuls it or acts to it once it has been ratified. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say and to offsprings referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring, who is Christ. This is what I mean, the law which came four hundred and thirty years after the Abrahamic covenant. does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of I'm sorry, it was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. And now an intermediary implies more than one. But God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given, that could give life and it wasn't given to give life was in its role, then righteousness would indeed be by the law, but the scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe no one. Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian, our tutor, really in the Greek, it means tutor. Until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. We're not under the law. Say by grace. But God uses the law to convict us of sin, righteousness and the word of God. So as we preach the word. God uses the word, his word, the law, word to convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment, showing us of our need for Christ. Now, as a believer comes to Christ in salvation, Jesus had come into me. All who are weary and heavy laden, Matthew 11, 28 and following, I will give you rest. That's coming to Christ in salvation. But after salvation, our lives are demonstrate our life in Christ by our constant coming to Christ. Having come to Christ and been forgiven of our sins, we keep coming to Christ. Notice what it says in First Peter, Chapter two. Notice, this is powerful when the believer keeps coming to Christ, not to keep getting saved, but for cleansing from the effects of sin that's been revealed in First Peter, Chapter two. So put away all verse one, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. See, that's the law shows you of your hypocrisy. Now put it away. The law shows you of your envious heart. Now put it away and repentance. The law shows you of your slanderous tongue. Now repent and put it away. And like newborn infants crave the milk of God's pure spiritual milk. that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Watch for. As you come to him. A living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So we're always coming to Christ again, not to keep getting saved, but for cleansing as we repent. He reveals that we deny our slanderous tongues. We deny, again, these things he points out in chapter one. Again, all these sins I just mentioned, as we see them, we're convicted. The law work of God's work reveals sin. We see it. And as believers with the righteousness of Christ, the spirit of God living inside of us, we're able to see it, repent of it, be cleansed. Right. And keep coming to Jesus as living stones. Beautiful picture. Powerful reminder. The ministry of death carved in letters of stone by God's own finger, exodus 32 tells us was being brought to an end. Now, that same statement is used two other times in this in this chapter. Watch. Go to verse 11, notice here, the second Corinthians three, for if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Verse 13, not like Moses, who put who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. You get the point. Paul's trying to say something three times in six verses. He says it was being brought to an end. It was fading away. Moses, again, receives the Ten Commandments, goes in the mountain, has his face is shining. Right. And what? He puts the veil over because they're being blinded by the shining. And in the presence of God, the power of the glory of God is shining from him, but he veiled himself. Why? Because it was fading away. And it's a reminder, the fading, the veil reminds him of the fadingness of it all. Every time you go in to talk to God, you come out bright. But it was fading. It wasn't permanent. It was temporal. It was temporal. So Moses helps us here in grasping this. Now, so when I see the Ten Commandments, I look at the Ten Commandments, what do I say under the new covenant? Well, I say to myself, well, Lord, if you're holy and the Ten Commandments are your holiness and righteous character, you know. How can I be holy? Ask that question. And it tells us in the new covenant, First Peter 1, 14 and 16, be holy as I am holy. That helps us. See, if God's holy and perfect and true. That helps us understand that if we ask the question, well, how can I be perfect? Why can't we? But in Christ, I am. Matthew 548, be perfect as my heavenly father's perfect. How do I know how to be perfect? Look at the Ten Commandments. Love to God. Love your fellow man. Look, Jesus said in Matthew 22. He really sums it up the way, you know, The way you understand God's law and you understand the holiness and perfection of God is it reveals itself in how you love people. In Matthew, twenty to thirty seven to forty. Pharisees have gathered and questioned him and said, what's the greatest commandment, verse thirty seven, Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend all of the law and the prophets, in other words, God's revelation of his character and display of his glory. All that is revealed in your love to God and in your love to your fellow man. The first four commandments love to God. The second table, the last six commandments, love to your neighbor. It's revealed in your love for God and love for your neighbor. Powerful. See, God's glory is amazing, says the first Timothy 6 16. Again, he he dwells in inapproachable light. It tells us elsewhere in 1 John 1 5, in him is no darkness at all. Powerful reminders. This is a very helpful illustration, though, from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Remember the Interpreter's House? This is a great section on the law and the believer's life. Let me pick it up from Pilgrim's Progress. The narrator says this. Then Interpreter took Christian by the hand and led him into a very large parlor that was full of dust because it was never swept. That which, after he had reviewed a little while, the interpreter called for a man to sweep. And now, when he began to sweep, the dust began to so abundantly to fly about that the Christian had almost choked and then said the interpreter to a damsel that stood by, bring hither the water and sprinkle the room. The witch, when she had done this, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure. Christian response. What means this? The interpreter said this, this parlor is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel. The dust is his original sin and inward corruption that have been defiled. Defile his whole man. He that began to sweep at first is the law. But she that brought water and did sprinkle it is the gospel. Now, whereas thou sawest that so soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did so fly about that the room by him could not be cleansed. But that thou was almost choked therewith. This is to show thee that the law, instead of cleansing the heart, By its working from sin, doth revive, put strength into, and increase it in the soul, even as it doth discover and forbid it. For it doth not give the power to subdue it. So, the law was a ministry of death. The A.O. Covenant. It could only stir up sin and not deliver from sin. And so, this moves us then to verse eight. The ministry of the spirit. The contrast is with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and it says, and with the ministry of the spirit, there should be even more glory than under the glory of the old covenant that was revealed on Mount Sinai, of which Moses had to veil his face because of the shining glory that came forth from him in his time with God. It's a life giving covenant. Let me illustrate furthermore, Jesus said to Nicodemus, You must be born again. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. John three seven. And then he says, and so is everyone who was born of the spirit. The ministry of the spirit. The law of God, a lot of God shows us love to God, love to our neighbor again, everything hangs on this. Well, that could only be produced By the ministry of the Holy Spirit, how could what was the difference between you and an unbeliever? One thing, the believer has the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever doesn't. What's the most manifest demonstration that there's been a conversion, a transformation, love to neighbor and love to God? Upon everything, which everything is unveiled, are you a loving Christian? Do you love God? Does this love dominate you? Do you love the people of God? One of the tests of a believer in First John is this. Do you love the brethren? You say. See, love by this all men will know that you are my disciples. John 13, 34 and 35. If you have love one for another, love is the supreme test. That's why he says in First Peter love from a pure heart, fervently love one another from the heart. You see, can you love your brother? who may offend you. Can you forgive your brother who may sin against you and ask for your forgiveness? Can you forgive him? Can you love him? See, this is even more glory under this new covenant. Remember, Jesus said that is talked about by Jesus. In the beginning was the word John one one and the word was with God, the word was God, then verse 14, it says, and the word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Now, this word dwelt literally means tabernacled amongst us. It's the picture of the Old Testament tabernacle in the wilderness, which ultimately gave way to the temple. Right. And so, in other words, God's glory, the kind of glory of God tabernacled amongst men, Jesus came in the kind of glory amongst men. John 114. Now, watch this. In Colossians one, we see an amazing transition. Because the glory came and dwelt among us, but notice this in Colossians 127, it says to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery watch, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So now the God who tabernacled amongst us right now lives inside of us, the glory of God lives in us, Christ in you, the hope of glory to follow me further. First Corinthians. Chapter 6. Verses 19 and 20. Now grasp this. He says, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. So here it is. It's your kind of glory in the Old Testament. Now, tabernacles amongst men in the person of Jesus Christ. When men are converted, Christ lives in them, right? And they are now are the temple or the habitation of God. The temple of the Holy Spirit and their duty is to glorify God in their bodies. Do you realize when you love your neighbor as yourself, when you forgive and love each other in Christ, do you realize you are revealing the glory of God? That's what we're learning in Sunday school, right in the book. You see, as we live this way, we display God's glory as we listen to the word and then apply the word. We are displaying the glory of God. We are the effulgence, the brightness of God's glory. We are that kind of glory in that sense, and we reveal again the greatness and the glory of God, because it's the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It's the age of the spirit. And it affects the way we live. In Second Corinthians, again, six and verse 16. He says, what agreement then has the temple of God to share the temple of God? What agreement then has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. So there's a difference here when the person is converted to Jesus Christ, he reflects the glory of God by his demonstration of the spirit in his life. And therefore, we have a better covenant. Enacted upon better promises, better sacrifice, a better priesthood. It's powerful, what a reminder. Let me secondly, then, to the surpassing glory of the new covenant. For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, The ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. So now we see the surpassing, not just superiority, the surpassing glory, the exceeding, the excelling glory of God. That is, the glory of the new covenant is now moving from a ministry of death to a ministry of condemnation. And the ministry of of of the spirit moves to the ministry of righteousness. Surpassing glory. Now, what I love about this part is we're reminded here, then, that under the new covenant, a believer is under no condemnation. Romans eight one, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We cannot be condemned by the law of God as believers. The law can have its place in revealing sin in our lives that we might be convicted and repent. We've cleansed and forgiven because we've been set free from the law. We're not under the law, but the law does its work. Nevertheless, we as believers in Christ have been amazingly set free by the grace of God to live for the glory of God. So the ministry of condemnation, then, Now gives way to the ministry of righteousness. There was was a glory under the old covenant, but now it's gone. Now it says it's come to have no glory at all. Look at that. Verse 10, to have no glory at all, contrasted with the ministry of the spirit, which is the ministry of righteousness, which again, it gives way then to the practical righteousness in our life. As we live for the glory of God, you see, so the false teachers were attacking Paul in 2 Corinthians. They were attacking him and they basically were advocates of nostalgia. You know, there's a big movement today of nostalgia, classic cars, people like to live in the past and all that, you know, and the past, the past has its place in those kind of perspectives. But in reality, as believers, we don't live in the past. We don't live in the Old Covenant. We live in the New Covenant. In fact, in Ecclesiastes 710, it makes an interesting statement. It says, Do not say, Why were the old days better than these? For it's not wise to ask such questions. The Old Testament time had its place. But we don't live in the Old Testament. We're not on living in caravans and living in that age. We live in the age of the new government of Philippians 3. This is, again, another great picture of the contrast of the two. And it says here. Paul says, We have we are the circumcision who worship in the spirit of our God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. He's talking about how he was under the old covenant and now he's of the new covenant. Look at verse verse eight. Indeed, I counted everything as loss under the old covenant. Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but by that which comes to faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. And that's why the great hymn writer Nicholas von Zinzendorf said this. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress in flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy. Shall I lift up my head again by blood and righteousness? My beauty are thy glorious dress, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, covered by the blood of the Lamb. We are members of a new covenant. We are not under condemnation, but we are the recipients of Christ's righteousness. This is the new covenant in my blood, said Jesus. And finally, notice the supremacy of the new covenant, verse 11. The supreme glory, the highest, the chief, the greatest expression and place of the new covenant. Everything pales in comparison to it. Everything else is temporary, but the new covenant is permanent. The new covenant is eternal. And so what he says in verse 11, he says, for if what was being brought to an end, fading away, came with glory from Mount Sinai, how much more will what is permanent Have glory. And Paul uses that preposition at the beginning of the sentence for which is explanatory, he's explaining what we've already studied this morning. Now, he's explaining, so therefore, he's bringing it to the end here. What was being brought to an end? Came with glory, but guess what? Moses died. Aaron died, Levi died, all mortal men. And. The Herodian temple that was there when Jesus was alive, it took 46 years to build, was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. All that was fading away, the old covenant administration. But the new covenant is that which is permanent and will have much more glory and the glory won't fade, it will continue to go on and it will be through the people of God. In our lives, as we live to the glory of God and as we display his glory in his church to the onlooking world. To the new covenant is a better covenant. Enacted with a better sacrifice. Brought about by a better priesthood. If you're a believer here this morning. You are in the new covenant. The New Covenant inaugurated at the Lord's Supper by the Lord Jesus Christ, which we're about to celebrate. The New Covenant in his blood. Everything has faded away and given way to the age of the New Covenant. So, in conclusion then, dear saints of God, Jesus Christ then is everything. Jesus Christ is everything. He is our rock. Our health may change. Our economic status may change. Our government health care system may change. But Christ never changes. He's the same yesterday. Today. And forever. What I'm saying is this, if you're here this morning and you're not in this New Covenant, you have not received the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, you have not received the clothing of His righteousness, I want to tell you that you can trust Jesus Christ. You can trust Him for what His Word He said in his word what he's promised and what he's done in his work on the cross. You can give your life to Christ, have your sins forgiven. Receive his righteousness. Live by his grace. The Bible says then under this administration. Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. shall be born again. Do not marvel that I said you must be born again. Jesus said. And so is everyone. Who is born of the spirit. He's here through his word and through the Holy Spirit. He has shown you the way to salvation through his son, Jesus Christ. And he's calling you, all who are weary and heavy laden, to enter his rest and to know his grace.