In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of perseverance and patience in the Christian journey. He highlights how society's obsession with instant gratification can hinder our spiritual growth. The speaker also discusses the concept of seasons in God's plan and how they bring about change and transformation. He specifically mentions the season of baptism as a way to show our identification with Christ and transition from the old self to the new. The speaker expresses his belief that God will bring about a greater functioning of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus among His people.

For the last year or two, I've been more and more aware that the New Covenant is to be, it is an impartation, not just a new set of rules that God established for the Church. It's to be an impartation, and I believe it will and can be and should be an impartation. It will be as we seek to let the Holy Spirit be in control. I really believe that the Lord will bring us to the place as we seek to follow on to know him where the Holy Spirit will be in control of our individual lives as well as of our gatherings together in his name. And that individually it's very important to seek to come to that place where we give the Lord the preeminence and all things, so that when we gather together, the same thing will be true. And we can hardly have the one without the other. Nevertheless, we help one another so that we gather together for fellowship. If so be, we might be able to encourage one another to come closer to the Lord so that we help each other. Nobody comes to the fullness by himself, but little by little we seek to encourage one another and help one another. And I believe God's way is that there should be a divine impartation to God's people. Every time we gather together, not only as the word goes forth, but as the Spirit of God is in charge all through the meeting, there should be an impartation of his Spirit one to another, a greater measure than we have known until we come to that fullness that God has in mind. The other night I read through three verses from 2 Corinthians 3. I think we'll just read those again and maybe go on a little further. Paul said, Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistles, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye 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 on tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. And so it is evident that Paul, writing to the Corinthians, is comparing the two covenants, the one that came by Moses, which was written on tables of stone, and the one that Christ is writing upon the hearts of his people, the fleshly tables of the heart. And Paul says of the Corinthian church that you are manifestly declared to be Christ's epistle, ministered by us. What a glorious thing it is to consider that God wants His Word to be so manifest in us, taking such root within us, that we are manifestly expressed before the world about us as God's epistle to them, the epistle of Christ to them. And when we understand that, we will understand why the world is not too impressed with what goes on in the church, not too impressed. Because they read the church. They read it. They like reading it. And they see so much that doesn't line up with their concept of what God's people should be. And God wants His church to be such that as the world reads it, they'll read something about Christ. They'll see Christ manifestly revealed in His people. God bring us to that place where as God writes His holy laws upon the fleshly tablets of our heart, we'll manifestly reveal that to those about us. And such trust have we through Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but are sufficiencies of God, who also have made us able ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. And we did touch on that a little, showing how that we certainly desire and must cherish and honor the letter of the Word. And not as some say, well, the letter killeth, so away with it. But honoring the letter of the Word because in the letter of the Word there is the life concealed under the shell, as it were, protected by the letter of the Word. The truth is there. But we can't eat the shell. The shell must be broken open before we find the life in it. People say you're spiritualizing too much of the Word. No, we just want to open the Word by the Spirit, crack it open that we might find the life that's within it. Otherwise, the letter will kill. But the Spirit giveth life. And so the Scriptures are, I believe, something that God has given for us. And Paul says to read the Scriptures. And you know that in the Scriptures we find a way of life, and we honor the Scriptures and must read them. But knowing that unless God reveals it, unless God takes it and brings forth the living truth that's there in the Word, we will not be propheted. And then he goes on to compare the two covenants in greater detail. And he calls the law the ministration of death, written and engraven in stone. And he calls the new covenant the ministration of righteousness and the ministration of life. So he compares the two. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in 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? He says the ministration of the law, which he calls the ministration of death here in this verse, pointing out that though it was given by God, and God's intention was that men would go beyond the law and embrace his grace. For even Moses said when he gave the law, and when he reiterated the law in the book of Deuteronomy, the word that God speaks unto you, he says, is not far off from you. It's not up in heaven that one would say, Who shall go up to heaven to bring it down to us? Nor is it in the deep that one should say, Who shall go and bring it to us? But the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart. And Paul quotes that when he declares the gospel of Christ to the Romans. He says, as it is written, the word is nigh thee, even the word of faith which we preach. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. So hidden away even in the law was the truth of the gospel. It was there, but somehow it was sealed. Paul says their hearts were hardened in unbelief. Paul says that which is intended to bring life, it brought death. And God knew it would happen that way, because the time had not yet come when in fullness he would be able to reveal the intent of the law. Nevertheless, God offers it for those who have eyes to see. And I think Moses saw much in the law and lived much in the realms of God's grace. He had a greater manifestation of the glory of God, I believe, than we see today in the church. And it shouldn't be that way, as we shall see as we go on. But he had a great revelation of the Christ. He had a great walk in the Spirit. He talked with God face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. He saw God's glory, and yet God wouldn't let him come into the fullness of it, even then, because his ministration was to be a ministration of the law which brought condemnation and death. And so Paul says the ministration of death, or the ministration of the law which brought death, which was written down in stones, was glorious. So glorious 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. So Paul is referring to the incident that happened when Moses had been up in the mountain commuting with God, and God wrote upon the tables of stone his own holy law and gave it to the children of Israel, brought it down from the mountain to give it to the children of Israel as the law that they were to keep. But even before he got to them, they had committed to idolatry. They had gone astray from God. And as Moses heard the shouting and the dancing going on in the camp, and what it was all about, when he came around a certain corner, I guess, on his way down the mountain, he saw them. They erected the golden calf, and they were singing and dancing around the golden calf while Moses was up receiving for them the ordinances of God. And oh, what anger arose up in Moses as he saw that even before he had given them God's holy law, they had violated all the principles of it. And he threw the thing down at his feet and smashed the tables at his feet. And then you know the story how he had to reprove the children of Israel for their sin and their error and chastise them. How he took the golden calf and grounded the powder, cast it into the water, and made the Israelites drink of the water. It was God judging them for their sin. And God said to Moses, I will destroy them. Let me destroy them. And Moses interceded as a faithful priest of God. For Moses was not an opportunist. God had prepared his heart so well that he had become priestly in heart. He had become merciful in heart. He had become meek and tender and broken in heart. And that's why God called him. And I believe that's why God waited those 40 years to prepare that vessel for that great ministration of bringing a people out of Egypt who were not worthy of God's redemption, never were worthy, and God knew that. Nevertheless, for his own name's sake and for the Father's sake, for he had promised that Abraham's seed would be in a strange land and would be in bondage, but God would bring them out. And God's always faithful to his promise, regardless of man's unfaithfulness. And so Moses interceded before God when God threatened to destroy them. And he would have destroyed them except for Moses' intercession. And he cried unto God and God spared them. And he said, I will forgive. According to your word, I will forgive. Nevertheless, he said, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. And I used to wonder why he made that connection. And I think I recognize why it was. God said, I'll forgive your people. I'll forgive the people of Israel. But if I do that, I'm going to fill the whole earth with my glory. As if to say, if I forgive them, they totally are undeserving. Well then, if they're totally undeserving and I forgive them, I'll have to fill the whole earth with my glory. And so God's purposes are never frustrated by man's disobedience. Those who are disobedient will fall short of God's promise. They will not enter into the thing that God has promised. But when God declares his purposes in the earth, he doesn't change his purposes because of human failure. But he will wait until the time comes when God will once again bring that promise back and give it life and fulfill it in some different way. God doesn't abrogate his word because of man's unfaithfulness. And often, as we will discover as we go through the Scriptures, man's disobedience opens up the way for God to show greater mercy to others who have not had an opportunity. You've been disobedient. You don't deserve a thing, but I'm going to forgive you. But if I do that, then I'm going to open up a door of mercy to all the earth. It's really what God said. So that in the fullness of time, when God sent the ultimate promise, the ultimate hope of Israel, and he was manifest in the earth, even the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Israel's ultimate hope, the thing that the nation has been looking for all through the centuries. And when he was rejected, and Israel thought God had to come to us because we're his chosen people, and he did. He came to them and visited them. But when they rejected him, God didn't say, well, I guess I'll have to start all over again. Call another man like Abraham and discipline him and train him and make a holy nation that would receive me. God has no problem along that line. When Israel rejected Christ, God just took the blindness off the eyes of the Gentiles and grafted them into the tree. We talked about it a little this morning, grafted them into the olive tree of Israel by breaking down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, making one new man, grafting the wild branches into the good olive tree of Israel, the original branches being broken off. Not all of them, but most of them became dead branches so that the tree was almost bare. But God is not to be frustrated in his purposes. The olive tree was a good tree, and so he grafted in wild branches into the good olive tree of Israel. The church doesn't see that as a whole, but it's because they won't accept Paul's interpretation of the Old Testament. They won't accept the inspired revelation concerning the Old Testament because it's so clear that as many of you as have the faith of Abraham, the same are the seed of Abraham. Those of you who have the faith of Abraham, you are Abraham's seed and further, you are heirs according to the promise. We who are Gentiles who at one time were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, excluded from the covenants of promise, God has torn down the wall of partition by his cross to make of the Jewish people and the Gentile nations, to make one new man so making peace. One new thing by tearing down the wall and bringing in Jews and Gentiles. Not all the Jews, not all the Gentiles, but and I might further say not too many of the Jews, the most of them being Gentiles because the Jews had rejected the Messiah. Nevertheless, the door was open because Paul says God put the Jews and the Gentiles in the same prison house. He has shut up all in the prison house of unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. I mean, it's so clear to me and I don't see how anyone could read the New Testament, especially Paul's epistles with an open heart and fail to see that God has one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. Nevertheless, God respects his own electing purposes. And so in his electing purposes he sought this to bring the Gentiles in and he sees fit in the end of the Gentile age to bring back the broken branches, the dead branches according to election. Nothing to do with merit at all when you're talking about election. As far as the gospel was concerned, they were enemies, Paul said, for your sake. Becoming enemies of the gospel had opened the door to the Gentiles. They're enemies for your sake according to the gospel, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the father's sake. So election has nothing to do with merit. It's simply a case, God said, I will in the end of the times of the Gentiles, I'll grasp back the dead branches. Where? Into the same olive tree that he put us in. And when that happens, Paul said, that means life from the dead. Life from the dead. And so we're in the tree, but we realize that fullness of life is not there. But the time is coming when God brings back the elect of God of Israel, of natural Israel, and grasp them into the tree. It's going to take a miracle which is described simply as a resurrection miracle. Life from the dead. According to the working of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which is our inheritance, but which we too have not really seen functioning in any degree of fullness. So I foresee the next phase of the church and the next phase when Israel is grafted in to the same tree from which they were cut off, the tree that we've been in, but which has likewise become depleted of the vitality of it. And the Gentile churches are going to be cut off. Those who have not known Christ, not all of them. Paul says he didn't cut off all Israel. He just cut off those who didn't have faith. And so he says the same will happen to the Gentiles. Those who don't really have faith, but are called to church, they'll be cut off and they'll give life to the dead branches and bring them back into the good olive tree. The same tree. How can anybody miss that? The very same tree that we're in. That we got in by their default. And they're going to get back in by our default. But we who remain and those who have remained of the natural Israel will together be in that same covenant tree. Once strangers from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, you who were once afar off are brought nigh by the blood of Christ and made to be fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. And so God's purposes are never frustrated because of human disobedience. Because God knows how just to turn to another people when his own people reject him. And he's done it in the church. Turn from a people who profess to have been heirs of his promises and he'll move in another people. In the same stream, in the same river of life, in the same olive tree. But nevertheless, another people who were alienated from that life before. And he'll do it again. And he is doing it again. He's moving mightily even now in many of those nations beyond the sea who have been neglected. Great revivals going on in Africa, China. I hear reports of a tremendous moving of God's spirit in China, I'm sure. And we hear of those things going on elsewhere and we wonder, well, Lord, what about us? And we should know the reason. To him that hath shall be given and to him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he seemeth to have. When God brought the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel and drafted them into the good olive tree, Paul says, I'm just hoping that when God does this, I may provoke my people to envy. When he sees Gentile dogs coming in that, you know, they were far below them and they come in and become heirs of the promises which should have been theirs. Paul says, I just trust that somehow I'll provoke them to jealousy. That's why God is doing it. To provoke this people to jealousy. You mark my word when God starts moving on this continent. He's going to move some through some of them. He's going to move in those areas where they're rejected or neglected or very poor or don't fit into society. Watch him move amongst the colored people and amongst the native people. Watch him move mightily in some of these areas because somehow it seems that there's a feeling of supremacy, you know, in the white races and we've got it. We're God's chosen people and certainly God did move mightily in those realms. I talked to a man in Kenya. He wanted to get a visa to come over here and I told him to be patient and let God send him. He said God gave him a vision of lights in Africa and God told him he was going to send many lights to come over to dark America. We used to talk about dark Africa. And now the Christian people in Kenya, this man said God said he would send him as a light to dark America. God's no respecter of persons, but he does respect his own purposes and he has purposes. And when man in his influence and pride somehow seeks to frustrate God's purposes, God is not frustrated. He goes on out and he fulfills his promises in ways we never imagined. And he'll do it again. And as I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with my glory. And so Moses broke the tables of stone and that wasn't the end of it. After God had reproved them, after he had listened to Moses' pleas of repentance, after all this, God said to Moses, come up to the mountain and bring with you two tables of stone and I will write upon them my holy law, which I wrote upon the first tables, which you broke. And you will take them down to the children of Israel, but you won't present it to them as my law for them to keep. In so many words, I mean, he said that because he said you'll put it in the Ark of the Covenant. Certainly it was for them to keep and he expounded those laws to them. But God was doing something in type here. He says, take these tables of stone and put them beside the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant. And in the Ark of the Covenant, there was a mercy seat over top that covered those tables of stone. And the Ark of the Covenant was in behind the veil in the holiest of all, which was in behind the doorway to the holy place, which was in behind the gate to the outer court, secluded there in the holiest of all. That's where the tables of law were placed. God telling us in type, that though we've broken his law, that's not the end of it. God would have another covenant, which he would write upon the fleshly tablets of the heart. His holiness, which he required of man, he would now impart to them. There would be an impartation. And God wants to do that. I'm not saying we haven't had it, but I'm trusting that there'll be a real measure of it that we'll all recognize and know that it's happening. That in the ministration of the new covenant, it's not just that our minds are getting a little more knowledge, but there's an impartation of what that word says. There's an impartation of it. Let's look for that. Let's anticipate, expect it. And as the word goes forth, which we recognize to be from the Lord, let's have open ears and open hearts to receive it, that God might begin to write that word upon our hearts. And I know we've all had experiences where he has done that in measure. When we received him as our savior in later times, we know that God quickened something, made it alive. But we're just encouraging you to believe that this is the day for the unfolding of the new covenant in fulness, that God wants to bring it forth in fulness, in the midst of his people, because we know, we simply recognize that we're not that living epistle that God wants the church to be. I think we don't have any problem recognizing that. We're far from it. And it's because that holy law of God has not been written there to bring forth that light that others will seek after and seek to know what God has to say to them as the living epistles of Christ. And so when Moses was up in the mountain receiving the tables of the law, and where is that? Exodus, I believe, 34. He took the tables of stone up with him for God to write upon them as holy law. And it says in verse 20 of Exodus 34, it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with two tables of testimony in Moses' hand. When he came down from the mount, that Moses whisked not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. While he talked with him, while God talked with Moses, while he talked with him. It's, I guess, not clear there whether it's Moses or God in the first instance. But I understand that it's saying Moses whisked not that the skin of his face shone while God talked with him. Either way, I suppose, it would be similar. He didn't know that as God was talking with him and as he was talking with God. For if you're talking with a person, it's a two-way conversation if you're talking with him. Not talking to him, but you're talking with him. So, there's conversation. And I believe true prayer ought to be that. Just tell him, God, what you want. If God's there, anything you tell me, just tell me and I'll be quick to do it. I know we have promises. If he says anything you ask in my name, I will do it. But that's for a people abiding in him. Don't forget that. When you read John 14, 15, 16, it's very clear. It's for a people abiding in him. They're not asking for their own benefit, their own selfish benefit. They're asking for the glory of God. And because they're talking with God, God puts it on their heart to pray for this and to ask for that. God inspires that desire that we have if we're truly walking with him. And then it will come to pass, ask what you will and it shall be done. And we know very well that I suppose all of us have claimed that over and over and it didn't happen and we almost give up on it. But let's just face up to it. It's for a people who are abiding in Christ and Christ is abiding in them. And there's a great fulfillment of that scripture yet to take place when God has this people in union with him and he is abiding with them and they with him and they're one with Christ. They ask what they will and it shall be done. It doesn't mean they're set free to ask for anything they want because their wills even have been changed. Their wills have been centered around God's will. Their heart is one with the heart of God. And so they ask what they will because you're in a place where you will what the Father will. Your desire is what the Father desires. So you ask whatever you will and it's done. I'm not limiting the scripture. I'm enlarging it. When you abide in Christ and Jesus abides in you, you have God's desires. You have God's mind. You have God's heart. You know what he desires. You ask what you will and it shall be done because your will has been so completely transformed that you're one with the will of God. That's a tremendous thing but God wants to bring his people to that. And so as Moses talked with God and God talked with Moses, the glory of God was being transferred to Moses' continent by reason of the fact he was talking with him. So there was administration of the new covenant but the new covenant had not yet come and Israel was not yet ready for it. And so to them it became administration of condemnation. Read on a little further. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain they were afraid of that light. They were terrified. They withdrew. They squinted. They tried to shave their eyes. They would like to run away but Moses called to them, beckoned to them, come. And little by little they fearfully drew nigh to Moses. Now before we finish that part I want to read on in 2 Corinthians 3. The administration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance. They couldn't keep looking at him. They'd glance and glance away quick like you would if you're looking at the sun and it's brilliant. Just a quick glance and that's it. Otherwise you'd be blinded. You know you'd be blinded. He kept staring at it. Men have gone blind by staring at it and they couldn't stand it because of their sensitive eyes. Paul says now if that glory was that bright and the dispensation of the law how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious, more glorious? Would you and I settle if we had the glory that radiated from Moses' face? Would we settle for that? I mean and Paul says that was the ministration of death. But he says it's glorious but he says if that was glorious, the ministration of death, ought not the ministration of the Spirit be more glorious? I mean you read 2 Corinthians 3 you know tearfully like that and you just see how far short we are in the glory of God. When the law that came with glory came with a season and even as it came on Moses' face it was just transient. It was just for a few minutes perhaps and it kept on fading away and fading away, fading away. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious because he came to abide. He came to abide in his temple forever. God's plan is that unto him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. But somehow we expect that there should have been a passing away of the glory of God from the early church until now to end up in total apostasy. So we can justify our faith by saying Moses said in the last days there would be a great falling away. And we know there's a great falling away and we know it's there. But unto him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. And if the ministration of death came with glory how shall not rather the ministration of the Spirit be with an enduring glory. It's as clear as can be. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth. He's comparing the two glories, the glory that Moses had and the glory that we have. And he says that which came with glory is somewhat glorious but nothing compared to the real glory. As if to say here's a dark room and you light a candle. Well it gives light. You can see a little. You can see where you're walking perhaps. You turn on these lights and that little candle could be burning. You wouldn't even notice it. It has no glory by reason of the greater light. That's what he's saying. You compare it. Then he says it didn't have any glory at all. And so the moon has glory. It has a reflected glory from the sun. And sometimes in full moon it has quite a glory. But when the sun rises it's still there in the sky. If you know where it is you could find it. But really it has no light at all compared to the excelling glory of the sun. So that's what he's saying. So let's go on. For that which is done away with glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Paul says that which remaineth, that covenant which abides, that covenant which remains in the church throughout all ages, world without end, is glorious. I've learned that when our experience does not measure up to what the Word says, to accept what the Word says and seek God earnestly, why we come short of it. Instead of explaining it away, Paul says there's going to be glory in the church throughout all ages and so we've got it. It's there. It's God's provision. It's there in God's purposes. It's there in the Holy Spirit. And He abides within us. So is our inheritance. But let's face up to it. We haven't appropriated that. We've lost that glory. God wants to bring us back to that glory. It's there in the church. It's in the Holy Spirit. But when we fall short of God's provision, let's not take the theological stand. The Bible says I've got it, so I've got it, and forget the rest. The Bible says we've got it that we might nurture it, that we might seek after that which He has given us as the lost treasure which has been lost and obscured under the many traditions and forms and rituals of human tradition. I know it's in the church. It's in the Holy Spirit. But we've lost it. God wants to bring us back because it's an abiding glory. It remaineth. The glory that remaineth. Much more is that more glorious than the glory that was done away. And so having made that comparison, he says, seeing then we have such hope. We use great plainness of speech. And not as Moses would put a veil over his face. I want you to notice why Paul put a veil over his face. That the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. He put the veil over his face so that the children of Israel wouldn't be looking on that glory that was fading away. He didn't want them to see, as one translator put it. He put the veil on his face so they wouldn't see the last rays of that glory fading away. That's why he covered his face. And I never realized that until I read this and other versions and then read it back again in Exodus. I thought when he came down and Aaron and the children of Israel said, we can't look at you Moses. There's too much light there. I thought Moses quickly pulled out a veil and threw it over his face. Okay, come on now. I'll talk to you. I've got my face covered. He didn't do that. He beckoned to them with that glory radiating from his countenance. He beckoned to them. They came nigh. And with open face he declared unto them what he had heard from God. Back to Exodus 34, verse 33. Until Moses had done speaking with them. Till is in italics, indicating the translators put it there feeling it made a better translation. Any of you looking at other translations at this moment? Exodus 34, 33. What does it say? And when? When? When Moses? Anybody else got a translation? Huh? Someone else? Verse 33. When Moses finished. That's the correct translation. It gives you a whole different concept. When Moses had done speaking with them, he put the veil on his face. Not before, but when he finished speaking. And that's confirmed by the Apostle Paul when he said, we don't have a glory such as Moses had that faded away. And therefore we have great boldness. Because this covenant is not a covenant that fades away. It's one that takes on more and more glory as we continue to walk in the light of it. And so he says, we have great use, great plainness of speech. He says, we're bold about the new covenant. Not as Moses. He's saying Moses wasn't too bold about that covenant. Because though he did not know that the glory was radiating from his face when he came down from the mount, he did, he was aware when the glory began to depart. God give us grace to recognize when the glory departs. Moses had that grace, that something that he'd been in communion with God. And though he didn't know his face was taking on the brilliance of it, he was aware of God's presence. But to him it was invisible. But he was aware of that presence. And as he talked to the children of Israel, aware of that presence and aware of the glory, he began to realize that it was fading away. And he was ashamed of the fading splendor of it. That's what he was ashamed of. That's what he didn't have boldness about. And when he was aware that that glory was fading away, when he had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. And Paul says the reason he did it was so that the children of Israel would not be able to look to the end of that which is abolished. That they wouldn't see the last rays of it going out. Because he didn't have that kind of boldness to think that he had the glory and the presence of God as he gave to them God's precepts. And little by little, the glory was gone because the law was not to be an eternal thing in God's purpose. It had to fade away to give to the new covenant. Nevertheless, it came with glory. It had a brilliance about it. And Moses refused to cover his face until that glory was gone. And then he shut up. He put a veil over his face. God help us to minister out from the radiance of his splendor. For that radiance is not imparting to God's people the light that he wants them to have. God will not hide his glory just because people don't want it. What was the real problem? What was really the problem there? Why couldn't Moses go on speaking? You know what the real reason was? The veil was on the hearts of those people before him. And so there was nothing he could do but put a veil on his own face because the veil was on their heart. So why should he go on speaking? Why should Moses go on speaking with a veil on their heart? So he stopped speaking and he put a veil on his face. I'm going by what Paul said here in verse 14. But their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. So the veil was really on their heart. Both of the hearts are read from God's people. And so Paul says, unto this day the same veil remaineth untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which is done away in Christ. The reading of the Old Covenant. In the reading of it, the veil is on their heart. And to this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. But what is the law? Is it not the truth of God coming forth in a command that the people could not keep? And has not the Church made of the New Covenant and Old Covenant by organizing precepts and doctrines and rituals that we're supposed to keep by way of keeping the New Covenant? So virtually we make an Old Covenant out of the New. And I can say, and I think we can recognize, until this day all over Christendom, when the New Covenant is read, they hear only the letter of the word. They're killing. Because the veil is upon their heart. But whensoever the heart shall turn to Christ, the veil is taken away. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. And so back to Exodus, when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off. His heart was turned to the Lord. He went in, took the veil off, talked with the Lord. And when he came out, he spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded, that glory had come back. He went in, took the veil off, talked with God, got into God's presence, that glory returned. And he went out and talked to the children of Israel with the glory of God radiating from him. And then as the glory faded away, it says, the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. And so Moses put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with the Lord. And so that was the manner in which Moses ministered the old covenant to the people, with the glory of God, but a fading glory. But Paul says we have a ministration with great boldness, not as Moses who put a veil over his face so the children of Israel would not see the departure of the glory. Isn't it true that the veil is on the minds of many, many of God's people? And they don't recognize that the glory has departed because the veil is on their hearts. And they don't see the radiance of God's splendor in the new covenant. So we look to the Lord for him to remove that veil from our eyes, from their eyes, that as we minister, it will be a shining forth of God's presence. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now Paul is summing up of all this that we've said. Now the Lord is that spirit. Talked about Moses standing before the Lord for taking of his glory. With that glory, speaking to the children of Israel, the glory fading away because the veil was really, though he put it on his face, it was because it was on their hearts. It's on their hearts and so the glory wasn't penetrating and the glory faded away. When the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Moses went in to talk to God, the veil was taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We all with open face, and that's the same word again, refers to the removed veil, the unveiled face. We all with the veil removed, beholding within a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. Paul gives the means by which there is to be a ministration of the new covenant to his people in the church. It's with the veil removed so that we with the veil removed are able to reflect the glory of Christ before whom we stand. For we are to stand before him as Moses stood before Jehovah God and partook of his glory, so we are to come into his presence and stand before him to partake of the glory of Christ with unveiled face, so that our face reflecting God's glory, we all, he says, not just the pastor, prophet, teacher, we all, because everyone in the new covenant is to partake of this same glory. And God has a ministration of glory for everyone that we all, as we gather together, there might be a radiation of that glory from each one to everyone else. We all with unveiled face reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord. It's another translation. Anyone got that translation in 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18? We all with open face beholding as in a glass or reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. So we're to be reflectors as a mirror reflecting God's glory. Individually we ought to stand before God as believer priests partaking of his presence and then individually reflecting that glory to one another, whether it's when we come together or wherever we are. Paul says that we're to be living epistles of Christ, known and read of all men because of the presence of that glory. Are changed into the same image, not all at once, not a sudden transformation from the old Adam to the new, but from glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. But even though it's little by little and even though it's from glory unto glory, let's not lose sight of the fact that the image is to be his image, changed into that same image, not another, the same image from glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. So we must come to that place where there's an impartation, that presence of God radiating from God's people one to another. A word here, someone has a prayer he feels to. Let that glory lead him and go and pray for someone in need. Someone gives a word of prophecy, a tongue interpretation or some manifestation of mercy or a healing or it's a manifestation of the glory of the new covenant that he has for his people. We all with open face holding from the glass the glory of the Lord are changed. The word is metamorphosis, metamorphosis from which we get the English word metamorphosis, a change, a complete change. It's not just a complete changing from one form to another. And so it is that we as creatures of the Adamic race, David said I'm a worm and no man. By nature, just totally helpless as a worm. That worm will get into a cocoon and if he is subject to the law of nature that God has put there, he subjects himself to that, he will get away in a cocoon until he's changed, transformed. And God has ways of transforming us, transfiguring us, bringing about that metamorphosis as we obey the law that he's put within us. That poor worm of course has no other option. He's guided by an intuition sometimes, by the law of nature that God put there. But with you and I he asks us to walk in obedience, to be led of the Spirit. And as surely as you and I come to that place of commitment, we are coming to that place where we will know what the will of the Lord is. Paul brings that also out in Romans 12 where he says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed, which is this word also, the very same word changed, be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And so in the presentation of ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice, Paul tells us that in that commitment there is that divine importation of his will for us that we will be able to prove what is that good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God. So that the transformation of us into the image of Christ is related to presenting ourselves as a burnt offering before him, presenting ourselves totally unto him as a living sacrifice that we might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, not being conformed to this world but transformed, this complete metamorphosis, this complete changing of our nature, transforming us into the same image even as by the Spirit of the Lord. What is it going to take, I've often asked myself, what is it going to take for this Spirit to do this work within us? We have his Spirit, we're born of his Spirit, we drink into his Spirit and we thank him for the measure of Spirit he has given us. But what is it going to take for the Spirit of God to bring about this transforming work, this transfiguring experience? It's the work of God and I believe that God will be faithful to, by his Spirit, lead us into that realm. I remember several times I have taught on the book of Romans, two or three times, verse by verse from chapter one on through. And sometimes it seems that you delay first season, things would come up and you'd miss the thread of the teaching and I'd go back to it and we'd get up to the end of Romans 7 and I don't think I ever got beyond that much. Romans 7, not that I deliberately stopped there, but it just seemed that circumstances or whatever would come that we never got any further. I thought the Lord reminded me it's because that's where we have been, largely speaking in our Christian experience. We've known justification by faith. In Romans 1, 2 and 3, first of all the judgments of God declared on the whole human family. Coming into Romans 3, justification by faith. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, upon all, and the belief, for there is no difference for all that's thin and comes short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And we go on from there. Romans 4, how Paul explains how that even David was justified by faith and Abraham was justified by faith. And then in Romans 5, showing how that coming into faith, God identifies us with the last Adam as truly as in our natural birth. We were born into disobedience because of the natural Adam. We were born into a realm of disobedience. And by new birth we're born into the realm of obedience. As is the first Adam, such are they also. The first man is of the earth, earthly. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As we've borne the image of the earthly, so we shall bear the image of the heavenly. So we go into Romans 5 and it compares the two men, the two acts, one of obedience, the other of disobedience. The two kingdoms. One kingdom that reigned unto death, the other kingdom that reigned unto life. And five times in Romans 5, Paul says much more, much more, much more. If this is what happened because we're born in Adam, much more there's righteousness if we're born in Christ. If disobedience landed us all in a state of sin, much more does the obedience of Christ bring us into his righteousness. If there was a kingdom that started under Adam, which Paul calls the kingdom of sin and death, much more is there a kingdom of life that comes upon us in the last Adam. Much more. That as sin has reigned in death, even so must righteousness reign through Christ Jesus unto eternal life. I mean it's so clear. You can't escape the logic of it because it's a divine logic that as sin reigns in death, so righteousness reigns unto eternal life in Christ Jesus because we're born into another Adam. We can't escape the logic of it, but we look at it and we say, well, I see very little functioning of that law within. And we recognize that is true. And I believe it is true that there's been very little functioning of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and his people. I believe God's going to change that. I believe he will in his purposes. He will change that till that law which is there will begin to function. As I read the story, the scientific report of what happens, and this man experimented with these silkworms over a period of years, he discovered that it was at a certain season, a certain season in the spring of the year when God would cause this metamorphosis to take place. And I believe it is so in God's purposes that he has seasons. He has seasons when he will move in certain ways. And I believe we're at the change of the seasons once again and that there's a new season that God would bring us on further. So we go on Romans 5, Romans 6, baptism showing our identification with Christ and his cross, showing the way whereby we come out of the old man into the new. It's through baptism. I don't say just water baptism, but the real baptism which is one of the heart. Pictured in water baptism, pictured in the water, but the real baptism is the circumcision of the heart. And so he deals with that in Romans 6. He says, As we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly. And we can read those things and cast it off lightly. Well, when we get to heaven, we'll have the image of the heavenly. But did you go to hell to bear the image of the earthly? You were born into it. To bear the image of the earthly, you had to be born into it. To bear the image of the heavenly, you're born into that heavenly family. And so as is the earthly, such are they that are earthly. As is the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly. We can't escape them. The only reason we deny it is because we don't see it happening too much. We've got to come to a place where we recognize it when God declares it. It is so because He declared it. And even though it's not happening, we're not going to be like the Christian science saying, well, it is anyway, because that's just the way it is. But recognizing God declared it and therefore it's so, but it might not be working that way and find the reason why it isn't working that way. Instead of blindly going our way, he says, By faith I declare that I'm a new man in Christ Jesus and deceive ourselves and everybody else. Like the little boy who was schooled very much by this friend that he used to go and visit. And she was a Christian scientist. And how's your mother today? How's your grandmother? I think it was, as the story goes. And oh, he says, Grandma's sick today. He says, you go tell your grandma she's not sick. That's what they call a positive confession, you know. Go and tell her she's not sick. And so he goes home and sure enough, grandma's still sick. And next day he visits this lady, neighbor, and how's grandma today? Oh, she's still sick. Go and tell her she's not sick. And trying to, you know, somehow by the manipulation of your mind make it happen. You can't do that. And so he came back another day and he says, how's grandma? He says, grandma thinks she's dead. But you see, there is a truth to it, that God declares it because that's his purpose. And it's going to come to pass. And it's so sure that God says it is so. But there's a working out of that in experience. And I think I mentioned this already. God changes a man's name because God says from now on it's going to be different. And it is different. But the fullness of it hasn't come just when the moment God changes a man's name. And so Abram, he got the promise from God and of a son and a family and an inheritance. And it hadn't come to pass yet, but God told Abram, you see the stars? You count the sand on the seashore? Can you do that? Can you count the stars? He said, so shall I see thee. And Abram believed in the Lord. And God counted unto him for righteousness. And God says, thy name shall no more be Abram, but Abraham, which means father of many, father of a multitude. God can do that. And Abraham could bear that name. But it would be as a reproach until it happened. Abram was ready to bear the reproach of the name. And there's many things concerning the truth of God that God asks us to believe and bear the reproach of it and testify of it. But we bear the reproach of it. A glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any such thing. A people joined unto the Lord as He is joined unto the Father. That's God's purpose. And God's going to bring it to pass. And one famous minister I knew, he scoffed at it. He says, the more you people talk about the coming together of the body of Christ, the more scattering I see. And so you bear the reproach of it. You can't help it. But God said Jesus prayed for it. So it's going to happen. And so He changes our name and He calls us Christian. The name that came upon the Christians in the Antioch church, they were called Christian. I don't know if the Christians gave the name or others that noticed that they were like Christ that called them Christ ones. I don't know. But they bore the name of Christ. And we bear the name of Christ. We're not ashamed of Christ, but oftentimes I think we're a little ashamed to identify with Christians. Because Christians are not that living epistle that God wants them to be. So sometimes we're a little hesitant to identify with our fellow Christians even. But God puts that name upon us. He's put His name upon His people. Because the time will come when the people of the Lord upon whom He has put His name will be a living witness of the one whose name they bear. We're called by that holy name. We're baptized into that name. Paul says we're baptized into Christ. I know we think of water baptism as being a ritual, but it ought not to be. It ought to come at the same time as your conversion. If you're converted and you receive Christ and are baptized, it ought to be a living testimony. As Christ went down into death and rose again, so I identify myself with Christ in His death and in His resurrection. I'm not saying that always happens, but it should. And I believe there will come a time when God will give life to everything that's in the New Covenant. He'll give the life to it that He intended should be there when the book was written. Because Paul says it's a ministration of the glory of God. It's a ministration of life. It's not a ministration of condemnation. It's a ministration of life. It's a burden that the spirit whom we have will become a law functioning within us. Not a legal law, a spiritual law, a divine principle that will function within God's people, giving them total freedom over the law of sin and death. God's intention. And so from Romans 6 we go into Romans 7 and the agony of these two men. After the baptism, the agony goes on as the conflict emerges between the flesh and the spirit. Between the man who's renewed by grace, but who somehow has not learned the secret of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And I felt, as I was going to say a while ago, that the Lord indicated to me that we have gone through Romans 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. And that He was faithful to be with us and making real to us these truths in Romans 1 to 7. And that He would be faithful to lead His people into the full reality of Romans 8. That there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak to the flesh. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sin and for sin, condemned sin on the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. It's the work of the spirit. We struggle to make it happen. We struggle to make many things happen in the covenant. We give up sometimes in despair we can't make it happen. But it's in God's purpose and it's in His seasons. The time is at hand when that spirit whom we have will become a law functioning within us. And I know what it's going to require. It's going to require that you and I, individually and in corporate relationship one with another, seek God earnestly for that manifestation of the spirit of God in our midst where He will be Lord in our lives and in our gatherings together in His name. And when we recognize that He's not Lord, to confess it and to make way for it. When the Lord Jesus by His Holy Spirit comes in to inhabit His people, not only to bless us, to encourage us, to teach us, to heal us, to manifest His gifts, but to be the Lord in our midst. For Paul says the Lord is that spirit. When He comes to be the Lord in our midst, He will cause that law of the spirit to become operative within us. Because He will teach us how to walk in the spirit and to be led of the spirit. Whereas now we seek to be led of the spirit, and sometimes we know we are, but I think we're all ready to admit that yes, we know we've had situations where we know we're led of the spirit, but oftentimes we're not sure, and God isn't condemning us for that. But He's working in us and in our lives individually and in our walk with Him, dealing with us in many ways to bring about within us the functioning of that divine law that we'll just move according to the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And that's not a legal principle, it's the functioning of a law of life. I believe that's the law by which Jesus moved when He was here on earth. He said, I live by the Father, having learned obedience. I mean, all along the way He learned obedience in such depth that it produced suffering. Because He'd have to do so many things that was contrary to the trend of society, contrary to the trend of the religious system. He had to be led of the spirit. He was motivated by a different law. The law of the spirit of life is that which motivated Him. And therefore, in order for that law to function in Jesus, He had to diligently obey the voice of the Father. Let us not think that the Son of God came and lived a life here on earth as God the Son, half God and half man. He came as God and God emptied into human flesh. That emptied into human flesh. His name was the Son of God. His name was Jesus. Emptied into human flesh. He took a place of weakness, of humanity, of poverty. He became weary and tired. He didn't know all things as a man, but in union with the Father, He knew all things. He performed no miracle as a man, but in union with the Father, He did all that the Father showed Him to do. He lived as a man in total union with the Heavenly Father. Why didn't He just live as God? Because then of what advantage would that be if God came and God went back to heaven? But He came as a man identifying Himself with you and I, and that in His redemption, He would take... He being the federal head of a new race of beings, would be able by regenerating us, cause us to be born into His family, that we might live as He lived, walk as He lived, learn obedience as He learned obedience, suffer in learning obedience as He suffered in learning obedience. And in so walking with God that the Spirit of God would be able to lead us in all His ways. And in leading us in His ways, leading us into trial and test and troubles of various kinds to prove our obedience, to test us concerning our faith and obedience, that we too might find that law beginning to function as a law within us and not just as a spirit who comes in to bless us. I never knew that. As I grew up in Pentecost, you got saved, you got filled with the Spirit and you had all there was for you. Then realizing, yes, in a sense, yes, that's all we want is God's Spirit. But that God wanted to come in not only to live there and bless us and help us, comfort us, but be the Lord in our lives, leading us in God's ways, leading us by the Spirit, leading us out of the realm of the carnal nature and into the realm of spiritual life, ridding us of that old carnal nature and by His transfiguring experience, causing us to have the mind of Christ. Romans 8, that's the heritage that God has received. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with us that we are the children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. So may God continue that good work which He has begun. Also, I've got confidence that He will continue that good work which He has begun in you. In the meantime, let us patiently follow the Lord and earnestly ask Him to allow that Spirit to have full control in our hearts and lives until we as a body, a corporate body, know what it is to walk in the Spirit. Out of the realm of Romans 7, where it's I, I, I, struggling against my own impotence to do the will of God, 15, no, I think 25, 27 times He uses the word I, me. The struggle that goes on when we come into Romans 8 and it's a we experience. It's an us experience because it's in the body of Christ that we're able to reflect the glory of God one to another. We all with open face reflecting as a mirror the glory of God are transfigured by that same image, into that same image from glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. I believe God's going to do something in the body of Christ to bring about a vital ministration in each life. Yes, He sends pastors, teachers, prophets to nurture His people in the ways of the Lord, but that ministration by the Spirit is intended to produce a living relationship in each life with the throne of God. No minister is to be another mediator, but every ministry that God ordains as it functions in vital relationship with the Father, with the Son in heaven, is to be a ministration that imparts that same life to God's people that they'll have the same relationship with the one mediator. Never through a prophet unto God, never through a pastor unto God, but every individual is to have a personal individual relationship with the one mediator, one mediator between God and man. A ministry is never to become a mediator. It's possible never to become a mediator, but that's the way it has often happened, even unto this day, so that the people by and large are not looking for that individual walk with the Lord where they can hear the voice of God for themselves. That must come, and God will do that because He's tempering the body together, and the tempering in the Old Testament was a mingling of the oil with the meal. For the meal offering, a mingling of it, mixing it all up until the flour was thoroughly mixed with the oil, and tempered, mixed together, and God's doing that in the body of Christ. Not obliterating your personality or your individuality in any sense of the word, but putting upon each one such a ministration of His Spirit, and another one a different kind of ministration, and another one a different kind of ministration according to the gifts which God has pleased to give. Then in the mingling together of the ministration of the Spirit, there's a tempering of the body of Christ that every individual has something to impart to the body. That there be no schism in the body, but that the members may have the same care one for another. I've emphasized that already. I believe I must continue to do so wherever I minister. That God tempers the body of Christ together, giving more abundant honor to those parts which lack, that there be no schism in the body, but that the members may have the same care one for another. And you know the body is full of needs. There's many, many needs in the body. There's many divisions, divisions, schisms in the body of Christ. We know that. Do you know the reason? Because each individual member is lacking. And God gives abundant honor to those parts which lack, that there be no schism in the body, but the members would have the same care one for another. There's a great day coming when God imparts that honor to every individual member. When the schisms will disappear, because in this body every member has care for one another. Yes, that's right. And there's healing, there's unity, there's one accord. Oh, people say we've tried that and it always busts up. I know because that law of the Spirit is not there in fulness. But when He comes and functions in our midst in fulness, we're going to see it happen from glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. May the Lord bless this preaching. Amen. We thank God for the Word and we have it in our heart and we believe it will grow and expand that the Holy Ghost will continually illuminate this in our hearts and give reality to it. Amen. Oh, give reality to it. We will have food after this service here. We want to take an opportunity though to thank everybody. We appreciate the bond service ministry God's creating. I think it's been so neat to see people serving and helping and pitching in and doing the thing that needs to be done. The giving that's come has just been precious in order to be able to do this. It does take, not that we emphasize it, but God knows it, but it does take finances to do some things. So we just thank God for you and we bless you. I really thank God, not to single her out about anybody else, but I thank God for me. Amen. You wouldn't have the food. A lot of thanks. God's a civil lady here. And so we bless her and honor her and all the ladies. They've really pitched in and really helped us so much. So we appreciate that. Amen. All the tape people, the copying of the tape, the reproducing of the tape and all this. And let's bless brother Scott Williams. It's in his heart to go into these tapes and transcribe them. Okay. And bless him and he'll be able to do that. We'd like to give, you know, even give brother Warnock this on a disc so he could actually put it in his PC and do whatever he wants to it. You know, so we'll give him the tape, but we'd like to do this eventually, give him this serious dish. You might want it for your computer. Amen. So we thank you and we thank the Lord for it. And we believe to grow in the grace of knowledge. Line up on line, precept upon precept, hear a little and bear a little. And that's what we forget. We get so impatient. And it's like this nation's fast food. Got to have it now. If it don't happen now, we're frustrated. But one of the qualities God treasures because it's so much of his own nature is what? Long suffering perseverance. Perseverance. That's the key to a lot of what I believe our brother's been saying. It's not to put it before all and not to say it's forever, but there's a perseverance. Amen to God. I feel it in my own heart. God's saying perseverance. Go after this. Don't get discouraged. Don't faint. Don't grow weary in well-doing. And well-doing is not just doing things for people in it. Well-doing is thinking after God in it. Well-doing is staying on the course God's appointed it. Amen. So may none of us faint. Amen. Amen. Okay. Lord bless you. Enjoy each other in the Lord.