The Qualities of the New Covenant Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Qualities of the New Covenant Part 2. He will be reading out of 2nd Corinthians 3:6-9.

You don’t have to look at all these fanatical and mystical things thinking that somehow God is revealing Himself to you, for He has already revealed Himself through the person of Christ, and we have all that we need to know about Jesus in the Bible.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders with Hope Worth Having. We are grateful that we can come into your particular area wherever you’re at, home in a car or maybe some other place and we are able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with you.

And so we’re diving into 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 6 through 9, continuing our study on the qualities of the new covenant. I hope you’re ready as we pick up where we left off last week and learn these powerful truths about the qualities of The New Covenant.

I want you to take your Bible this morning and turn to 2nd Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 12 all the way down to verse 18 and I’m really going to focus in on two verses and i want you to note verse twelve the Bible says seeing then that we have such hope we use great plainness of speech I want you underline that phrase we have such hope that I wanted to jump down the verse eighteen we all with open face beholding as in 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.

I want you to underline the phrase changed into the Same Image. These are our two key thoughts as you are honing in on what is God want me to learn this morning. Now as we have seen in our text as we’ve been preaching about the qualities of the New Covenant that we have understood that the Old Covenant produces spiritual bondage in those who try to live under the rules and the rituals and the regulations of The Old Testament.

And I want you to remember that Jesus Jesus taught us that He came not to do away with the Old Testament or the old covenant or The Law, but He became to fulfill the Law. And my friends, what I want you to know is this.

That is exactly the OLD covenant. It is the law. The law gives us the knowledge of sin. The laws helps us know that we have fallen short. The lawmakers cannot save us. The lawyers cannot excuse us the law cannot pay the penalty of violating the Law.

What we have as we look at the scriptures today is that the Bible is trying to help us to see that The Old Covenant brings bondage and the New Covenant bring life. The old covenant exposes and brings to our knowledge that we are sinners and that are we sinners who are accountable to a holy God.

but the new covenant brings us grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ and lets us know that all the demands all, the penalty that is required for violating the law have been paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so that’s why I say to you that the remedy to the bondage that we have in the knowledge of our sinfulness is found in in the new covenant of grace because it produces within us a spiritual liberty.

What I want you to get is that the Bible says, again, let’s just jump down to verse 17. Now the Lord is the spirit and where the Spirit of the lord is, there is liberty, there’s freedom in your life, but more importantly than the freedom that you might find in our nation is the freedom that you need to find in the power of the Spirit of God through the mighty work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And so in our text today we are in a long text in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 teaching us about the qualities of The New Covenant and the Bible is helping us to see the superiority of New covenant over the Old Covenant.

It is not that we are putting down the Old Covenant but its purpose is to bring knowledge of our sin, its purposes to help us understand how terribly we fall short but the New Covenant brings a remedy, the new covenant brings the solution, the newcomers takes care of the penalty and the price of what the old covenant has told me is before me.

So as we’ve been looking at the qualities of the the covenant we first learned that the covenant gives life we see that in verse 6 the letter kills but the spirit gives life because my friends the old covenant is a ministry of death and the new covenant Is a Ministry of life our God is A God of Life and so Jesus said I’ve come that they might have life and that They might Have it more abundantly the second thing we learn is that the New Covenant produces righteousness but it simply means living or being right before God.

And so how is it that I can be right before god and how was it that can live right before, God, the old covenant couldn’t do that. It just kept telling me how bad I was. And the Old Covenant kept reminding me that no matter how many rituals I did, and no manner how many ceremonies I participated, and No matter how man rules I tried to follow, that it could never produce in me a standing before God that was right and that I could live right before God.

It is only through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is through only the work of Christ on the cross and through resurrection that today, by faith in the lord Jesus christ, through The New Covenant, I am righteous.

That is, that i am standing before god right. Not because Mike is perfect, not because mike has always done everything right as he should, but because Christ is Perfect and because christ did everything that was right before God almighty when he lived on this earth and so the new covenant produces righteousness.

Now let’s talk about the third quality of the New Covenant. We already learned that the knew covenant produces righteousness, we already learn that The New Covenant produces life, but let me tell you something else.

The new Covenant brings hope. It brings hope to our hearts. So let us get to verse 12 and this is the crux of what I want you to get today is that I wants you know that why is The the new covenant superior to the old covenant because it infuses in your heart a hopefulness, a hope that is within you.

Now, look at the text in verse 12. Seeing then, we have such hope. We use great plainness of speech. Now hope is looking forward. It is look forward to something that’s in the future. Many of you are so hopeful that these rules, these orders, these infringements upon your freedoms will one day be released.

But listen to me friends, we have a better hope than that. Our hope is not hoping that the government will treat us better. our hope is NOT that somehow this life will get even better! Our hope isn’t rooted in our circumstances, but our hope in a future glory with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our hope is anchored in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ He says we have such hope not just a hope but such Hope a Hope that is beyond this life a Hope, that it is eternal a Hope That no man no person on this planet can ever change and no Matter how difficult your circumstances are and No matter how many trying days you might have and No, matter, how, many struggles you may face in your life and no matter how your government treats you your hope is in Christ and Christ alone.

The new hope that we have through the new covenant is beyond this life because we know that God has finished the great work of salvation through Christ that Christ went to the cross to take care of my past that Christ came up out of that tomb and out that grave to to take care of my future.

And now I have a hope that is rooted in Jesus Christ. Listen to what the Bible says. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

Listen, to me church, that I don’t want you to build your hope on your circumstances. You and I as a people of God have to have a Hope that it’s rooted in Christ and the bible says we have of a God of hope who wants to fill us with joy and fill with us peace.

And how is that? By believing in Christ. Friends, if you’re not walking in peace, if your not walk in the joy of the Lord, which is your strength, it is because you are not tapping into the hope, the God Of Hope.

We don’t have a god of death. We do not have the god Of discouragement. We dont have God who want to beat us down. But we through Jesus Christ have access to the A God of hope who wants to fill us with joy and peace.

And not only does he want to fill with us joy in peace, he wants our hope to abound. That’s what the scripture says, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may have a hope that is abounding. My hope should grow every day.

If your hope is limited, if your little hope tanking, it is because you are not connected, you’re not abiding to the God of Hope who want you to abound in hope every day no matter what our circumstances are no matter, what are trials are you and I should be abounding in the hope that is found in Jesus Christ those believers who live by the grace of God we have a great hope.

Our hope is anchored in The Lord our hope is rooted in what Christ did he lived a sinless life he did what I could not do He was flawless, he was perfect, he were sinless and Jesus was the only one qualified to go to the cross and he died on the Cross for my sins and because of his perfection, he took on my imperfection.

He took my sinfulness and He gave me His righteousness and on The Cross, the wrath of God was poured out upon Jesus Christ. Friends, you and I should have paid that price. We were the ones that were caught sinning.

we were the ones violating the law, but Jesus Christ said to all who believe in him, I got this, I’ve got for you, and I’m going to the cross, and gonna die for and take the penalty for you so that you can have eternal life in Christ.

And so it is, I have hope, not in self, I hope not my politicians, I had hope in my circumstances, but my hope is in the Christ and Christ alone. Listen to what the scripture says, it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin.

You see, friends, every year in the Old Covenant and the old testament, they brought their sacrifices. But there was no hope that their sins would be forgiven. They could only hope a messiah would come.

They were reminded through this ceremony of the knowledge of their sin and their need for their sin to be dealt with in their heart. but because the glory of the new covenant is a lasting covenant. The old covenant faded, the old covenant came to an end and was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but the New Covenant is the lasting Covenant and New covenant is built upon the work of Jesus, Christ and therefore as a Christian we have a great hope as far as the future is concerned because of of Jesus Christ, Jesus, Christ came out of that grave and now I have this great future in him.

Listen again to what the scripture says, Christ entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of blood or of goats and calves, but by mean of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption, thus, securing and eternal forgiveness.

You see friends, the reason that I believe that you are eternally secure in Christ is because Jesus went and he paid for all of my sins and He has secured my redemption. He is secured my forgiveness all the way into eternity.

He secured it and He did not just die for my past sins but He died for my present sins. And He died from my future sins does that mean Mike can live however he wants? Absolutely not. We’ll teach you that here in just a second but I want you to this great hope.

Now look what this hope does. Look back at the text, go back to the text church, look at what the Bible says. Examine everything through the Word of God. Seeing then that we have such hope we use great plainness of speech.

So the King James says plainess of Speech. It means openness. Some translations use the boldness. Some translations use the word confidence. It is the idea of speaking without reserve. You know some people say Pastor Mike has no filter and Pastor Mike just lets it all out there.

But listen to me friends, the reason I have plainness of speech, The reason i have such confidence, The Reason I Have Such Boldness is because hope encourages all believers to to be bold in their faith.

Hope encourages all believers to be confident in there faith, God has not called you to put your head down and pity yourself, God is not call you to beat down on yourself. God does not calls you to think less of yourself but he has called you think rightly of yourself and that you and I in Christ are to be bald and we are to confident and we’re to open and we our to understand that we have a responsibility to not be tentative as believers, to be unsure of ourselves as believers but to have our full confidence and hope we have in Jesus Christ.

The gospel is clear. The Gospel is open. The Gospels doesn’t back down. The gospels transcends all cultures, all circumstances, all communities, all issues. The gossip is essential and it just spheres right through and targets the heart no matter where you’re at, what you are facing, what your dealing with, that’s the beauty because the gospel is rooted in Christ and the hope that you and I have leads us to be more bold and more effective as we share Christ with others.

Listen to what the scripture says again, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the Hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect. You see, friends, what do people see in you?

Do they see hope? Do the see someone who’s having daily meltdowns? Do you see some one who lives in anxiety? Do we see somebody who live in fear? Or do they hope in your heart? How do you communicate?

Do communicate with a hopeful heart and when they think that hope and you and they ask you why you have such hope, did you know that God just opened a door for you, and that because Because you have this hope, you can now speak with boldness and courage, and that you could now share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hope enables believers to be bold in their witness, but it also helps us to face any suffering in our life with confidence. I want you to take your Bible this morning, and I you want to go to Romans chapter 5.

And I wanted you see this beautiful truth that I have hope and this Because hope causes me to be confident, and I’m confident as a witness for God, I am confident even as I suffer for god. Oh ,I want you to hear this, Romans 5 verse 3, And not only so, but we glory in tribulation.

Also knowing that tribulations worketh patience, And patience experience, And experience what? Hope church, hope. And hope makes not a shame. Some translations put it like this. Hope never disappoints.

Because the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us. Friends, did you see that? We glory in tribulation. Now, I always want you to understand, there is nobody jumping out of bed and saying I can’t wait to tribulate.

And nobody’s jumping out a bed saying, I cannot wait to suffer and I cant wait to go through a hard time in my life. That’s not the point of the apostle. He is saying that we rejoice and we glory and God and we give God all the credit and the praise for the outcome of our sufferings, for outcome our tribulations, for results of what God is doing in us, what is God doing through us?

What God’s doing around us. So we are able to face suffering with confidence because we have a hope that God uses suffering, God use his tribulation to bring me to that point of hopefulness. Did you see the process that he takes us through that the Bible says we know it’s not that we feel we don’t always feel joyful we, don t always, feel happy but here’s the thing we know my faith is based upon what I know in the Word of God my faith, is built upon, what is true in, the word of, God not on the fleeting circumstances of the world my hope is, built, upon Jesus Christ and notice what says tribulation works patience it’s the idea of enduring under the pressure enduring, under pressure you know what when God puts me through the trial when he puts in the fire he helps me to endure under a heavy load he helps to stay at it because it always too soon to quit God always gives me endurance through his spirit but not only does he give me patience but he gives experience or character that’s why some of the greatest Christians are the Christians who have been walking with Jesus for years upon years because they’ve seen the ups and they’re seeing the downs.

They’ve walked through the trials, they been through their struggles, they have experienced the different things in life that have sometimes set them back, knocked them on their feet, or caused them to seek God more in their life and this is what tribulations do.

It builds character, spiritual character in the Life of the believer, and then what does it say? Experience hope. You see, when you’ve walked through the fire, and Jesus has been with you all the way, you’re like, this is no big deal, what you worried about?

When you know that God has with with, you, the scripture says, yay, though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they have comfort me, some of you you have faced and stood death in the face.

You have dealt with the heartache at the foot of a grave, but you have tremendous confidence that as you walk through the valleys and your savior has always been there with you, he has given you not only character, but he is giving you hope.

And what has this hope done? Well, the Bible says it’ll never let you down. It’ll Never disappoint you. Hope never throws you under the bus. Hope Never gives up. And so my hope that I have is rooted in Christ.

And that’s what I’m saying to you It enables you to face suffering with confidence in your life. I also want you know that hope enables us to the face the future with confident. We are not pessimistic.

We’re not discouraged or defeated because our victory is in Jesus Christ. He already won. We already told two important things about the future that you need to remember. It’s gonna get worse before it gets better.

And you say, Mike, how’s that hopeful? Because friends, the Bible teaches us that a tribulation period’s coming. We’re already seeing the tea leaves of this. I want you to be encouraged because we’re out of here We are out here during the tribulation The second thing is the Bible teaches us that we are on the winning side.

At the end of all this mess Jesus comes at the End of the Tribulation and he comes with his saints and Friends, he will destroy the devil and all his cohorts and He will destroy this one world system, and he will destroy the one world government.

He will destroy all of this One World religion and effort to try to bring down Christ and Christianity and those who believe in Jesus Christ, he will destroy the Antichrist. And friends, the Bible says he’ll set up the millennial kingdom and you and I will rule and reign with him.

Let’s go to verse 18 because the fourth and final quality of the new covenant is that it perpetually transforms my life. It perpetually transforms by life look at verse 18 we all meaning all who believe in Christ all, who love Jesus with open face beholding as in 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.

We all as those who loved Christ and who are committed to Jesus we all with open face some translations put it like this with an unveiled face what is he talking about an open -face an unveiled face he’s contrasting the old with the new the veiled face. Moses wore a veil he went up to Mount Sinai and there he wore avail because the glory of God was on him but it was a fading glory and he did not want the people to see the fading glory of God it was a glory that would come to an end and be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And so Moses wore a veil and this veil caused a blindness and unfortunately there are people who are still blinded by the gospel of Jesus Christ but when we come Jesus Christ’s and we know Jesus Christ the veil is lifted and the vail is gone and the blindness is gone and now we as believers we visualize God’s truth and promises and hope with an open face because through our conversion through our faith in Jesus Christ the veil has been lifted remember that when Jesus went to the cross the Bible tells us that in the holy of holies in the temple of God that the curtain of god that was nine feet tall that it was three feet thick that it was torn the veil was torn from top to bottom not from bottom to top that man could do it but from top -to -bottom that God could it and that the finger of God and the hand of God ripped the veil and now you and I no longer in blindness to the holy of holies we come into the presence of god and the grace of got and thrown of guy and we can boldly come with confidence as you and I come to Jesus through prayer, come to Jesus through worship, come the Jesus through the word of God.

We step into his presence in the Holy of Holies because the veil is gone. We have an open face. We Have a confidence and it’s not in us. It is all in Jesus and what he did on the cross. Thank God I don’t have to run.

Thank god I don have to be in fear. Thank God that I can come boldly before Jesus Christ. And he says that we all with open faith, beholding as in a glass. In a class, He’s talking about a mirror. We look into the Gospels.

The Word of God is a Mirror. We, with an open face, no veil, no blindness, we look in to the Word of the God, it is the mirror, and it reflects the glory of God and It reflects Jesus Christ to us. That’s what He is wanting us to see, is that as we looking to the Mirror, James taught us in James chapter 1, verse 23 through 25, that the word of god is a mirror and that it helps us to see ourselves where we’re at it but it also helps to us see Jesus the Bible teaches us in Psalm 19 verse 7 that the law of the Lord is perfect it converting the soul the testimony of the Lord assure making wise the simple it is through God’s Word it is true prayer it’s true worshiping in the church that God is working his grace into each of our lives and that he is helping us to not only see ourselves and how we need to change but to see Christ in the mirror to see christ in The Word and as we see the Word it is having an effect upon us remember what Jesus said the Scriptures testify of me the Bible is the full revelation of Christ you don’t have to look at all these fanatical and mystical things, thinking that somehow God is revealing himself to you, for He has already revealed Himself to You through the person of Christ, and we have all that we need to know about Jesus in the Bible.

Quit seeking the fads of this world. quit searching for something more. Our sufficiency is in Christ. I don’t need something extra .I don’ need something new. All I need is Jesus. I need Jesus and I find that he is revealed to me in the word from Genesis all the way to Revelation The inerrant the infallible word of God every Punctuation every hyphen every mark in The Bible is in there.

It’s infallibility It is the Word of god it came from God and Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away But my word never will even down to the punctuation marks at all is God breathe and And friends, if you want to see Jesus, open your Bible.

If you wanna see Jesus, start reading and studying your bible. Because as we behold Jesus with unveiled faces, the spirit of God that dwells in us has a power and it has an indwelling force within us to transform us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The reason some Christians never get transformed in change is because they’re trying to find their transformation in an experience. They’re trying to fine their transformations and their change in life in something outside of the Word of God and the revelation of Christ.

And as a result what they’ll find is time and time again they will come up empty. Time and time, again, they we’ll come out short. But when you get into the Bible and you You study it and you learn it.

You are changed. Now get this. Notice the Scriptures. I haven’t left the Bible, 2 Corinthians 3 .18, but the Bible says you are changed into the same image. He’s talking about the image of Christ. We are changed in the image of Christ spiritually right now.

That’s why 1 John 3, 3 tells us everyone who has the hope, the hope of Christ in him purifies himself just as he is pure. Remember I said earlier that some of you you’re struggling with eternal security, you could be forever forgiven by God, and that you question whether somehow that might cause you to wanna live however you want, no.

Because if the spirit of God is living in you, if you have this hope in, then the Spirit is prompting you to purify yourself. That the word of god is leading you to changes to be more like Jesus. You see, we not only have a change that is taking place here.

We have a change that’s taking place later. It’s an eternal change. You see, friends, God not only is changing me inside, but He’s changing me outside. But I’m saying that one day you’re going to have bodily change because of the hope that we have in Christ, because the transformation.

You’re gonna have an Eternal transformation, listen to what the scripture says, that Christ will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body. You see, we one day church, We will see Him as He is church and we will be like Him and We will Be transformed.

Now if you’d like to learn more go to our YouTube channel Hope Worth Having. Just go YouTube and type in Hope worth having and and we’ll pop up, become a subscriber, hit that notification button. Every time we’re uploading new messages, you’ll have the opportunity.

You can even go back and see and hear all of this message, the qualities of the new covenant, right there on your phone or device that you wanna use. But we encourage you to check that YouTube channel out.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.