Shining the Glory of the New Covenant (2)

0:00We praise the Lord for thy praise, man, that we might well be in place may be." Welcome to Life Study of the Bible, brought to you by Living Stream Ministry, featuring the Ministry of Watchmen Me and Witnessly, two ministers of God's economy, who served together in China for nearly twenty years. Watchmen Me was imprisoned by the Chinese government in 1952, and remained there until his death in 1972. Following his imprisonment, Witnessly carried on this ministry in Taiwan, and eventually in America, and ultimately around the world. He served the Lord for more than seventy years before going to be with him in 1997. His major contribution was through a twenty-one-year labor he called Life Study, an osteocommentary on the entire Bible.

1:00This program is based on those messages. Before we join today's show, we'd like to give you our website, where you can find more programs just like this one. It's lsmradio.org. Again, lsmradio.org. Now, here's our show today. Two items are marvelously connected in second Corinthians that you may have never noticed were linked before. These two things aren't the new covenant and the shining of the glory of Christ. The old covenant was a covenant of law and of letters, with the effect of bringing us into spiritual death. The new covenant, on the other hand, has everything to do with the spirit and life, and to be brought into the reality of the new covenant, is to be brought into the glory of the face of Jesus Christ. Dick Taylor has joined us today. Very sweet portion before us, Brother Dick.

2:00Very, very sweet, Chris, and I love the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we can actually experience His face every time we turn to and touch Him as the wonderful life-giving spirit. You can almost look into the face of a fellow believer, a fellow Christian, and be able to tell if they're really experiencing that day, the reality of the new covenant, Kenja. You really can. And the main characteristic of those who are enjoying the Lord is they are shining. We have a couple of passages both in second Corinthians chapter three to look at today. Let's begin with verse seven. More over it says, if the ministry of death engraved in stone in letters came about in glory so that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze at the face of Moses because of the glory of His face, a glory which was being done away with, how shall the ministry of the spirit not be more in glory?

3:01For if there is glory with the ministry of condemnation, much more the ministry of righteousness abounds with glory. For also that which has been glorified in this respect has not been glorified on account of the surpassing glory. For if that which was being done away with was through glory, much more that which remains is in glory. Marvelous isn't a dick that the new covenant has everything to do with this matter of glory. Talk a little bit about how this passage begins talking about the kind of glory that was shining on Moses' face as he came down from the Mount Sinai with the tablets of the commandments back in Exodus. Well like Brother Lee mentioned, it's kind of a temporary glory and it's kind of like you ride with somebody in their car, but it's not really yours. And yet in the New Testament you're not only riding in the car, the car is yours and you own tons of them. Our brother will mention this as he begins to speak,

4:02but the glory in the New Covenant is we possess the glory because we possess the person. The glory that is God expressed in the New Testament is just the triune God himself shining in and through his son as the wonderful life-giving spirit. So it's a lot different than just something that kind of comes in glory in this temporary. Moses might have enjoyed something for a day, but how do you? The glory of the New Covenant is the shining of this wonderful Christ in us and through us for eternity. Tick-witnessly was going to refer to another verse in this first portion. Let's go ahead and read that now also. And that is John, the gospel chapter 17 verse 1. These things Jesus spoke, lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. Amen. We'll see this matter of shining and glorifying all related in the New Covenant. Amen.

5:02All right. Let's join witnessly, Dick. Shining the glory of the New Covenant. What is this? This shining of the glory of the New Covenant is just the living of Christ. The next Christ is to shine the New Covenant glory. Moses, he carried the old covenant ministry, and that ministry came in glory. He didn't have glory. He came in glory. You never had a car. You took a ride of others car. You came in a car. It didn't mean that. That was your car. If the ministry of condemnation came in glory, much rather the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory, or a difference.

6:02Paul's writing was very cautious. He uses the word clean in glory for the old ministry. Then he uses the word abounds in glory for the new ministry. Then what is the glory of the New Covenant? In the Bible, the glory signifies the expression of God. Hunger is expressed. That is gold. When the Lord Jesus was on this earth, he was God coming, not expressed, but rather concealed. Within him was God. Outside of him the flesh is no glory, but when he was going to die, he prayed in John 17.

7:02Father, now is the time for you to glorify your sin. Let your sin glorify you. What does this mean? Let me even say to you. Here you have some cognizant seed, small seed, new glory. You saw the seed, into the earth, and they died there, and they grew up. Let's say the brassum, all flowers. What is that? That is the seed glorify. So the brassum is a glorification of the seed. And this glorification is just resurrection. The resurrection is full.

8:05When the seeds are soon into the earth, when they grow up, you have the tender sprout. That is the beginning of resurrection. They grow. They are brassums. When brassums, the resurrection comes in full. Dick, this is a marvelous section. It brings up, I think, the most important, or at least one of the most important aspects of glory, and that is that it has everything to do with God being expressed. When the Lord Jesus came to the earth, he was God, but in a sense, he was God concealed, somewhat hidden, wasn't he? Right, that's true. And let's face it, what is God's intention from the beginning, even when he created man, when he created Adam? His whole burden was that he would be expressed. And surely, Jesus Christ is the expression of God, but the glory, which is God, express, was within him

9:05and concealed within the flesh. So thank the Lord for His process, and particularly His death, were through His death, that concealing factor of the flesh was broken, and the hour had come for this wonderful precious Christ, to be revealed as He really is, the expression of God in a complete way. And so the flesh was broken, the glory was released in resurrection, and Christ became a life-giving spirit. So the release of the glory, that is, God being expressed through Christ in His death and resurrection, is not just a kind of doctrinal matter, but rather something that is not only a reality, but also something that can be experienced and enjoyed by us in our daily life. So I appreciate just like a flower grows, and eventually, the glorification of that seed is its blossoming. And that was Christ in His death and in His resurrection,

10:07when He became a life-giving spirit. That was the blossoming of this wonderful God-man, Jesus Christ. That was His glorification in a thorough, complete way. He was the expression of God completely unveiled. That's a great illustration of this matter of glorification, isn't it? The flower planted as a seed, it falls into the ground, and apparently the seed dies. Something comes forth, there's kind of a growth taking place, but still not a full glorification, but that day comes, doesn't it? It does come, and Christ not only does this supply to the Lord in the process He went through, but it applies to we believers, because right now we have Christ in us like a seed, and day by day as we turn to Him and say, oh, Lord, Jesus, I love you. He is growing, little by little He grows, and as thinking of Him that our brother wrote about glory, and what does it say?

11:07It says, glory, glory, Christ's life in me, glory, glory. What a hope is He now within my spirit. He's the mystery. Then the glory, He will be to me. So we just want to keep loving Him and enjoying Him, letting Him grow. Eventually, that blossoming day will come. Dick, the other portion, and I mentioned, we had two portions in chapter three today of second Corinthians that we wanted to look at. The other portion is another one that we talk about frequently in verse 18. But we all with unveiled face be holding and reflecting like a mirror, and here's the glory again, like a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord's spirit. Really the same thing that we have been talking about, but seeing, I think, in a slightly different way in this portion. Let's go back to it nicely. The glory of the new covenant is just the resurrection in full of Christ.

12:13This resurrected Christ is the life-giving spirit. So when we say the Passover shines, the glory of the new covenant, women, he lives out the resurrected Christ. He lives the life-giving spirit. The glory of the new covenant is the reality of the resurrected Christ. Who is now the all-inclusive life-giving spirit? Enjoying your spirit. And you have to live him by working, living, behaviors all in your spirit. Daily and momentarily.

13:16You have to conduct a life that is absolutely out of your spirit. Let this spirit to saturate your entire being. Even to the animals saturate your body. Mention your body. Even your body, physical body, a part of Christ. The member of Christ. This is to shine the glory of the new covenant. And this is to live Christ. Then wherever you go, you are shine. You meet with your parents. Your parents would see something bright. Not black. Not only nearly white, but bright. Something shine. When we live Christ,

14:16He, as a shining light, comes out of it. Amen. And people not only realize people will be under our shining. Dick, a moment ago, we were talking about how Christ could have been likened to this carnation flower. And we see the process of glorification very much in that illustration. When you said this not only applies to Christ, it also applies to us as the members. And that's really what we just dug more deeply into in this last portion, isn't it? It really is because Christ today, as the very life-giving spirit, is the glory of God. And now we have received Him into us, and now we are one spirit with the Lord. I was just thinking of 1 Corinthians 6, 17 again. Chris, he who had joined to the Lord, you could say, he who had joined to the glory, is one spirit. In chapter 3, it mentions, the Lord is the Spirit.

15:16Yes. And now we are joined, it says in 1 Corinthians 6, 17, we are joined to the Lord, and now we are one spirit with Him. And as we day by day, take care of Him, who is the life-giving spirit, who is resurrection in full, who is the blossomed one, as we take care of Him by exercising our spirit, we become the shining ones. The result is, we not only tell people about the Lord, but Christ is shined into them, radiated into them. They are infused with Him. And I was just thinking, Chris of Acts 7, Stephen, you know, he was surely somebody who had received this Christ as the life-giving spirit. And when he was preaching to the Jews, remember it said, his face was shining like an angel. It wasn't just what he was saying. He was really in the new covenant, and then you think of Paul in Acts 16 in prison, and in Acts 27 and 28 on that ship. But it wasn't what he was doing.

16:16He was just so much practicing to be one spirit with the shining Christ, that he himself was a reproduction, continuation, and an expansion of this shining Christ. And so when they were on that ship, all those men were touched by the shining testimony. And then in prison, the people were touched, and even the jailer was saved. And in a sense, that was the beginning of the Lord's move in Europe, all because they were enjoying Christ, who is the life-giving spirit, and they were in the shining of the glory of the new covenant, which just meant they were in the enjoyment of Christ as the life-giving spirit. And I appreciate, again, also Acts 3 or 4, where the disciples remember at one point they were going to go into the temple, and a person wanted to be healed, and he said, help me. And they just said, look at us. It literally means look at our face. They were not in some kind of temporary going away glory.

17:17They were in the covenant that abounds in glory. They were enjoying Christ as the life-giving spirit, and with boldness, because they were full of this living resurrected Christ, could tell them, look at us. It means look at our face. We are enjoying Christ, and you can have him too. Boy, Dick, that is such a striking picture. As you're talking about Paul on the ship, or Paul on the prison, or the brothers there, outside the temple, the striking thing is not their biblical knowledge, their Bible school degrees, and we're not demeaning those things. They have their place, but where is the emphasis? Where is the priority? It's got to be on this shining to express Christ, and as you said, not just convince someone of Christ's reality, but to actually shine Christ into the unbeliever. This is the glory of the gospel, isn't it? It really is the glory of the gospel, and it all begins with Christ as the life-giving spirit, coming into our spirit to be one spirit with us.

18:17And as we enjoy him every day, Chris, what happens? He moves into our mind, even gives life to our mortal body, and according to 1 Corinthians 6, even our bodies become a part, an organic part of the body of Christ, for his shining testimony. Okay, we've been enjoying Philippians a lot lately as well, and Philippians, as we've mentioned before, is such a companion book to this book of 2 Corinthians. We see Paul with so many parallels, and I happen to pick up one in chapter 2. Then I thought I'd read as we joined Witton's Leave for this third section today, that you may be blameless and guileless, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine right as luminaries in the world. Amen. This is our spiritual destiny, really so. Here's Witton's Leave for our final portion.

19:33That is human essence. That is not the glory of the new covenant. That is not revealed in the Bible. What is revealed in Bible is the living Christ today in resurrection, as the life-tiffing spirit. In Doils, you are being. He is the real, it is not a doctrine, it is not an essence, neither a philosophy. He is the living child now, as the old, inclusive spirit. There's nothing to do with morality. There's nothing to do with ethics. It's much higher than ethics. It is a very trying guy, processed today to be the life-supply, to saturate or untair being. And we live him, we live him out. And this is our shine. And this is his goal. I tell you, this is the testimony of Jesus.

20:44This is the real expression of the train God in their local church. This is what the train God, the Lord's spirit, is after today. Hallelujah, please. Well, Dick, I read a verse from Philippians, he referred to another passage that we could have just as easily read, for to me to live is Christ, right? Right out of Philippians and how directly he links that living Christ to this matter of the shining of the glory. To live Christ is really not just improved human behavior. Is it? No, to live Christ is to practice to be one with Christ who is now in our spirit. As we enjoy him, moment by moment, turning to him, even now during this program, we're practicing to be one spirit with him in love, touching him, and being so sensitive to him, what happens? We get filled with him, and then we just live him by shining him, to live him is to shine him out. And this is the shining of the glory of the new covenant.

21:55I was thinking, Chris, eventually our ultimate consummation in our experience in God's purpose is the new Jerusalem, and it says the new Jerusalem having the glory of God. A group of people have been filled with Christ, saturated with Christ, permeate with Christ, soak with Christ, and even become constituted with him. To the point where he and we, we and he together are shining out God through eternity, and I appreciate so much that right now we're in this process of allowing this one to spread and are being glory to glory, like you read in 2 Corinthians 318. Now may we just cooperate with him, practicing day by day, to turn to him, to call on his dear name, O Lord, I love you, and to say amen to him, to praise him, to sing, to fellowship with him, even just to converse with him about anything and everything, and to stay in his word day by day.

22:58This wonderful Christ who is the glory of God spreads in us to the point where whatever we do, whether we drive for to me to drive is Christ. I preach for to me to preach is Christ for cooking in the kitchen for to me to cook is Christ, whatever I do for to me to live is Christ. This is the shining of the glory of the new covenant, and it's just Jesus Christ himself as the life giving spirit, who's the reality of the process and consummated shining triune God. Well, Dick, I know you leave the studio today and have a long drive to go back to Northwest Los Angeles, but among all of those on the freeway, there will be one that will be shining. I know at least one that I know will be shining as a luminary in the world, hallelujah by his grace for to me to drive is Christ for the dick. Thanks as always. I love having you in the studio. Amen. You're welcome. Well, our time is up. We'd like to leave you with our toll free number invite you to contact us.

23:58We have the printed life study messages that we can get off to you right away and several other good books in our living stream inventory that touch these matters very much. And second Corinthians, Philippians experience of Christ in this way of shining him out in the face of the glory of the new covenant. So if you'd like to find out about this material or just touch base with this, it's one eight eight eight life study eight eight eight five four three three seven eight eight. Tonight to living stream ministry post office box 21 21 Anaheim, California nine two eight one four or email. You can reach us at radio at lsm.org. Join us again tomorrow. We're just beginning a new week. As we're about halfway through this life study of second Corinthians predict Taylor. I'm Chris Wilde. Thank you very much for listening today. You've been listening to life study of the Bible with witness Lee produced by living stream ministry witness Lee ministered the word of God for over seven decades.

25:20Many consider these life studies as his seminal work and exhausted commentary on the entire Bible from the perspective of the believers enjoyment and experience of God's divine life in Christ through the spirit. If you'd like to find more about witness Lee, these life study messages or any of the materials provided by living stream ministry, please visit our website lsm.org. That's lsm.org. You can also email us radio at lsm.org or call us toll free one triple eight life study. Thanks for listening today.