This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 15, 1994.
About this sermon
Preachers who corrupt the Word for effect act like salesmen, trading on Moses’ earthly, practical ministry while rejecting the faith Paul’s ministry requires. The real question is which ministry a corrupted church finds easier to sell. 2 Corinthians 2-4 sets the terms for telling the difference.
Sermon transcript
I am reading once more from the 2nd chapter, beginning at the 14th verse. This is 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. Give your attention to the Word of God. I am reading from the New American Standard. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in his triumph in Christ, and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.
For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? We are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need as some letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on tables of human hearts. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
If the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look impudently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his faith, fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed, what had glory in this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech. and are not as Moses who used to put a veil over his face that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the end of what was fading away. Their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, the veil lies over their hearts. But whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, As we receive mercy, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the hidden things because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
We, O Lord, would be the servants of your word. And Father, truly, it is imperative that we submit to that word. It is difficult for us at times because we would go another way. But your word, O God, comes to us as life itself. May we desire the word, and may we rejoice that you have given us your word. May our heart’s desire then be like unto the heart’s desire of your people throughout the world. That in every place where you are called upon, there may be this great desire that the word have its full impact, that we all, your children, would be properly submissive to you and to what you have said. Hear us in the name of that one who was perfectly obedient, and Lord, we thank you for this one who learned obedience to the things which he suffered. We pray it in his name. Amen.
And who is adequate for these things? But we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. When Paul, the apostle, asks, as he does in that 16th verse of 2 Corinthians 2, who is adequate for these things? he has in mind those who act, those who believe, those who see themselves as being nothing short of perfectly adequate. Undoubtedly, these wonderfully adequate-to-teachers instructors, apostle-wahhabis, exude an air of unfaltering confidence. They are men immaculately suited to public life and to the world of public discourse. They are men in whom there is not found a moment’s hesitation with regard to the things that they believe.
They are unflappable. They are masters of the techniques that pertain to the world of cool communication. They are able to sculpture messages with precision with an infallible rhetorical verse. They are ingenious illustrators. They are masterful storytellers. They are dynamic. They are exciting. They are relevant. They are professional spokesmen for the principles—underscore that—for the principles, or even better, for the laws of practical religious living.
Of these, Paul says, there are many. And of the many, some have infiltrated the church at Corinth and are affecting profoundly the life of that church. There have been many. Since religion was organized, there have been many throughout the history of Israel. There shall be many even to the close of the age, and that within the Church of Jesus Christ itself.
These, says Paul, in the King James rendering of at seventeenth verse, these corrupt the Word of God. Or, as the New American Standard, or the New International put it, they tattle the Word of God. Paul’s thought here is deliberately direct. At the same time, it is incredibly complex. I think somehow you knew that. Otherwise, we’d have to end the sermon here. These of whom Paul speaks do, in fact, as the King James renders it, corrupt the word of God. But Paul has in mind not just the fact that they corrupt the word, but as well the manner by which they do that.
Now, in order to communicate this, he uses the image of a retailer. He uses the image of a salesman. Now, not that the retailer or the salesman are inherently evil, or that the profession in which they engage themselves is by definition corrupt. But Paul here, in his use of this term, does mean it in a pejorative way. He has in mind the huckster. He has in mind the shyster, the flim-flammer, one who hawks his ware. The image is blatant, it is blatantly negative. Now one of the reasons why Paul uses such a blatantly negative image here is because he is convinced that these teachers are basically dishonest.
The prophet Isaiah used the very same thought. as Paul uses here, to talk about those in Israel who were watering down their wine before sale, diluting it, both corrupting the wine but also making that wine and the sale of it all the more profitable to them at the expense of their customers. read Isaiah’s comment to this effect in his first chapter, the twenty-second verse. You may want to think, then, of the salesman, of the retailer, along a certain line. You may want to think of him along the lines of one who adulterates his product, that is, an extensive and fine piece, and then deliberately refurbishes that piece with inferior parts, and passes it off as if it has an integrity to it.
Paul’s enemies at Corinth are doing nothing less. I remember a few years ago that GM had its problems because a few Cadillac owners opened their hoods to discover that they had Chevrolet engines. Paul’s enemies at Corinth were corrupting, diluting, adulterating the word of God. a specific enterprise in which these teachers, these would-be apostles, were engaged. He has in mind the fact that they were taking the gospel—now, they were not ignoring it—but they were taking the gospel, and they were mixing with that gospel that which was inferior, and that they were doing this for their own advantage, to the enhancement of their own reputations, the polishing of their own images, and the fattening of their own glory. Paul remarks later about these people in his fifth chapter of this very epistle, the twelfth verse, these people have their boast in appearance.
There’s a whole entire religious world built around appearance. many of us here this morning have not been strangers to that world. But it wasn’t that these teachers who had come in hadn’t confused the Corinthians. For you see, These teachers came in with all of their claims. As we read through the entirety of this epistle, we find that their claims included spiritual experiences, even of a charismatic type.
Have you ever gotten into an argument with someone who claimed experience as his authority? The argument ends. I know it’s true, it happened to me. How can we argue? So these teachers came in with their claim to spiritual experience. They also came in with their claim of a wide following. a claim that seemed to put them in a better position even than the Apostle Paul. They have the crowds. Paul, where are the crowds in connection with you? They made their claims with regard to eloquence. They were able to attract the crowds. They were even able to hold the crowds. What about you, Paul? Your appearance and your speech are contemptible.
But even beyond these claims, there is one now upon which the Apostle Paul specifically focuses, and you’ve heard his dealings with that claim as you move through the third chapter of this epistle. That claim particularly has in view the Old Testament figure, Moses. understand the position of the Corinthians in this respect. Surely they had felt hesitant to criticize these teachers since these teachers had claimed Moses as their confidant. Moses is on our side. We speak for Moses. If you look at Moses, you will find in him one who sides with us.
But it is precisely at this point that Paul makes his accusation against these teachers. These teachers’ mixture of the gospel and Moses, in Paul’s estimation, has cheapened the gospel. Now, not that Paul, in taking on Moses here in 2 Corinthians 3, means to encourage the the Corinthians to think less of Moses than they ought, much less than the word of God would want. After all, Paul’s accusation is that these teachers are adulterating the word of God, the very word that includes the story and testimony of Moses himself. So no, Paul is not encouraging these Christians at Corinth or Christians anywhere to think less of Moses than they ought. But that being the case, how is it possible for these teachers who have come in claiming Moses to cheapen the gospel by an appeal to Moses?
Does not God speak with one voice? Is that not obvious? Is it not obvious to these teachers? How can they claim Moses, then, as one that supports them over against the Apostle. What, then, justifies the Apostle Paul to speak so bluntly, so directly, about these teachers when they lay claim to and appeal to such a formidable figure as Moses? The reason why Paul is able to do this is because these men neither understand Moses nor the revelation that concerns him.
Now I want to say this to you, and as I do, I say it in hopes that you will understand me. There is that dimension to the figure Moses, that dimension to his revelation, and this, by the design of God, that places the man and the revelation around him in the confines of this creation and within this world. You see, there is a dimension to Moses and the revelation associated with him that remains earthbound. And as all things bound to this world are temporary, So Moses and his revelation, and this by God’s design, have proved temporary also. There is that dimension that we must not overlook.
But you see, it is specifically and especially the earthiness and the temporality of the Mosaic revelation of Moses himself that appeals to these teachers that have come into chorus, who now oppose the Apostles. They are saying over against the Apostles, here is religion’s true practicality. Here, religion finds its real usefulness, its relevance. For our theology, our doctrine, to be genuinely practical, it must hold on to the earth. It cannot, it must not let it go. Such a practical theology must confess that, first of all, our place is here in this world. We must start from ourselves. We must start from our circumstance, from our environment.
Paul’s gospel, on the other hand, is much too esoteric. It’s much too ethereal. It is much too concerned with language about exaltation, language about heaven, language about the Christ of glory. Give us a more accessible Christ. That’s what we want. One closely bound to Moses. One closely bound to the earth. One closely bound to the laws of practical religion. We all need something concrete, do we not? Something that provides us with easy steps for the scheme of practical living.
We need the promise of advance and achievement, those things that we can look at, those things that confirm us in our existence, those things that tell us that we are alive and that we matter. Without such confirmations, without such visible, tangible evidence, we are left psychologically, religiously, spiritually crippled. In fact, apart from our reading of the Word of God, we, teaming the Gospel now with Moses, We mixing Christ with Moses, we mixing heaven with earth, mixing the sublime with the practical, the invisible with the visible. Yet, apart from our reading of the Word of God, we doing all these things, apart from our reading of the Word of God in this fashion, all reasonableness and meaning evaporates from our lives, and we have no reason to exist. You either give us an earthy religion, or we want no religion at all.
Paul, being no coward, goes after his opponent’s supposed greatest strength. You wish to debate this issue at the level of Moses? You wish to debate this whole matter at the level of appearances? Well, then let’s deal with appearances. Let’s deal with Moses and his appearance at the time that he was given the law in which you pride yourself, at the time that he came down from Sinai, when he came out from meeting directly with the Lord.
We are told that his face was radiant, his appearance was even much better than any of his appearance in the past. But in the end, neither that glory which Moses had in that circumstance nor his appearance continued. They faded as all things in this earth fade, even be they something as remarkable as Moses’ shining face.
But note also that this temporary glory and the alterations that came upon Moses in that circumstance recorded for us in Exodus 34 had attached to them an administration, a covenant, over which Moses presided. That administration, that covenant, was temporary and provisional. That administration and that covenant, despite the fact that they had come from God at Sinai, were earthy. There is that sense, then, in which the Apostle can speak, as he does in the third chapter, of that covenant being devoid of the Spirit, being devoid of life, and as such remaining but a mere letter, wholly lacking in true glory, a testament to condemnation and to death.
But so it is with any religious approach that dotes upon appearances, upon the things of this world. If that is your aspiration, if that is why you are here this morning, because of the comforts that religion affords you in this world, let me tell you, this world is going to end.
My gospel, says Paul, does not belong to this order of religion, the order over which these false teachers preside. Those who benefit from my message and my ministry are not looking at one whose faith is veiled. And thus I stand in a better position than those who conform. Those who benefit from my message and ministry are not looking at one whose face is veiled, as the Israelites did when looking at Moses. Instead, by way of faith in my message and my ministry, those to whom I minister are beckoned to behold my unveiled face, to the end that they may perceive in me the radiance of that eternal glory that shines forth through Christ.
And it is only the art of faith that can perceive that. Let those who are blessed in appearance make their claims of Moses. their boast, their claim mangles Moses and fails to reckon him and his ministry appropriately. Moses’ ministry was a ministry of fading glory, it was temporary.
For ours is of permanent glory and belongs to eternity and to heaven. Not that we congratulate ourselves for our more excellent ministry. Rather, we are clear that we have this permanence only through and in Jesus Christ. Our adequacy is from God. We have this permanence in and through Jesus Christ. who has himself been transformed from a world of fainting glory to that of eternal glory by the resurrection from the dead. We who serve the glory of the Lord as found in Jesus Christ know that we do not go in and out from the presence of the Lord now, as Moses did. But abiding in Christ we perpetually, we constantly speak in the sight of God.
And that from sincerity, and that from God himself, we live to bear and to speak this glorious truth. Here’s the proper light, then, on the conclusion of that seventeenth verse in 2 Corinthians 2. We who share Paul’s ministry stand in the eternal heavenly Christ before the face of God, that we from sincerity from God himself might speak to you. But lest we miss the point, Paul’s words at the conclusion of this seventeenth verse are strong. They are deliberately direct.
These who would stand opposite to him in the gospel have not merely disagreed on a matter of passing importance, Their exaltation of appearance, their boast in Moses, their boast in the law, their focus upon the earth, and their claim upon practical usefulness, according to the Apostle, translates into the corruption of the Word of God that literally transforms them into unscrupulous peddlers. But even further, it leaves them exposed to the charge of utter insincerity, since their objective is the enhancement of their own worldly reputations, and not the eternal good of the people they claim to serve. These, then, are not from God. Since they have no true regard for heaven, They have no true regard for eternity. They have no true regard for the gospel that cannot then be mixed with any alien element. They neither speak in Christ nor in the sight of God.
But while these are being transformed, even from shame to shame, as agents of an earthly religion, we all, in keeping with the 18th verse of that third chapter, we who receive the true ministry are being transformed even more perfectly into the image of the glory of the Lord, just as the Lord Jesus Christ himself was transformed when he entered the eternal world. of the Spirit.
Our messages have been entitled, Considering the Church, and we have come to that point in our messages where we are considering the ministry of the Word in the Church. I hope that for you, as you reflect on the ministry now and in the future. You will keep well in view the testimony of the Apostle as he gives it to you here in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and chapter 3. marvel at the boldness of the apostle, we marvel at his directness, we would be instructed by that boldness that as strongly as he feels with respect to the integrity of the gospel, we might also feel the very same thing. As he is determined with his life to place himself at the disposal of that gospel, we are asking Lord that we might do the same. Lord in light of the theme of this text, we would ask for your church, men of integrity, who would hold to the gospel, not mixing it with anything, lest it be corrupted, lest it be adulterated.
We pray, our Father, that as we hold fast to this wonderful gospel, it would please you to work in us according to your word, that we, pastor and people alike, would be transformed into the image of the glory of the Lord, even from glory to glory, just as Christ himself was transformed through resurrection from the dead. These things we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.