AN EPISTLE OF CHRIST

2 Corinthians 3: 3

Sermon by:

Rev. J. Westerink

PUBLISHED BY THE

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

OF THE

FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.

Liturgy:

Votum

Psalter 72: 3, 4

Law of God

Psalter 415: 7

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 3: 1 – 11 Text: 2 Corinthian 3: 3

Congregational Prayer

Offerings

Psalter 40: 3, 4, 5, 6

Sermon

Psalter 428: 5

Thanksgiving Prayer

Psalter 175: 3, 4

Doxology Psalter 315

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Congregation,

We people are true artists in showing ourselves differently then we are deep down

in our heart. We hide ourselves behind a mask. We take care that we are a riddle to

others and that others do not quite know what they must think of us.

We make of our world a great stage and we all play our role. And when someone

steps out of his role then we are very surprised. We would have never thought that of

him or her. “Who could have imagined that?”, we then say.

Sometimes however it is impossible to hide to the outside what is going on inside.

Many mothers can see from the faces of their children when they come home exactly

what is wrong. Mother-eyes are sharp. Sometimes there can be circumstances which

mark a face in such a way that everyone can clearly see what is going on inside. Deep

sorrow can be read from the face. Violent pains can distort it, deep worries mark it,

great joy makes it to beam.. In such circumstances the face becomes a letter which

others can read and which speaks clearer language than many words. Tension and

joy, love and concern can be read from the face. We say then :Oh, no need to ask any

questions. We already see it.’

What do you think, will people be able to read from our face where we have been

when we leave the church? Will they be able to see that we have met God, as they

could see it in Jacob after Jabbok and in Moses after he came down from the

mountain and his face shown with the glory of the Lord? Will they be able to tell

tonight when we go out to visit or when the children come home? Will they notice it

tomorrow when we are at work again, or when we are with friends or when we are on

the sick bed?

Is it clear who we are and where we come from and to whom we belong? Do

others notice in us, in you and in me, that we have lost our heart, lost it to the Lord

and His service?

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These are not just a few random questions. These are questions which concern the

pit, the deepest parts of our life. For the issues of our life are from the heart. Our text

demands our attention for this when we hear Paul speak of:

Epistles of Christ, Written with the Spirit We note:

1. The material,2. The contents, and3. The purpose of these letters.

The Material: Congregation we are talking in this service about epistles or letters.

That is not so strange. For in God’s Word we meet quite a few letters: letters from kings

and from governors; letters from prophets and from apostles. We also read letters from

Christ; in the revelation to John we even read seven in a row, written by the glorified

Christ to His church militant on earth.

But our text speaks of a special kind of letter. You notice this immediately from the

words which Paul uses in our text. You can also gather that from the context in which our

text stands. Sad things have happened in Corinth, things which have seriously harmed the

relationship between Paul and this congregation. And in connection with these events the

apostle asks if he, like some other traveling preachers and miracle workers who go from

one congregation to the other, needs letters of recommendation. You can understand this.

When some unknown preacher just stepped into a congregation and offered his services,

then this congregation would first want to know what type of man they had to deal with.

Could this man be trusted, was it not a wolf in sheep clothes, who came to destroy the

congregation and to rend the sheep. Could they depend on him? Did he have gifts? Was

he pure in doctrine and blameless in his walk of life? You can understand that they would

first want certain guaranties. Well, such a preacher would sometimes have letters with

him which he would give to the council of the congregation, letters of recommendation.

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Congregation A. would write that they were particularly edified through his

preaching. And the congregation of B. would tell that this brother was very much

respected by the congregation and also had a good name outside the congregation. And

the elders of C. wrote that great signs were done during his ministry; sick were healed

and evil spirits were cast out.

And whatever was in these letters had of course one purpose. The congregation who

read them had to understand that it was a fantastic piece of luck that precisely this brother

had come to them. They could be very happy that they had such a preacher, such an

ambassador of God. They would be well off with him. With him they could confidently

go forward.

Now our text also deals with such a letter but then not for the recommendation of

some traveling preacher or of the great apostle Paul. This letter recommends the Lord

Jesus Christ. It is a letter from which anyone who reads it can clearly know who the Lord

Jesus is and what He has to offer in gifts and powers. He is declared in this letter. He is

recommended in such a way that everyone must know that it is safe to venture further

with Christ; that we may rejoice if He will come to us to serve us; that we are well off

with Him.

Should anyone wish to know who Jesus Christ is and if it worthwhile to ask for Him

and to belong to Him? Here is a letter in which He is heartily recommended. But it is a

remarkable letter. For it is not written with ink and it is not written on paper. It is written

in the heart of the congregation of Corinth. The life of this congregation is a living

announcement of the Lord Jesus and a warm recommendation of Him and His beautiful

service.

“Ye are declared to be the epistle of Christ” Paul says to the Corinthians. And that is not

a dubious matter but it is perfectly clear and everyone can see it. Whoever meets with

these Corinthians, whoever deals with this congregation can clearly read it.

But, how is this possible? Is the congregation of Corinth now such useful writing

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material for such a letter? Let us be honest, it is not so long ago that these people were

heathens, strangers to the citizenship of God, without God and without hope in the world.

Blindly they let themselves be led to dumb idols. They stood in the middle of a life of sin,

full of wicked excesses. They fully enjoyed the wild life of this worldly port, which is

what Corinth was in those days, infamous around the entire Mediterranean Sea.

Granted, Paul had come with his preaching of Jesus and Him crucified. And through

the powerful working of the Holy Spirit many to whom the gospel had been preached,

had accepted Him with a true faith. But it was still such a small beginning.

And then, if Paul had said this of the congregation of Phillipi or of Thessolonica,

those were at least congregations which gave a good impression. Growing congregations.

A living people. A strong expectation of the bride longing for the return of the Lord.

But Corinth? There they took quite a bit of the world into the church. Wine, women

and song were no strangers to this congregation. And the way they drag about with the

Lord Supper. It is nothing but a good-time party. They have deeply grieved Paul, the

anointed servant of the Lord. They have ….. just read the two letters addressed to this

congregation which were kept for us. There is not much nice and much good in them.

More then once Paul shows his sadness. There is so much that disappoints.

But if we then still read “Everybody can clearly see that you are a letter of Christ”,

then we are surprised. Corinth, not the laughing stock but a recommendation of Christ

and His service? A living advertisement for the Lord Jesus? How can that be? That we

cannot understand.

And we are right, congregation. If we look at Corinth then we cannot understand it.

That is impossible.

In fact, we don’t even have to go that far. We can stay right at home, in our own

congregation, in our own heart. That should be in one line: Own congregation and own

heart. For if we speak about the congregation, then we speak about ourselves.

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If we accuse the congregation then we accuse ourselves. If we point to the congregation,

then we point to our own heart.

And if we pay attention to that in this service, brothers and sisters, boys and girls, are

we as congregation, are our hearts then suitable writing material for a letter of

recommendation from Christ?

No!

For our heart is not a blank piece of paper. We are not a clean slate on which the Holy

Spirit can begin to write His letter. We are also people conceived in sin and born in

unrighteousness, we, who must confess with David: “My sin makes me the object of Thy

wrath, even from the hour of my conception”. Our life paper is black and dirty with sin.

Indeed, it should be otherwise. You are quite right in that. And it could have been

otherwise. That is true. God had created us good and in His image: showpieces of His

creation with which He could have obtained honour. But we have ruined it. We have

spoiled it. Adam and Eve and we too. All of us from the greatest to the smallest.

But there is something else yet. In this world and to such people God speaks in His

Word in which Christ is portrayed and recommended as the necessary surety, the

sufficient Saviour, the mighty King, and the Precious Bridegroom.

But by nature our heart will not accept that. That Word of God does not find entrance.

Because our heart is made of stone and everything bounces off. The Word sounds, but we

do not hear it. It does not enter us. We sit in church, but the Word passes us by. And once

we are outside we forget it just like that. It goes in the one ear and out the other and the

birds come and pick the seed away.

And then we say “It doesn’t do anything to us and it doesn’t speak to us and it doesn’t

touch us”. And then you meet parents who are concerned that their child reacts this way

and who cannot understand this and who seek the cause in circumstances: In the church

or in the congregation or in the minister. But it isn’t strange at all. And if we know our

own heart a little bit then we understand it quite readily. For by nature our heart is made

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of stone. As hard as a rock. Everything bounces off. It is not just you boys and girls but it

is the disease of all of us by nature, also of your father and mother.

We have a heart made of stone. Not as far as the world and as far as sin are

concerned. Although, to that side our heart is just like a sponge. It absorbs everything.

But to God’s side. The Lord says “You may as well be talking to a brick wall”.

But – and now I go back to those Corinthians for a minute – what happened to that

congregation? Paul says they no longer have a heart of stone but a heart of flesh.

And now we understand. For in the Old Testament we read what the Lord says

through the prophet Ezekiel: “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will

give you a heart of flesh”. That Corinth is a letter of Christ is not because of its own

efforts. That is God’s work. That is the work of his regenerating and renewing Spirit.

This Spirit renews the heart. He has begun to prepare the writing material for God’s

letter. He has taken that stony heart and has given a heart of flesh in its place; a heart,

from which the Word of the Lord does no longer bounces off. A heart, open for the

Word, receptive to the Word, a heart that absorbs the Word.

Congregation, this is the first thing that God does when He begins His saving work in

our lives: He renews our heart. He prepares the writing material. Has that happened in

our lives? That is the most important question. For it is nice that we may sit in church and

it is a riches to belong to the congregation of the Lord and it is a blessing to be under the

administration of the Godly Word through which the various graces of God are

distributed. But it is not enough. We must become different people, people with a

different heart, a new heart, a heart of flesh.

Boys and girls you know about this, don’t you? I hope you aren’t hearing anything

new today? Your father and mother have taught you that haven’t they: to pray for a new

heart in which the Lord will live? We need a heart of flesh that can serve as writing

material for the Holy Spirit.

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I know, there are always those people who ask themselves: “Now just how can I get

this and just how exactly does all this work?”

Of course, we can answer something out of Scripture to this question. We can say:

“Look, the Lord does this through the irresistible working of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit

has to be involved, that is for certain. And this Spirit works with and through the Word

which He brings to life and makes powerful.” But further?

I cannot tell you. Nobody can. Just as much as nobody can tell you exactly how God’s

creation work came to be so nobody can tell you that of God’s work of recreation. We try

sometimes. We enjoy doing that; to unravel and explain God’s miracles in creation and

re-creation. But it doesn’t work. We cannot trace God’s miracles for we are only human.

The Canons of Dordt speak of a “supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time

most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in efficacy to

creation”. And let us stick to that, to this confession of wonder, which does not reason,

but which confesses in adoration the greatness of God’s works.

But we can know whether or not we do have a heart of flesh. Those travelers to

Emmaus, they had a heart of flesh when they said “Did not our heart burn within us,

while he talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?”

Lydia, the seller of purple from Philippi, had a heart of flesh when the Lord opened

her heart so that she took note of Paul’s words.

This is a heart of flesh: a heart that opens for God’s Word, a heart that longs for,

hungers after, is receptive to the Word. It is the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ,

which touches us and does something to us. It hooks into our soul so that we can no

onger be free of it. Then the Word of God lives for us; it begins to speak and gets power.

Such a heart is suitable writing material for the Holy Spirit. It is open and listens:

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“Lord, for Thy servant heareth”. Do we have such a heart? A heart that listens, a heart

desirous and receptive? If you must say “No”, if you must give an honest “no” to that

question then I hope you feel the seriousness of that answer. It is terrible to have to

answer “no” to this question. That means that we still lie in death and are approaching

eternal death, un- regenerated as we are. And we must not try to excuse ourselves and to

hide behind God’s election work for that is only proof that we do not see our need and

that we are quite comfortable.

For if our heart of stone begins to bother us then we no longer reason but then we

seek a cure for this fatal heart disease. And if we then hear the promise of God: ”I will

take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh”, then we

cling to this promise as a drowning man to a lifebuoy. Then we take hold of this promise

and then we say “Lord there it is “I will”. That is the Gospel, that Thou canst and wilt do

it. “I will”, Lord, that is just what I need. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a

right Spirit within me”.

Then we discover the miracle that the Lord opens closed hearts and makes them to be

suitable writing paper for the Holy Spirit.

2. But we are not finished with that. To the contrary, we are only at the beginning, just

like new born babies are only at the beginning. For now begins the real work of the Holy

Spirit Who, as the Spirit of the living God, inscribes the Word of God in man’s heart; in

each heart separately and in each heart in its own way.

For this the Holy Spirit uses human beings. In our text it is Paul who functions as a

pen in the hand of the Spirit to write Christ’s letter in the heart of the Corinthians. For us

it is the same Paul as author of a Bible book but it can also be other people: a minister of

the Word, who is an instrument in God’s hand for your conversion; a mother, who takes

you by the hand to Jesus; a father who is a living example of the true fear of the Lord to

his children; a simple brother perhaps, used by the Lord to open your blind eyes or to lead

you deeper into the knowledge of the salvation of God in Christ.

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But is it not true, parents and office bearers that we can only bring the Word to the

heart no matter how much you would like to bring it further? Only the Holy Spirit makes

it to enter into the heart. He engraves it into the deepest part of our inward being. He

makes us understand God’s truth, truly understand it with all our being.

That is something quite different from intellectual knowledge. Someone with only

intellectual knowledge can also say that he is a sinner. But it does not bother him. He can

claim that the un-regenerated are eternally lost, but it does not move his soul. He stays

cold and sleeps in ease. He can say that a man needs grace, but he does not call out for it.

He will state that he lies in death. But he does not seek life. He talks about the Truth, but

it is outside of him. He does not understand the Truth. It is an agreement of the mouth

which is at odds with the experience of the heart.

But when the Holy Spirit begins to write the Word in the heart opened by Him, then it

becomes different, then the preaching hits us straight on. Then we become part of the

administration of the Word. Then we see, in the preaching, God’s finger pointing at our

heart: “You are that man; you are that woman.” And then we can no longer evade that

accusation. Then the Holy Spirit writes our name in our heart – “sinner” – and then we

are not one of many sinners in the church. Then there is only one listening to the sermon

through which the Holy Ghost writes that truth in my heart. And that one is I.

I the sinner.

And the Spirit writes on. He shows us the guilt and the punishment of sin. And so he

raises the question which will never come up in the natural human heart: “How can it

ever be right again between God and me? How can I get rid of my sin? What must I do to

be saved?”

When He begins to spell out the name of the Lord Jesus then we listen, not just as

people who are not touched, but then we understand the necessity and desirability and

preciousness of that great Surety. Then we listen with a burning heart and with a shining

eye and with a hungry soul. Then there is written in my heart the name of the one for

whom my soul longs, for whom I learn to ask, Whom I learn to love with my whole

heart.

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May I say it this way: The Spirit rewrites the Bible on the table of my heart. Then I

read my name in the Scripture. Then I read who the Lord Jesus is and then I find there my

whole life explained. But then all of that is also written in my heart. Then I learn to

understand the poet of Psalm 119 who, with words of love, sang so enthusiastically about

the work of the Spirit.

Congregation. Have you noticed how richly our text teaches us about the work of the

Holy Spirit? For now I can go one step further and ask how far the Spirit is with his work

of writing in our heart. For by now we understand that the Spirit does not teach us

everything at once, just as a letter is not on paper all at once. It is a matter of time, it is a

process. It goes letter by letter, word by word. At first you can see no connection and no

line in it. But the letters become words and the words become sentences and the

sentences receive content. That is how the Holy Spirit writes the letter of Christ in opened

hearts. Word by word. Sentence by sentence. So the Lord teaches His children the

beginnings of grace: a letter at a time, a word at a time. When we know these beginnings,

then He goes further. The He gives further opening of the Scriptures so that we receive

insight in the truth of God and knowledge of the secrets of Salvation which He will show

to His friends. Then there is growth in grace and in the knowledge in the Lord Jesus.

How far has the Spirit worked in your heart? This is really a question to think about

on this Sunday. In how far do I understand the Truth of God, do I have experimental

knowledge of it? Can I, to mention a few examples, sing with McCheyne:

“My terrors all vanished before the sweet name;

My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came

To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free –

Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me”.

Can I confess with Paul: “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The world is

crucified unto me, and I unto the world”.

Or do we understand Peter when he calls out: “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou

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knowest that I love Thee?”

Or the publican in the temple: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner?” Or maybe only the

question of the first two disciples: “Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?”

When the Spirit writes these words in our hearts then we begin to understand them.

Examine your selves in the light of this word.

But there is more to learn. For in the church we so often meet people who with their

mouth agree to the Truth. Serious people, who really mean it. People who give the

impression that their hearts indeed desire the words of eternal life. There is an asking,

there is a seeking. But it never comes any further. They really mean it but they have so

much difficulty to understand and to experience these things.

Do we understand the cause, brothers and sisters? We worry and fret over it because

the Truth has not yet been written in our hearts. The work of the Spirit goes together with

struggle. What He writes in our hearts is directly opposed to our old man. So often His

pen runs into obstacles, more then we think. For deep in our hearts there lives an

opposition to the Lord of which we are not always aware. Through the craftiness of our

heart we often keep them hidden from ourselves. We cannot fathom the depths of our

own heart.

The Spirit teaches trust but mistrust breeds. The Spirit teaches us to hate sin but deep

in our hearts we hold onto it. The Spirit teaches us that we are sinners but our vanity rises

up against it. He writes the word “grace” but our self- righteousness stands in the way. He

spells out the name of Christ but deep in our hearts lives the opposition to His kingly rule.

We know it and we mean well. But there is so much opposition that we come no further

and we stay in doubt and darkness and poverty. Is that not revealing to us, when our heart

does go out to the Lord? Does that not frighten us and shame us and make us to pray:

“Wash and cleanse me of my secret sins?”

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3. And what is God’s purpose with all of this?

The text clearly shows us this. The Spirit writes God’s work in our heart so that our life

will be a letter of Christ which all men can see and read .By now we understand how this

works.

It is not for nothing that the Lord asks for our heart. He has a clear purpose with it when

He says: “My son, my daughter, give me your heart”. The Lord knows, whoever has the

heart, controls the life. Our inner depth decide our thoughts our speech and our actions.

From the heart are the issues of life. Therefore the Holy Spirit does not write God’s Word

in our head but in our heart and in our heart is where He works. For once He has written

that Word in our heart then we also begin to live according to that word.

And then there is the third thing. We have heard the Word. We have learned to

understand it. Now we do the Word. Not only because this is how it should be, but

because we are forced to from within. It becomes a matter of course. That Word, written

in the open heart, regenerates us. It makes us to be different, new people, people who

learn to walk in a new life.

The Spirit causes us to understand what sin is and we begin to hate and flee that sin.

We can still fall into sin but we no longer have pleasure in it. We can no longer cherish

sin in our heart. The Spirit teaches us what grace is. And we learn to live out of grace. He

pours out the love of God in Christ into our hearts and then there flames up the love in

return to Him which cannot be hidden. He writes God’s law into our hearts and the fruit

is that there is a people who no longer are forced to go to church and who no longer live

from commandment to commandment and rule to rule and who do no longer go through

life bent by the burden of God’s law.

For then the service of the Lord becomes a joy. No burden but a delight. A service of

love which never grieves. Then God’s commandments become songs along their

pilgrimage through this world, because they may walk with the Lord within the

framework of these commandments, Their life then testifies that God’s law is the

pleasure of their soul.

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In such a life the Holy Spirit begins to reach His purpose. For such people become

letters of Christ. People who love Him as a bride loves her groom. People whose lives are

marked by His love. People whose lives show it is worth the trouble to love Him, to

know Him and to serve Him. People whose lives show that His service is a service of joy

and of love, walking before His face. People who are a living advertisement for Christ

and His salvation.

This is what the Lord is after in working in sinners’ lives. Long ago He wrote his law

on tablets of stone. Now He writes on the tablet of the heart of His people.

It is God’s purpose that we can read in the life of His children what He means. He

speaks through them. Through them He recruits and invites. That is why He sends them

into the world.

Are you such a letter? A letter of God written to your surroundings? A legible letter?

Does our life testify of that mighty and wonderful fact that we may know the Lord and

love and serve Him with our entire heart? Does the Word of God form in our life so that

we begin to show something of the image of God and so that others discover something

of Christ in our actions? Can it be said of us that we are different because we have

learned to know Christ? Are we a good advertisement for His service? Can the name of

the Lord Jesus be read from our lives? “You are a letter of Christ”, despite everything

Paul could say this to Corinth.

And we? What are we and what do we see today? People with closed hearts. People

with much opposition to the work of the Spirit. People who speak of God’s laws in a

legalistic way without ever having learned to see the wonders of God’s law and who

therefore are cold and unmoved and only reject other people. And further? Paul says, “A

letter of Christ written by the Spirit of the living God”.

Yes, there lies the secret: the Spirit of the living God. There lies the prospect. There

lie Godly possibilities. The Spirit does it.

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Then listening to God’s Word provides food for thought and reason for deep shame.

But then it is not without prospect or hope. Because the Spirit writes them. And we, we

may pray:

O teach me, Lord, the way that I should go;

Then shall Thy servant walk therein forever.

Give understanding all Thy paths to know;

Then shall I keep Thy law with zealous fervor.

Instruct me in Thy perfect will and, lo,

I shall observe it with my whole endeavor.

AMEN.

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