Grosey's Messages

2 Corinthians 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. 12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2Co 4:1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

Faithful Christian Service Can Be Formidable

Faithful Christian Service Can Be Frustrating

Faithful Christian Service Can Be Fatiguing

Who cares?

What will it achieve anyway?

Baptists are a small people. 65,000 people around Australia.

Our Asian Baptist churches have grown to close to 5000 members. But our non-migrant churches are in a slow decline.

We are an insignificant people.

Christians are an insignificant people in our culture, although our culture thinks that the hierarchy of the churches are controlling and dominate the culture.

Yet less than 15% of people attend church, and most of these attend the roman catholic Church. That is 1/8 attend church and most of these attend a catholic church. Protestant churches are not doing so well in Australia.

And there is difficulty in the churches. Confusion reigns. Do Christians believe this or that about sexuality? Is marriage important? Do we believe the Bible is the Word of God?

There is division. Confusion and distress in the churches.

Some churches love the Bible as the Word of God. Some pastors reject the scriptures as God’s Word.

Many pastors are leaving the ministry for many reasons, most of all; discouragement.

Discouragement is the biggest killer.

John O'Brien was the pseudonym of Patrick Joseph Hartigan, born in 1878 in Yass in New South Wales. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1903 and was appointed inspector of Catholic schools in the Goulburn diocese in 1910. He later became parish priest for Narrandera from 1917 to 1944. He wrote a piece of poetry that epitomises discouragement.

'Said Hanrahan'

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, In accents most forlorn,

Outside the church, ere Mass began, One frosty Sunday morn.

The congregation stood about, Coat-collars to the ears,

And talked of stock, and crops, and drought, As it had done for years.

"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke; "Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,

For never since the banks went broke Has seasons been so bad."

"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil, With which astute remark

He squatted down upon his heel And chewed a piece of bark.

And so around the chorus ran "It's keepin' dry, no doubt."

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "Before the year is out."

"The crops are done; ye'll have your work To save one bag of grain;

From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke They're singin' out for rain.

"They're singin' out for rain," he said, "And all the tanks are dry."

The congregation scratched its head, And gazed around the sky.

"There won't be grass, in any case, Enough to feed an ass;

There's not a blade on Casey's place As I came down to Mass."

"If rain don't come this month," said Dan, And cleared his throat to speak --

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "If rain don't come this week."

A heavy silence seemed to steal On all at this remark;

And each man squatted on his heel, And chewed a piece of bark.

"We want an inch of rain, we do," O'Neil observed at last;

But Croke "maintained" we wanted two To put the danger past.

"If we don't get three inches, man, Or four to break this drought,

We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "Before the year is out."

In God's good time down came the rain; And all the afternoon

On iron roof and window-pane It drummed a homely tune.

And through the night it pattered still, And lightsome, gladsome elves

On dripping spout and window-sill Kept talking to themselves.

It pelted, pelted all day long, A-singing at its work,

Till every heart took up the song Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.

And every creek a banker ran, And dams filled overtop;

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "If this rain doesn't stop."

And stop it did, in God's good time; And spring came in to fold

A mantle o'er the hills sublime Of green and pink and gold.

And days went by on dancing feet, With harvest-hopes immense,

And laughing eyes beheld the wheat Nid-nodding o'er the fence.

And, oh, the smiles on every face, As happy lad and lass

Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place Went riding down to Mass.

While round the church in clothes genteel Discoursed the men of mark,

And each man squatted on his heel, And chewed his piece of bark.

"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man, There will, without a doubt;

We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "Before the year is out." -- John O'BrienBut for

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness; the other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." (Woody Allen)

Paul and for you and I, how the church in Australia can grow is beyond our ken. Its too hard to know! Sometimes pastors get together and have a Hanrahan hour. We talk of how we’ll al be rooned.

Last week a pastor rang me concerned about what was happening in the Christian School. The Christian school had several members of his Baptist church on it. They had got the thing going. They had been in it at the start. But now a group of Pentecostals have tried to take over the school and have the whole thing signed into their denomination, and their pastor appointed head over it all. We wonder, with all these shenanigans going on, how the Lord’s work can proceed when people behave unethically. And we tend to think as Hanrahan did, “we’’ll all be rooned!”

But we forget there is a greater one who is ultimately in control. And though Satan sometimes seems so strong, and those who would undo the gospel seem so politically capable, we for get, we do not need to lose hope.

Paul’s conflict was with some who said he was second rate. He didn’t have the glory resting upon him, like their preachers did. He was second rate.

Paul responds that we have the New Covenant. And the new Covenant is the glorious thing.

2 Cor 3:12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness—

What is the hope that drives us forward?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that "Hope without an object cannot live." If you have ever lost the focus of life, you understand hopelessness. Perhaps you have invested much into your job, marriage, or the struggles of life; and then you saw it all destroyed. The object of your hope is gone, and you feel dead and aimless.

Psychologist William Marston asked 3,000 people this question: "What do you have to live for?" 94 percent responded that they were merely enduring their lives, hoping someday that things would get better. I suppose that this is an expression of hope to a small degree, hoping that the future will be better than the past or present. Yet, this seems so inadequate. If our only encouragement is found in hoping for a better tomorrow, is this an adequate hope? It has been said that some people see only a hopeless end, but the Christian sees an endless hope.

In 2 Cor 2 Paul spoke of our triumph in Christ. He saw the end and it was hopefilled.

Now he looks back and makes comparisons with the old Covenant. And he sees how the New covenant allows us to look within and be hopefilled.

The new covenant has been introduced. There is a new way that people can be made right with God. It isn’t by keeping the Old testament laws and being Jewish. A person is made right with God in the basis of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done at the cross.

Jeremiah 31:31 Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will place My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying: Know the Lord, for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

A hopefilled life from within!

The New Covenant is much more glorious.

1. We Have A More Glorious Revelation Which means that The ministry of God goes deeper.

We live in a world that can cause great despair. When General Douglas MacArthur was recalled from Korea, he was afforded an opportunity to address the United States Congress. As he spoke, he said, “I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfilment of all my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished.”

What a sad day that must have been, the day his hopes and dreams died. How very similar for the disciples as they hid in a room in Jerusalem behind locked doors. They had believed Jesus and left their jobs and their families to follow the Christ. But the dreams were dead, and the one they had believed in and loved was buried in a tomb. Hope seemed nonexistent on that lost weekend. Then God did something totally awesome, and hope was reborn. On that resurrection morning, hope broke through stone walls. The door to the tomb was open, and the Saviour was alive. Who would have ever dreamed that this kind of hope was possible?

2 Corinthians 3 brings us into this resurrection hope.3 since it is plain that you are Christ’s letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. 4 We have this kind of confidence toward God through Christ: 5 not that we are competent in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence is from God. 6 He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life.

The New Covenant has the Spirit of God dwelling inside us. Dreams of effective faithful Christian service are not futile dreams! “the hopes and dreams have [not] vanished.”

There is something more. The Spirit of God is at work. And we may not quickly see and discern His work, but nonetheless He is still at work.

Robert Morrison was born in 1782 to a stern Presbyterian family. As a young man he read missionary stories in a church magazine and it whetted his interest in foreign missions. But his mother was appalled and said it would be over her dead body. A few years later she died, and in his early twenties Morrison began his training to be a missionary. Morrison was accepted into the London Missionary Society. While he waited to find a male colleague to go with him to China, he studied the Chinese language for one year. When no partner was forthcoming, Morrison left for China alone. He was forced to go through the United States, since the East India Company wouldn't let him take a British ship to China. The East India Company didn't like missionaries because they thought Christians would upset the Chinese. Nothing would be allowed to get in the way of profits. But they found that Morrison was so good with the language they hired him as a translator. Even so, they forbid him to do Christian work. For example, in 1815 the company threatened to fire him when it learned that he had secretly translated the New Testament. Robert Morrison worked in China for 27 years. His first wife died. He sent his children to England and saw them once after that. By the time he died, he had baptized 10 Chinese. Only 10. That's not a lot of fruit. To be honest, many would see him as a total failure. But if Morrison died discouraged, his work of translating the Bible and making dictionaries laid a foundation for others. Christians in China now number in the tens of millions. When as a young man Morrison had first sailed to China, he was asked, “Do you really expect to make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese empire?” In reply, Morrison spoke more prophetically than he knew: “No, sir, but I expect God will.”

As he sailed into the port of Canton in 1807, 25-year-old Robert Morrison was filled with a driving passion to see the Chinese people come to know Christ. That motivation came from the Spirit of God! By the time he died in China 27 years later, however, he had baptized only ten Chinese. But if Morrison died discouraged, his pioneering work, which included a six-volume Chinese dictionary and a translation of the Bible, opened the door for other missionaries and thus for the millions of conversions he had only dreamed of.

2. We Behold Him His glory means the ministry of God goes higher.

7 Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look directly at Moses’ face because of the glory from his face—a fading [glory]— 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

Glory of God like a consuming fire

Moses is unique in the Old Testament. In Exodus 24:15-17 we are told Moses went up to the mountain and the cloud of glory covered the mountain. "The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai . . . and He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top."

Moses longed to be in the presence of God

Moses enjoyed deeply personal communion with Yahweh. "Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11). There is universal agreement among scholars that Moses is expressing intimacy with God and not literally in His face. He is preparing his readers for the deeply personal conversation that follows. In Exodus 33:18-23 Moses makes it very clear that sinful man cannot see the glory of God and live. "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live" (v. 20, cf. v. 23). It is not a contradiction, but a clarification. What happens when Moses came into the presence of God is amazing.

Moses reflected the presence of the glory of God in his face

In Exodus 34:29-35 we are told that after Moses fasted on the mountain forty days and nights that "Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him" (v. 29). "The skin of his face shone" and the people were afraid to come near him (v. 30). His face had a general irradiation and illumination about it. His whole face was irradiated in a strange and wonderful way, unusual manner in which those familiar with him had never seen it irradiated before. Moses face was transfigured. The word is used in Hebrew for a sunrise. This was new spiritual illumination for Moses, so mighty, so powerful that it irradiated his countenance. His spirit was in a new fellowship with God. His whole person being was mastered, captured, and illuminated by fellowship with God. Moses had a supreme consciousness of God. It would be needed for the job before him.

The face of Moses shone from his relationship with God.

He went into the Tabernacle and his face shone. It was a reflected glory. The moon is a reflected glory of the sun.

If Moses saw God and His face beamed with the Glory of God’s presence when all it meant for the Jews was the bringing in of the Old Covenant which resulted in their spiritual death, how much more glorious shall be our experience as we look into the face of Jesus Christ and behold His glory.

We behold Him. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The beholding of His glory was not just the experience of the disciples for those 3 years that they walked with Him. It was not just for the apostles who saw His bodily resurrection. It is also for us, who, by faith have come to know Him as our own Saviour and Lord.

Because you I know Him, there is a relationship with Him. And because there is a relationship with Him, your life overflows with that relationship with Him.

Jeremiah 9:23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me...

It is part of the New covenant relationship that you now personally can know the Lord.

Jeremiah 31:33 Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will place My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying: Know the Lord, for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”

The Lord Jesus said John 17:3 This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent—Jesus Christ.

(Psalms 34:8-10 NKJV) Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! {9} Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. {10} The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

2 Peter 1:2-3 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 2 Peter 1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 2 Peter 1:8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.. 2 Peter 3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

Those Who Know God Show Great Boldness for God.

2 Cor 3;12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness—

We know that He who is with us is greater than He who is against us.

Acts 5:29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

We know that He who is within us, can enable us to do the greatest tasks.

Acts 20:22-24 And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. 24 But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

3. Because of the Glory here, The ministry of God lasts longer.

9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory. 10 In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious in this case because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was fading away was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

Steve Brown related the story of a British soldier in the First World War who lost heart for the battle and deserted. Trying to reach the coast for a boat to England that night, he ended up wandering in the pitch black night, hopelessly lost. In the darkness he came across what he thought was a signpost. It was so dark that he began to climb the post so that he could read it. As he reached the top of the pole, he struck a match to see and found himself looking squarely into the face of Jesus Christ. He realized that, rather than running into a signpost, he had climbed a roadside crucifix. Brown explained, "Then he remembered the One who had died for him -- who had endured -- who had never turned back. The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches."

Adoniram Judson finally achieved peace by accepting Christ as his Savior. What is more, he was determined to share it with those who had never heard the gospel. Adoniram Judson raised money and sailed for India with his wife Nancy, but the British merchants kicked them out. They knew the gospel would get the natives thinking about freedom and justice, and they didn't want any of that. So in 1813 the Judsons arrived in Burma. Judson began the voyage as a Congregationalist but arrived as a Baptist because of an intense Bible study. When they got off the boat in Burma, they built a church and preached the gospel. Nothing happened. Adoniram translated the Bible into Burmese. Still no one was saved. It took 5 years before he baptized a single convert. After a lifetime of preaching and translating the Bible, 2 years on death row in a Burmese prison, the death of three wives and 7 children, Judson had only a few dozen converts from the Burmese. Because of this hope he went back and continued to work. And the Burmese Baptist church numbers over a million.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. The ministry of God goes further We become Like Him.

Their hope of freedom comes from that great fact, for the One who is within them is God himself. Paul identifies him: "the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

He is not confusing, of course, the personages of the Trinity. He does not mean that the Holy Spirit and Jesus the Lord are one and the same. He means that they are so identified in purpose and function that they seem to be the same; you can exchange one for the other. That is why "to walk in fellowship with Christ," and "to walk in the fullness of the Spirit" is to talk about the same thing. It is not two different experiences; it is the same. The Holy Spirit has come to reveal the Lord Jesus; therefore, what he does will not involve talking about himself but talking about the Lord. The Spirit-led life is one in which Jesus Christ is made visible and clear to our spiritual eyes. Therefore, the one who is doing this is the Lord himself, "and where the Spirit of Christ is (the Spirit of the Lord is), there is freedom."

"Since we have such a hope, we are very bold."

It is the hope of a victorious gospel -- the good news that God the Father chose his people, God the Son died for their sins and God the Holy Spirit will bring them to faith and write God's law on their hearts! The gospel will accomplish all that it is sent to do. It will not come back empty any more than the word of God can fall to the ground. Paul is utterly confident that the Spirit of God will conquer and justify and preserve for glory all whom God has chosen for himself. His missionary labors cannot fail. By the almighty power of the Holy Spirit not only will the gospel succeed in each new field where it si sown, but it will succeed in each heart where the gospel; is own. This is a bold hope! Even the worst of people can be transformed by the Spirit of God working inside them.

Tyrants become transformed. Drunkards become devout.

The ministry of God goes further. The Lord is day by day transforming you into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You may look at all your problems. You may think you are hopeless. You may think God could never transform your life.

Bruce Larson: “A friend of mine tells about driving through Kentucky when he went off on a side road to see some of the more rural areas of this beautiful state. He found himself in a small town called No Hope, Kentucky. On a hunch, he drove around looking for a church and sure enough he came upon a lovely little white structure in front of which was a big sign that declared it to be `The No Hope Baptist Church.’ Know any churches like that one?”

But that is not the true state of things. You are not hopelessly addicted to sin. God does transform you as you look into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim… Money.. Pride Egotism.. Insecurity.. Selfishness.. Lack of satisfaction in life..

Lack of significance from family or friends…

It will all grow strangely dim.. it wont hatter so much, it’ll be come less and less.. In the light of His glory and grace.

He must increase, I must decrease.. John 3:26 So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi, the One you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, is baptizing—and everyone is flocking to Him.” 27 John responded, “No one can receive a single thing unless it’s given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the • Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

2 Cor 3:18 We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Now did you notice those words there? One degree of glory to another.

Wow. The very glory of God transforming you.

"Those who believe look upon the unveiled, the unhidden glories of the Lord, and are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, it is through faith. And all is through the blessed life-giving Spirit of Christ, who works in believers as the epistle of Christ. 'This power to enjoy Him is the power to reflect Him. The reflection is no effort, but the necessary effect of enjoyment.' May we enjoy Christ by being more and more occupied with Him through His Word and then make Him known by walking even as He walked" (The Annotated Bible, p. 164).

Dallas Willard observes that "What we see around us today of the "usual" Christian life could easily make us think that spiritual transformation is simply impossible. Social scientists tell us that surveys indicate little difference between Christians and non-Christians in the areas of morality and ethics. The public failure of Christian leaders raises significant questions about the possibility of genuine transformation for real human beings. This has caused many to accept the low level of spirituality among Christians as the norm. They believe that the most Christ-like attitude will offer acceptance and affirmation. Anything less than mutual tolerance and forbearance is considered judgmental legalism.

Paul had different vision of the Christian life. The inner person, once plagued by envy, greed, lust and doubt is change to reflect the character of Christ. Someone once said, "In Christ mankind is allowed to see not only the radiance of God's glory but also the true image of man."2 Calvin stated in his commentary, "that the image of God, which had been effaced [defaced] by sin, may be stamped anew upon us...." He wants to transform you. This brings hope.

I love the way Allan Redpath words a clear explanation of this glory the apostle Paul is trying to communicate to believers: "I have a clear view of Jesus. I have seen Him, felt Him, and I have known Him in a far deeper way than simply by the outward physical appearance; I have felt the reality of His life begin to burn in my heart. I have seen in Christ the glory of a life that is totally submitted to the sovereignty of God. That glory has begun to take hold of me, and I have begun to see that this is the one life that God expects of any man He made in His own image. " (Blessings Out of Buffetings, p. 44).

He wants to transform you. This brings hope.

In Chicken Soup for the soul, Dr. William M. Buchholz wrote: As I ate breakfast one morning, I overheard two cancer doctors conversing. One complained bitterly, "You know, Bob, I just don't understand it. We used the same drugs, the same dosage, the same schedule and the same entry criteria. Yet I got a 22 percent response rate and you got a 74 percent. That's unheard of for metastatic cancer. How do you do it?" His colleague replied, "We're both using Etoposide, Platinum, Oncovin and Hydroxyurea. You call yours EPOH. I tell my patients I'm giving them HOPE. As dismal as the statistics are, I emphasize that we have a chance."

# posted by Groseys messages @ 1:11 PM