3. 2 Corinthians 3. And read one verse of Scripture.
2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. We all, with open face, beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now, this is a wonderful verse.
It's really too wonderful for me, but the Lord blesses it. We will all get a blessing. The apostle is writing of what
we just read in Exodus 33. He's writing in this whole chapter
about that story we read of Moses going up on the to receive God's
word and after receiving God's word. He came down from the mountain. It says over there and here that
his face shone. His face was shining. He didn't
know it. People did. They saw his face
glowing And it said he had to put a veil over his face for
the people to look on him. And here it says, in reference
to that, we are, that is, believers, God's people, whom he has shown
what he showed Moses. He said we all, with open face,
behold him as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, and are changed,
he said, into that same image of glory, glory. And he talks
about this glory, look at verse 10, he usually talks about this
glory twelve times, he says, stand in eleven verses, twelve
times he talks about this glory, glory, glory, glory. And verse
10, he says, that which was made glorious, or what we read about,
had no glory in this respect. A reason of the glory that excelleth. Something much, much, much more
glorious. All right? Something more glorious.
Something more splendid. The word glory means splendid
or shines brightly. Right, go back there now to Exodus
thirty-three. Go back to where we read in Exodus
thirty-three. And he says, the apostle said,
all the disciples of the Lord have had a glimpse though through
a glass, darkly. Remember when Paul said that
in first Corinthians thirteen, we see through a glass But we've had a glimpse of this
floor. Now Moses, this is chapter 33,
and Moses had already seen the burning bush. Remember that story? Moses stood, the Lord spoke to
him about that burning bush, and we looked at that. I remember
being greatly blessed by that burning bush. You know what that
is, don't you? That burning bush represents the Lord Jesus Christ,
burned but was not consumed. Moses saw the plagues that God
put on the land of Egypt, the power of God, wrath of God. Moses saw the Red Sea party. Moses saw the cloud. cloud, you
know, and the pillar of fire. Remember that? By night, the
separated children of Israel and the Egyptians came between
them. There was light to the Israelites,
but darkness to the Egyptians. He saw that. It was glorious.
Glory. Moses saw the manna. The children
were hungry. They needed food, and God Almighty
miraculously provided angels food. The psalmist said, man
did eat angels food. I guess that's where we started
calling that cake, angels food cake. That manna was white and,
well, anyway, he saw that manna of bread come out of the sky.
Every morning he was there to eat. Moses saw the smitten rock. Remember that rock that he smoked
with his rod and the water poured out and that rock followed him
for forty years. What glory! And after all that
glory, after all those glorious things, he says here, In chapter
13, chapter 33, I'm sorry, verse 13, Moses says, Now therefore
I pray thee. After all that, he said, If I
have found grace in thy sight, show me now by way that I may
know thee. I've seen your power, I've seen
your wrath, I've seen your providence, I've seen your wisdom. God showed
him the tabernacle. and all the wisdom, the types,
the symbols, and all that. He said, I've seen your wisdom,
your will, but I can't see you. Look at verse 18. He said, I beseech thee, I beg
you, show me your glory, your personal glory. I want to see
you as you are. I can't see you, Lord. I need to see you. I want to know you, he said.
Show me now by way that I may know thee. Does that sound familiar? Remember when Paul over in Philippians
3 said, Oh, that I may know thee. Not just the types, not just
the doctrine, the symbols, the pictures, but a glimpse of his
glorious person. That's what he said. I beg you, Lord. And here's what
the Lord said in verse 19. He said, I will. He said, in another place, he
said, you seek me, I'll be found of you if you search for me with
all your heart. He said, I will. I will, verse
19, make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious. to whom
I will be gracious, and I will show mercy. I will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy. And the Lord said to Moses, Thou
canst not see my face and live. And shall no man see my face
and live? Our God, Hebrews 10, 29, says, is a consuming fire. And he says, there's a place
by me. Verse 21, there's a place by
me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. There is a place by me,
and it's a rock, and that's where you're going to stand. And it
shall come to pass when my glory passes by. I'm going to make
my glory pass by. And I'll put you not only on
the rock, but in the rock, in the cliff-driven rock. And I'll cover you with my hand
while I pass by, and then I'll take away my hand and receive it. That's all you can take. My full face. Now look at chapter 34, verse
2. It says, Now be ready. The Lord told Moses, Be ready
in the morning. There's something to Preparing
is to be ready, come up in the morning unto the mount, present
thyself there to be in the top of the mountain, and I'm going
to come down, and I'm going to see my glory. Prepare yourself."
He did. The first bite, and the Lord
descended in the cloud, and stood with him there. and proclaim
the name of the Lord. While Moses was standing on that
rock and in the cliff of the rock, none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ came down. Do you remember how the Lord
left this earth when he came here? He left in a cloud, didn't
he? And the scripture said, Behold,
the coming of the Son. Just like he did to Moses. He
came down in the clouds and stood with him there. Look at verse
16. And the Lord Moses said, How
shall I know? Wherein shall it be known that
I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not that
thou goest with us, that you're with us? So the Lord came down
after promising him that he knew him. He came down and stood with
him before Jesus Christ. And it says he proclaimed the
name of the Lord. Who's that? What's the name of
the Lord? Well, at the name of Jesus, Scripture
says, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he
is Lord, leaving no doubt that this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse six, the Lord passed
by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, that is the eternal
one, the self-existent one, needing no one, needing nothing, dependent
on no one and no thing, whose will alone is free. The
Lord, Jehovah, that's our God. That's the Lord God. Self-existent, immutable, unchanging,
the Lord changeth not. The Lord God. Sovereign, omnipotent,
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. That means that's not just a
doctrine. That's who he is. He reigns. The Lord God reigns. Our creator,
our sovereign, our ruler, our judge, despot, the Lord God,
God who made us and who owns us and whose hands our breath
is and all our ways. The judge of all the earth. Read
on. But this God is merciful, full of mercy. You see, our greatest
need, because we're great sinners. Remember over there in the psalm,
pardon mine iniquity, Lord, for it is great. For the Lord's,
our greatest need is God's greatest will, man. He's full of mercy.
Look at verse 19 of the previous chapter. The Lord said, I will
make my goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim the name
of the Lord and will be gracious. I will be gracious. That's his
name. That's his person. I will be
gracious. God of all grace. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. Have what we have. Know what
we know. Can do everything as a gift. All that we have, we
receive from the God of all grace. We've not attained to anything,
but we've obtained everything. We receive everything. No man,
no flesh can glory and say that, I did this, I did that. No, we
receive everything from the God of all grace. And He giveth,
and He giveth, and He giveth again. He says, I will be gracious.
Salvation is by grace. By grace, are you saying? It's
a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. By grace, you say, through faith, and even that's not of
yourself. It's a gift of God. Repentance is a gift. Faith is
a gift. Salvation is by grace. The Lord says, I will be gracious. Thank God. This is another one
of those verses that's not for arguing with people, but it's
for her comfort. I will be gracious. That's the
glory of this verse. I will be gracious. But he said,
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Salvation is God's
prerogative. It's his to give to whom he wills.
Cannot I do with mine own what I will, he said? All souls are
mine. So salvation is by grace and that by sovereign will. That's what makes Him God. Man's
not sovereign. God is. I will. God's will alone
is free. And I will show mercy, He said.
I will show mercy. That's our greatest need. And
God says, I will show it. He delights to show mercy. He
says He takes pleasure in them that fear Him and those that
hope in His mercy. Whoever needs mercy, God said,
I will show mercy. That's His glory in it. But mercy
is not getting what we deserve. Mercy is being spared. The wrath of God, the judgment
that we deserve, all the sin that comes short of the glory
of God, it's of the Lord's mercy that we're not consumed. And
He said, I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Again, this is His delight. But
it's his glory that he will show mercy. Over in chapter 34, verse
7, it says, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. Oh, I love that verse where it
says, all manner of sin shall be forgiven. Forgiving, iniquity, transgression,
sin, all manner. of keeping mercy, preserving,
reserving mercy for thousands. Scripture says thousands times
thousands and ten thousands of thousands. Mercy. Oh my. So the Lord says in verse 6,
I will proclaim the Lord God merciful, gracious, long-suffering,
abundant, long-suffering. Stop right there just a second.
Peter wrote of this, didn't he? 2 Peter 3. He said, we need to
account that it's the long suffering of the Lord that's our salvation.
Meaning, he puts up with and puts up with and puts up with.
He's long. He suffereth long. Beareth long
with us all our days. Suffereth long. Aren't you glad,
Scripture says, the Lord waits to be gracious. Aren't you glad
that he put up with you? All those years that you had
nothing to do with Him. And in the fullness of time, having foreknown you, predestinated
you, He called you by His grace. Sovereign grace, sovereign mercy.
He's long suffering, abundant in goodness. Our God is good
and true. My, my. My, my. Who is all this speaking of?
Where is the mercy of God seen? Where is the grace of God found?
Where is the long-suffering? Where is the salvation of God?
It's in, by, through the Lord Jesus Christ. All the mercy of
God, all the grace of God, all the goodness of God is seen in
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why is God merciful? Because God spared not his own
son, because God delivered him up for us all, that he might
deliver us. Why is God gracious to us? Because
Christ was crucified, and he giveth. This is a free gift that
Christ earned. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lord who is spoken of here. Moses saw Christ. That's who
was standing with him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of God. Paul wrote in Hebrews 1, he said,
who being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his
person, the Lord Jesus Christ came down that day and stood
right there with Moses, and Moses beheld God, whom no man can see. Do you understand that? He saw
it. Like Job said, I will see with
my eyes. I'm going to behold God. But
God said you can't see me and live. But he did. So who is that? Well, God is spirit. But God
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And that's what John wrote. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory. as of the only forgotten, the
only bodily presence of God Almighty. Jesus Christ is the Lord God,
the goodness of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God. And he says that here in our
text, back there in 2 Corinthians. He says, all we, all whom God
Almighty has revealed Christ to and in, all we, he says with
open face. Go back there to our text, 2
Corinthians 3. He said, but we all with open
face, that is unveiled, unveiled face, behold him as in a glass. Glory of the Lord. In a glass
of darkness, Paul said. Just as the Lord said, no man
can see my face and live, we cannot with mortal eyes look
upon our God. And look upon Christ as he is.
You can't look into the sun. I mean the S-U-N, can you? You
can't look at it at all with these naked eyes. Right? Or you'll be blind. But here's
an even better illustration. A glass darkly, a welder. Some
of you men do some welding, don't you? And that spark, they say,
is almost as bright as the sun. And you can't look at it, can
you brother? Same, same, same. You can't look at it except how?
Through a glass, darkly. When we see Him, our Lord said,
remember Sunday He said, everyone that seeeth the Son, everyone
that seeeth the Son, I'll raise him up. I'll save that person. Well, we see His glory. We haven't seen him with these
eyes. We see him through this eye of
faith. We see him in the scripture.
Because if we could see the Lord as he is right now, someday we
will, but if we could see him right now as he is, we couldn't
continue to do it. You know, the Lord allowed the
apostles to see him as he is a little brief glimpse and they
fell down on the ground as dead men. Paul was blinded, Paul was
blinded for three days after he saw the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the reason the Lord showed those men his purse, remember
he peeled back that veil, he used his veil of flesh and one
day, Barbara, he took those three, Peter, James and John, up on
the mountain and he They said his face, his countenance shined
as the sun in all its strength. And the reason he showed them
is because they're apostles, and they're going to suffer great
things for his namesake. They're going to go out declaring
him to the world. They've got to believe without
a doubt. Same with the Apostle Paul. He said, I'll show you
what great things you must suffer for my name's sake. But we see
him like that. But we do see him. Blessed are
our eyes if we do see the eye of faith. We do see him a little
bit, his glory. All right? Now look at this.
He said in verse 18, We all with open face, all believers, behold
as in a glass the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord. People mostly. Well, look down
at verse fourteen. It says, "...their minds were
blinded, and until this day remains the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. To this day, when Moses is read,
the veil is upon their hearts." But how many of us have seen
His glory, like in those Old Testament types? Huh? Time and
time again, people. While the world, you know. How
many of you get the Franklin newspaper? Many of you get it?
Anybody? You don't have to look at the
national news to see all the foolishness that goes on in religion.
One of the largest places here in town is having a Big Buck
contest. Meaning all the deer hunters
are going to bring all their deer heads and have a contest.
And eat wild game and so forth. Another place is holding a golf
tournament. Another place is holding a bait
sale. Another place is doing this, doing that. Other places
are talking in tongues and doing all this other stuff. This little group in here. Come
in here time and time again. And behold. Oh, my Lord, don't let us take
it for granted. Well, he'll remove it. Listen
to this. He said, Oh, well, so many places
I could turn, but listen to this. What he said over in Deuteronomy,
he said, he said, The Lord had chosen thee to be a special people
unto himself above all the people on the face of the earth. He
didn't set his love upon you nor choose you because you were
more in number than any people. You were the fewest. Listen to this. Over in the Psalms,
he said, I can find it. I think it's Psalm 147. He said,
he said, the Lord sent his word. Here it is. He showed his word
to Jacob, to his people, his statute, his judgment. He hath
not so dealt with any other nation. His judgments they have not known.
To the contrary, God sends strong delusions to those that receive
not the love of the truth. Those who are not interested
in the glory of God and the glory of Christ, God sends strong delusions. He lets them see these things.
But we, time and time and time again, all we do here, All we
do here is set forth Christ, and whoever is interested in
His glory will see it through. And these Old Testament types,
some of you, you were in religion before you came here. Well, all
of you, practically, weren't you? And you heard some of these
old stories when they were just stories of the faith of Abraham
and the faith of Rahab and the faith of You know, you didn't
hear about Boaz, did you? You didn't have a clue what the
woman's seed was, did you? You didn't have a clue what it
meant Abraham and Isaac going up on that mountain. You didn't
have a clue what that Passover lamb was, but now you do. What
is it? What are these things? These
old types. The veil is removed in Christ. Our Lord said over there in Isaiah
twenty-five, he said, in this mount, that is, Mount Zion, the
church, he said, the veil, the covering that is spread upon
the people shall be lifted. And they'll see my glory, as
of the only begotten of the Father, full of what? Grace and faith. Oh my, we've seen his glory.
And while God has hid these things from the wise and the Honestly,
people, I say this over and over again, the average college seminary
professor does not know what our young children know. You could show them passages like
the woman's seed and they wouldn't know what it meant, but our children,
every one of them at least know in their head that that woman's
seed is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Passover lamp, Rahab's scarlet
line, and on and on again. The glory of God is seen in the
person of the Lord Jesus. And he shows that to all. They
all behold his glory in the face. Isn't that what 2 Corinthians
4 said? God who caused the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give us the light. There was a day when it dawned
on you, like Peter wrote. When it dawned on you, the Son
of God dawned upon you. You saw, like Paul, the glory
of God in the face. We're so blessed, so blessed. Now look at this, this is, you're
going to enjoy this. It says, we all beholding that
glory are changed into the same image, from glory to glory. We're changed into the same image. You remember, Moses came down
from the mountain, and we didn't read it, but he came down from
that mountain, and his face glowed so much that they had to put
a veil on him. But it says he didn't know it.
He saw God's glory. He saw Christ, and his face lit
up. I've seen the same thing in you. And you, I've seen your faces
light up all of a sudden when you see Christ for the first
time. Honestly. Some of you right now are beaming
a little bit. Nothing like it was at first. To God it would every time, but
sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes He gives us a little
glimpse of His glory and we just beam. We don't know it. Maybe, I hope you look on my
face at times and I'm beaming, I hope. I've looked into the
faces over the years, it says it changed into the same image. God predestinated all of these
people to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I've looked into the faces of several people in here over
the years and I've seen a glorious change come on them. Though you
wish not, but it's happening. And the first notable change
that I see is like I've already said, is when the gospel is preached,
it's literally like a light goes on. You heard the old saying,
there's nobody home, lights are on, nobody home. Well, I've looked
into the faces of some of you before the light was on, before
there was this Christ revealed in you. He looked at me with
blank faces like, I know what you were thinking. Can't wait
till this is over. Just a blank look. Then all of
a sudden, same message. Same message, Christ. Then one
day, it's like you wake out of sleep. That's exactly what happened.
It's like being raised from the dead. Like coming from darkness
to light. Oh yeah that's the first notable
change reaction to the gospel gospel is called a saver of life
to life. I stand up here and talk about.
It's about. Kelly Grace Park. Family just. It's it's it's Kelly Grace Park. He can't really. That's one of
your favorite subjects, isn't it? One of them. That's how you
know. That's his life. She's his life. Part of his life. Savor of life. To life. Christ
is in you. The love of God has shed abroad
in your heart. The love for his Son, that is. You respond. When
Christ is... Yes, yes. I want to hear about
him. I want to hear about him. Can't get enough of him. Savior
of life to life, change in your countenance, glowing faces, wet
eyes. I prayed one time, Lord send Mr.
Wet Eyes. Tears of repentance and tears
of joy. And then there's this new creature
being formed from glory to glory, it says, the image of the Lord
Jesus Christ being formed in you, though you wish not that
it's You don't know it. You look in the mirror and all
you see is a sinful man. But other people look at you.
God's people, that is. The world doesn't see any difference,
but God's people do. I've seen it. Your husband, Irene,
marriage is not the only thing that changed him. Christ did. And you. I've seen a change come over
us. We wish not that it's happened,
but other people do. They see Christ and glory to
God. It's a glorious thing when God
Almighty puts Christ in somebody, a new Christian. It's a glorious
thing. Glorious change comes over that
Christian. Yes, it does. And then as the
years go by, it goes from glory to glory. These newborn infant in a way
little Lila. Lila Morgan enters that nursery. It's like a bright light bulb
comes on. Everybody just runs to it. A
newborn baby in a bright spot in a dark world. And that baby
It's amazing how those babies bear the image of their parents
immediately. Amazing how much they look like
us. I love to go in that little classroom
and look at Abigail and Emma and their little faces. It's amazing. It's like looking
at Patrick and Jennifer and Deborah. And Melanie and Wesley and Gabe
and Hannah, it's amazing how much they look. Well, wait till
they keep growing. They're going to keep growing and growing until
someday they're going to meet a spitting image. Okay. Spitting image. They don't look, they don't know.
You look like, just like your dad. No, I don't. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. I bet you think
you have become your daddy. I do. I finally realize that
I'm him. I'm him. My mother, my grandfather,
and so forth. And God's people are going from
glory to glory, being conformed by his Spirit, it says, by the
Spirit of the Lord. And how does he do that? Through
the Word. See, the more we behold the Lord
Jesus Christ, His glory, the more we become like Him. The more we behold Christ, the
more we become like Him. I'll give you an illustration.
These little children, they're listening to you. They really
are. It's scary, isn't it? It ought
to be. They're listening to us, and they're imitating everything
we do. I was sitting on Gabe and Hannah's—no, Mindy was sitting
on They even had a porch the other day, and Isabella was watching
her every move, and she sat down right beside her, with her hands
just like hers. And you look at them behind her,
they're just clones. The more we behold Christ's glory,
we don't know it, but we're being changed. Being changed. Let me tell this story. Had an older brother. Two years
older than you, John. Two years older than him. He
looked just like my father. But he had an older, his firstborn
son, he named after him, John. Well, my uncle, his wife, first wife,
they got a divorce. And the son was elsewhere with
his mother. And. Dad mom said that they hadn't
seen that young man John Mayhem. And seeing him how many years
I mean twenty three years. They had they hadn't seen him.
OK not since he was a child. Maybe and one day somebody showed
up at their door they opened the door and dad mom both said
they opened the door and there was John. They. didn't have to ask him at all
who he was. It's a spitting image of his
father. And they said his gestures, his
voice, everything about him was just like his brother. And we don't know it. We don't
see it, do we? As I said, we look in the mirror.
We don't see Christ being formed in us, but others do. And here's
how you see it. His glorious image. You remember
what the Lord's glory was? Changed from glory to glory.
Remember what his glory was? It's mercy. It's grace. Now, I said that mercy, and I
got to quit, but mercy means more than just not getting what
we just heard. That's a good, pretty good definition.
It's not the best. The word mercy actually means
look it up. It means kindness. That's what the word mercy. The Lord is full of kindness. His tender mercy is the scripture.
The Lord is kind. of the Lord's mercies that were
not concerned. His compassion, that means He
feels for His people. He's kind. The Lord is infinitely
kind. He treats with kindness. And when God's people grow in
this glory, they become more kind. They become soft. You know, they
begin hard. Well, Moses said, pardon this
people. They're a stiff neck, hard hearted
people. Lord, do a work. It took 40 years. Make them kind. We become, hopefully,
more kind. Soften us. Until the effects
are seen in the face. Before, you know, nothing but...
It softens the face. And grace, grow in grace and
the knowledge. And how's that growth? The knowledge
by beholding His grace. The only way we'll be gracious
is we consider how gracious He is to us. You know, that's the
only thing that will make us gracious, beholding the glory
of His grace. And you know, Moses wished not, but it did,
it did, that his face shined. And verse 18 says, we all go
from glory to glory. From glory, it's a glorious thing
when that work begins. Oh, I hope the Lord will do it
again for somebody. Oh, don't you? We pray and pray
and pray for our young people. Won't it be glorious if the Lord
brings a prodigal son home, or daughter, or spouse, or something
like that? We'll give Him all the glory.
With man, it's impossible. What we get, we'll give Him all
the glory. We know for a fact we can't save
anybody. Salvation is up to the Lord,
and when He does it, And he's done it for us, there's no reason
to believe he won't do it again. The gospel's still being preached.
The door of the ark's still open. And if he does, it'll be glorious
for him. Until, it says, we'll go from
glory until someday, like Enoch, we're going to walk right into
glory itself. And then our change will be complete. Those who have been predestinated
to be conformed to the image of Christ from glory until they're
glorified finally, completely. And they look just like to walk
into glory. And again, they are themselves,
but they look, Margaret, just like Jesus Christ. And I love
that story. I think it was in Pilgrim's Progress
of Pilgrim's wife, her companion. were headed toward the celestial
city. It says they crossed over the river together. River of
death. It says when they got over, they
changed. Their garments fell off and they
got new garments, robed in white. It says their countenance and
everything about them changed. And it says they looked at one
another. And they one said to the other, you're so beautiful.
He said, don't, you're beautiful. And they looked just like Jesus
Christ. All my days I wake You're marching. Glory to glory by the
fear of the law. And beholding. OK then. Our Lord we preach in part we
know in part. You see through a glass dimly
and that which has come. When that which is perfect is
come, then we'll know even as we have been known. And we long
for that day, Lord. We see, but so dimly. We believe,
yet so weakly. We rejoice, but yet so feebly. Thank you, Lord, that we do.
Thank you that we do see something, a glimpse of your glory in the
person of Christ. We would see more, Lord. And
we all say with Moses, Lord, show us thy glory. Show us thy
way that we may know thee. That is our prayer. But thank
you for what you've made known to us. It's in Christ's name
we've met here tonight and give thanks. Amen. You're dismissed. Okay. you. Okay.