The Glory of God — 2 Corinthians 3-4

0:00 Good morning. Let... Let's open with a word of prayer. Dear Jesus, I thank you for this day, and I thank you for this opportunity that we have to come together and worship you. Pray that the words that I speak today would be from you and anything that are my own, you would cause them to forget.

0:20 Pray that you would help me to be a good conduit for your message today and I pray all this in your name. Amen. When the speaking committee, AKA Denzel and Andy asked me to speak a couple months ago or a month ago with Mason. I was a little hesitant at first. But after thinking and praying about it, I decided that what's the worst that can happen?

0:41 I mean, heresy and excommunication's not that bad. And then when I was thinking about what topic we wanted to do, they were like, start with something simple. So immediately my mind went to what is the glory of God. And apparently it's not that simple. There's a lot to it.

1:02 So after thinking about it a little bit and doing more research, had to narrow it down a little bit. But I think my fascination with the topic first started when I was homeschooled as a young child with my mother. Every morning before school started, we would go through the catechisms. And I distinctly remember one of the catechisms that we would always do when asked what is the primary purpose of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And I didn't really know what that meant at the time and I still don't really know what that means.

1:32 But it's after doing a little research, I'm gonna talk a little bit about that today. But what is the glory of God? I'm gonna try to give a brief definition, very brief. We could spend a long time going on this, but the glory of God is impossible to fully comprehend or understand. It's a part of an eternal all knowing all powerful God and far beyond our comprehension.

1:56 Our brains are literally incapable of understanding what exactly is entailed in the glory of God. An infinite God cannot be described by a finite being like one of us. But to the best of my knowledge and after doing a little bit of research, the one sentence definition that I came up with is that the glory of God is the invisible qualities, character, or attributes of God displayed in a visible way. So this is the physical representation of God that he shows to us demonstrating his attributes or in character. God's glory is unchanging.

2:28 It is a part of him and it's not something that ever changes in its different aspects and it is something that is continual forever. But He can choose to manifest His glory in different ways. And this is especially stark in the differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament. If you look at it in Exodus 16, it says that the children could see the awesome... The children of Israel could see the awesome glory of the Lord at Mount Sinai and it appeared as a consuming fire on top of mountain.

2:57 In Exodus 33, Moses is asked to see the glory of the Lord but God said he couldn't see him face to face so he had him hide in the cleft of the rock and as the Lord went by he told Moses he could look and Moses was able to see the passing of the glory of the Lord. But in the New Testament, we see that Jesus is the glory of the Lord. He is the physical representation of God on earth that we can see. And you can see this clearly in Colossians one fifteen when it says, he is the visible image of the invisible God. And you can also see it in Hebrews one three, when it says, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God.

3:35 The gospel is what demonstrates the glory of Jesus because it is a representation of Jesus. It's what's been given to us to show the qualities and character of Jesus. And Jesus is the glory of God. He's what represents God to us on earth. So the main passage that we're gonna be talking about today is second Corinthians three seven through 18.

4:34 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we use great boldness of speech. Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.

4:54 Nevertheless, when one 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 an 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 by the spirit of the Lord. I'm gonna go through this verse by verse and look at it and see how it compares the glory of the lord in the old testament specifically relating to the old covenant and his interactions with Moses on Mount Sinai and to the the New Testament and the New Covenant. So if you look at verse seven, it says, but if the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance which was passing away.

5:42 When God gave Moses the 10 commandments, that was when he appeared in the the flaming fire on top of Mount Sinai. There was some very glorious aspects to it. In that the mountain was lit... The children of Israel had to prepare for three days before God came down on the mountain and before they were able to approach the mountain. And there was also this, the flame of fire, the consuming fire that appeared on top of mountain.

6:06 This was very glorious. And this is something that definitely should be considered. But you can see this even more so in Moses. Moses is one of the people that interacted with God the most from when he saw him in the flaming bush to constantly talking with God in regards to helping the children of Israel escape from Egypt and the wandering through the wilderness. But even when Moses saw the glory of the Lord, just the passing image, he immediately threw himself to the ground.

6:33 And when Moses' face came down... And when Moses came down from the mountain, his face was shining from the glory of the Lord, so much so that even his own brother Aaron and the entirety of the children of Israel were terrified to look upon it. However, this glory that was on Moses' face that was reflected in his face, it eventually faded and passed away. Now looking at verse eight. How will the ministry of the spirit not be more glorious?

6:58 The phrase here, the ministry of the spirit refers to the gospel, that is the glory representing Jesus which represents God. And it's not a phrase here that says that it may be more glorious or it might be more glorious. It's that the new ministry will be more glorious and it definitely will be. Verse nine says, for if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more inglorious. The ministry of condemnation or the law was glorious.

7:25 It was a part of God's perfect plan for salvation and it was perfectly crafted for the time to do exactly what God wanted it to do. But it was it was temporary. It was not meant to be a permanent fixture And it was because the fallibility of humans, it was never going, they were never able to keep it perfectly. And so it was inevitably going to lead to death and condemnation. But the new ministry of righteousness, the gospel, that is what leads to eternal salvation and is made up of an eternal glory that will never fade.

8:33 And you will be grateful for this flashlight because it will provide some light to you. You can see this. But if somebody were to come along and give you an even brighter flashlight. Sorry, I forgot to give the warning. If somebody were to come along and give you an even brighter flashlight, then the old flashlight would be completely irrelevant.

8:51 There would be no need for it anymore because the the brightness of the new flashlight completely outshines the old. And the new old cover... The old one is no longer relevant and no longer needed. Verse 11 says, for what if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. The Old Testament was given with glory.

9:12 There was god's glory. God showed his glory when he gave the children of Israel, the old the old covenant But however, in the new covenant, glory is an aspect of it. It is part of it. It is it is inside of it. This verse also restates the temporary nature of the old covenant.

9:27 How it's going to pass away versus the new covenant that would remain forever and be glorious forever. Verse 12 says, therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. The hope that we have in the new covenant is that we know that it will never fade and it will never pass away. And it is something that we can always rely on and we know that it will always be true and always be there for us. And this is why we have boldness in sharing it because we never have to worry about it being wrong or false or that it will no longer be valid anymore.

9:58 Verse 13 says, unlike Moses who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. Moses didn't put a veil over his face to hide God's glory. It's not that he didn't want the children of Israel to see God's glory reflected on his face. In fact, when he came down from the mountain, he called all the children of Israel together and Aaron his brother. And this is when he gave them the 10 commandments with an unveiled face and he spoke to them and told them what God had told them to say.

10:29 And it was after this that he put the veil on and so that they would not see the glory of the Lord that was passing away. F. W. Grant said, The glory on the face of Moses must give way to the glory in another face. Moving on to verse 14.

10:45 It says, but their minds were blinded for until this day the veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. The Jews and the children of Israel did not realize the temporary nature of the old covenant. That it would pass and they clung onto it with dogged determination. They thought if they just kept the laws perfectly that this is all that they needed to earn their salvation. That they didn't need a savior.

11:10 And when reading the Old Testament, they did not understand that it would pass and be replaced with the even greater glory that would come in Christ. If you look at this verse, if you look at the second use of the word veil because the veil is taken away in Christ, this this word is italicized and often thought to reference the old covenant that would be taken away in Christ. Moving on to verse 15, but even to this day when Moses has read, a veil lies on their hearts. Even after Jesus came and they saw him face to face in the ministry that he was doing and they could see the prophecies that were foretold that they were given in the Old Testament that they had read and that they knew very clearly, they still weren't able to understand that this was the Christ, the son of God that was foretold about in the Old Testament. And this was because of the veil on their hearts that they could not understand it and that they refused to believe it because the veil is taken away in Christ.

12:27 The spirit here is capitalized so it most likely is a reference to the holy spirit and when the spirit of the lord comes to us, after we receive salvation, there is liberty and that the glory that we have is not passing but it is permanent. The liberty is very powerful as it is contrasted so starkly with the Old Testament. They constantly had to be offering sacrifices as atonement for their sins. Every time they sinned they had to go to the priest and offer up a certain sacrifice as an offering for the sins that they committed And this was a very bloody thing. It required a lot of death and sacrifice and it was to show that there was a punishment, that there was, their sins were bad and that there was a real consequence for their sins.

13:12 And this is what the lesson that God was showing them that your sins do have consequences. They need to be taken care of. But because of my law, they can be passed on to the animal place of you. But in the New Testament, we have Jesus Christ who had to die just once for all of our sins forever. And this is indeed a great liberty that we have because we know that we never have to be constantly asking for salvation that Jesus died once for all of our sins.

13:39 And then moving on to verse 18. 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 by the spirit of the Lord. In the Old Testament, Moses was allowed to see the passing of the glory of the Lord, but again, it was a passing view. Under the new covenant, we have the privilege of viewing the glory of the Lord not with a veiled face, but with an unveiled face giving full... Giving us full and unrestricted access to God's glory in heaven.

14:11 We are not face to face with God yet, but we can see his glory in the mirror of the Bible as it is reflected through the gospels and through the rest of the Bible. We can see his wonderful glory. And the process we are undergoing is from glory to glory. It is not that the glory is passing and will eventually fade, it's that we have this glory in us and it will continue to become more and more as we live more like Christ and follow what is in the Bible. And through this following what is in the bible, we are being transformed into the image of God.

14:45 As we behold the glory of the Lord and continue to study his word, the spirit of the Lord will work in our lives and continue to transform us into more like Christ. In the old covenant, the glory was passing and could only be seen on the face of Moses. Under the new covenant, we have permanent glory that can be seen by every single person that accepts Christ. William McDonald says, quote, Moses' face reflected glory. Our face radiates glory from the inside.

15:14 Now when I was doing this conclusion, I didn't intentionally mean to do it, but there is an element of thanksgiving here for sure. And that we can be very grateful that we no longer live under that old covenant. That there is not a temporary atonement for sins, but there is a permanent atonement for sins under the new covenant that is in Christ. And we can be grateful that how God's glory is demonstrated or manifested to us has changed dramatically from the pillar of consuming fire that was seen on top of Mount Sinai in Exodus to the eternal light that is seen in Revelations twenty one twenty three. It says, the city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it.

15:57 The lamb is its light. In the city of New Jerusalem where we will live for eternity with Christ, it's the lamb that will be the glory and provide eternal light. And what a picture that is in contrast to the star consuming fire that was terrifying to behold. Ephesians one twelve through 14 says, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. In him, you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory.

16:40 He sacrificed his only begotten son that we might have salvation and that by accepting salvation we might give him the glory that that he deserves. And through this, we have a boldness and liberty given to us by God through his son, and it is up to us to spread the good news and bring more glory to God. And Mason's gonna talk about that a lot more in the next message. But in closing I just want to read this one final passage from Hebrews twelve eighteen through 24. And it says, For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore for they could not endure what was commanded.

17:29 And as so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. But you have come to the Mount Of Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Alright, at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Mason and he's going to continue to elaborate, I don't want to spoil his message. So I'll let him tell you about that.

18:14 But that's all I have for right now. And as I'm passing off the mic, I was told I could have one shout out. I want to shout out Brian Westcott. Here you go.

18:28 Alright. Hopefully, this mic isn't rubbing rubbing up against my shirt too much. Right? We're good? Okay.

19:15 Alright.

19:16 So yesterday, Tim and I were talking about you know things things to wear. He wore a tie, made me look bad but you know he was talking about wearing a suit and stuff and he was like, yeah, no I gained too much weight so I can't wear a suit and and I don't own a suit and so you know I'm wearing this. I was gonna wear like a nice white shirt, but I figured I would like save you guys the displeasure of seeing it slowly become more and more see through as I sweat up here. Did I forget my water? I forgot my...

19:48 Okay, I forgot my water but we won't need it. I won't take any water breaks. But, so getting into it. Well you're welcome by the way for not wearing a white shirt. But the messages brought by the past speakers were a huge blessing in mine and Tim's studies because and especially for me was Mr.

20:08 Eichele's message, the focus that the Word of God is exalted above all things and that it's it was made and it was wrought in perfect wisdom and holiness, right? And that that it stands alone and so if I rely on the word of God right then you can't go wrong with that and so that's what I think I can speak for Tim with this that we're not the most wise or knowledgeable people and we're going to fumble our words but we can just rely on the word of God and the Holy Spirit and its authority to convict, right? And so Tim's message, our first half of the message was focusing on the differences of the glory of the old covenant versus the glory of the new covenant that God's covenant with his people was made in perfect wisdom as are all of his decisions and it was perfect and holy but we were the ones that messed it up right? We were in the equation and so what did God have to do? He had to bring us out of the equation right?

21:10 That He had to send His Son to fulfill the law and what He did is rendering the old covenant obsolete that it's no longer needed anymore because our new covenant is is based on, it's founded on Jesus Christ who is eternal and and is perfect and so we have that hope there that that it's never going to pass away and the glory is is much more that the glory of an old covenant can compare no way when it's temporary and and brings condemnation and compares no way to to the glory we have in the new covenant that brings life in is eternal in Jesus Christ and so having done nothing to merit such favor from God that we live in the age of grace, my application of this, how are we to go about in response to this and it's a very easy thing to say, hard to execute, right, that we spend all of our lives doing this and so how can we repay or give back to God? So that's kind of the question that I'm attempting to answer that we're just going to hit the surface and there's no better place to look than than in the in the Word of God and so before I go any further I just like to say that you know this, I'm not giving this message at all from any place of self righteousness or authority because you know this was directed and motivated by my own shortcomings with my walk with the Lord and so hopefully you know how much this application has blessed me, hopefully it can bless all of you guys as we try to glorify the Lord with our glorify the Lord with our life.

23:31 Okay? And so the in essence that those of us that are in Christ that we have been set apart to fulfill a greater calling and that's to bring him glory. And so two different aspects, different ideas of of glory today is in Tim's part, the glory of God and his manifestation through Jesus that has now given us the hope for glory and the act of giving glory to God for all that we have in him. And so those are our focus of glory today. Now how do we give glory to God and please him?

24:02 Well, the first step before we can do anything at all is to have a real and genuine faith in the father and the the acceptance of of his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. It says in Hebrews eleven six, and without faith, it is impossible to please god because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him and then Romans eight eight through nine says this that those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please god. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but in the realm of the spirit if indeed the spirit of god lives in you. So we can't possibly please the lord without having what living in us? The the spirit, right?

24:44 Exactly. And so because having the spirit living in us, it allows us to submit to him. Okay? And Romans eight:seven says that the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so, but we who are in the spirit, we belong to Christ.

25:04 Those who are in the flesh do not belong to Christ and so what we have to come to terms with is that we are in the who are in the spirit who are or have been set apart for God's glory, we can't possibly give back or repay God for everything that he's done for us. That we can only please him and glorify him by yielding what belongs to him in the first place and that's our lives. And so what does this look like? Once again, it's much harder to execute, much easier to stand up here and say it than to live it out, but it serves as a reminder to us that that we should that we should strive for this daily. In John 17 verse four, Jesus is obviously the perfect example of of what it looks like to glorify God with our life, with his life.

25:51 John seventeen four, Jesus says, I've brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. So the Lord has assigned us work to do for the furthering of his kingdom and by completing his work we bring glory to his name. And then Romans twelve one through two, it says, therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. And so living sacrifice to God, what does that mean?

26:21 Is that it means that we yield ownership of our lives to him and that we need to be willing to forsake all for his sake and so and for his glory. And so Luke nine twenty three, two instances in Luke. In Luke nine and Luke 14, Jesus says this in nine twenty three, then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. And then again in in Luke 24, Luke fourteen twenty five through 27, Large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them, he said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and bro... Wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple and whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

27:12 And so those are one of the very hard pill to swallow even especially for me when I was reading that because you know where when I ask myself you know where in my heart do I draw the line that you know I'm not willing to give something up for the Lord and so it's one of those things that we have to evaluate and go to Lord in prayer to ask for you know what are the things that that's holding me back from commitment to you and so in order to be a disciple and to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, we yield our lives to God. Jesus is a perfect example once again as he says in the Garden, he's agonizing because he, knowing what's going to happen on the cross, he says and obviously paraphrase that, you know, this cup can pass for me, not my will but your will be done. And then Jesus goes on to literally offer himself as a living sacrifice for us. Right? And then going on to verse two, Romans 12 verse two it says, do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

28:15 Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So when we answered our calling to the Lord, he made us exiles and foreigners, he set us apart and so and so how we are to test and approve what God's will is is to yield to Him, to seek Him and submit to Him. And so submitting to the Lord's calling Matthew 2eight eighteen-nineteen, this is a direct calling that was given to all of us. It says, Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of holy spirit.

28:57 So this is just one of our one of our direct callings from the Lord to spread his grace and by doing that, we're actually furthering God's glory. It says in second Corinthians four fifteen, All this is for your benefit so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. And so God's glory and the glory of the new covenant and just the glory of God in and of himself is already in a position that we can't even fathom, we can't imagine it but spreading His grace, spreading His word just brings even more glory that it overflows, right? That it's just too much to even handle. And so going on to the next application is what is our mindset when we practice righteousness?

30:30 And so the things that when we practice prayer, when we pray to the Lord, when we give to the needy, these things that we are called to do, right, that God, that Jesus tells us to remember the poor. These are things that are meant to be glorifying to him, not that other people can see and then approve us because it's not a righteousness of our own, but it's a righteousness that has been given by God. And so, and what a blessing it is that that when we do these things in secret, we when we fulfill the Lord's will, do what He has called us to do, that we're rewarded for it also, that we're going to be glorified for it too. And so going on, just simply another example of Jesus practicing righteousness in secret. In Luke five sixteen, it says that, But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

31:23 And so not only is this an example of the intimacy you have with the Father but but that it was something that was only for the Father, right? That the Father doing it in secret is meant to glorify him and and and please him And finally, how do we approach the Lord in worship? The veil has been torn in two and we have access to God through our mediator, his son and so Hebrews twelve twenty eight through 29, Tim read the a few verses before and it says here, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. And then John four twenty four says, God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth. And then Psalm 90 six:nine, Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness, tremble before him all the earth.

32:18 And so we have so much to give glory to God for not only just for who he is, who the attributes of God and once again something that we can talk on for the next year, but not so not only who he is, but what he's done for us that this new covenant, this new promise that we have in him, he is worthy of our glory. And so we are meant to give praise in the spirit, in humility, all reverence and still as it says in 90 six:nine, trembling fear because he is a consuming fire. The God of the Old Testament that they feared and they trembled that is still the God of the New Testament, the New Covenant, but he has manifested his grace in a different way and and so, but we still ought to in proper worship give the proper respect of fear and reverence. And so in light of the promised inheritance and the unveiled glory of God in the new covenant, we have to do what God's calling us to do and that's to bring praise and glory to the Lord to the fullest extent in our daily lives. And the most practical way is this in Hebrews twelve:one-three, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

33:40 For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. That Jesus Christ is the foundation and the source of the grace that we have in the new covenant and so he's deserving of that glory and so we're called do not, don't hold on to the flesh, don't hold on to the sins that are entangling us because those are the things that are keeping us from being able to forsake all and commit our lives to the Lord and we're just called fixing our eyes on Jesus, to look solely on Jesus who endured unto the end for the hope of the glory set before him and we are co heirs to the same glory that we have this blessed inheritance that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit and so through that, we have adoption of sons to sonship as Tim read earlier and so through that adoption of sonship that we are co heirs to the same promise and so the glory that Jesus Christ looked forward to and he endured the cross, we have that same hope for glory in the new covenant.

34:52 And so evaluation questions, I had to ask myself you know what kind of things in my life do I need to change? What kind of things am I willing to change? And so questions I asked is, can I say to God right now that I have glorified you on earth, I have finished the work you gave me to do and right now I can definitely say no right, that work for us isn't going to be finished until our final breath right and then what in my life is distracting me from fixing my eyes on Jesus and so what sins are entangling us, entangling the body from properly submitting ourselves to the Lord and just being one And then whose will am I seeking and am I willing to forsake all for him? And so those are questions that I would encourage you all to ponder and to think about that am I seeking my own will or the Lord's will? If I am seeking the Lord's will that what am I willing to do for his will and so let's close in prayer.