0:02
Speaker 1Amen. Good morning. Thank you for waiting for me. Sorry. We had a couple that had a couple that were recently engaged, and we were talking about that, which is awesome.
0:18
So it was really good. Sorry. I I didn't know what time it was. I lose track sometimes. Would you stand up?
0:22
Maybe we'll skip a song. Would you stand up? We have a story to tell to the nations. And actually, we've got folks right now in Ghana and New Zealand. We've got somebody on the way to Australia, somebody else on the way to Scotland.
0:35
So we have a story to tell to the nations. And my family and I are catching up with 19 other people that are already in Israel on a trip from 1st B. So, hymn number four forty six, would you join in with me, please?
0:53
Speaker 2We've a story to tell to the nations that shall turn their hearts to the right a story of truth and mercy a
3:30
Speaker 1Amen. Amen. Thank you, Judy. Victory in Jesus. How about that?
3:36
Hymn number three fifty three.
3:43
Speaker 2I heard an old, old story of how savior came from glory how he gave his life on Calvary to save our wretch like me I heard about his groaning of his precious bloods atoning and repent of my sins and what the victory victory in Jesus I heard about his healing of his cleansing power revealing how he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see and then I cried dear Jesus come and heal my broken spirit and somehow Jesus built for me in glory and I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea about
6:58
Speaker 1Amen. As I was looking at you thinking she's going to take that optional last ending. Yeah. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcement.
7:08
Not as many this week. It is actually spring break. If y'all don't have kids or grandkids in school right now, hallelujah. It is spring break and so, spring break, Monday nights at first B will look a little different during spring break. Carl is gone for spring break with his family.
7:24
I am leaving tomorrow with mine to catch up with those folks in Israel. But Monday nights at First B will be handled by Eugene Morningstar. He's taking the lead tomorrow, and he's facilitating. We're going have a meal and then a study that's about the future of the church, the possibilities for the future of the capital C Church ought to be good. If you want to have a meal and a a message in the form of a movie, then come on.
7:46
Monday nights at first B. We have no Awana this week. Awana is gonna be canceled for the spring break for this week and next during spring break. We'll reconvene the following Monday when they go back to school. So Awana, none this week nor the next week.
8:03
Precept study though is going forward on Thursday at 09:00 sharp in the fellowship hall. Still studying in Acts. That's a good good study. Refit, if you ever ride by this church in the evenings on a Tuesday or a Thursday, Tuesdays at 05:15, there is a free class that is going on, Refit, revolutionizing fitness. It is Christian based, but they are in here.
8:27
If you ever ride by the church and it's dark in here and there's a disco ball and there's red lights and it's green lights and yellow lights all kind of flaring around, They are right here exercising in this room. This room works better than most others in the church for the amount of people they have. So Tuesdays at 05:15, refit. I also wanna say thank you to people, and I have forgotten it for the past few weeks. This is a picture, Kyle Knudson's right there up on the top of Susanna Ray Richard's roof.
8:54
But this is representative. This is not the only time that this has happened. While we were in Africa on that mission trip, it never stopped snowing the whole time here that we were going there. And Mike D texted out to the youth group, hey, anybody that can, parents or youth, come on and help and we're gonna dump the snow off of Ray and Tanya's house. So when we got home, the snow was off of our roof and off of our decks.
9:14
It's really, really nice to return home to that and Jean DeMarsh and... Yes. It is it is so nice when the body of Christ is acting like it, you know, when they're taking care of one another. So I put these up. There are several pictures, but it's so nice when people do get together and just help out.
9:35
Thank you for that. There is a movie that's coming up here, and you will not... If you're gonna see it in Jackson, you have to see it on April 7. It's only out for one night. It's only one showing on that night.
9:46
It's a movie about Abby Johnson who was one of the directors of Planned Parenthood, and she saw something that changed everything. The tagline for the movie is what she saw changed everything, but she is very much a supporter now of pregnancy movement, pregnancy clinics, pregnancy resource center like Turning Point. She went from being a director for Planned Parenthood to advocating for pro life. This is a huge deal. It's supposed to be a really good movie.
10:16
I've not seen it yet because it's not out yet. Everywhere else, it's coming out on the twenty ninth. But Carolyn called the movie theater here, petitioned them, said, how many people would I have to have buy tickets in order for you to show it? And they said, we're not gonna show We're just not gonna do it. Then they called her back later and said, if you'll sell all the tickets and you'll deal all with that, we will close off the theater for you on Sunday night, April 7, for one show, 07:15 that night.
10:40
So we have... First B went ahead and bought 50 tickets, and a few other churches in town bought some other tickets. If you're gonna see it here, you're gonna have to see it April 7. So Diane has tickets. You can call her or Carolyn Wozniak at Turning Point.
10:54
We have 240 tickets, and that's all of them. And it's the only time it can be shown in this community until it comes out on video, I suppose, but that's it. So it's happening. If you want to, you can go to turningpointjh.com to get your tickets on the site. Connect hour is still happening between the surfaces which brings me to an announcement from our friend, Dave Kaufman.
11:17
I don't need that. You. Okay. Good morning. Good morning.
11:20
I just like to invite everyone to Sunrise Breakfast That's right. Thank you very much, Dave. Appreciate the help and the expertise. Sourdough pancakes. So weekly bulletin, if if there's something that I forgot to announce, it's usually in that bulletin, okay?
12:12
A little paper bulletin you grabbed on your way in. And I feel like I'm forgetting one. Anybody? Anybody? Wednesday Wednesday night, yes.
12:22
So Eugene, who plays guitar in the first service, the guitar player, and Bernadette, who is our backup singer in the first service, Bernadette Spotts, they are hosting an open mic night here for open mic. Christian, bring your worship songs, bring your guitar, bring your harmonica, bring whatever you want to on Wednesday night. It's going to be an open mic for worship. So, if you would, I don't know where they're doing it but it'll be somewhere in this church on Wednesday night. Okay, 07:00 is when that goes.
12:47
I think that's it. Still feels like I'm saying something but I'll think about it in the sermon. So, alright. If y'all would, would you stand and greet one another and we'll bring you back together with a song pretty quick here. Freely, Freely, have number 436.
13:23
Speaker 2God forgave my sin I've been born
15:02
Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. Or can you have a seat? Is it time yet? Let's let them have a seat. We're going to skip the next song because I went long in the first service.
15:13
And y'all are hungry people. I did not expect to go long in the first service. Let me put it that way. Y'all can have a seat. We'll well, yeah, come on frontline team.
15:21
Sorry. I'm out of whack this morning. I'll tell you why in a minute. Lord, I thank you for your goodness to us and lord, I do. I feel like I'm just kind of jolted up.
15:34
Anticipating trip tomorrow, coming back from one yesterday, going and going and going lord. We get to running, running, running so fast. We thank you lord for all of the traveling mercies that you've given. The team that has now arrived in Israel for Richard and Andrea having arrived in Ghana for all of our people that are spread out all over this world and for those people lord who are coming into this place from all over the world. I think of the hill climb kind of marks the end of the ski season and it it's a time where people come together.
16:05
I pray for their safety lord. It's been gathering. I pray for ones on the hill, the ones at the bottom, and all of their returns home too, lord. I pray it should still our minds and fix our eyes on you that you calm our hearts, and lord, we find our rest in you. I thank you for saving.
16:28
I thank you that you're still mighty to save. I ask you lord in Jesus name that you'd use these tithes and offerings that we're going to place in these plates to advance your gospel. The good news that Jesus Christ has paid the price for sin. I pray lord that it would set people free. In Jesus name, lord, we pray that you'd bless these and multiply them to do your kingdom's work here in this valley but lord also to the ends of the earth, the absolute other side of the globe.
16:59
Would you do your will and your way, lord, through us this morning and bless each gift and giver. Amen. What a medley, my goodness. Blake, I think I might have taken my little clicker and put it on my desk. It's gonna be...
22:36
Why don't you turn to the first... There you go. Thank you. Hey, look at here. Thank you.
22:43
I've been putting it in my jacket pocket, but I have no jacket on today. So thank you very much. I, two weeks ago, started with this rare topical sermon, and I'll go into that in just a minute. But the two announcements I forgot, and I knew there were two of them. Mike and JJ had their baby.
23:01
So Mike, Demetrius, and JJ, his wife, called Thursday the the twenty first, three 21. 321, 321. That's when they had Matteo Jackson, Demetrius. So that is a huge moment in the life of that little family. So now two have become three, and that's great.
23:22
So they are here. They'll they'll be back in the next couple weeks, I'm sure, but I just wanted to announce that. So praise God, we have a healthy little baby boy, cute as a button. I don't have pictures to put up there yet, but I will. The other thing is, and this is back to our little family of three, Pascal and Tanya and I went down to Rock Springs on Friday, checked out of school a little bit early on the first day of spring break, drove three and a half hours, got started.
23:46
They have a written test to begin with, but Pascal was in the state spelling bee. She was in last year and she is was in it this year. And so we rode down there, they do a test that starts off with 75 people. They do a written test and they whittle it down to 25, but was twenty sixth because twenty fifth place tied. So they got to the rounds on the stage with 26 people, and in 23 rounds they had whittled that down to two remaining people, and then they went for 13 rounds back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and Pascal was one of those.
24:21
So Pascal came in second. Yep. Came in second place, but that is pretty awesome. She's very excited about it. I'm very excited about it.
24:28
That's pretty cool. It's not a birth of a brand new baby, but it's really, really cool because it is my baby, you know? And so she she did a great job yesterday. Words I've never heard of, from languages I didn't even know had words in them, you know? Japanese, Slavic, Russian, and she had one from everything and to me, it seemed like she had the hardest words the whole time but it was it was fantastic.
24:52
It really went well. So, two weeks ago, I started out and I said, this is a rare topical sermon because I don't usually preach topically. I almost always preach expositionally in order, chronological order through the books of the Bible, of the New Testament for the last six years and so, we ended second Timothy two weeks ago because I had forgotten two verses, and I went back, picked up those two verses, and then went into Exodus 20. And so we talked about Exodus twenty and second Corinthians four six. Exodus 20 is when Moses was supposed to speak to the rock and God would produce water from the rock but instead, he spoke to the people, said, listen, you rebels and so, instead of that, he he struck the rock and Exodus 20 we talked about and the fact that Moses would not be allowed to go into the promised land for his not believing God and showing him as holy, not showing God's holiness or his glory and so, we also went forward to second Corinthians four six which is this verse.
26:01
For God who said, let light shall shine out of darkness. He he's quoting all the way back to Genesis one one there. Is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. He's saying, we've come to know the glory of God in the face of Christ. So, that's where we started.
26:21
Two weeks ago, with that. Now, the next week, so in between, just last week, we talked about Exodus 21. Exodus 21 obviously follows Exodus 20 and that was about Moses and the people of Israel traveling around Edom and they became discontented and began to complain and grumble against God and God sent venomous snakes among them and then, as the cure, the people called out in sorrow and said, we've sinned against you and against the Lord. Pray to God and see what he will do for us, you know, and so God says to Moses, make a snake, put it on a pole, lift it up. Weirdest story in the Old Testament.
26:55
Of course, that's that's the one to me that I just think it's strange but it was the way that God established for those people in that time to be saved from those snakes. If you look upon it, you will be saved. If you refuse, you will die. That was the way. Take it or leave it.
27:11
In Exodus 21 and that Jesus calls back to in John three when he's talking to Nicodemus. He says to Nicodemus, just as Moses lifted up that snake in the wilderness, under God's command by his decree. So, the son of man, that's Jesus's favorite name for himself, must be lifted up and so, was about the cross. I mean, John three fourteen and fifteen precedes 16. God loving the world and sending his son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life and that too is a take it or leave it proposition.
27:48
It is put out there for whosoever will may come. So, that was last week. Sin, sorrow, and salvation. Now, use this slide. I I I put this up here so I remember the people that are on that Israel study tour this week.
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Again, let y'all remember too. 19 people are there. The three more of us are going tomorrow morning. We leave early. Tanya and I do but that's a commemoration of both the Moses lifting up the snake in the wilderness but also recognizing that that looks forward to the cross.
28:19
And the message of the cross. Message of cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those of us who are being saved, it is the very power of God. Thank you. Except. No, it's not working.
28:39
There it went or maybe it did work. There it is. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. This is from Timothy That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I think that's first Timothy one fifteen.
28:51
Now, from there, I can't say rare anymore because I've done three of em in a row. This is a topical sermon, alright? It's a topical sermon. Again, on the glory of God. In fact, I think it completes the the three, the triumvirate here.
29:03
Triumvirate was one of the words by the way in spelling bee. It's harder to spell than you think. Another topical sermon on the glory of God. A string of pearls. Now, I'm going to do something that I don't I don't normally preach topically and part of it is because I'm a lateral thinker and I'm an exhaustive thinker.
29:19
I try to get to the end of stuff and if you're trying to get to the end of the glory of God, you're not going to get there and if I preach half the Bible, I'm still not going to get there but I'm going to try, okay? This started a couple weeks ago with this verse and I just quoted it to you. Thinking on that, I was reminded of this. When we're studying art, does anybody know what this is? I think there's probably a couple people who would.
29:43
You know who the guy in the middle is? It's a Michelangelo statue. I'll give you a close-up. Moses, very good, good guess. Or good that you knew that.
29:55
This is the guy. What's weird about Moses in this though? Yeah, he has horns. There's a close-up. That's a little too close-up.
30:04
How about bagging it off a little bit? That's that's horns right on top of his head. Doesn't that look weird? So, if you look it up on the internet, they say, oh yeah, the Jews believe Moses had horns. No.
30:13
The Jews didn't ever believe Moses had horns. There were some poems that were written about it after this statue was made. There were some poems that were written about it after others like it were made. This is supposed to represent actually, let me scoot forward a little bit. This is in Bern, Switzerland.
30:29
It's just on a street. It's not Michelangelo. It's not the kind of quality of Michelangelo but if you look at this very surprised Moses, he's carrying the 10 commandments right there and he's coming down from Sinai. This is in the town square of Bern, Switzerland, and it's showing the resplendent glory that is shining off of his face and his face shown, and that's what that's supposed to represent. It's an artist convention of the times.
30:56
People at the time would not have thought, oh, Moses has horns or Moses had horns. It is showing the beams off of his face, and it comes from this text. I've been in numbers for the past couple of weeks, but I'm gonna go to Exodus this week. Exodus is still... It's the same time frame.
31:15
So this is earlier on than the past two passages we've gone to, but it's Exodus when Moses is coming down from Sinai. Let's just read it and I have a lot. I'm going to try to read it without preaching the whole time but I'm going try to read it. Now, it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses hand when he came down from the mountain. That's why in both Michelangelo's, he had this the tablets and in the one in Bern, Switzerland, he had the tablets.
31:41
That Moses did not know that the skin of his face shown while he talked with him, capital H, that's God. He didn't know that. He was in the presence of God and God was speaking to him and God's glory was apparently filling up his person such in such a way that his face shone. Again, to me, that's weird. I start thinking with twenty first century mind, like, exactly physically does that happen?
32:07
What photons? How in the world? I don't know how it happened, but this says that it happened. So he did not know that his face shone while he talked with him. And so, when Aaron, his brother, and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shown and they were afraid to come near him.
32:26
The light was shining off of his face. Then Moses called to them and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him and Moses talked with them and afterward, all of the children of Israel came near and he gave them as commandments, all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai and when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. He covered up that shining face but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak to him, he'd take off that veil direct. He would take the veil off until he came out and he would come out and he'd speak to the children of Israel whatever had been commanded and whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses that the skin on his face shown, then Moses would put that veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him, capital h, that's God. Again, that's a weird story but it is about God having come and spoken to a man, Moses.
33:34
He wanted him to lead his people and he was giving him the way. Deuteronomy 18, still same time frame. I'm going to mention this. Deuteronomy in Greek, Deuteronomy means twice or second, and the nomos means law. And so the second reading of the law is Deuteronomy.
33:51
You get the same thing that you get in the Exodus story and some of the Leviticus story, some of Numbers. You get it again in Deuteronomy. And this quote, I think, was meant to be very helpful and hopeful to people. It is very helpful and helpful to me seeing the Old Testament in light of the new because the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. It's not the whole story.
34:14
It's half the story, part of the story, beginning of the story. But the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. Everything the Old Testament points towards Jesus. Everything. Moses says this in Deuteronomy eighteen fifteen to 18, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me.
34:34
This is Moses speaking. He's speaking to the children of Israel. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet, capital P, prophet, Taheb, Taheb is the Hebrew word and it means prophet, anointed one, Messiah, chosen one. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet, capital P, like me from your midst, from your brethren. He will be one of you.
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Ethnically, he'll be one of you. The chosenness of the chosen people, they are chosen to carry the Christ. Do you get that? That's what makes the chosen people the chosen people is that Christ will come from their line. The prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, him, you shall hear the Messiah, the Taheb, the prophet.
35:14
According to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb, in the day of the assembly, Saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord, my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die. It is too much when we're overcome by the glory of God and they're saying, I want more of you. I want more of you but they don't think I can bear it and then the Lord said to Moses, the Lord said to me, what they have spoken is good and I will raise up for them a Taebe, a prophet, a Messiah, like you. Now, the like you in there might throw you a little bit but think about this, God's chosen people had been in bondage in Egypt. They had been slaves, enslaved for four hundred and thirty years, and then Moses came up, and he was the one that led them out of slavery and towards the promised land.
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Are you with So, when he says, he will raise up a prophet for you, a Messiah, a savior, a one that was the one that could do that job and when the Lord's, when the Lord said to him, what they have spoken is good and I will raise up for them a prophet. I'm going to do it. He is going to send the Messiah and what happened temporarily in time and space for Moses leading the people out of the wilderness, out through the wilderness, out of slavery, and into where God would take them. He would do eternally in Jesus. Does that make sense?
36:37
Are you with me? Alright. So, now we're going to New Testament. That was the Old Testament part. I've read a lot.
36:42
I'm just reading through it because at the end, I'm gonna bring this down to a very sharp point, I hope. I hope. An application point. Second Corinthians three, considering context. He is writing to believers.
36:58
It's very important that you take it as he's writing it to believers because it doesn't make sense if you think he's just writing it to everybody. Last week's message should have been evangelistic and apply to absolutely everyone who has ever drawn breath. This week, he's speaking primarily to Christians. So when Paul says in second Corinthians three, he's already written them one letter. Actually, he wrote them a severe letter between these two, and then he's writing this what we call second Corinthians three.
37:25
And he says, do we begin again to commend ourselves to y'all? I mean, y'all know us, people. We were there. We lived among you. You know what we're like.
37:37
You know the gospel that we preach. You know that we didn't say it was our way. This is the way that God has made and we've accepted it and we've shared it with you. Do we need to commend ourselves again? Do I have to go back and show you my credentials?
37:51
Really? Or do we need, as some others, epistles like a letter, a patent of reliability here? Do I need an epistle of commendation to you, or do I need letters of commendation from you? Because you would have to be the ones that write them. Y'all know how we are.
38:07
We've lived among you. You know what we were like when we were there. Do we have to do that again? Now, this church in first Corinthians, we see they were divided. They were saying, well, I like this guy more.
38:18
I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. Well, I'm of Christ. They're divided. They're not unified around the common cause of Christ.
38:28
They're picking and choosing their leaders and their factions. They're rich and poor, and they're separating socioeconomically. They're not pulling together as one. And so he says, some of the folks who have come along are teaching you wrong. They're trying to take you back into the legal law.
38:46
And some of the folks that are coming in are teaching you wrong and saying, you can do absolutely whatever you darn well please. They're getting you off of the path. They're getting you away from the gospel. Do we have to tell you... Do we have to...
38:59
Again, you know what we were like. Do we need letters of commendation? Or do we need to get them from you because you actually do know us? You, you, you people, you are the epistle that is written in our hearts. You're the letter that we have that says the gospel works because when we shared it with you, you accepted it and Christ changed your lives.
39:20
That is the epistle that we would write. It's known and it's read by all men clearly. You, Christians, are an epistle of Christ. Your story, if you are a Christian, your story is the story of Christ transforming and redeeming your life. We have a story to tell to the nations.
39:42
They play that actually. The seminary that I graduated from, that was our pomp and circumstance when we walked the aisle out of the building. That was what they thought. Known and read by all men. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us.
39:54
Now, yes, we did have the pleasure of sharing with you the truth, but it's God's truth. It was written not with ink, but by the spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone. Okay, he's starting to make reference back to that tablets of stone ex... Exodus 34 text.
40:13
Not on tablets of stone, on tablets of flesh, that is of the heart. And we have such trust in this way. We have trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves. It's not my story. It's not...
40:34
It's mine because I have accepted the story God made. Does that make sense? It's not my teaching. It's not my theory. This is the truth and it's just a truth that I've accepted and now can share freely, freely, I've received, freely, freely I can give.
40:50
Not that we're sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves but our sufficiency, our sufficiency is from God. He has said, for us to do this and so we're doing, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. Praise God. People live under the old covenant, right? The old covenant was a covenant of works and it was a covenant that could not be kept.
41:12
There were temporary sacrifices that had to happen on a regular basis and even those were just pointing towards something that would eventually come and then we have the new covenant. On the same night, Jesus was betrayed. We took Lord's supper last week. This is my body. This is my blood.
41:28
This is the blood of the new covenant. He says, we're ministers of that new covenant. We're just telling the story of Jesus, the message of the cross, not of the letter but of the spirit. For the letter kills, the spirit gives life. Do you all remember?
41:42
I have a slide that I've used a couple different times. You remember Pilgrim's Progress? The story Pilgrim's Progress. So we've got Christian's main character moving through. He's the pilgrim moving through Pilgrim's Progress and as he's going, on the slide I have is a woodcut and that woodcut has a guy and he's raring something back like this and then there's Christian who's on the ground and he's pulling up on the robe of Jesus and Jesus is reaching down to pick him up and he's confused in the text.
42:10
I'll paraphrase. I wish I had it memorized but I'll paraphrase. He basically says, what happened to me? And he said, I just got hit hard and it knocked me to the ground and when I came to, I started to get up and he started to hit me again and Jesus says to him, that was Moses. That was Moses.
42:28
He just hit you with the law. The tablets of stone, he just hit you with that and when you think that you're going to get up from that, he'll hit you again. Because no man can stand before the law. The letter of the law kills but the spirit gives life and the spirit of Christ lifting that Christian up. It is an allegory.
42:51
It is a a great story. Paul says right here, but if the ministry of death... Now, when I say Moses will hit you with those, Moses obviously wasn't. God sent his message through Moses and the message delivered exactly as he got it on Sinai was the 10 commandments. And that was the ministry of death.
43:13
Because no man stands before those. Have you loved God perfectly? Have you honored your father and mother perfectly? Have you coveted? Have you done these things?
43:23
Oh my goodness. If you haven't, then the law for you is the ministry of death. It tells you the bad state that you're in. Really, the old covenant is the bad news. The new covenant is the good news about your situation.
43:40
So Paul says, when he's talked about Moses' face shining when he came down from Sinai, he says, but if the ministry of death that was written and engraved on stones, if that ministry of death was glorious and it was, because can you imagine what it's like to not have any rule whatsoever just to be out there? And if you can't imagine it, that's the society you're living in. Okay? People feel that there are no rules. There's nothing.
44:08
There's nothing that... It's untethered, completely other... Untethered. There's no good. There's no bad.
44:13
There's no up. There's no down. It's just whatever you feel. But the chosen people of God, chosen because Christ would come from their line. God did not have to give a savior but he did and since he did, the chosen people of God were given foresight, foreknowledge, pointed through all of these different stories of the Old Testament And then Paul uses that.
44:39
If the ministry of death that was written and engraved on stones, if that was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at Moses' face because of the glory of his countenance. And that glory was even passing. Did you notice in the story that when he would go see God, he would see him and when he came back, his face would shine, but then it would fade. Then he'd go back and he'd see God and his face would shine, but then it would fade. He says, if that was the glory because of the glory of countenance which glory was passing away, how then will the ministry of the spirit which is not passing away?
45:14
How much more glorious will that be? In fact, he goes on. If the ministry of condemnation had glory, and it did, telling people the bad news was merciful. That doesn't sound merciful in our day and age, but telling people that no, there is a way and God will provide that way. Ministry of condemnation had glory.
45:36
For if that did, then the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. How much better is the new covenant than the old? For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. If you stack them up next to each other, old covenant versus new covenant, which one's better? Oh, it's no contest.
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New covenant's better. That's what he's saying in that verse. Next, for if what was passing, if what is passing away was glorious and it was, it may... Our our laws are still based on the Judeo Christian ethic that came down from Sinai, Okay? If what is passing away was glorious, what remains is even much more glorious.
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Amen. Therefore, because of all that, therefore, since we have such hope in the new covenant, we use great boldness of speech. We did it when we were with you, and we're gonna keep on doing it now. 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 just passing away. Are y'all...
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Are you with me? Are you getting how important this is? He says, it's unlike that. It's not like that. We are speaking boldly as much glory as we can.
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He... They couldn't look steadily at the end of just that which was passing away, but their minds were blinded. For until this day, that same veil remains unlisted in the reading of the Old Testament. If you will just take the Old Testament and you don't put the New Testament with it, it is hard, hard stuff. How many of you have started in Genesis and gonna read the Bible through and you've given up somewhere in the Old Testament?
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I have multiple times. I usually make it through Ezekiel or about halfway through Ezekiel. Ezekiel 17 is really hard for some reason. Really, really hard. Anyway, the the veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because that veil is taken away in Christ.
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Now, I can read it now because everything points to Jesus. Everything points to Jesus. Sometimes, I have to take a little New Testament with it to be able to eat my vegetables. Right? So even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
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He's speaking particularly of legalistic Jewish background believers that are trying to drag them back into slavery. Metaphorically, they were the same folks in Moses's camp that would say, why did you bring
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Speaker 2us out here to the
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Speaker 1wilderness to die? Why don't you just leave us in Egypt? Because you were slaves in Egypt. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, amen. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
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Now, the Lord is spirit. Amen. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. I talk a lot about the legalism ditch and the ditch of license or licentiousness where you just feel like you could do whatever but there's liberty right here in the good old gospel way. Living in the spirit is a life of liberty.
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Amen. It's not bound by either set of slavery on either side. But surrender to the spirit of God. You go forward with a light burden living in liberty and looking towards Jesus. Now, the Lord is spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty but we all with unveiled face.
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This is the verse that I'm going to spend the next. Got six minutes this time. Good thing I skipped that song 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. That's the verse right there. It precedes four six.
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This is the one I was talking about a few weeks ago. We'll get up to that in a minute. We all, with unveiled face, we are beholding in a mirror, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. When we read scripture, when you read the gospel of John, you are beholding as in a mirror, a reflection of the Lord. We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord.
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We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord, spirit. That's what I want to concentrate on right there. This is the this is actual sermon. All of that was prologue. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.
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This this takes believing in Jesus. That's a that's a prerequisite. That's already had to happen for this to be the case at all. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. We all know this verse is a good bumper sticker, coffee mug verse.
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We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Praise God. Amen. That's true. If you're in a hard time, that's a wonderful thought to think but it's followed up with another verse that goes along with this.
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Our being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. 29, Romans twenty eight twenty nine says this, for those whom he foreknew, don't get hung up there on foreknowledge. If you try to figure out the foreknowledge of God, it will blow your mind. Just give up. Okay?
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God is sovereign and you're responsible, period. He also predestined. Don't stop at predestined. What did he predestined? He predestined them to be conformed into the image of his son.
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Praise God. If we're looking at eternity like this, end to end, eternity past, eternity future. That will blow our mind too but God chose from the beginning. He told us he did. God chose from the beginning.
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He is sovereign and he knew that we'd sin and he knew that we'd need a savior and even when Adam and Eve sent, he knew that they needed a covering and he made the covering. He sacrificed animals and covered them. But he knew that ultimately, it would take Christ coming to Earth, living a perfect life, having a perfect testimony, perfect witness because he had no sin. He was tempted in every way just as we're tempted. Yet, without sin, he lived perfectly and he voluntarily and sacrificially gave up his life in atonement to put people at one with God.
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That's not a spelling word but it is an invented word that comes from what Jesus did. He put us at one, atoned with God. Life, death, burial, resurrection. I could say even ascension and session. Christ work is what saves.
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The gospel witness goes forth. It started even before Christ. We see it in the law pointing towards him. We see it in the prophets prophesying his eventual arrival even back as far as Deuteronomy 18, right? Or Genesis two.
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The gospel witness goes forth and at the moment that one believes, one is saved. Right there. So, it's the sovereignty of God and the free will of man right there and then from that point, something begins that in this period from belief until our death or until later is our sanctification. That process of sanctification is happening. If you've been to church here much, you've seen this slide or these slides quite a bit.
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This is the work of the Holy Spirit until we get to this place that ultimately saved, that great and mighty day of the Lord or the day of our death when we are, and I'll say, glorified. The glorification happens there. So that slide is all. Everything there is a work of God's grace. He did not have to do anything that he did, but he chose to do it in a leaning towards us to call us up from our sin and slavery, and he made a way.
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Okay? It's the way, take it or leave it but it's by God's grace. He didn't even have to do that and he did. So, for those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. That's the sanctification process.
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As you are yielded to God through his spirit, he will make you look more and more and more and more like Jesus. I used Michelangelo at the beginning. He's a sculptor. When that rock started out, it was a rock that he carved to look like Moses with horns, right? He carved it.
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He chipped away everything that didn't look like Moses with horns. If God is going to because I have accepted the gospel, if God is going to make me look like Jesus, he's going to have to chip away everything that doesn't look like Jesus. Are you with me? He predestined us to be conformed into the image of his son so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, oh, moreover, but wait, there's more.
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Moreover, those whom he predestined, he also called and those, that's the gospel witness by the way. The call is the gospel witness. Jesus is the way. Please, accept the way. I implore you, be reconciled to God through the only way.
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He's made the gospel witness and if you accept that, you're justified. Those he called, he also justified and right there, belief, I could call that justification because that's that place for you where God has said, this one wasn't right but by the sacrifice that Christ has made, he has been made righteous and from that point, he sees the cross when he sees us. Now, from this place forward, how we deal with God and how we deal with his spirit is what? Our sanctification. Let's get back to this.
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He whom he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also what? Little clicker doesn't want for us to be glorified. There it is, glorified. These he also glorified. So, if I'm looking at my map here of eternity, from justification to glorification, there is a part in between those two.
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Are you with me? Okay? Skipping on to chapter four, the little titles between and the numbers are not divinely inspired. This thought keeps on continuing. So, after three eighteen about we with unveiled face seeing, through a mirror.
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Therefore, since we have this ministry, Paul says, and we do. We've been given this ministry. Just as we have received mercy, we don't lose heart. We're not going to lose heart but we have renounced the hidden things of shame whether it was in that ditch, license where we did whatever we wanted to do. Not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully.
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Have you ever seen anybody use the word of God deceitfully? This would have been a short sermon. If I didn't feel like I had to go back and give you the whole story of Exodus 34 and the rest of chapter three, I don't ever wanna use the word of God deceitfully but by a manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience. We're shining light on what it says and that light is shining back to your conscience to see whether it's true or not. It's true.
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Even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing. Get back to that a lot. First Corinthians. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing But to those who are being saved, it's the power of God. If our gospels fail fail to those who are perishing whose minds, the God of this age has blinded.
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You do have an adversary. There is such a thing as an enemy and the greatest trick he ever pulled was convinced in the world he didn't exist. You have an enemy. You have that adversary. You have, there is such thing as a devil.
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There are evil spirits and there's evil in this world. Whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God should shine on them. When the people came to Moses and he had just a shiny face, they said, it is too much for us. We have to look away. So if that old covenant had that effect on people where they were driven away and he had to veil it, does it not stand to reason that pure Christian witness is going to be something that people turn away from.
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Are you with me? Yeah. It's going to be either the aroma of Christ and they're going to accept it coming to the family of God or it's going be the stench of death and they're going to run from it. We do not preach ourselves but we preach Christ Jesus as the Lord and ourselves as bond servants for Jesus's sake. We are with him, not the other way around and then it goes to this verse which we started with.
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For God, almighty God, who said, let light shine out of darkness all the way back to Genesis one one. Before that, God is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And when I go from that to this, those he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. If he's making us to look more and more like Jesus, how is he gonna do that? How exactly does that happen?
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We'll take you back to 03/18. That process right there of sanctification depends on the state of our will. If we will against the spirit, then God will allow us to go away and we will duck and dive but if we'll yield to the spirit, he will do the sanctifying. Does that make sense? So, here we go back to this.
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We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory and that might just sound glory to glory might sound biblical like, well, whatever. I've got another version of this that I like a little bit better. We with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of God. Do you realize that human beings have a tendency? We have a tendency to go towards that which we admire the most.
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Do you agree with If you have a sports figure and you're a young quarterback, let's say, and you have a guy that you just admire the most, then your game is probably gonna be more and more like that guy than anybody else. If you have a dad that stands with his hands backwards on his hips like this, and I admire my dad, I love my dad, and he stands like this, and it looks silly. But when I'm standing up here not thinking about it, I stand just like this because I I tend to go towards that which I've admired. You're we're being transformed into that image of God. If we look at Christ and we think, that's what I want to be like.
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Then, look to him and see as in a mirror the glory of God. Read about him. Read about him. Have you found that if you pay attention to what it is you don't wanna do, you have a really hard time not doing it? Are you with me?
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Okay. If I tell you, don't think of a cow, what are you thinking of? You can't help it. Okay? And if you're trying not to do something, it's really, really hard to do.
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But if you will look as in a mirror through the best... There there are mirrors and our mirrors. Our mirrors are pretty darn near perfect. You can look at them, it looks just like you look. Theirs were kind of a brushed surface.
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High luster. They might have had a really good one but it's not exactly exact. When we look into scripture, when we see someone that is a Christian that looks like Jesus to us and their face is shining from it and we go, that guy, I had a lot of teachers like that and I I really would love to be able to teach the way that they can unwind. This is amazing. Study it.
1:01:33
Go for it. Look it up. Here we go. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, that's the way you're going to be sanctified. If you'll turn towards the Lord, if you're in that ditch, if you're in this ditch, turn this way.
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Look towards Jesus. If you're in this ditch, turn this way. Look towards Jesus. When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away and think about this, where the spirit of the Lord did, there is liberty. There's liberty.
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It's a place where the burden is like my commandments are not burdensome, right? He says so. The law was 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. I'm going skip forward on to this next one. This is ESB and I like this better.
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Kinda goes along with my my sanctification slide because if we just think glory to glory, you skip it because you don't understand it. It's talking about from one degree of glory to the next. You will reflect God more and more better and better as you allow him to sanctify your life. Are you with me? Okay, I've put some of you to sleep.
1:02:41
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. That's the process right there. I plan when I come back to start up in second Peter, if you wanna be reading reading ahead of me, I'm gonna go right back to doing the expositional preaching from the word that we do, but I will be in Israel next week, God willing, on the thirty first. Norris Williams will be preaching right here. At the end of this, in this sanctification process, there's a song that keeps coming to mind over and over every time that I consider this is as we turn to the Lord, the veil is lifted.
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You have to be willing and you have to turn towards him. Judy, would you mind if Florine plays the last song? And we're going to sing Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Just sing off of the wall because the hymnal does not have the verses. It only has the chorus for this one.
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So turn your eyes upon Jesus and think about this and if it's true, sing it like you mean it, okay? And if it's not true, pray it like you want it. Would you stand with me?
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Speaker 2Oh, soul are you weary and trouble. In the light of his glory and praise. One last verse. His word shall not fail you. He promised.
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Believe him and all will be well then go to
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Speaker 1Amen. For the benediction today, I would not use this except that I'm speaking to Christians. I'm speaking to people whom God has gifted his Holy Spirit. Without it, it would be pointless to try to imitate God. Do you get that?
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Knowing Jesus, having his Holy Spirit in your life, you can do this. Ephesians five one and two says, imitate God therefore in everything you do because you are his dear children. Live a life that is filled with love. Following the example of Christ, he loved us and he offered himself as a sacrifice for us. A pleasing aroma to God.
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God, would you reflect your glory? Lord, and never let us take any of it away from you. Reflect your glory off of us into the lives of others so that they may be led by the spirit out of slavery and into the liberty of the gospel. Amen.
