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[0:00] Glory, glory, glory to glory. To God be the glory.

[0:20] ! Go to 2 Corinthians 3 if you've got your Bibles and take this further.! But we'll project the word so you can follow that way. To God be the glory.

[0:35] The Bible talks about a graduation from glory to glory. We see that here in this one, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18 where it reads, 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.

[1:04] Consider if you can, in our earthly limitations, the glory of God. We can't really get our head around it, can we? The glory of God. What does that mean? It's been truly said that man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

[1:24] Our chief end, it's our ultimate objective, isn't it? And the word of God tells us that our Lord, He's purchased us. He's made us His own.

[1:35] And for the purpose that we would live our lives for His glory, to know Him. The Bible speaks much about the glory of God. In our human bound way of thinking, it's hard to really grasp it, isn't it?

[1:48] To plumb the depths of it, to fathom the enormity of it. The Bible speaks much of His glory. And it says we are created for His glory. That's why we've been made.

[2:00] It says that in Isaiah 43, verse 7. He says, I have created Him for my glory. I have formed Him. Yea, I have made Him. We are created for His glory.

[2:12] It's God's ultimate purpose for us, for life. It's the reason we're here. It's the reason we're here. For His glory. Created by Him. For His glory. And He's made us to be living for His glory.

[2:26] When Stephen was about to be martyred in Acts 7, it says that as He looked up as they were about to throw the stones to kill Him, it says He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God.

[2:42] And Jesus, the right hand of God. And what an amazing sight. Stephen's eyes beheld the glory of God. And likewise, we can consider this truth.

[2:56] The glory of God. What is it? You could say it's the goodness of God. When we think of God, His glory. Think of the Creator, the Mighty Maker of heaven and earth and of your soul.

[3:09] He is good. The goodness of God. The glory of God speaks of His greatness. Of the presence of God. When we see His unveiling.

[3:20] His revealing. It's a knowing of God. Of who He is. That we can somehow, in some small measure, get some kind of grasp of the manifest glory of God.

[3:34] The manifestation of His nature. Of His splendor. Of His wonder. Of His person. Of His character. Of His character. And the glory of God. It's been variously defined by different ones.

[3:47] It's His honour. It's His majesty. His power. His authority. His goodness. His purity. His love. His holiness.

[3:57] His mercy. His revelation. His grace. His forgiveness. It's hard to paint a fulsome picture of it, isn't it? And the word tells us that our Lord is due glory.

[4:11] David praises Him and says, Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

[4:25] God has glory and He is due glory. And we are to give Him glory. As David beckons us. It's what He deserves. He deserves our glory.

[4:36] He deserves our praise. He deserves our honour. Our esteem. Our worship. We can know Him. That's glory, isn't it? To know God. To know Him.

[4:46] Our Saviour. To know our God. That sweet, close communion with our God. That's glory. The glory of God. And again, to repeat. As we started, consider this truth.

[4:59] And it's relevant for us. As we look at the Bible and Bible occasions of it. This passage really translates into October 2020.

[5:11] That we can say, yes, this is for us. This truth. But we all with an open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image.

[5:24] From glory to glory. Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It's relevant for you and me. Now we don't fully see His glory. Just yet.

[5:36] And that will be one day relatively soon. I was speaking with someone lately who was using an analogy of how at times we wear dirty glasses, if you like.

[5:48] Dirty glasses. And we don't always see spiritual truths clearly. We've got this flawed and blurred vision. This partial image. It's kind of obscured.

[6:00] At times. And Paul's talking here of catching a glimpse of the very glory of God. And he's using this picture, as it were, as like looking into a mirror. That is murky.

[6:13] And we can't really consider what is God's glory. We frail, fallible humans such as we are. That the glory of God, we can only catch a glimpse of it in the pages of His word.

[6:26] And it's still murky. We don't really fully comprehend until we are with Him one day. We can't fully know God's glory just yet.

[6:37] Kind of this murky, blurry picture. But in the meantime, something is happening. And it's happening as these words tell us.

[6:47] That we are being changed into His glory. It's a transforming into the same image. Our Lord calls us to reflect His glory. When Moses encountered the Lord, he said, Show me thy glory.

[7:03] Glory. And he really got a touch of a passing look. It wasn't the full picture.

[7:16] And yet for you and me, the Bible says we can be changed from glory to glory into the same image by the Spirit of God.

[7:28] To me, that makes me think, well, we shouldn't get too kind of settled. We shouldn't get too cosy and comfy and static.

[7:39] Let's not get too stuck. As in being too earthbound. Let's not get too settled about who we are as of right now. Let's be willing for God to change us.

[7:51] It's saying that we should be willing and we should be witnessing a changing from glory to glory. It's saying we shouldn't get such that we are stuck.

[8:04] We should be available for God to change us. It's easy, isn't it, to be comfortable with where we are. But God wants us to grow.

[8:16] He wants us to know Him. He wants us to know Him more. He wants us to get closer to Him. He wants our Christian walk to strengthen and deepen.

[8:28] And the ideal I put to you tonight for all of us is let God change. Let God change you. Let God change us to restore, to get back to the glory that He wants for us.

[8:44] Let's be willing. Let's let Him transform us. Let's do that transforming work and to keep it happening. You see, when you go back to the Word, we see that we once, as mankind, we once knew the glory of God.

[8:58] And I was talking with someone on the phone today saying, well, Adam and Eve had everything. It was all laid on in the garden. You know, they walked with God in the cool of the evening.

[9:09] They knew the presence of God. They knew the comfort of God, the communion with God, the fellowship of God, the glory of God. They walked with God. And everything was there.

[9:19] It was like, you can imagine, the heaven to come is that glorious garden, that close communion with their maker, with His love. But sin changed everything, didn't it?

[9:33] Sin changed everything. And then by sin, they were shut out. The Word tells us all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[9:45] Friends, the glory of God is just out of our reach. It cannot be attained. We've come short of it. The good news, though, is we can regain the glory of God. We can know that communion with our maker again.

[9:59] We can know that close fellowship. We can know that. He's done everything to give us the glory, as it were, to give us that fellowship again, give us that closeness with Him again.

[10:10] Because the God of glory, it says, came down. Came down to us. He stepped down from the throne of His glory. He stepped down from the glorious heaven and came down in the person of the Son of God.

[10:23] And John tells us in the Gospel of John, we beheld His glory. Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

[10:36] Now, the Lord promises that we will experience this glory. Now, it's interesting. Did you know that the Lord Jesus prayed for you? John chapter 17. It's really the Lord's prayer.

[10:48] The Lord's prayer. It's the Lord's prayer for you and me. Because He says He prays for those who will yet believe. So that includes you and me, doesn't it? If we are believers here, then you're prayed for in the prayer of our Lord, the Lord's prayer of John 17.

[11:04] And amongst other things, He said this in John 17, verse 22, as He prayed to the Father, He said, There's a sense where the glory that the Lord Jesus had, the heavenly glory, He says He's given us that glory, that know Him.

[11:26] So it's telling us, I put to you, that we can know God and we can so know Him that we receive something of Him inside of us, some deposit, something of His glory in our lives.

[11:38] We can have something of heaven in the here and now. And we don't have to wait until the hereafter. We can have eternal life in the here and now and in our hearts that the kingdom of God lives within us. So that God can be so real, that the glory of God can be so real, that God's closeness can be so close to be with us and in us, the glory of God.

[11:58] And it's an amazing thought to reflect on these things, that we can know God in such a close communion that it says Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ can be so in you, inside of you, in your heart, by faith.

[12:12] And there's a glory that we can know in the here and now. As Paul writes in Romans 8, he tells how we heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. It said, Now Paul's talking, as we would know, of the early church to as much suffering and testing.

[12:42] He says, It's saying that you as God's people, God's glory can so inhabit you.

[12:56] God's holiness can so radiate out of you and through you, that you can be containers for this glory. We see through the word where the Lord had places where the glory resided, his presence.

[13:15] We see in the tabernacle. Then we see, for example, in Solomon's temple, 1 Kings 8, at the dedication of it, it says, The priest came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, and the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.

[13:34] For such a manifest presence of God, the people were overwhelmed. And friends, where is the temple of God today?

[13:45] It's you and me. There's lots of temples here. Lots of temples here this evening. We are the living temples of God. So we should, in like picture, be filled with the glory, shouldn't we?

[14:00] That his glory fills the temple. As his glory filled the temple of Solomon, his glory fills your living temple today. And we think back at this time of 1 Kings 8, Solomon's temple was dedicated.

[14:16] For seven years, over 100,000 men had laboured to build this temple. They purchased and supplied and put together this amazing spectacle, this glorious structure was resplendent with precious gold and silver and cedar and stone, and the presence of God filled the place.

[14:43] And it wasn't so much the glory of the structure, it was the glory of God. Amen. And likewise for you and me. As much as our temples might be different shapes and sizes, it's the glory that fills the temple that matters.

[14:59] And it's interesting that before the glory fell, there was humility. In Solomon, it says, of him in 2 Chronicles 6, 13, which is another account of the same event, that he knelt upon his knees, and in front of all the congregation, he spread his hands towards heaven.

[15:17] Now, King Solomon, this great king, he humbled himself. You know, to know God's glory, we've got to humble ourselves. To know God, we've got to humble ourselves. We've got to come unto him, and trust him, seek him.

[15:30] And these truths are real for us today. Solomon's temple is not present anymore, but we are the living temples now. And his glory that filled Solomon's temple, his glory, the glory of God, the knowledge of Jesus as Saviour, can fill our hearts and our living temples, such that our lives can be changed, transformed.

[15:52] And as we read, as we started, we can be changed from one level of glory to another. So, again, it's got a sense, I'll put to you tonight, that as a Christian, let's not get settled with our baby stages of Christianity and just sort of stay in that early stage.

[16:20] Let's want to grow in our faith. Let's want to know more of Jesus. Let's want to get stronger. Let's want to get closer. Let's want to deepen our love relationship with God.

[16:32] Let's move forward from one level of glory to another, to another, to the next, to the next. It's an increasing, it's a growing thing. And that's God's ideal, really, for every believer, that we shouldn't stay in babyhood.

[16:47] We should want to advance to maturity in our faith, to grow, to increase in our faith. And where it says we are changed from glory to glory, it's the same word that we have here in Romans 12, verse 2, transformed.

[17:04] Be not conformed to this will, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God's purpose is to renew and renew and transforming.

[17:17] And that's God's purpose for you and me as Christian men and women to grow. Let your faith grow. Let God nourish and nurture and build and increase that faith.

[17:31] To know him more, to get closer to him, to get stronger in your faith. And God will help you to let go of things that hinder that growth, that limit that fruitfulness.

[17:45] He'll help you to shed those things. They'll drop off you, as it were, as time goes by. And we know we all battle things as we're talking on Thursday nights of things that can hinder and get in the way and even just health-wise, just money-wise, just life-wise can get in the way of us having a fruitful life.

[18:10] God will help those things to drop off. He'll give us the victory. He'll help us to grow from glory to glory to glory. He'll help us to advance in our Christian walk. And this glory that shines for us, it shines into our hearts.

[18:24] You see, another reference here where Paul again talks about this same concept of the glory. He says, the glory of God, it's seen, it's revealed to us.

[18:35] He says this, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[18:47] So this glory is found in Christ, in his face. What does the Bible say about the face of Christ? It wasn't a pretty picture. It wasn't a pretty picture.

[18:58] It says that he wasn't someone to be desired. It says of his face that he was more marred than any man. You know, his face was beaten and brutalised and damaged.

[19:13] But it's in that face, the face that was wounded for us, we have his grace, don't we? The face of Jesus Christ. And look into his face tonight.

[19:23] You know, if you're here tonight and you've yet to trust him, just think that what he went through on the cross. Think of how he suffered and the pain, the injury.

[19:39] And it was because of, you can put yourself there, I sinned. I sinned, caused that pain, that hurt. And it's in his face that we can see his love.

[19:56] We can see his grace. We can see his compassion. We can see his eyes of compassion. We can see his tenderness and his forgiveness in his face as we trust him.

[20:13] Trust the work that he did at the cross. When he died on the cross, he took our penalty and our shame, all the guilt and sin, all our lack, all that we are ashamed of.

[20:33] He took it all. He took that shame. He took that pain. He took that guilt. And he took that guilt so he can give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in his face.

[20:47] Friends, the Bible speaks of the riches of his glory. It speaks of the riches of his grace. And God's grace is so fulsome. It's so enormous.

[20:58] It's so amazing. His grace is so mighty and he's got such a wealth of grace that he doesn't run out of it. Isn't that good? Some of us, me, keeps calling on that grace.

[21:14] Keeps calling on that grace. Lord, I need more grace, more grace. God's glory is still working today and he's working on your behalf. And it's something you can know personally, to know the grace of God.

[21:28] And you can know it today as we again reflect on these words that he's called us to glory and be changed.

[21:41] We can be changed. We don't have to stay in the slime pit. We don't have to stay in the miry clay. We don't have to stay in that shame and guilt.

[21:54] We can know God's grace and glory and his love, his forgiveness. We can be changed into his very image. Become like him and that is the image we're transformed into.

[22:09] It's his image, isn't it? A man was made in the likeness and image of God back in the garden and that sin spoiled that. But we can be brought closer to that image.

[22:22] We can be made more like him again. We can get back to that closeness that we had in the garden as it were where he takes our sin and he receives us as his adopted sons and daughters tonight.

[22:36] We can be made like him, chased into that same image. The one of whom we speak, it says of him, is the brightness of his glory.

[22:49] It says, this is speaking of our Lord, Hebrews 1, says, The Lord Jesus is the brightness of God's glory.

[23:14] He's the express image of his person. Now we could speak to some as I know in recent weeks we did some witnessing and I came across a Christadelphian for one and when he started talking I said, oh you sound like a Jehovah's witness because they're similar kind of they basically denigrate our Lord and I've touched on this in recent message but they denigrate our Lord.

[23:38] They denigrate him. They make him just a man. The best of men maybe but just a man. No man can take our sin. No man alone can take our sin. It has to be the Almighty.

[23:49] It has to be the Son of God. Take our sin away. No man can ever measure up to God's glory. We all come short of the glory of God and when you think about it when you think of him I read someone else talking about an encounter with a Jehovah's witness for example and they were saying oh we don't put Jesus on a pedestal.

[24:09] That's what the Jehovah's witness said and this one witnessing to them said well I worship him. We worship him. That's how much we revere our Lord and that's like the Bible says as they repeatedly did.

[24:23] We worship him. We worship the Lord Jesus. He's no man. No man alone. Of course he is a man, perfect man but he is the God. 100% God too.

[24:35] We know him and friends we can know him the one who is the brightness of his glory. He's shone his light down and of him it says unto him be glory in the church.

[24:47] Every time we gather we want to give him glory. We want to give him the worship as due unto his name. Friends the point we're making here tonight is that we're changed and we should grow in grace.

[24:58] We see that in 2 Peter 3 verse 18. God doesn't want us to stay in a spiritual kindergarten stage. He wants us to grow.

[25:10] He wants us to grow, grow, grow in grace from glory to glory to glory. And you know friends get into the word. You can't make the Bible study and get into the word.

[25:24] It's very important. The Bible study is important. I know family commitments doesn't always make it possible for everyone to get to the Bible study. But if you can't make the Bible study ask me I'll get you the notes.

[25:37] There's materials you can get. I've got on order some of the answers books. It's a nice thick Bible study book. It's $25. but it's huge.

[25:49] It's hundreds of pages. I think it's 300 pages jam packed with Bible study material. Very, very good, solid, good, strong Bible teaching.

[26:01] I've got literally thousands of Christian books at home. But the answers book is a very good book to get hold of. It's a nice concise compendium of doctrinal, good study material and doctrinal position that we would stand behind.

[26:21] And so I recommend that to you. How can you grow? Get in the word. Don't miss that. Get to Bible study if at all possible. And if not possible, make sure you have a dedicated Bible study regime of your own.

[26:35] Because we must grow. Don't stay in babyhood. Keep growing. Keep extending yourself. Keep increasing your faith. Where are we lacking? We need more grace.

[26:46] We need more grace. And friends, he's got the riches of grace. He's got the riches of glory. And he can give you that grace and glory. It says God is able to make all grace abound towards you.

[26:57] Our God is an abounding God. He wants you to abound in grace. He wants your Christian life to be strong. He wants you to be a strong man of God. He wants you to be a strong woman of God. He wants all grace to abound towards you.

[27:10] And friends, his grace is not in short supply. And in the word it says you have not because you ask not. Ask God for grace. Ask God to show his grace to you, to save you, to extend his grace to you, his gift to you, and simply receive it from his hand.

[27:29] It's not complicated. It's not that we have to get some hugely academic theological PhD level kind of understanding of the Bible before we receive it.

[27:48] Just have to simply reach out our hands and take it. As you would take a gift from someone who's giving you a gift. Someone who's giving you a gift tonight. Yet to trust him. Just say, yes, Lord, I'll take it.

[28:00] Thank you. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sin. Thank you for giving your life's blood for me to be saved. Thank you for paying my death penalty so I can be saved. Just receive it.

[28:12] And then once you've received it, grow. He wants you to grow. He wants you to abound, to keep on growing, keep on abounding to every good work. And he's able to make all grace abound towards you.

[28:28] Ask him to supply your need of grace. And as a Christian, we should grow in grace. We have the grace that saves us, the grace that keeps us, the grace that we walk in and grow in.

[28:42] He will supply your need of grace. And you can be changed from glory to glory. Be changed. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4, he says you ought to walk and to please God.

[29:01] Abound more and more. God wants you to abound in your Christian walk. God wants you to abound more and more.

[29:14] He wants you to abound in your Christian walk. He doesn't want you to stay in a half filled way. He wants your cup to overflow.

[29:26] He wants you to be an overflowing Christian. He wants God's grace to flow out of your life. He wants you to abound more and more. He wants you to glorify God. He wants you to take you from one level of glory to another level of glory.

[29:43] He wants you to increase and to strengthen. And how can we receive that?

[29:56] Ask him. Ask him for that grace. Ask him, how can I get stronger in my faith? And he'll supply that. And let go of that which hinders that.

[30:09] That which is a waste of time. Let it pass from you. That which gets in the, it's an obstruction that you can abound more and more in that closeness to him, in that likeness of him.

[30:24] And friends, don't let the downs, the letdowns of life diminish this heart for God. When we look, we see Paul is such a prime example of all of this.

[30:40] Paul's the one that I'm quoting largely here and he's talking about how God wants to shine out of darkness into our hearts. He wants to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[30:53] And this is what he says and getting it in context helps us just to grasp it a little bit more about the light of his glory. It tells how we have this treasure in earthen vessels.

[31:05] I touched on that before today. That the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. It's not about the vessels. It's about the power of God. And he says this, we're troubled on every side, yet not distressed.

[31:19] We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body, for the which we are always delivered unto death for Jesus saying, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh.

[31:49] Now the context of these verses that talk about God shining his light in our hearts, he's saying, look, we're going to be troubled, we're going to be persecuted, cast down, but we're not going to be distressed or in despair, not destroyed.

[32:03] He's saying we've got victory. And friends, when the rubber hits the road in the realities of life, and you have some pretty challenging times, you have times of troubles, don't let the earthly hardships stop you.

[32:18] Sometimes that can be what happens. People, they make a profession of faith, they claim to know him, and yet life's hardships come, and troubles come, and grief comes, and hurts come, earthly hardships.

[32:39] Life's problems, don't let them stop you. Even if you've got an addiction you're battling with, even if you've got sin that's in your life and you're struggling and there's this torment, God will help you to get through that storm and get victory over it.

[32:59] You might say, look, you don't know the problems in my life. Paul said, God will give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[33:14] He says we're troubled on every side but not distressed. Friends, life will be troubled. Man's born for trouble as the sparks fly upward.

[33:24] It says that, doesn't it, in Job. Saying, what I'm trying to press with you here tonight is don't let affliction stop you from being a Christian. It should make you firmer.

[33:37] It should actually make you dig deeper. And it's interesting, it's kind of like, it's hard to get your head around this, that, well, actually, Stephen saw the glory of God when he was about to be stoned to death.

[33:52] God didn't take away that awful way to finish his life, but he saw the glory of God. Amen. Paul says, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, he says, we're delivered unto death for Jesus sake.

[34:10] You know, friends, we must not let anything deter us from this. That, whatever it takes, I want to see Jesus, I want to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[34:22] That's what matters. And we can keep moving forward from glory to glory, even should it be such that we might be persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed.

[34:37] Believers in Christ know that whatever's going to happen for you, that God is your strength. And we can keep moving forward from glory to glory.

[34:49] Notice here how the affliction we encounter in life can actually add to the glory. Here's another reference to that, 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18. It says, So it's again this contrast between affliction and glory.

[35:17] Now in some churches they tell you become a Christian and your life is just going to be so perfect. immaterially wise too.

[35:31] Of course that's not what the Bible says. Not at all. Paul's saying our affliction yields a glory.

[35:43] There's a sense where actually when life gets tough and hard and you might be persecuted as a Christian. As we know in some countries you actually sign your death warrant virtually to become a Christian.

[35:55] Paul says we don't look at the things which are temporal, we look at the things which are eternal. It's getting that eternal dimension, that's what matters. So friends, another like scripture, I don't want to labour this over much, but think of Paul's life.

[36:12] This is the one who's telling us that we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's the one saying we should advance from glory to glory. And what did Paul go through?

[36:23] You see some reference to that, for example, I'll touch briefly here, 2 Corinthians 11, he talks about labours, he talks about stripes, so he got beaten with rods and whipped with stripes, his back was cut into ribbons, above measure he says, in prisons more frequent, in deaths also, he had a lot of close calls with death.

[36:49] This is 2 Corinthians 11 verse 24, he says he received 40 stripes save 1, so as the Jewish custom was, they beat him 39 times, so they mercifully saved beating him 40 times, but he did that 5 times, and thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered a shipwreck, a night and a day I've been in the deep.

[37:13] It goes on and on in journeyings, often perils of waters, perils of robbers, perils by my own countrymen, perils by the heathen, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brethren, there's in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, which means like sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides all things that are without, that which come up upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

[37:46] So he's saying, Paul's saying his suffering is quite, evident here, and it's really the polar opposite with what the faith prosperity gospel preachers would say, that, you know, get your jet liner and your, you know, everything laid on.

[38:08] Paul's saying, actually, there's perils here, perils there, perils everywhere, you know, and yet, he knew the glory of God, didn't he? Paul knew what it meant, to see the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[38:23] And Paul's this great model for us of bearing difficulty, yet going from strength to strength, another reference here is 2 Corinthians 6, again he talks about afflictions, necessities, distresses, talks about tumults, labours, talks about all of these things, and he says yet that God's grace is sufficient for him.

[38:45] Amen? God's grace is sufficient. In the context there of 2 Corinthians 12, talking about the thorn in his flesh, what an example, what a testimony Paul is for us today.

[38:56] Friends, when we just kind of try to grasp this simple truth that we can see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the glory of God, it prompts us to praise him, to exalt him, to give him glory.

[39:15] To have his word as life's road man for life. That he would have a heart for how can I give glory to God in my life?

[39:30] How can I give him glory? You can give him glory in your dealings with others, but you're a full-on Christian. You're not some Sunday persona and then you're different on the rest of the days of the week, but you have grace and forgiveness that you're a fair dinkum Christian, that you want to glorify God.

[39:54] And Paul says this, that I want to glorify God. He says, I'd rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And he says, I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecution, distresses, Christ say.

[40:11] For when I am weak, then am I strong. Now one way for us to get a greater glory is maybe to get a greater affliction. Now I don't really particularly want to put my hand up for that, but nevertheless there's a sense where to advance from glory to glory maybe we're going to have to go through some battles.

[40:35] You know to get the victory we've got to go through the battle don't we? Maybe to get a higher degree of glory we've got to go through some degrees of affliction, some testings, some challenges.

[40:51] Let's think about ourselves now just to consider what about me, yourself? What can I get out of this today? What can I do to apply this to my life?

[41:06] You can glorify God with your life. You can give glory to God, each one, but you can determine to glorify your Lord and you can, by God's helping you, you can be changed from glory to glory.

[41:22] You don't have to be a Christian that kind of stays stuck or static in your walk with God in your faith. You can grow, you can glow from glory to glory.

[41:35] And think of these things now, friends, the glory of God, we find it in the face of Jesus Christ. That's where we find it.

[41:46] his glory, the glory of God that to know him, it kind of rubs off on you.

[41:59] As you get closer to Jesus, his glory rubs off on you. you think, when Moses came down from the mount, he shone, didn't he?

[42:13] Am I getting that right? Yeah, of course. He went up to the mount to get the law and he saw the glory of God. He had the encounter on the mount, Sinai, and he came down and his face was just shining, was glowing, was brilliant with God's glory that he had such an encounter with God that the glory of God was on his face.

[42:41] I think in a sense God's glory can rub off on you and me and we can reflect his glory. It touches us. Now one day it says that of heaven it will be a city that needs no sun nor moon to shine in it for the glory of God will lighten it.

[43:09] Think of that. The glory of God is going to be such a manifest sight in heaven that God's glory is going to be the lighting system of heaven.

[43:23] Can we just think of that today? Do you know him? The Bible says that we can know the glory of God, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[43:47] God is the glory of God. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's not in the face of any man.

[44:13] It's the one who's got the brightness of his glory. The one who is the image, the express image of God's person. It's the Lord Jesus.

[44:24] And you can worship him and know him. And friends, it says that we can behold, as in a glass or like a mirror, the glory of the Lord.

[44:36] And we changed into that same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. Lord, to think of this truth here tonight, he can change you.

[44:48] He can change your heart. And he can change you in such a way that you'll be transformed. That's the meaning of it. Into the same image, the very image of Jesus, your saviour, that you can become so alike to the Lord Jesus that you can be changed to be more like the very image of your saviour.

[45:08] And it's by the spirit of the Lord. To God be the glory. Let me press you one more time here tonight.

[45:20] If you've yet to trust him, don't delay. Behold him. Behold him. Be changed into that same image. Behold Jesus today.

[45:32] It says that we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[45:43] And that is really the ultimate knowledge. Let's pray. As I pray, you might want to consider your situation here tonight.

[46:00] Do you know the saviour? I pray that if you've yet to trust him, that today will be the day you'll say, Lord Jesus, I know you died on the cross for my sin.

[46:14] You rose again from the dead. Trust you that I can know you. I can, as it were, know that your face is looking down upon me.

[46:28] And I can know the almighty God that you've come to reveal yourself. And I can know your glory, who you are, the mighty God, your presence, your power, character, your love, and receive your forgiveness.

[46:51] Lord, I thank you for that. Each one can know that personally today. Lord, for each of us, we pray, help us to grow. Lord, to not just stay in the early stages of our faith, but to advance from glory to glory.

[47:07] Help us, Lord, to be changed into that same image as by the spirit of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.