WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Thanks to Cody for planning the service and for leading it up to this point. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:15.000 I should say at the beginning that this is a very traumatic day for me. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.000 It's my birthday. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:26.000 I'm 65 today, so officially, and an old age pensioner. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:39.000 Leviticus 1932, show respect to the man with grey hair and show honour to the face of the old man. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.000 There's been a delay in my pension. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:55.000 I sent the thing in on time, phoned a week ago and they said for some reason mine has not been processed, so it'll be several weeks late. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:04.000 So the ushers will be going round a little later on and I hope that you will feel moved to contribute. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:12.000 Now, tonight we're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and 4. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:21.000 If you can turn to that for the fifth and final Sola in this series, Glory to God Alone. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:29.000 So open your Bible or your smartphone to 2 Corinthians 3 and 4. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:36.000 Any smartphone will do, but the free church's preferred version is a Samsung. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.000 I think it's funny. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.000 2 Corinthians, let me just read verse 6 of chapter 4. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:02:02.000 For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:12.000 Now just a few minutes ago, Corey read several doxologies from the writings of Paul. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:28.000 A doxology is a glory saying, a passage in which someone celebrates something about God and ascribes all the glory to the God who is so glorious. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:34.000 Now tonight what I want us to do is to do the same kind of thing. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:44.000 To be moved to give glory to God because we have seen something of the glory of God. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:55.000 In his commentary on the Gospel of John, the great reformer John Calvin spoke of the glory of God displayed in the cross as in a theater. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:04.000 He says, in the cross of Christ, as in a magnificent theater, the inestimable goodness of God is displayed. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:11.000 Nowhere has God's glory shone more brightly than in the cross. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.000 So think of that image of the theater, of the stage. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:33.000 As we watch the story of redemption, we see the glory, we see the splendor, the radiance, the weightiness, the worthiness of God on the stage in one scene after another. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:40.000 How should we respond to that glory without applause? 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.000 We contribute nothing to the drama of redemption. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:55.000 God does it all, but the more we see of his glory in it, the more we want to applaud him, give him the glory. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:10.000 So at its simplest, I'm suggesting to you that doxology is our bursting into applause for every scene in redemption accomplished and applied and enjoyed. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:16.000 So let's look at the glory of God in this passage. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:21.000 I'm going to try and survey chapters 3 and 4 as time allows. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:32.000 And I don't think there's a passage in the New Testament that's more suffused with glory language in different ways than this one. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:41.000 So the question we're asking is what from these two chapters are we being called to glory in, to give glory for? 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:54.000 And I want to suggest five things, the glory of the day, of the book, of the face, of the song, and of the hope. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:00.000 I'd like to do at least three of them, but we'll see how we go. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:04.000 I mean, Luther would have had 95, so just be grateful. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:08.000 So first of all, the glory of the day. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:12.000 Read verse 11 of chapter 3. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:23.000 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:30.000 Paul is ministering in a new day. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.000 That's why I use the language of the glory of the day. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:40.000 He is a minister of the new covenant, as he says in verse 6. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:51.000 Now, if you look at verses 3 and 6, and if you know a little about the Old Testament prophets, the predictions of two of these prophets seem to be in Paul's mind. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:06:07.000 Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27, God says that he will one day remove the heart of stone, give a heart of flesh, put my spirit within you. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.000 Paul picks up on all these phrases. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:23.000 And then Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34, God says, I will make a new covenant. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:35.000 You see, the point is that Paul here is self-consciously ministering in a new day, in the day of new covenant fulfillment. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:40.000 And he will call this new epoch the day of salvation. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:48.000 Chapter 6 and verse 2, he quotes from Isaiah, and then he says, behold, now is the favorable time. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:53.000 Behold, now is the day of salvation. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:07:05.000 You live, as Paul lived, in the same day spiritually, the day of salvation, the day of grace. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:09.000 Now, we're often profoundly grateful for the day in which we live. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:20.000 I often think it, when I watch TV programs or movies set in the past, and somebody's getting, you know, a wisdom tooth pulled out, 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:28.000 or their legs on off, or something done to them without anesthetic, without really anybody knowing what they're doing. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:35.000 And I just give thanks that medically we live in the age in which we do. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:45.000 So how grateful we should be that we live spiritually in the age in which we do, in the day of grace. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:52.000 Now, in verses 7 and following, Paul picks up on an old covenant story in Exodus. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:58.000 Moses at Sinai, he's doing this to contrast the ministries of the old and new covenants. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:06.000 And his focus is on what we read earlier, the end of Exodus 34, when Moses returned from the mountain the second time, 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.000 his face shining with reflected glory. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:16.000 So Paul is saying, glory attended the giving of the law in old covenant times, 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:22.000 and that glory, verse 7, was such that the Israelites couldn't gaze at Moses' face. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:33.000 So Paul is saying, if glory splendor marked the old day, how much greater must be the glory splendor of the new day? 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:46.000 And in fact, according to verse 10, he says, there's no comparison, because the glory of the new day, the new covenant, is so all surpassing. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:56.000 Now, he says various things that show how he sees the new covenant as superior to the old. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:00.000 I can't go through them in detail, but just mention three things. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:07.000 First of all, verses 7 and 8, the new covenant is in a special way the ministry of the spirit. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.000 Secondly, verse 9, it's the ministry of righteousness. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:18.000 The righteousness of Jesus gives us a right standing before God. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:24.000 You can flip over to chapter 5, verse 21, and see what Paul says about that righteousness. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:33.000 And then thirdly, verse 11, the new covenant is, quote, what is permanent. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.000 The new covenant will never be superseded. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:46.000 Paul has told these Corinthians in his first letter in chapter 11 that that covenant is in the blood of Christ. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:51.000 The wine of the supper speaks of the new covenant sealed in his blood. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:59.000 The blood of Jesus seals the permanence of the new covenant, the day in which we live. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:06.000 So, something new and final has come in Christ. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:08.000 That's what Paul is saying. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:13.000 He's saying, I live in a new day because of Jesus. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:23.000 And I say to you tonight in the authority of God's word, we live in a new day, the same day, the day of grace, because of Jesus. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:38.000 Jesus came and his coming was a calendar changer, a game changer, and we need to appreciate where we are in the story of redemption. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:45.000 And I believe that one of the things that Reformation did was recover this perspective. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:55.000 When you first hear this, it may be a strange way to put it, but as I look at the pre-Reformation church that so needed to be reformed, 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:01.000 I see it in all kinds of ways as very old covenant. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:07.000 It had buildings that were modeled on the temple. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:18.000 It had its priestly cast of special men, always men, doing special things in special clothes at special places. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:22.000 It had a sacrifice of the mass. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:30.000 It had its complex calendar of high days and holy days, and it had its many, many mediators. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.000 Now all of that was fulfilled in Jesus. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.000 That was all from God's word in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:45.000 But all these things were looking to Jesus, and the temple has been fulfilled in Jesus. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:52.000 And that priesthood has been fulfilled in Jesus, and the sacrifices have been fulfilled in Jesus. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:58.000 And all these high days have been fulfilled in Jesus, and all these mediators were pointing to Jesus. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:13.000 And also, over the centuries, that church had also begun to mirror what had happened in the times between Old Testament and New Testament, 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:17.000 when Jewish people had added all kinds of things to the Bible. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:28.000 So the church had added further sacraments, and had added further mediators, like the departed saints, or Mary, the mother of God. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:38.000 And reformers do away with all of this, and they say, we live in a new day, when Jesus has come, and Jesus has fulfilled all this. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:48.000 And we're not going to add anything to Jesus, we're not going to add anything to the Bible, there's no Jesus plus, it's just Jesus. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:55.000 And His word, He's done it all, and we rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:03.000 Paul says here in chapter 1 and verse 20, for all the promises of God find there yes in Him. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:14.000 That is why it is through Him that we utter our amen to God for His glory. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:27.000 Glory! We glorify God. We ascribe all the glory to Him, because of the day in which we live, the day of Christ, the day of grace. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:40.000 Jesus has done it all. We live in the new day which dawned with His first coming, and which will end with His return at close of day. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:45.000 So to God be the glory for the day in which we live. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:56.000 Secondly, the glory of the book. Let me read now from verse 18. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:10.000 And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:28.000 The glory of the book. Now that verse says nothing about the book you may be thinking, but if you follow with me from verse 12, I think it's clear that Paul is talking about the Scriptures. 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:36.000 In verses 12 then and following, Paul continues with the story of Moses veiling his shining face. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:50.000 And as I read it, he seems to draw an analogy between that veil and the veil which lies over the minds and hearts of most of his fellow Jews as they read or hear the Scriptures. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:59.000 So he says in verse 14, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:10.000 And in verse 15, he's saying that even when their beloved Moses is read in the synagogue, quote, a veil lies over their hearts. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:25.000 He's saying that they cannot read their own Scriptures properly. Their minds and hearts are veiled to the glory. They cannot see the glory there in their Scriptures. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:33.000 So how can they be made to see clearly, only if they're given eyes to see Messiah Jesus? 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:40.000 Verse 14, he says only through Christ is it, that's the veil, taken away. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:49.000 Or verse 16, he says when anyone turns, that's the New Testament language of conversion, to the Lord, that's Jesus. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:59.000 When anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. So he's saying that Christ is the key to Scripture. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:15.000 So, if you're with me, verse 18, thus when he says of believers, we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, in the context he's been talking about the reading of Scripture. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:36.000 And I think he's saying that we as Christians behold the glory of the Lord in the book, as we properly read the book and see Jesus in the book, as we read with unveiled faces, as we hear the Scriptures being read and taught, as we expose ourselves to their teaching, 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:46.000 like someone turning a diamond in the light, we see yet another facet of the glory of Jesus in the book. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.000 That glory that we're seeing is the glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:17:00.000 This is the Holy Spirit exercising his ministry of focusing on Jesus as we read the Bible with the Spirit. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:14.000 The Spirit enables us to see the beauty of Christ and to see even more of the beauty of Christ as we read his word with unveiled faces. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.000 But there's something more being said here as well in verse 18. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:28.000 The book is not just for admiration, as if we were viewers in an art gallery saying, isn't that beautiful? 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Paul says in verse 18 that the Scriptures are for transformation, for sanctification. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:42.000 Verse 18 is saying what the Scriptures are meant to do in our lives. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:54.000 Quote, And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:18:01.000 You see, God wants to display something of his glory in the lives of his people. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:05.000 And he uses the Scriptures to do this. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:09.000 The Bible is meant to change us. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:11.000 That's what the book is for. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:15.000 That's why we come here and gather around this book. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:17.000 That's why we read it every day. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:20.000 It's meant to change us. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.000 And note in the text, this is for all Christians. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:28.000 Verse 18 at the beginning says, we all. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:34.000 Now remember again, this is all to do with a contrast with the Moses story. 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:42.000 In the Moses story, only one person had a shining glory face. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:50.000 But Paul is saying in verse 18 that we all are meant to shine with glory. 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:58.000 This glory of transformation through the Bible is for all the people of God. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:06.000 Now, of course, in all this talk of change, none of us is what we would like to be. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:12.000 It's progressive transformation, it's progressive sanctification. 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:14.000 See the language of verse 18? 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:16.000 We are being changed. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:21.000 Each of us is a work in progress. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:28.000 We may feel a bit like roadworks in Edinburgh, but God is at work. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:33.000 I remember a year or two ago, walking around the city with an American friend. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:36.000 And every other building seemed to have scaffolding. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:38.000 And there were roadworks everywhere. 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:41.000 I think it was during the tramworks. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:45.000 And he just said, this will be a great city when it's finished. 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:52.000 And you'll be a great Christian when God is finished working in your life. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:56.000 It's a progressive transformation that is never complete in this life. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:00.000 But one day it will be complete. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:07.000 And notice that this transformation, again Christ is central, it's into the likeness of Jesus. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.000 Beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:16.000 The image of the Lord, the image of Jesus. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.000 So, beholding means becoming. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:29.000 A right reading of the Bible with a focus on Jesus and with a desire to become more like Jesus. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:32.000 That's holiness defined, isn't it? 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:38.000 Exhibiting more of the beauty of Christ, more of the fruit of His Spirit. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:43.000 Jesus is the definition of holiness, of what we want to be. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:50.000 And the Spirit, through the word, as we behold Jesus in the word, 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:55.000 and let the Son and the Spirit change us day by day. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:01.000 We are being changed, hopefully, more and more into the image of Jesus. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:04.000 And again, to God be the glory. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.000 For all the glory that we see in the book, God deserves the glory. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:18.000 For all the glory that is true in your life, or all the transformation that you see in the life of one of your friends. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:20.000 To God be the glory. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:22.000 It all depends on God. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:30.000 It's all done by God, by His Spirit, through His word, in honor of His Son. 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:33.000 To God be the glory. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:37.000 Then thirdly, the glory of the face. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:42.000 Let me read verse 6 of chapter 4 again. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:54.000 For God has said, let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:56.000 Darkness and light. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:03.000 Actually, this is one of the motos of the Reformation in a sense. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:13.000 It goes back to Geneva and to coins that were minted after the Reformation. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:18.000 And they said, post-Tenbrass looks, after darkness light. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:25.000 And the symbolism of darkness and light has often been associated with the Reformation movement. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:27.000 And here it is. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:35.000 Now in this paragraph, Paul is reminding us that he's a preacher, preacher of the glorious gospel. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:45.000 And in verse 2, he says that he's a preacher who refuses to manipulate people or to manipulate the message. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:53.000 But he simply presents the truth as clearly as he can knowing that God is watching him. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:10.000 But then the question arises, if the message is so glorious, and if it's being presented with such integrity and such clarity, why do people not see the beauty of the gospel? 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:15.000 Well, Paul returns in verse 3 here to the language of the veil. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:28.000 And then in verse 40 he says it is because the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:33.000 I think the God of this age here is a reference to the devil. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:41.000 Some take it in other ways, one of the most popular is to say that it's people who take this age as their God. 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:46.000 But I think it's a more personal thing here. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:24:10.000 And also I think it because, remember that Paul in one of his tellings of his conversion and commission story in the book of Acts, says that Jesus says to him that he is being sent to be an instrument to turn people from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:17.000 It's very like the language here, Satan, the devil, the God of this age. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:28.000 So I think what Paul is saying is there's a spiritual battle going on in all evangelism, in all mission, in a sort of overlap of the ages. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:44.000 Because people are living in two different calendars really. There's the God of this age, this present spiritually evil age in which most people live. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:52.000 And there's also the God with a capital G of the new spiritual day that's arrived in Christ. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:57.000 And there's this overlap of the ages. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:08.000 And so this warfare is going on and Paul's a realist and he knows that the devil is busy in his implacable hostility to the gospel. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:13.000 There's a war on, a war from people's hearts and minds. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:30.000 And in that war the devil is busy blinding people to the beauty of Christ. But Paul believes in the God who can make people see the face of Christ in all its glory. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:43.000 Now I want just a glance here at verses 4 and 6 which are full of this glory language in relation to Jesus. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:49.000 And I'm just going to touch on three of the obvious implications I think of these verses. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:57.000 I originally had seven and then I cut it to five and now I've cut it to three. So I hope you're grateful. 00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:02.000 I could do the seven if you were wondering what to do with that extra hour that you've been given today. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:06.000 We could spend it in this. But three things. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:12.000 First of all, Christ reveals who God is. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:19.000 I want you to look at the parallel expressions at the end of 4 and 6. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:26.000 The glory of Christ who is the image of God verse 4 and verse 6. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.000 The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:31.000 Don't they look like parallel expressions? 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:38.000 The glory of Christ who is the image of God, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:44.000 Just think about that parallel language for the moment of image and face. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:49.000 Image, Christ is the image of God. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:52.000 He perfectly reflects God. 00:26:53.000 --> 00:27:02.000 And face, when we see his face, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:09.000 So Jesus Christ really does reveal God. 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:13.000 This is what God is truly like. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:24.000 Now I need to take a minute to, I think, highlight that because today we use that very language so differently. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:36.000 When we talk about image and face in a world of spin, we will say image, oh yeah, that's the image they want to present. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:43.000 Or face, we'll say, oh that's the public face they want the media to see. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:48.000 But we say the image isn't real, the face isn't real. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:57.000 But the point here, the way that Paul is using the language is the exact opposite of that. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:02.000 He's saying in Jesus we really do see God. 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:08.000 Jesus, the Son, is the absolute image of his Father. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:15.000 His face is the face of God incarnate. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:23.000 There is no God behind Jesus who is different from Jesus. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:35.000 In the face of Jesus in the Gospel, in the face of Jesus at Golgotha, in the face of Jesus exalted on the throne of heaven. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:45.000 There is made visible in the face of Jesus the eternal heart of the only God that is in the universe. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:51.000 In Jesus we see God truly. 00:28:51.000 --> 00:29:02.000 It was a famous theologian at New College some years ago, the late T.F. Torrance, Tom Torrance. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:14.000 And he used often, I heard him tell a story, about when he was a Padre during the Second World War with Allied forces. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:26.000 At one stage he was in, somewhere in Italy, and he was on a battlefield and a boy had been mortally wounded, one of our soldiers. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:33.000 And the boy was dying. They both knew that the young man was dying. 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:38.000 And all the young man wanted to ask was one question. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:45.000 He had clearly been moved by Tom's preaching presentation of the Gospel in Jesus. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:49.000 And he'd come to trust this Jesus. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:52.000 But as he died he had one question. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:58.000 He says, is God really like Jesus? 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:01.000 And Tom said yes he is. 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:04.000 And the boy died in peace. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:07.000 The boy knew he was going to meet God. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:09.000 He loved Jesus. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:12.000 The Jesus that Tom had presented to him, but he had this question. 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:15.000 Is the God I'm going to meet in a few minutes? 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:18.000 Is he really like Jesus? 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:22.000 And when Tom said yes, he dies in peace. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:27.000 Jesus reveals the real God, the only God. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:30.000 We see God in the face of Jesus. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:37.000 Secondly here, to become a Christian is to have the lights go on. 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:41.000 Paul here keeps you talking about light. 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:47.000 And I think he has in mind something of his own experience on the Damascus road. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:54.000 His own encounter with the light, with the glory, with Jesus as Lord. 00:30:54.000 --> 00:31:00.000 But he broadens the experience by saying in verse 6, has shone in our hearts. 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:03.000 He saw the light on the Damascus road. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:08.000 But he's saying actually that the experience is for every Christian. 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:13.000 That Jesus shines into our hearts. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:22.000 For every Christian, as for Paul, in your conversion the lights have gone on. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:26.000 It's such a part of him, isn't it? 00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:29.000 And can it be by Charles Wesley? 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.000 I woke the dungeon, flamed with light. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:37.000 Poor Hank Williams. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:39.000 I saw the light. 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:43.000 It's just right through all kinds of Christian music. 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:51.000 The switch on of the lights, not just for Christmas but for all time in my life. 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:59.000 And what Paul is saying is that these lights have gone on at the very centre of my being, my heart. 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:02.000 What makes me tick? 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:04.000 That's your heart. 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:06.000 What makes you tick? 00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:11.000 And the lights have gone on at the very centre of your being. 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:16.000 And that changes the light in which you see everything. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:21.000 Christian conversion is the light going on. 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:26.000 And then thirdly, to become a Christian is a creative miracle. 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:33.000 If you look at verse 6, it can only be done by the God who first called light out of darkness. 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:35.000 He says that explicitly. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:42.000 He must shine into our spiritual chaos and darkness to give this new light. 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:44.000 So it's a creative act. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:51.000 It's a miracle of divine power possible by his energy alone. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:57.000 He says it in another way over the page in chapter 5, verses 17 and 18. 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:04.000 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he, she is a new creation. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:06.000 The old is gone. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:08.000 The new has come. 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:16.000 So if Christian conversion is a powerful creative act of omnipotence, 00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:21.000 then obviously to God alone be the glory. 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:26.000 Because only God could do this and God has done it. 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:31.000 So we give God all the glory for every single conversion. 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:40.000 Because every conversion, every moment when somebody new has seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:43.000 and the lights have gone on for them spiritually forever. 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:50.000 It's a miracle, a miracle of creation and God deserves the glory. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:58.000 If anybody here is not a Christian and maybe you felt in some ways God speaking to you through his word, 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:02.000 God nudging you through things happening in your life. 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:09.000 Perhaps you felt that God has been working in some strange way in your life. 00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:20.000 If he has, then by his grace it's time simply to turn around and look into the face of Christ. 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:25.000 I mean, if you're walking out that door at the end of the service 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:31.000 and you feel somebody put their hand on your shoulder, what do you do? 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:34.000 You turn around and look at them. 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:41.000 And look at them. Well, if you felt the hand of God in any way on your life, 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:50.000 then you're called to turn around and look into the face of the God who's touched your life in some way. 00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:59.000 He wants to speak to you. He wants you to look into his face, into the face of glory. 00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:04.000 Well, let's come forthly very quickly and then fifthly. 00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:07.000 I may hardly say anything but number four. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:09.000 Four is the glory of the song. 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:12.000 I realize I'm rushing through a lot of this. 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:20.000 It's probably really five sermons, but you really don't want to hear me five times in a row on five Sunday evenings. 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:22.000 The glory of the song. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:28.000 Here, let me read verse 15 of chapter four for it is all for your sake. 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:35.000 So that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:46.000 Now here for these verses seven to 15, I'm using this image of choir and a song of thanksgiving. 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:54.000 The picture in my mind is that every new Christian joins us choir and sings our thanksgiving to God. 00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:02.000 That's what Paul is saying in verse 15, as the message of grace touches more and more lives. 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:12.000 So these converts swell the chorus of those who express their thanks to God, and that is all to the glory of God. 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.000 Mission creates worshippers. 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:23.000 Mission creates people who want to give the glory to God. 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:33.000 Paul began the section verse seven by competing the gospel to treasure and preachers of the gospel to jars of clay. 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:44.000 Jars of clay that are inexpensive and easily broken, and Paul is saying we are jars of clay who depend wholly on the power of God. 00:36:45.000 --> 00:37:01.000 And on the gospel as treasure, we're reminded that Luther's thesis number 62 was the true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God. 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:13.000 And then in the section that I won't go through, Paul focuses on his own suffering for the gospel because he's a theologian of the cross. 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:22.000 And he refused to short circuit that, and he lives with the dying of Jesus in his body, he's saying. 00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:27.000 And he's willing to suffer to reach new people with the gospel. 00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:32.000 But Martin Luther loved Paul for being a theologian of the cross. 00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:37.000 And Jesus theology was suffering and then glory. 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.000 And Paul's theology is suffering to glory. 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:51.000 And there's no diversion around that cross-centered message, no sort of alternative scenic route around that cross-baiting life and ministry for Paul. 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:55.000 So verse 15 says, it is all for your sake. 00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:02.000 He's saying that all his suffering and the cause of the gospel is for their sake and for the sake of people like them. 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:15.000 That people might be touched and transformed by grace and join the choir, add their voices to the thanksgiving chorus, and become people who give the glory to God. 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:20.000 That's the exact opposite of what people are by nature according to Paul. 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:29.000 In Romans 1, Paul says that sinners by nature do not glorify him as God or give thanks to him. 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:38.000 But he's saying through the gospel, he's seeing more and more people come to give thanks to him for his glory. 00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:51.000 So it's clear that Paul's zeal in mission is motivated supremely by his passion for the glory of God in Christ. 00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:54.000 He wants God to have the glory. 00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:06.000 And so he wants to reach more and more people so that they might see the glory of Jesus and then join the choir and sing their songs of glory to Jesus. 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:13.000 That God might have all the glory in Christ, a passion for the glory of God. 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:21.000 That is what will always best motivate our mission as individuals, as a church, as churches. 00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:23.000 That we love Jesus. 00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:25.000 We've seen the glory. 00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:27.000 We want other people to see the glory. 00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:41.000 We know that he deserves all the glory and we wish that everybody would give Jesus the glory that he deserves, motivated by a passion for the glory of God in Christ. 00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:43.000 The glory of the song. 00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:45.000 And then fifthly, the glory of the hope. 00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:48.000 Chapter 4 in verse 17. 00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:58.000 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. 00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:05.000 We look to a glory above and a glory to come and all to the glory of God. 00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:09.000 Verse 16, Paul says that outwardly he's wasting away. 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:15.000 The process is irresistible, but inwardly he's being renewed day by day. 00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:23.000 One is obvious to people on the outside, the other isn't so obvious what's happening on the inside, but they're both real. 00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:39.000 And he insists that his affliction here is light and momentary, light and comparison with the weight of the glory he's going to receive, and momentary and comparison with eternity of the glory he is going to receive. 00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:44.000 He's just, as some of us say, he's doing the sums. 00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:47.000 As others, if you might say, he's doing the math. 00:40:48.000 --> 00:40:55.000 He's saying that beyond this life, what felt so heavy here will seem so light from there. 00:40:56.000 --> 00:41:01.000 And what felt so endless here will seem so brief from there. 00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:07.000 And that will be glory, he says, beyond all comparison, beyond hyperbole. 00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:12.000 I don't have time to go through what Paul is saying here about that world to come. 00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:20.000 I think at the beginning of chapter 5, he's talking about an immediate state, immediately beyond death, we go to be with the Lord. 00:41:21.000 --> 00:41:25.000 But in verse 14 here of chapter 4, he's talking about resurrection. 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:31.000 As the body of Jesus was raised, we will be raised to live bodily in His presence forever. 00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:39.000 Philippians 321, who will transform our lowly body to be like His body of glory. 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:55.000 Our destiny is glory, to go to a place of glory with glorified resurrected bodies in a renewed creation which will be the theatre of God's glory forever. 00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:05.000 I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention a Catholic philosopher in a Reformation celebration. 00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:16.000 But Bruce Springsteen has a song called Glory Days about a guy who used to be a baseball star at high school. 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:23.000 And a girl used to be a woman who used to be the prettiest girl at high school. 00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:30.000 And everybody was jealous of the baseball star, everybody was jealous of the prettiest girl. 00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:41.000 But now they're much older and they each think back often to the old days and to the glory days with wishing things were the way they used to be. 00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:44.000 Their glory days are all in the past. 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:47.000 Glory days, well they'll pass you by. 00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:53.000 Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye, glory days, glory days. 00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:58.000 But for us the ultimate glory days are ahead. 00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:07.000 Endless glory days when we will shine with glory, when everything will shine with glory in a renewed world. 00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:22.000 When we will give God all the glory and when we will see face to face in the beatific vision, the glory of God, physically in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:28.000 So to God be the glory forever and ever. 00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:39.000 I did have a conclusion with three further points but I think I'll just say amen.