842. Biblical Change

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. We've had really a wonderful series on the theme of what is man. And one of our desires at our chapels is to be able to teach sound, solid, biblical doctrine that will make a difference in sound, solid, biblical living. Because ultimately we live out in our lifestyles what we believe in our heart. Our behavior is affected by our beliefs. And so this semester we have dealt with the theme of what is man, understanding man in creation, how we relate to God, man in the fall, man in salvation, and all that has been taking place.

And we've had some really very wonderful messages. We're continuing the study series about the doctrine of man. Today's message will be preached by seminary professor Jason Ormiston and the title of his message is Biblical Change.

Good morning. Let me invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18.

This will be the text that we'll end up landing in. But I'm going to build a little bit of a case to help us understand the process we're on in connection to who man is. In this series on what is man, we've been on a journey looking at man through the eyes of creation. And we realize that man was created in the image of God, the pinnacle of all creation. We've considered man as man has been affected by the curse. The image of God was defaced, not erased, but we have serious struggle as a result, which adds all these questions in our own hearts regarding why man that happens to be fallen, how man, maybe I should say, who happens to be fallen can actually do good things.

We've seen and heard message regarding how a bad man can do good things and how that works. And then the cross. So we started with creation, went to the curse, and then just recently we've been in the cross. We've seen the need for a heart transformation.

And of course, we've also seen the need for regeneration. So today, the task at hand, what I get to do with all of us today is to consider biblical change. And I want you to think of it from the lens of one who is redeemed, who is regenerated, and how to live in light of the gospel. And this is a big deal to talk about because I think in our setting, many times we find ourselves struggling with this failure to change. And because of our struggle, we come to the conclusion, maybe what I really need to do is get saved.

And that in some ways is the easy way out. Now I hope that if you're here today and you don't know Christ as your savior, you haven't repented and turned to him, that you would embrace the change that can only come through Christ. Because the rest of what I'm going to talk about is no good if it's just about reforming your behavior.

That's not what I'm here to talk about. But I think the more difficult yet more appropriate for each of us to consider as we study through man is what does the Bible say about a redeemed man and how he changes? If you're still not quite connecting with what I'm saying, have you ever found yourself asking the question, if I truly am redeemed, why do I keep struggling with the same sins over and over and over again? Maybe you're one who says, why do I keep struggling with swearing, arguing, lying, lusting?

Why do I struggle with this tendency to always care too much about what everyone else thinks about me? Maybe I'm not saved. No, maybe perhaps you don't understand biblical sanctification.

And I want to help you understand biblical sanctification. And maybe on the other hand, you find yourself asking the question, why can I not keep the decision that I made at camp this summer? Why can't I keep the decision I made yesterday in chapel or the day before in chapel?

Why do I have such a strong tendency to drift away? So as we build the case for this, we're going to land in 2 Corinthians 3.18, but I want you to see some harsh realities as we get started. The first harsh reality is that the struggle begins with your heart. And we find this in Matthew chapter 15, we understand the struggle starts out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And the corruption comes from our heart, so it's not external sources, things that need to change in order for us to really reform how we act or really become successful in the process of change. The other aspect is the struggle continues after conversion.

I want you to get this. If you think that once you get saved, it's going to be okay, I want you to realize that there's an aspect in which when you get saved, it is okay. Romans 6 tells us that we are set free from the power of sin. Romans 8 tells us that we're set free from the penalty of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 7 tells us that we are still struggling with the presence of sin.

We have that going back and forth. We know the power, it doesn't have power over us, and we know ultimately we're not going to be condemned because of Christ, and we rejoice in that, but why do we still feel that presence within us? It's just the reality for all believers. And the struggle demands then intervention. If you consider Jeremiah 13 23, it says this, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may he also do good that are accustomed to do evil? How can you just get up and change the way you live and what you do and how you respond? Well, we have to start with understanding that there's some harsh realities, but the world has answers.

And let me give you some of the world's answers. And these are coming from a testimonial from a guy named Mike Cleveland who wrote a book called Men of Honor. And he suggested that he tried to be set free from sin and went to all sorts of counselors and found the counselors giving answers like this. Try the rubber band method.

What's that? You put a rubber band around your wrist and whenever you're tempted to sin, you just pull it back and you snap it. And the pain associated with the rubber band method will wake you up to realize this is wrong. Stop falling into temptation.

How about the next one? The police officer with the stop sign method. I mean seriously, counselors are saying these things work. When you're right about to sin, envision in your mind a police officer with maybe a whistle in his mouth putting out his hand saying stop and that will change you. Regressive therapy. This is when you go back into your past and relive the things that have happened to you, the hurts, the wrongs and you try to apply Christ to all of those situations and you know this can take years and years and years and you'll always miss something and you'll always end up blaming someone and it doesn't quite come out working.

The visualized emotional experience. You have to think about the happiest moment in your life or the most tragic event in your life and so when temptation hits you, visualize that emotional experience and it will be greater than the temptation that you're facing. And these are the world's answers, these are not answers I'm suggesting you actually use and especially this one.

Sniffing ammonia. This is like fry the brain cells and start all over. I don't think I have to encourage you this is not a good approach but actually counselors throw it out as if you really manage it appropriately it's going to work, it doesn't work. And how about the cutback principle and this is just so disgusting. This principle teaches that an addict wean himself or herself off a particular bad habit. For example, if your problem is pornography then what you need to do is the first month go from 20 pornographic movies to 18, the next month go down to 16 and then work your way down until you're only about one or two a year. Does that sound honoring to God?

Yeah, I don't think so. So I want to encourage you how we can change and I have for you just these three simple points for you to consider and I'm going to spend the majority of my time on the second one but I'll mention all three here. Understand first of all your fallen condition. So this is what I'm saying to you. If you're taking notes, here are the three main points.

Ready? Understand your fallen condition. The second point I want to encourage you to understand is rest in divine intervention. We need God to break through in our lives if this is going to work. And then finally look forward to the day of redemption. We are not supposed to grow comfortable with this present world. We're supposed to understand that we're pilgrims and we're foreigners and aliens and we're supposed to look forward to the time when we're set free, when we see him face to face.

And that is something that I hope causes joy within your heart, not terror within your heart. So let's start with this first one. Understand your fallen condition. I'm going to look to Paul and consider how he understood his own status as a born-again believer. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 9, he makes the statement that he is the least of the apostles. And then later on, about five years later, when he wrote Ephesians 1.8, he says that he is the least of the saints. Then about two to four years after that time, we have him making the statement that he is the chief of sinners.

Notice his pattern. As he is getting older and more mature in his faith, he has a bigger idea of how little he is in comparison to who God is and who God's people happen to be. I'm suggesting to you that if we do understand our fallen condition, it will drive us to our knees and we'll realize that we desperately need divine intervention if this is going to work. And I think that as we get older, we should all grow a little bit closer to God, a little bit more aware of our need. We shouldn't grow more arrogant that I know the Bible, I've studied the Bible, therefore I have it all figured out. In fact, the more I study the Bible, the more I realize I am so desperately in need of Christ. I'm in need of his grace and that's a daily thing. And I want you to understand that and embrace that reality.

This is good news though. The second aspect where we will focus our attention is on this divine intervention. And I hope your Bible is open to 2 Corinthians.

Let's pick this apart. Chapter 3 verse 18. 2 Corinthians 3.18, in order to understand this verse, we have to understand its backdrop. And the backdrop in its context is we find a passage in Exodus chapter 34. Exodus 34 is an account of the second time Moses goes up into the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments.

Remember the first time he went up there? He came down and he found all of God's people worshiping a golden calf. And he was very upset about it and he threw the Ten Commandments down against the mountainside and they shattered.

God was going to start all over with just Moses and yet Moses prayed on behalf of God's people and God listened and responded and gave God's people a second chance. Moses went back up into the mountain and when he came back this time he had two tables of stone and this time as he's walking down he didn't realize something about him but his face was glowing. It was radiating light. Aaron looked at him and said, hey, Mo, listen buddy, you need to put something on your face. I can't look at you. You're shining.

I don't know if I'm shining on the big screen right now but I'm talking about light coming out, okay? And so we have this situation where a veil is placed over his face and whenever he talked he would remove it and then he'd put it back over his face and so here Paul brings us to the passage where he relates that story and we start to understand the principles. So look at this verse together with me. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now consider what this passage is teaching us. I want you to understand that the need for change is universal and I get that by looking at that first phrase which says but we all. The Apostle Paul is including himself in the we so that means he's not saying I am the great apostle and I have arrived.

He's saying we all have a need. If you go back to Acts chapter 18 and you see who actually showed up in Corinth to help plant the church in Corinth. We're in 2 Corinthians so this is a letter to the Corinthians. We find that it's not just Paul mentioned in the we. We find in chapter 18 Paul of course is there but we also see Silas because this is after Paul and Barnabas had their dispute and Paul and Silas went together. Timothy is mentioned in chapter 18.

We also find Aquila and Priscilla mentioned this husband and wife team. They're included in the we all. Crispus the ruler of the synagogue is included and then if you go to 1 Corinthians some say I'm of Paul, some of Apollos, some of Cephas and I'm saying to you we all means we all. Just a simple truth that I want you to get. I want you to understand that the need for change is true for all of us.

All of God's redeemed. That includes every professor that you have, every pastor that you have, your parents. It's not just something you're working on. It's something we all are working on. Do you get that? So don't think that we have this great gap between the two of us. I struggle like you struggle. I need Jesus as much as you need Jesus. And according to what I just looked at, because I'm older than a lot of you, I guess I should have a greater awareness of my need for Jesus.

But we all need him. Notice though the second part about this, it's supernatural. I love this. It says with open face. Okay, what does that mean? Open face. Well go back in your Bible to verse 13 of 2 Corinthians chapter 3. It says, and not as Moses which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded, their minds were blinded it says, for until this day remain at the same veil, undertaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, and if you have a pen you could underline this truth, which veil is done away in Christ. So what we see about the supernatural aspect here is that we have an open face.

Why? Because the veil has been removed through Jesus Christ. That's the great joy of the Gospel. The veil has been removed.

I want you to get that. The veil is removed. That means we can see him as he is.

We have this wonderful truth of being set free. Notice the next phrase. We have beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord. This is an interesting phrase because in the ESV you don't have any connection to a glass. You just have this statement that you're beholding the glory of the Lord. So what does it mean when it's saying beholding as in a glass?

It also says that in the New American Standard. Is it perhaps a reference to James 1 verses 20 through 22? As we look into the mirror of God's word we're changed perhaps. Perhaps it's connecting us back to 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12 which says now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face.

Now I know in part but then I will know even as I am fully known. But it could also just give us a simple connection to how to see God's glory and I want you to know that the truth is revealed. If you take the mirror out of there, the glass out of there, how do we see God revealed to us?

Through two ways. Creation and conscience. Creation Romans 1 18 through 20.

Conscience Romans 2 14 through 16. We all know that God exists and that he is real and we can rejoice in this as we consider we all including all of us need Christ to remove the veil. We need God to help us understand his truth. But if you pull in there the Bible you have this general revelation you also have special revelation. The most special of all is Christ himself.

Hebrews 1 1 through 3. All I want you to understand that this change is possible because it's supernatural. Notice the next phrase. We're changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Change here is the word for metamorphosis.

Same word we find in Romans 12 verse 2. We're being transformed into the same image from glory to glory even by the Spirit of the Lord. This is good news because the transformation has begun. Now if you're still struggling to understand how this is supernatural let me take you back one more time and let me show you what I'm talking about. What we see here is that you can change and I can change because it is God himself the Trinity that makes it possible. Notice this again.

First the open face. Who is that referring to? Who removes the veil? Okay you're right it's God the Son, Jesus Christ. How about the glory of the Lord?

Who is that talking about? I think that's talking about God the Father. And no question about the Spirit is talking about God the Spirit so the Trinity is interested in you changing and me changing so guess what that means? I think we can do this because it's not dependent upon me it's God doing his work in and through me and I rejoice in that.

But the third aspect of this is going back to the phrase are changed into the same image we realize the process of this change is identical for all of us. The goal is Christ's likeness. It's not you becoming the best possible version of you it's all of us becoming more like Jesus Christ which is a common goal that we can all go after. It's not based on your abilities it's based on who Jesus is and what he does in and through you and it goes from glory to glory.

Now note this. If you don't know this term the term I want you to learn about who you are as an image bearer of God you are God's child and God has designed to help you change and that change is progressive and so I introduce you to this term progressive sanctification. I'm saying to you that God is in the business of changing us from one shade of glory to a brighter shade of glory in contrast to Moses who started out glowing but ended up having the glow die away.

That's what the law does. You are amazed at the holiness of God but confronted with your own sin there's no glow left but when you understand the spirit of God working in you you continue to glow brighter and brighter and it is progressive and it's full of struggles and yet it is something that we can rejoice in and find hope in. So how do I help you get what I'm saying?

Well I'm afraid that many of us give up on the transformation process because we failed way too many times or we grow impatient with the process. I had the chance to grab lunch with one of my students from Old Testament messages just last week and we were sitting in the dining common and we found a common bond in our love for sports. That was easy. He loved basketball, soccer. I asked him the natural next question so Alex are you going to try out for the Bruins basketball team? To that he kind of chuckled and he said let me tell you a quick story. He said when I was a freshman in high school I played against one of the Bruins basketball players. He was a senior in high school. His name was Ray Holden Jr. and Ray managed to steal the ball from me and he ran down the court and he dunked it with ease two-handed no problem. So he laughed he said no I think I'll stick with society ball. Now I know half of you you guys out there like yeah whatever I could play for the Bruins if I wanted to.

Look check this out I mean this is off record but I want you to hear this. We need to not make a division between our athletes and our college students. These athletes are ambassadors for Bob Jones University. They must be servant leaders. I want to follow a servant leader. I don't want to follow someone who's arrogant. But if you get to know some of these guys and some of these girls what you're going to find out is they are getting up really early and staying up really late and working really hard to represent the school for the glory of God and so I think maybe we should stop with the division thing and start treating each other as image bearers of God.

Just the side note. Okay back to what I'm saying. I can relate with Alex. I can relate with his feelings of man wouldn't it be great if I could just dunk on whomever I wanted to whenever? And I know you're looking at me and you're like hey Dr. O aren't you 6'6 shouldn't you be able to? Any other tall guys in here can relate with people saying shouldn't you be able to dunk?

Yeah okay well okay thank you thank you I hear you I see you okay. I wanted to do something about it so in high school between my junior and senior year I went out and did some research and I found these jump shoes platform shoes that you can buy and I bought them for like a hundred bucks and I wore them and I started the program and actually they guaranteed to increase your vertical 5 to 10 inches. Now that was huge. I started it and I have this good news to tell you it actually worked but I was so pumped up about it that I went off the program and decided to wear these shoes everywhere whenever I played because I wanted to see if maybe I could increase my vertical by 15 inches or 20 inches because I grew impatient with the plan. I went off the grid and decided to do my own thing because I was so eager about change. You know what happened at the end of that summer? I tore my Achilles tendon. Yeah you know what that meant to my vertical jump?

I was in a cast for eight weeks. I went down negative inches. Anyway this is what I'm saying to you. A lot of times the reason why you get frustrated with change is because you're not sticking with God's plan. His plan is that you require divine intervention that means the triunity doing a work in you. His plan includes everybody in this auditorium who is born again and his plan is incremental.

It goes from one shade of glory to the next shade of glory. So why don't you just step back and let God be God in your life? Stop thinking you have to do something in order to change yourself and just yield yourself to Jesus and ask him to help you. With that being said, the last point that I want you to consider, I want you to consider with me that there is a day of redemption coming and this should cause within you great hope.

Consider these verses from Titus 2 11-14. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. So here's what I'm saying to you.

You might be frustrated, I join you in that frustration. I wish I happen to get over some of the struggles that I experience and I know that the more I yield to the Lord the more I get to transform but there is coming a day when Jesus is going to take us home. And if that doesn't cause you to get excited then maybe you've got a warped view of what heaven is going to look like and what it's going to look like to be in his presence. If you think for a second that I'm okay with Jesus coming back but can he come back after I graduate from college or can he come back after I get that job I've been working so hard to get or after I get married or after after after and I'm saying to you after is not the answer. We should look for that blessed hope and I want you to find hope in this that you are going to struggle. It's a harsh reality. After you're saved you struggle but there is hope.

It's found in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and the promise that he one day is coming again. So here's my application for you. Would you admit that you need to change? If you're sleeping, wake up. You need to change. See your need. We all need to change. Submit to God working in you. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Anticipate his return and keep persevering until he comes back or he chooses to take you home. You've been listening to a sermon preached at Bob Jones University by seminary professor Jason Ormiston. This was part of the series about the doctrine of man. Join us again tomorrow as we continue this series here on The Daily Platform.