Beholding the Glory of the Gospel, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

On Mt. Sinai, Moses got a glimpse of the glory of God, and his face shone brightly. But 2 Corinthians 3, 7-15 compares what Moses had to what we can have in Christ through the New Covenant. Why is the New Covenant superior to the Old Testament? Well, that's a question Pastor Rich answers in today's message.

Let's listen in. This is the third part of a message titled, Beholding the Glory of the Lord. It's a continuation in the study on 2 Corinthians titled, The Glory of the Gospel. It was first preached on February 23, 2014 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear other messages in this series, we would love for you to visit the website www.delightingrace.com.

Philippians 1, verse 6, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ. One more click there, please. I'm not transforming myself. So you might ask, what do I do then?

What do you mean? We do nothing as Christians? We do nothing? Just go through life and let God transform you?

Answer, no. So what do we do? You encounter God in His self-revelation. Do you know how blessed you are to have a copy of the revelation of God right in front of you? Dig into it and encounter Him. Okay? Psalm chapter 1, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law, He meditates day and night.

That doesn't sound like sound bites, does it? Colossians 3, 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Galatians 5, 16, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Romans 13, 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in its lust. These are not lists of this is what a Christian does and this is what a Christian doesn't do. These are statements saying, you walk with God, meet God, seek God and fellowship with Him and watch Him transform your life. That's the glory of the Gospel. That's what these verses are teaching us. This is what Paul is saying. This is the contrast he's making between the old covenant and the new covenant from which we benefit. Rosaria Butterfield, one last time, she says it very, very clearly here. She asked the question, how did the Lord heal me?

The way that He always heals. The word of God got to be bigger inside me than I. Isn't that good? That's almost inspired. The word of God got to be bigger inside me than I.

And you know the grammar is correct because she's an English major. With unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image. And that's God's objective for us, isn't it? Romans 8 29, whom He foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. God knew me, Rich Powell, as His own from before the world began.

Do you know how comforting that is? And God's intent for me from eternity past was, Rich is going to become like my son. And I'm going to see that it happens, God says.

You see, we have an objective, real, personal, capital P, personal standard. It's Jesus Christ Himself. We have a person to follow.

It's not a code to keep. It's a person to walk with, Jesus Christ. And the more you walk with Him, the more you become like Him. So you follow Christ and you take on His character. And we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.

What does that mean? It just simply means this, an increasing glory. The more I walk with Him, the more my life is going to point to God in His goodness, His righteousness and His character. The goodness and life of Christ is growing inside of me. As Irenaeus said, the glory of God is man fully alive.

I cannot be fully alive unless God has made me alive and He has moved in, in the person of His Holy Spirit. And that's the last point there by the Spirit of the Lord. When you have the Word of God, you encounter the self-revelation of God and you surrender yourself to it. And you surrender yourself to its truth. You surrender yourself to God. God moves in. He moves into your life in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Why is that? Because that is God's provision of His ability to relate to Him and love Him. That's the glory of the gospel. The glory of the gospel is you're not just doing what you're supposed to do.

That's constraint. The glory of the gospel is that the life of Christ becomes an outflow of your encountering God. That's the glory of the gospel. I can give personal testimony to this. The Lord's had a lot of work to do in my life. I became a Christian when I was 10, almost 11 years old.

You say, Rich, how bad could you have been when you were 10 years old? You don't know. I know my heart. And I know the issues that the Lord is dealing with me in my heart and the way that He's molding me.

And He's still molding me. Sometimes I get impatient and sometimes that impatience manifests itself in anger. And sometimes it is most easily manifested when I'm driving.

Sometimes it's most easily manifested when I'm in a turn lane where there is a long line of people and somebody up front, when the light turns green, is sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Now, here's what happens. Here's what happened. OK, we need to keep our mind focused on the goodness and the glory of God. And I experienced that.

This is one example. This last week, OK, I had a CD playing in the van. I was driving Andrea's van. It says six kids mom on the back. People pass us.

That mom has a goatee. You know, like, you know, but she she has it's the Imago Dei CD that's in the van and it came on. And at that point, I was waiting in that green arrow turned left. Very, very short.

Enough time to let three cars through. OK. And but this CD was on God of the ages. It's the song that's going to close the worship service today. I did not plan that. I did not plan that. But I was listening to this particular song. Usually in that kind of situation, it was a very long line and I was already late to get into where I was going to go.

And the left turn arrow turns green and somebody is up front twiddling their thumbs. Now, normally that would be a huge challenge to my sanctification. But because of that moment of time, I had this song cranked way up. My mind was totally focused on the goodness and the glory of God. God rescued me from being antagonistic toward the person that was holding me up. That listen, listen, that is one of the important reasons why our music must reflect solid biblical truth.

Folks, don't nourish yourself on junk food. It must reflect solid biblical truth. It must represent God for who He is. And when our minds are focused upon God and I'm encountering God in His goodness and His glory, then I will be blessing the Lord and I cannot bless the Lord and curse man at the same time.

You see how that works? You see the transformational power of beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord? I realize that illustration is a little bit shallow there, but you have illustrations like that.

You can have illustrations like that in your life. So the issue here is encountering God. Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. Hebrews tells us that we are to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Have your gaze fixed on Jesus.

That's the meaning of those words. Because you're following Him. Listen to me, please. Be a student of the person of Jesus Christ. May God rescue us from a perfunctory, superficial reading of the scriptures. Be a student of the person of Jesus Christ. And as you're following Him, you will take on His character.

The more time you spend with Him, the more you become like Him. So be a student of His. As you go to the scriptures and you open the Word of God, do this, please. Seek God in His self-revelation. Seek Him. Before you read a word, just pray to the Lord. Say, Father, please reveal yourself to me in your word.

Seek God in His self-revelation. It's more than just words on a page. And we have a problem in our Western Christianity of things being rather superficial.

You think? Over in England, they have these massive, massive trees. And you know how England is. It's always raining over there, right? And so there's a lot of water.

There's a lot of nourishment. And these massive trees were toppled over by this windstorm that came through. And some people would ask, how could such a massive tree be toppled over so easily? Well, here's the reason why.

Because the nourishment is so available and so close to the surface that the tree doesn't have to dig its roots down deep to get the nourishment. And therefore, when a wind comes along... Here in America, how many churches do you have the option to go to? How many radio stations do you have the option of listening to? How many bookstores do you have the option of going to and buying a book? How many of you have multiple copies of the scriptures? The nourishment is so available and it is so easy for us to be shallow, isn't it?

Don't do that. You open the scriptures and you dig deep seeking God and encounter Him as you dig. And you will have the nourishment that will grow you into mighty strong tree. Sound bites. Sound bites will not lead you to encounter God and will not transform you. If we do not meditate day and night and His word is not dwelling in us richly, then we're just simply living on sound bites of scripture.

This is a statement that I said at the beginning of the message. When you encounter God, two things happen. Open His word, dig deep and seek Him. Seek Him. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.