1168. We Change by Seeing the Glory of the Lord

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today on The Daily Platform, we're beginning a three-part series called Walking with God. Today's message will be preached by BJU President Steve Pettit. Would you take your Bibles and turn with me please to the book of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 3 this morning.

I want to begin with asking just a very basic question as we consider our theme this week. I want to start with a different question. And that question is this, have you ever gotten to a point where you wanted to really change and you just got to a place where you didn't know what to do? I want to be a different person.

When we think of television today and internet and infomercials and so many different ways of communication, how often is it being communicated how to change, how to be a different person? Or let me ask you this way, have you ever gotten sick and tired of being you? Why is it that I'm this way?

Why do I struggle with this? Or perhaps you've gotten to a place in your life where you're very frustrated spiritually because you feel like you've tried to live for the Lord and maybe you take a step forward and then suddenly you fall backwards and you feel like you keep hitting your head on the ceiling and you can't go any higher and your spiritual life, your walk with God, your overall life in general is very frustrating and you ask yourself how do I change? Well this morning my message is really addressing how it is that we change and we're going to see it today in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 17 and 18. And what I want to say today is this is the only way that I know how to change.

I'm going to give you today as if we're sitting in my office and we were just talking about how to change, I'm going to give you the advice that I would give anyone, I'd give myself this advice. How is it that we fundamentally change and we find that answer here because we do have the power to change? And let's look at what he says in verses 17 and 18. Paul is writing, he says, now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are... What's the next word?

Say it with me. Are what? Are changed. That word change right there is the word for metamorphosis.

It's a caterpillar going into a cocoon and coming out a butterfly. And the picture that Paul sets for us is how is it that we go through this radical change in our life as a Christian? I know a lot of young people grow up in a Christian home and they say, well, I haven't had a radical change in my life. And the truth is maybe not externally, but internally, if you're a believer, everybody's experienced the same new birth, new heart, new life, new nature. But how does that come out of our lives?

How do we live that out? And that's what Paul is talking about. He says, but we all with an 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. So here's what he is saying here. He says, first of all, that we can change. That is a positive.

That's a definite. So the question is, how do we change? And he actually tells us, notice what he says. We all with open face beholding as in the glass, the glory of the Lord are changed. How do we change? We change by seeing the glory of the Lord. So I have two points in my message this morning.

First point is, what is the glory of the Lord? And I'm going to take a good portion of the time to explain that. And just to let you know, by the time I'm done, it will be woefully inadequate. It's like trying to explain the Pacific Ocean with a little thimble full of water.

But at least we can start here. We are changed by what we see. And what we see is the glory of God. So the second question is, where do we see that glory?

And he tells us, notice what he says. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass or in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are changed. Where do we see the glory of the Lord?

He says, in a glass or in a mirror. So that's the second question. The first question is, how are we changed? By the glory of the Lord. So what's the glory of the Lord? And then number two, what's the mirror that we look into that we see this glory? And by seeing this glory in the mirror, we're changed.

That's the two questions. What's the glory of the Lord? And what is the mirror? And by that, then we see how we change. So let's begin with the question, what is the glory of God? Paul is writing here and he tells us that we look in this glass and we see God's glory and just by seeing it, it changes us. Now think with me, we have all gone through events in our life where we've seen certain things and they've affected us. But this is a complete transformation of your whole life when you see the glory of God. So what is God's glory?

Let me give you a couple of illustrations that I hope will at least maybe set it up in your mind. A number of years ago, I took a trip overseas with Dr. Sam Horn. He and I went on a trip to the country of Greece and we went to survey the locations where the Apostle Paul planted churches. So we went to Philippi and Thessalonica. We went to Athens. We went to Corinth. And we also went to a little town called Berea. And as we were coming out of Berea, our guide said, we are going to go to another town called Vergina. And in Vergina, we're going to go see an archaeological discovery that the Greek archaeologists discovered in 1977.

And what they discovered was the tomb of the father of Alexander the Great, whose name was Philip, king of Macedonia, who died about 330 AD, somewhere in that neighborhood. And what I also found out was that when they discovered his tomb, they also discovered that it had never been looted and everything that he was buried with was there intact. So we got pretty pumped up because we were going to see all these artifacts. And so we get to the location. We literally go down underground because they literally built the museum into the tomb.

And when we walked into the museum there, we could see all the artifacts that they had found. The helmet that he wore in battle, the Greek helmet. The shield that he carried when he fought. And we saw his crown, his royal diadem. And it doesn't look like the king of England's crown. It was made to look like an olive branch around the top of the head, but it wasn't something small that sat on his head. I mean, it was huge.

I mean, the dude had a big head. And as soon as I saw it, I was so overwhelmed, I said, wow, that guy had some serious glory. What do we mean by glory? Well, one word doesn't adequately describe it.

Like honor, splendor, dignity, abundance, riches, wealth. When we want to describe something that we have seen or something that we have experienced, that to us is unusual, incredible, a little bit overwhelming. We use various words to describe it, like it was unbelievable. Or we use words like that was awesome. You can't make this up.

It's unbelievable. A number of years ago, my son and I were in Phoenix, Arizona, and I was preaching in a revival meeting. And we used to go exercise together, and we would go find a local gym, like a strip mall gym, where you can go and lift weights. And so I took my son Steven with me, and we found this gym. It was literally called Dawg Gym, D-A-W-G. And it's where the men are men and the women are too, if you understand what I'm talking about.

So we went into this gym, and just to let you know, that there's not a lot of intelligent communication going on in these type of gymnasiums. And there was a guy in there that was absolutely humongous. I mean, his chest was so big that the chest came into the gym five minutes before the rest of his body came in. I mean, it was huge. And, you know, you just look at him.

He just was a specimen. And he walks over to the flat bench press, and he takes 45-pound weights, which is generally the largest weights you find in the gym, and he puts five 45-pound plates on one side and five on the other side, which came out to be a total of 495 pounds, and we can just round it up to 500 pounds. And then he went and got three guys to spot him, that is one standing behind and one on each end, just in case he couldn't get it up.

So I said to my son, buddy, you better watch this, because you may never see this the rest of your life. So this guy lies down on the flat bench press, and this is a chest press. You grab it out here, you bring it down, and you bring it up, and it works out the whole chest muscle.

But he didn't put his hands there, he put his hands here. Now that works out a completely different muscle. It works out what we call your triceps. So what is the tricep? The tricep is that muscle, right there.

Some of you guys may need to check to see if you actually got one, but anyway, it's back there. So this guy lays down on the flat bench press, and he's going to work out his triceps with 500 pounds. So he grabs the bar, literally brings it up, he pulls it down, and this is about what he was doing as he was bringing it up and down, and then of course he did about eight reps, and he put it back on the rack, and I thought, who is this guy? He's got to be famous. So he came walking by me, and essentially I said to him, who are you? So the next 30 minutes, he told me who he was. Come to find out, he was a flat bench press champion for a guy over 50 years old, drug free.

And he played professional football for the Seattle Seahawks. And so he told me his whole life story, and I have never forgotten what that guy did. Now, what we saw that was so overwhelming, that display of strength, is one little idea of the word glory. And the Bible tells us that the glory of God is when God in His awesomeness displays who He is. But I want you to understand that there's a massive difference between seeing the glory of a man and the glory of God. Moses said to the Lord, show me your glory. He said, God, I want to know you in a greater way. There are things about you I haven't seen.

I haven't seen it all. Lord, unveil Yourself to me. And God said, well Moses, we have a problem because you can't see my glory because you wouldn't live long enough to even enjoy it. When you see the glory of God, it will not thrill you, it will kill you. Okay.

Now we're talking about something different. Because the glory of God for man in some ways is deadly. So what is the glory of God? Let me give you a theological textbook definition.

The definition is very simple. It's the sum total of the intrinsic nature of God put on display. It is God displaying who He is.

And when I say intrinsic, I'm saying something that is within Him. For example, you and I as human beings have an element of glory, but it's called ascribed glory. It's a glory that is given to us. Because people spend their lives trying to make themselves glorious.

Whether by what they achieve, or what they acquire, or how they appear. People live their lives hoping to achieve, acquire, or appear in a glorious manner. That's called ascribed glory.

People give that to you. But folks, God has glory whether you ascribe it to Him or not. God is glorious just because He is the God of glory. And so the glory of God is the sum total of His being, His attributes, His character, His perfections all put on display. And if somehow we could, if we could see the essence of God, what would we see? It's very interesting that in the Old Testament God dwelt in a tent. And in a room called the Holy of Holies above a piece of furniture called the Ark of the Covenant and His presence there was called the Shekinah Glory.

And what was it? It was a brilliant bright light. In the New Testament the Apostle Paul when he speaks of the Lord, it says that He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

And here's the issue, this light is unapproachable. It will literally kill you. I mean think of it this way. If you went outside today and you stared at the sun from this morning after chapel until the sun sets this evening, at the end of the day what would your eyesight be like? You'd be blinded.

You'd be blinded by the light that we see every morning in the sun. Now if you can't handle the brilliance of the S-U-N, what about the brilliance of the S-O-N who lights heaven? In other words, we can't handle it. It's like the guy who says I'm thirsty and he sticks his head in Niagara Falls.

It's just a little too much. You can't handle the glory of God and so what does God do? God reveals Himself in ways that we can understand Him. Just the raw appearance of God for all of us we would fall dead on the ground. So in many different ways God reveals Himself.

Why? Because the passion of God is always for the display of His own glory. There is nothing higher than God. There is nothing greater than God. And the greatest blessing of our life is that we can actually come to know God in His glory. So how does God then display this glory in ways that we can understand it?

Number one, God displays His glory in creation. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech. Night unto night showeth knowledge.

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Everywhere we go in this creation we see the power of a Creator. I mean who's not been enthralled with beautiful mountain peaks? Or standing on the shore of the ocean watching the waves come in? Or maybe doing some snorkeling in clear water like down in the Bahamas or over in Hawaii and you drop your head below the water and suddenly you see a world of different kinds of fish and sea turtles and so forth as you swim around and you're just overwhelmed, you're awed at what God has created. And creation teaches us the glory of His story. He reveals His power in divinity for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even His eternal power and God and Godhead. So we see God in creation. Secondly, we see God in His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus made everything. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. And here's the glory of the story and that is the Creator God became a human being and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. You see God revealed Himself to us in terms that we can understand and what is that revelation?

It is a human being, the incarnation of God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's why we should be enthralled in understanding Jesus. We should spend our life, we should get a Ph.D. in Jesus, amen? We should get a Ph.D. in Jesus because when you read the Bible it's all about Him. Either it's in the Old Testament where it is enfolded and the New Testament where it's unfolded. Where the pictures and the prophecies and everything in the Old Testament was a finger pointing to the day when the Lamb of God would come into the world. We should be enthralled with Jesus because He is God in human flesh. And on a mountain of transfiguration He showed three of His disciples His glory when it was almost as if He zipped down His humanity on that mount of transfiguration. And by the way, the word transfigure in the New Testament Gospels where Jesus was transfigured is the exact same word in 2 Corinthians 3.18 where it says we are changed, a metamorphosis.

Something happened to Jesus and what happened? A brilliant bright light literally began to burst out of His body. I mean almost as if we walk out on the front campus and we see those two lights beaming up to heaven behind the wall of the 9-11 memorial and we think of the brilliant light of Jesus like the sun is bursting out of Him. And what does He say? He's showing who He is. He's God in human flesh. We see His glory in creation. We see His glory in the person of Christ.

And then thirdly we see His glory every Sunday morning when we go to church. Because what is the church? The church is the body of Jesus.

The church is God demonstrating His glory by doing what? Taking dead sinners and giving them a resurrection. By taking blind sinners and giving them sight to see who He is.

By taking lame sinners and giving them the ability to walk by illumination, by regeneration, by redemption. He has taken those who are slaves and made them free. He's taken those who are enemies and made them His friends.

He's taken people out of the family and brought them into the family. And every time we walk in the church and we hear the Word of God preached and we see the power of God in the church, what are we seeing on demonstration? We're seeing the glory of God. Now I told you it would take me about most of the time to explain the glory of God and what I've just said to you is woefully inadequate. And yet it's seeing these things that changes us.

So that leads me to the second and the final question. And that is where do we see the glory? And go back to 2 Corinthians 3.18 and notice what he says. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord had changed. So the question is what is the glass? It's a mirror. It's something that reflects the glory of God. So where do we look to see the glory?

If I can see the glory, where do I go to see it? And so let me just back up if I can very quickly and just sort of lay a quick foundation for the purpose of this chapter. 2 Corinthians was written for Paul to defend his apostleship. Everywhere he went he had people attack him and they were primarily people who were preachers of the old covenant. That is in order for you to have a relationship with God you had to follow the law.

We call them Judaizers or legalists. So in 2 Corinthians 3 Paul said we are not ministers of the old but ministers of the new covenant. But Paul does not throw the old covenant under the boat or under the bus I should say. He actually explains the difference between the old and the new. Look at what he says in verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 3. Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament, the new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit, for the letter kills but the spirit gives life.

What is the letter? It's the law. We can't keep the law.

It kills us. But the spirit gives us new life. Verse 7. But if the ministration of death, that's the old covenant, written in engraving and stones, that's when Moses got the Ten Commandments, was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away. How shall not the ministration of the spirit rather be glorious? He's comparing the two. He's saying the old covenant and the new covenant both have glory but you can't compare them because the old covenant doesn't even compare to the new covenant.

And how do we know that? Because when Moses went up on the top of Mount Sinai in the presence of God, what did his face start to do? It started to shine. His face changed.

By the way, when you're in the presence of God, that's what happens. But when he came down off the mount, what did he put over his face? He put a mask on his face, just like you have. And why did he put a mask on the face? Because what happened to the glory?

What did it do? It started to fade away. And what the people in that day did not understand is that the fading away of the glory that was on the face of Moses was to be an object lesson, to teach them that the old covenant would eventually become obsolete and it would be replaced by the new covenant found in the person of Jesus because the old was pointing us to Jesus. But he said it had a glory but it doesn't even compare to the new covenant. Now notice verse 12. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech 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. In other words, they couldn't see that the old covenant would become obsolete. Verse 14, but their minds were blinded for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.

What is he talking about? When they read the Old Testament, they don't see Jesus. Now when I read the Old Testament, I see Jesus.

Why? Because in Genesis 1, he's the creator. In Genesis chapter 3, he's the one that bruises the head of the serpent. In Genesis chapter 4, he's the lamb slain by Abel. In Genesis 6, 7, and 8, he's the ark that delivers us from the flood waters of God's judgment. In Genesis chapter 12, he is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.

You see what I'm talking about? The whole Old Testament is a picture and a prophecy of the coming of the person of Jesus Christ. When Jesus came, the old was done away because the new came.

The new is better than the old. And what is he saying? He says to this day, the Jews read the Old Testament but they don't see Jesus. But notice what he says in verse 16. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.

What is it? It is your own heart. It is when your heart turns to the Lord, when you hear the message of the gospel, when the Spirit of God speaks to you, and you turn to the Lord, what does he do? He takes the mask away.

I should have gotten an amen on that one. He takes your mask away. You're maskless. And what do you see? You see the glory of God. So the question is, where do you see the glory of God? What is the glass?

What is the mirror? And he's already told us, it's in the reading of the scriptures. So how do you change? You read the Bible. You say, I'm not changing.

Read it more. You know why the students at Bob Jones University don't change and others do change? I'm gonna tell you right now, it's not based on self-effort. It's not based on keeping rules.

It's not based on the law. It's based on the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And if you've been saved, your eyes have been opened, but you need to read about Jesus. My first year as a Christian, I was taught to read my Bible every day, and I started reading my Bible my sophomore year in college.

I would get up in the morning and spend 30 minutes a morning reading the Bible. And I'm telling you this, and I've been doing it ever since I was 19 years old, that if you read the Bible every single day and spend time in the word of God under the dependence of the Holy Spirit, asking God to reveal himself to you in the person of his son, Jesus Christ, then God will give you a little glory. And you get some glory today, and you get some glory tomorrow, and you get some glory the next day and some glory the next day. And before you know it, after a year, you're a different person. You may look the same. You may in some ways dress the same, but your inner person is changed from the inside out.

The new man is being renewed day by day. And so for you to change, you have to read your Bible. I'm not talking about reading the Bible for a class. I'm not talking about hearing the Bible in chapel.

I'm not talking about when the Bible is read at church, and all those things are important, but there is no substitute for you reading the Bible. Read the Bible. And that's how you change. And you keep reading it.

You say, I don't understand it. Keep reading it. Your brain will work. Your brain will kick in gear. You say, I read a whole chapter, and my mind wanders.

Go back and read it again. And if you will get into the Bible, your life will be transformed. You'll be changed. Father, thank you for the word that you've given us. Help us to hold our Bibles as precious as the revelation of yourself to us, and help us to read your word in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon which was part of the series called Walking with God, preached by BJU President Steve Pettit. Listen again tomorrow as we continue this series on The Daily Platform.