Being transformed - what is God doing?

The topic that we started on last week is this being transformed and we did sort of a general introduction to that. What we're going to be looking at this time is what's God's part in this transforming and it turns out that's most of the area of responsibility and action is largely God's doing. We will have a place, that's next week. We will have a place, but the transforming process is largely something that God has accomplished, and to the extent that we have a part, it's God who has made that even possible. I would like to show a few PowerPoint slides that I think might be helpful, just to kind of keep things in focus.

This is a Roman It's called a tortoise formation where they would hold the shields out in front and on top and on the side. And the point that we brought up with that is this little place in here is a piece, they take a piece of sheet metal and they bang out sort of a concave, depending on which way you're looking at it, convex form and have a bar that went across the middle of it so you'd have a handhold. But it would be a protected handhold that didn't just have a piece of sheet metal with a hole cut in it, they would put this over to protect the handhold. And so you'd have various things, the shield in the front and also parts of the helmet were made by this, taking a piece of sheet metal and then tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap in order to make the sheet metal conform to the kind of the mold that they had.

And we used this picture to show what that would be like. And so this is the conforming process. So just kind of thinking through, the Lord has made it such that we have these tap, tap, tap, tap, tap kinds of things going on, both from the spiritual side as well as the physical side. God does both of those things. So that's the conforming process we pictured. Here's another kind of a shape that is often used in combination with a ball-peen hammer to hammer out the convex or concave shape.

We put this picture to show what it means to be transformed. Conformed is this, you know, one, God works all things, and that means all things on the spiritual side, all things on the physical side, to the end that we're conformed. Metamorphosis instead is a different kind of process to the same end.

What's that same end? The image of Christ, right? Both of them are directed in the same way, and so we, and this is a little more colored up picture, but the same idea. You get the butterfly goes from egg to caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly, or more simply than our drawing, also with the frog. But the phenomenon takes place in various parts of nature. And so biology uses this term metamorphosis.

God is, however, carrying out this process as we behold the Lord through his word, to put it in quick summary. Okay. Alright, let's take a look at your handout. We've used the 2nd Corinthians 3.17.18 as kind of the central passage. Let me just read it to keep it fresh in our minds here.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. Now, we say here the Law of Moses, which is good and holy and righteousness, because of human inability requires those who seek to follow it to focus upon themselves. How does the law cause you to focus upon yourself?

It shows your inadequacy. That's one of the things you look at. Ah, I'm inadequate for it. The inadequacy is a big issue in 2 Corinthians right after He brings up, you know, who's adequate for these things, right? Yeah, good point. What's next? Yeah, boy, look what I did. Yeah. Pride if you do it, and then the inadequacy is, oh, I fell short, right? So there's a hazard both ways, isn't there? What else? That's not all. The law is condemning. Yeah. It's right there ready to condemn. It's ready to point the finger. How many people really enjoy condemnation? I mean, just love it, you know? No, no hands up? Well, hmm. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Condemnation isn't something we just go out of our way to try to find, is it? Yeah, Norm? Pride of life. Yeah, boy. Now how is pride different from pride of life?

Look what I've done. Look at how well I'm doing. We've still got something else. There's another reason why it's looking at ourselves. How do you carry out the law? Your own effort. And how do people know that you're carrying out the law? Who do they look at? They look at you, right? If we look at someone and say, well that person is really carrying out the law, who are we doing? We're looking at them. So it causes other human beings to be looking at other human beings instead of the Lord, right? But we're not done.

Here's a for instance. Suppose it's the Sabbath. What are you going to be careful not to do? Anything. Anything on earth, right? So where's my focus? Earthly, right? So as we start looking at it, by several different ways, the law causes us to be earthly focused, to be looking upon ourselves, as Gene pointed out, to feel inadequate if we don't cut it, and to feel prideful if we do. So there are multiple ways in which the law causes us to look to ourselves, causes us to keep our focus on ourselves, and even to carry out the law, because we're not supposed to fail to carry out the law, and that included throwing the rocks and everything else. You've got to be watching yourself and other people all the time. The tendency is to just keep your eyes horizontal.

Everything is on earth. Everything is about me and that other guy. Right? And I want to avoid being a forced geologist where I'm studying rocks up close because I picked up firewood on the wrong day or something, right? And I'm going to be looking at that other person because I have to carry out the punishment side of the law. So I'm always looking horizontal.

And all this we do, why? Because we think it makes God happy. So this is the character of the law. I'm in the middle of this paragraph that starts with the law of Moses. Because of the multiple ministries of the Holy Spirit and because of our co-crucifixion with Christ, we have died in relationship to the Law of Moses, having no obligation to the Law of Moses nor any principle of law. Why do I make that distinction, principle of law? What's the difference between principle of law and the Law of Moses? The principle of law says even if I take something apart from these particular laws, I can still have this thing where I'm not blessed unless I do something.

And if I violate the law, I've got a curse. So we make the point in the main service that the principle of law was what was carried out as the Jews were invading the promised land. Because though the instructions weren't specific to the Law of Moses, they were given custom instructions for every place they went. And of course, once they had conquered the Promised Land, there wasn't a need to carry those out again. But what would happen to the Israelites if one of them failed to follow the instructions exactly.

Then they all suffered. So one person failed and everyone suffered defeat. That's part one. What was the other problem? The one who failed, and it could only, even if it was just one, the one who failed would die. So you have death for the one that failed, defeat for everyone.

That's a principle of law, even though it wasn't specifically a part of the 613 laws of the laws of Moses. How can we have a principle of law now? Do churches have a principle of law now? It's possible now to be operating under a principle of law even if it isn't one of the 613 laws of Moses. My mom was raised in a church that was rather legalistic. And the church had a special prayer meeting to pray that she wouldn't lose her salvation because she went to the movie. Any movie or a specific? Any movie. Any movie. Yeah. And you lose your salvation, you just don't sin. Yeah. And so to any way that we come up with a bunch of rules and then make these pluses and minuses based on the rules, even if it's not a part of the law of Moses, it's under the principle of law, and not under grace. Yes?

I think to my mind, too, is this church membership is one. To be baptized, you have to be baptized in that church in order to be a member. Yeah. And these are from sound teachers, I mean, really. Yeah Yeah, a little a little over a year ago. I was talking to a fellow who had been brought up Church of Christ and he Said I don't think I'm saved I said well Why don't you think you're saved and he said because before they baptized me I was supposed to list all my sins, and I forgot one So it's I don't think I'm saved that's the way they taught salvation apparently yes He was done. No. Yeah. He lost the opportunity. He just figured he was probably going to hell. Yep. Because he didn't do it right. Yeah. Well, that's the law. Right?

And it's adding things. It's either adding things to salvation as principle of law, or adding things in terms of my ongoing relationship with the Lord, and also looking to be blessed by what I do or don't do, as opposed to understanding that I'm already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Here's Paul writing the Ephesians. He starts out Ephesians 1-3, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

He waits until chapter 4 to say, now let's talk about your stealing problem. Let's talk about your lying problem. Did he say, now look, you guys better cool it on these things or else you're going to lose those blessings. Is that what he said? No. He spent three and a half chapters first talking about who they are in Christ, the blessings that they have irreversibly and untouchably. Then he talked about their behaviors. Okay, let's take a look here in the middle of page one, our three bullets. One, grace is the motive. So essentially we have the prosecutor's rule here. Motive means an opportunity. Right? Grace is the motive. Do because you are already blessed in the heavenly places.

This is the Ephesians 1.3 and 4.32. You forgive not in order to be forgiven, that's the Sermon on the Mount, even from the words of Jesus, but it's to the Jews.

Instead, it's forgive, Ephesians 4.32, because you've been forgiven.

That's the difference in the grace motive. Does grace mean that morality no longer counts? That's not the case at all, is it? It's not talking about, it doesn't matter what you do, or morality doesn't count. But it starts with, what's the motive? Do you forgive because otherwise, boy, you're not going to be forgiven and God's going to be just mad as a hornet? Or, do you forgive because you've already been forgiven?

And that's the message that we see among the apostles as they wrote. The other thing is, where are the blessings? Are their blessings earthly? Are their curses earthly? We are blessed heavenly. The next one, means to accomplish, by the Holy Spirit enabled, first to fully see, remember we talked some time ago about the spiritual senses, including sight and hearing, enabled by the Holy Spirit, but enabled, empowered, and energized to carry out the works that God has prepared beforehand.

How many works does God want you to do that He has not prepared beforehand? None. So you don't have to go out and be in a panic. Oh man, I should have caught these extra two little things that I was supposed to do. No. God does not ask us to do anything that he has not prepared beforehand and enabled and empowered and energized to carry out. He has not asked us to do anything except by grace. because we've already been blessed and already received. All right, the next one, spiritual opportunity. As a work of God, we have multiple spiritual opportunities that would simply not be available under the law of Moses, nor any principle of law.

You know, it's interesting. I actually, from time to time, and fairly frequently, will look at various Jewish writings, both ancient ones as well as modern ones. I get a monthly newsletter, the Jewish newsletter. And it's interesting just to kind of see what's their motive.

The Jews are not evangelistic. As a matter of fact, anywhere from mildly to somewhat partially, they will challenge someone who says, hey, I want to become a Jew. They're not evangelistic about their faith at all. Now, they want those who are Jews to be practicing. In fact, that's, if anything, where their evangelism is focused, is to get all the Jews, you know, observant of the law. I met with a rabbi several years ago, and he said exactly that. He was glad to take, you know, a couple hours with me. But he said, my main focus is to get Jews who are not observant to be observant. That's what I spend all my time doing.

So the Jews are not evangelistic. Why? They're chosen, you're not. Yeah, they're chosen, you're not. That's one reason, that's a good point. They're a nation. Yeah, they're a nation. And they're the people, yeah. Anything of any other reason? Pride, maybe. There might be some of that involved in that. Pride and being the people. Pride and we're going to be the people, right? There's a definite separation between Jews and Gentiles, and we are Gentiles. That's right, and matter of fact, to evangelize means to blur that separation in their viewpoint.

I might suggest one more reason why they don't evangelize. They don't have any good news. Right? They don't have any good news. That's the problem. In other words, why go around and evangelize if you don't have any good news? Yeah, come suffer with us. Pardon? Come suffer with us. Yeah, come suffer with us. They don't have any good news. They're still waiting. Yeah, it's all still waiting.

And in terms of their perception of the Messiah, It was, they had two messiahs, okay? And Messiah ben David, that is ben meaning son of, Messiah ben David, which is the messiah who comes and, you know, leads the nation of Israel and rules over the world and, you know, that sort of thing. Messiah ben Joseph, which is the suffering messiah, is the one they tend to soft-pedal, and as a matter of fact, over the years they've tended to interpret it away. It's been about the last 150 years especially that they've been prone to interpret it out of the scriptures. So the idea of Christ coming to save Israel and to pay for sins and all that, they've pushed that away. And so they're looking to what we would call the second coming, only they would say it's the first, right? In fact, the rabbi I talked to, he says, when the Messiah comes, we'll say, is this your first or second time here? Right? Okay.

Right below the bullets there, while we in the body of Christ have a wonderful spectrum of spiritual opportunities before us, 2 Corinthians 3.18 focuses on the specific spiritual opportunity that we have under gracious liberty to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ through his written word. While we will focus upon our part in that next week, that is, we all with open-faced beholding, the outcome of our beholding the Lord, the living word of God, through the written word of God, is that we are spiritually transformed. That's the outcome.

Do we work at being transformed? Do we go around and get together at church and we say, man, I've been working on being transformed this week and boy, I feel like I'm making some progress. And somebody else, oh man, I've been trying to get transformed and it just isn't happening. Is that what we put our effort towards? Do we go and measure that?

No. That's not what we're about. The transforming is done by the Lord as a by-product of our beholding the Lord through His Word. It's what God accomplishes there. We don't cooperate in the action. We don't contribute to the action. We don't even co-sponsor the action of being transformed. God does it all entirely of His own gracious accomplishment in us. It's not about us, it's about Him. and centrally it is ever about the Lord Jesus Christ and that's why the law doesn't get there.

That's why this is at the end of a chapter where he's talking about the inadequacy of the law. Would you rather have, would you rather be in a spot of beholding the Lord through his word and being transformed or would you rather have a ministry of condemnation? That's what he said earlier in the chapter.

Would you like a ministry of death? Can I get people to sign up please? Would you like that? No. It's not terribly exciting, is it? So that's what he's looking at. He says, the law, if anything, gets in the way. The law gets in the way. Okay, let's take a look at the top of page two.

One of the things that we see in the beginning and the end of the passage is reference to the Holy Spirit. Knowing what the Holy Spirit has done, is doing, and will do, in order to bring us the written word of God, the Holy Spirit has accomplished a four-fold sequence, as outlined in the insert below here. Revelation, the four links from God to us, those four links are inspiration, and the way it comes across in 2 Timothy is God breathed We use the word inspiration, but it literally means God breathed. The second Peter 1, 19-21 passage says the Holy Spirit carried these authors along, carried them along.

Interesting. Canonization. When we talk about the New Testament canon, is that because some human beings got together and said these are the ones that are inspired, these are the ones that aren't. Is that what ultimately happened? If the Holy Spirit inspired certain authors to write certain books, the canon isn't a matter of human beings sitting down and deciding and making a proclamation, this is inspired, that isn't. The canon, that is, the set of books that constitute the Bible, is a matter of our recognizing what the Holy Spirit has inspired.

See the difference there? It's almost like you guys lost an hour of sleep last night or something. The next one is the transmission. What is amazing is that the books of the Bible survived it all. We have more handwritten copies, particularly of the New Testament, than of any other ancient document by huge ratio. But, all through the centuries, there were enemies of that copying process, which make it rather amazing that we have them at all.

Who are the first enemies of writing the New Testament documents? Pardon? You mean the original writing? Yeah, when, here are the apostles, they're writing, who are the people who were most outspoken about? Probably the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Yeah, in other words, a lot of the Jewish leaders, they just said, you know, we'd like these apostles dead. Here's Paul, he's fleeing Thessalonica. So, one, you had Jewish opposition.

And how about the Romans, were they real friendly towards this? Not so much, eh? Real easy to remember, ten waves of persecution from the Romans. It didn't stop until the beginning of the fourth century. So the Romans went through ten waves of persecution and one of those, particularly the last one, got to the place where the rule went like this.

There would be an official come up to your door with a Roman soldier standing next to him, at least one, and they would come up to your house and they would say, We're here for all your Christian books, and if you declare them to us now, and we find them, because we are going to go in, if you declare them to us now, then you'll be okay, and we'll just take the books and nothing more will be said. However, if we find them and you've not told us about them right now, then you will die, you and your family. So make your choice.

So they would go out and eradicate as many copies of the scripture as possible. And that also drove the issue, what's scripture and what isn't? What's scripture and what isn't? The Christians would, of course, copy in secret because even having those scriptures was not legal.

They would copy in secret and they would do various things to try to hide them. A lot of their copying would be done in out-of-the-way places, hidden areas back in the woods, up in the mountains, things like that, because doing just open copying in your household would be a rather risky move when the Romans were giving a death penalty.

Yes? and you said, yes, I have them, and turned them over, you'd live. Yes. To be able to go and maybe dig out some of your scriptures and so forth that you had hidden someplace. But if you said, no, and they found them, you're going to die. Yes. So those scriptures aren't going to do you a lot of good anyway. Right.

Well, the reality is that Christians would have all sorts of mixed emotions. One of the other things that came up later is that they required a certificate that you had worshipped the emperor. So what should Christians do? Should they say, I'm not going to worship the emperor, I don't have a certificate, so you better kill me? Or, some Christians would phony one up.

I think the loss of our various items of historical significance that formed our government, because there are those now that would like to take take that, and take those away. So the Romans weren't too far away from today's government control. And it was basically an oppressive government, right? And a lack of freedom.

And here's the thing, in the Roman mindset, because they didn't care how many religions you had or which ones you had, What they put as an essential is worshiping the emperor was like a statement of patriotism. If you don't worship the emperor, then you must be unpatriotic. And we don't care if you worship any other god or ten gods. We really don't care as long as you include the emperor among them.

That was their viewpoint. So look at this, these four links in the chain, so to speak, inspiration, canonization, transmission, and translation, the Holy Spirit has a part in bringing each of those links forward. So the Holy Spirit has brought us, as this middle paragraph on that page 2 says, so the Holy Spirit has brought us the written word of God, the mirror, so that we might read and or hear it.

While there is an active part that we play in the total fulfillment of what is conveyed in 2 Corinthians 3.18, and we will explore that further next Sunday, most of the verse describes the rest of what God does so that we're transformed. Holly? I was just going to go backwards a little bit. Okay.

So then if you had to sign that certificate or die, what was the thing to do? Would you sign it and say like, This became an issue among the Christians. If someone did actually worship and get this certificate, because that's what you had to do, you had to go into the pagan temple and worship the emperor and get the certificate that you had done so, called a libelous. You had to get that certificate, and if you did so, the other Christians, the typical reaction was, you know, you're really in trouble for having compromised that way. So it was not looked upon kindly by other Christians. Some other Christians would just go ahead and do it, even just as sort of an outward thing, just so they wouldn't have the trouble. That was not looked upon kindly by the other Christians. Well, neither do I. Okay. I know a lot less.

In Revelation, isn't there like you're supposed to take, did it come to where you're required to take the mark of the beast? Yes. So isn't it possible that position again? Well, it's always possible that they could be in some position like that again. I will say this though, that the Mark of the Beast is specifically during the tribulation period, a time when the church will be out.

There will be believers, but not those of the church. The church will be taken out prior to that period of time. Now, that doesn't mean that we won't have hazards and risks. The early church did and Christians do even now. As a matter of fact, more Christians have died for their faith in this last century than all the prior centuries combined. We still live in a time of great hazard for Christians. And so the thing to do would be to be to turn it down and take the cost. And that's what Revelation describes that the believers will do.

As a matter of fact, it is so clear there that anyone who takes the mark of the beast will bypass the white throne judgment and go directly to the lake of fire. That's kind of an interesting thing. Everybody else gets the white throne judgment except for those who take the mark of the beast. They go directly to the lake of fire, there's just simply no question. Wow, pretty intense, huh? What you see in the bottom half of the page is a diagram that we've been using there.

The glory of the Lord, which is the radiant essence of who God is, has two aspects in 2 Corinthians 3.18. One, when we behold the Lord through His written word, it is not simply reading as an intellectual exercise, all in the physical realm. Those who don't believe can do that with no spiritual impact.

I know that when I was going to college, they offered a class taught by a professor on the Bible as literature. I don't think there was any spiritual insight that came through that class. It was all a physical side exercise. None of it was allowed to penetrate into the spiritual realm. into the spiritual aspect of a person. So there are unbelievers who do exactly that. They read it as an intellectual exercise, it goes into their grey matter, they process it entirely on the physical side, nothing more, nothing else. They may even be academically recognized for their physical side only expertise in the written words and all of its earthly background. You can go to some higher levels of learning, and get a PhD in studying the Bible and still not be saved.

I recall a track that my dad had at one point in time. A fellow said, I was a pastor for 50 years and then I was saved. And a mind-boggling, huh? Okay. Let's take a look at page 3 here. There is a hazard that we as believers will do the same. That is, that we as believers will, in fact, just keep it cerebral.

And I would say that's one of the hazards of going to seminary, is that everything stays just real cerebral. Get A's in all your Greek and Hebrew tests, study your systematic theology and get it all down and all the professors are impressed and get really good grades and you know spit the information back and none of it penetrates into the spiritual side. That's a hazard. It is likely one of the reasons why you've seen there's been some history like say even at Dallas Theological Seminary for some of the professors even to end up going to a charismatic realm because they want something more than the intellectual stimulation. One of the things that many seminaries have gone to, I know Denver Seminary has, is this sort of mystical Christianity, you know, spiritual formation sometimes it's called, a real hazard. because that's supposed to make spiritual reality. And what they do is they bypass the Word of God.

So guess what happens? They essentially have, okay, here's all your intellectual stuff. Okay, now to get spiritual reality, let's practice Buddhism. That's essentially what it is, Christian Buddhism. It's what's being marketed and it's required at Dallas Theological Seminary now. It's part of the curriculum at Moody. It's right over here at Denver Seminary. Yeah, it's essentially Christian Buddhism.

Bypassing the Word of God in order to have contact with God. What biblical Christianity says, it is through the Word of God that we behold the Lord and are thereby transformed. No transformation takes place in these spiritual transformation programs at the seminaries. None.

The second one, number two, on top of page three there near the top, in addition to our beholding the personal glory of the Lord through the written word of God as a result of the Lord sharing his glory with us, that shared glory increases from one level of glory to the next.

We made the point that the term that Paul uses, a figure of speech, when he says glory to glory, that means from one level to the next. Just like he says, you know, an aroma from life to life and death to death. It means increasing, okay? Increasing, when he uses that term. What we see here is a table. The increasing glory is in contrast to the fading glory of the law of Moses. So you want to be under law? Do you like fading glory?

Initially, Moses put the veil on to do what? Why did Moses first put the veil on? Because he was shining so brightly from his time up there with the Lord that people said, oh boy, he couldn't have had sunglasses, so he put on a veil. But then as time went on, he'd put the veil on so they couldn't see the glory diminishing. Fading glory. This is going the opposite direction. So here we have this table.

Who? Moses and Christ. What is law and grace? Then the people group. Israel, there, or we all, the church. Then the spiritual visibility. Veiled face and hearts. and the glorious fading in the law. But for grace, it's unveiled, open-faced beholding and increasing.

See the contrast there by several different points? This is why here at Holly Hills we'll go to great efforts to make the distinction between law and grace. Because look at the difference. There's a huge difference between law and grace. To begin to see the pattern here, we were not given the Holy Spirit to be present with us so we could claim all the characteristics of being under the law. And we've got another dimension to examine in this contrast.

Was the glory from Moses' face that was fading seen with physical eyes or spiritual eyes? Why did he put the veil on? Because their physical eyes were challenged or their spiritual eyes were challenged? In other words, Moses had a radiance from the outside with physical eyes that couldn't handle it. That's why he put the veil on. Was the veil over Moses' face made of physical material or spiritual material? Physical material. So the law has a physical glory. You have to have a physical protection from that physical glory. Did the law allow them to see more and better spiritually or see less and worse spiritually? Less and worse, right? Blinded. The law blinds them.

When someone turns to the Lord, what happens to the veil over their heart? If someone looks to the law of Moses, is that person transformed as a result? Do we look to the Law of Moses and are we transformed? No. Why not? Why aren't we transformed by the Law? I mean, it's from God, right? Why aren't we transformed? It has no power.

That's one. But that's the short list. What else? It's physical. It says, don't you dare pick up that firewood. It says, you know, look, you guys have to get the manna here on this day and that day, but don't carry it up for the next day unless it's Friday.

It's more condemning than it is. The law is ready to condemn. It's right there to condemn. Yep. It is a ministry of condemnation. Contrast, there is therefore now a little bit of condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Less condemnation? No condemnation. Doris is right. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The person is not transformed because the Holy Spirit was not given to us in the church so that we live by the law and are enabled to live by the law. We do not have the law written on our heart. We do not have the law written on our heart. That's for the Jews in the coming millennium, not even right now.

Okay, now I have here, connect the dots, middle of page 3, John 16, 13-15, the Son and the Spirit. But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, this is Christ speaking, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose it to you what is to come. Notice that in here there's disclosing it to you three times. The Holy Spirit is a what?

A discloser, right? Pardon? A vehicle. He is the one who makes it happen. What's the beginning of verse 14 say in John 16? Who's He going to glorify? Christ. He will glorify Christ. If you have a church situation where the Holy Spirit is being glorified at the expense of Christ, what's that telling you? It's not the Holy Spirit. It's not the Holy Spirit. John 17, 26 is the Son and the Father.

And here's Christ praying just hours later in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory which you have given me. For you love me before the foundation of the world. And then here's the 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18. I won't read that. But let's take a look. Here's page 4. If we look at the above passages in sequence, we see that our beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ as He has been and is glorified by the Father and the Spirit is exactly what Christ told His disciples the Spirit would do, and what Christ prayed about to the Father, and what the Spirit carries out.

So this beholding that 2 Corinthians 3.18 speaks is from a deliberate cooperation and coordination between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now this is the interesting thing. When we talk about being transformed, it's not just, hey, that's the Holy Spirit's hobby. This transformation that God intends to take place in believers is something that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all involved in. Do you see that?

And I think that's something for us to remember, that the entire Trinity is involved in our living out the life of Christ. The entire Trinity is involved in what God is doing in our lives. Eight times in the six chapters of Ephesians, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all connected up in one tight passage. Eight times. And I think it's critical for us to realize all of God is involved with all of us as believers. All three persons of the Trinity have an involvement in what God's doing in your life and who He has made you to be.

We talk about beholding Christ, the reality is that even in beholding Christ, all three persons of the Trinity are involved. You see that? And that's one of the things for us to realize by faith is that everything that is going on in our lives, everything that God is doing is a work of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And that's not just a formula and a recitation. See that? Okay. Let's take a look. Here I have three passages from Hebrews. And it says, examine how each of these passages in Hebrews rhymes and harmonizes with 2 Corinthians 3.18, reinforcing what the Word of God is uniquely capable of and where we are called upon to place our spiritual focus and consideration. Is our spiritual focus and consideration, don't you dare pick up firewood on Friday afternoon. Is that where we're supposed to focus? You better look at the calendar when that baby is born, because, boy, you've got to get that baby boy circumcised on the eighth day, and not before and not afterwards.

Here's Hebrews 3.1. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider. This is a term that means to apply your mind to it. Consider Jesus, the Apostle. That means special messenger. and high priest, the one who is ultimately qualified to represent you before God, the apostle and high priest of our confession. Consider him. Apply your mind to him. Think about it.

Does God want us to simply apply the gray matter part of our mind to Christ? Yeah, in other words, we've had that diagram that shows this mind is not just a physical side phenomenon. It's not just the gray matter. Certainly there's a gray matter involvement, but it also has a mind on the spiritual side. That's a part of the soul. And so he's saying spiritually, apply your mind, certainly the gray matter side, but also the spiritual side. Be thinking about this spiritually. Ponder it. Consider it.

Hebrews 4.12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, and the piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

So the word of God is just this little passive book that sits in the pew racks, right? No. It is uniquely capable of reaching deep into a person. and having an impact deeply. There is nothing the doctor can prescribe for you that will go that deep. If you go to a brain surgeon, he can't get that deep. The Word of God goes to a level and has an activity in the spiritual realm that nothing else can touch. That nothing else can touch.

Hebrews 12 1-3 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Fixing our eyes on Jesus.

In the races of those times, what they would do is they would have a kind of a goal post, and the person who was in the competition, whether it was running or chariot races, which were also real popular, They would focus on that goal, just fix their eyes on it. He says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. Verse 1 is about our race, isn't it? Verse 2 is about Christ's race.

Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider, here's another use of the word consider, but it's actually not the same word. This one is with a little prefix, the same word called reckon or consider in Roman 6.11. So this is about reckoning. Consider and count carefully him who has endured such hostility by sinners against themselves, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Look to Jesus and consider him. See that?

Is this not, are these three passages not very much like what 2 Corinthians 3.18 is telling us? Yes they are. Consider Him. Apply your mind to it. Count and consider carefully. Look unto Jesus.

Okay. Before the buzzer goes off. Any thoughts, questions, inspirations, exasperations? Yes. Oh, it's probably a mistaken reference. And I thought maybe it was 119, but it doesn't seem to make sense. OK, let me take a look at that and I'll get that corrected. OK. Yeah, you're right. That's not correct. One of the missing songs. One of the missing songs? Yeah. No, it's a typo in there somewhere. It might be 19. One of those things, all you do is hold a key down once, too long, and bang, bang, you've got an extra nine in there. Any other questions? Thoughts? Inspirations? Okay. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at Your Word, we thank You for what You've revealed. Boy, Lord, this has real spiritual depth to it. And it's not just an intellectual exercise. It is, in fact, a beholding of who you are, the radiant essence of who you are. Your glory, Lord, is personal. And contrary to the caution, yes, we ought to take this personally. And we just thank you for what you've revealed and shown us through your word, through the Holy Spirit, the Discloser. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.