Beholding the Lord Through His Word - I

Good morning. Last time we met, which wasn't last week, we had completed the 100th lesson in the Law and Grace series. That's not the end of Grace, however. You'll be glad to know. What we're going to be doing is a four-week series called Beholding the Lord Through His Word. So we'll continue that. through what's known as Palm Sunday. And then after we have our Resurrection Day Sunday, our Easter Sunday, then beginning in April, we'll start a study in the book of Hebrews. So anyway, that's the outlook here.

And so 2 Corinthians 3.18 is the beginning of our study of beholding the Lord through his word. We're actually going to be going through several passages to do that. And so our idea here is to be seeing the living word in the written word of God. As we read the Bible, we're not simply taking in a lot of information, a lot of data. It is actually personally focused upon Christ. So we're seeing the living word of God, Christ, in the written word of God, our Bibles.

So 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all, so that's all of us, beholding the glory of the Lord. That's the central theme there of that verse. And the next study we'll be doing, John 1 through 18, where John writes at the end of his kind of prologue to the Gospel of John, we saw his glory. Full of grace and truth so what John saw personally we are seeing through the Word of God Okay, beholding the glory of the Lord John also wrote in the introduction to his Epistle 1st John 1 1 through 4 we have seen with our eyes the word of life the word of life the message of life and And finally, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus is the theme there. And so there's good reason for us to take a look at all of those as we explore this understanding of beholding the Lord through his word. So why would we do such a thing?

Well, I think as we look at these passages, 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, what happens as we behold the Lord through his word? It says, being transformed into the same image, that is the image of Christ, from glory to glory. And we'll explore in a little bit what that means here.

In John 1.1-18, of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. Grace upon grace. So this is a continuation, if you will, of the Law and Grace series. 1 John 1, 1-4, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. There is in fact an aim in all this, and that is fellowship with the Lord Himself. Hebrews 12, 1-2, to run with endurance the race that is set before us. There is a practical, spiritual reason for pursuing this, not just to study the book and study some content. but in fact to have an impact upon our life spiritually. So there's very good reason for us to do this.

So here in 2 Corinthians 3.18, we have several slides from our church website.

And in that church website, which has recently been updated if you haven't been to it recently, There is a place where it's about Holly Hills on that little black bar there across the top on the left side. And from there you click on that and you get the doctrinal statement and selections of other things. It's the doctrinal statement where we're going to be taking a look at a couple of things briefly here. that are relevant to our beholding the Lord through His Word. So in that doctrinal statement we have a couple of passages or sections that will be worth our looking at. You have this repeated on page one of your handout. So one is a statement about the Bible in our doctrinal statement, and we don't want it to be some dry, dusty doctrine, but in fact This is the means by which we behold the Lord. And it reads like this.

We believe that all the authors of the entire Old and New Testaments wrote by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that is verbal inspiration. Those books are completely inerrant and infallible in the original writings. They are the final authority for faith and practice and the means through which believers behold Christ.

So our Bible is not just, we believe this, our Bible is not just some dry, dusty piece of doctrine. It is not simply an ancient document, although it certainly is that. But it's the means by which we behold Christ. And we do that with good purpose today.

The other one, and it brings up a similar theme, is the life and walk of believers. We don't want the Bible to be just something we know more and more about, but in fact, the living and the life and the walk of the believer is to be impacted. So we wrote there, we believe that every believer possesses the life of Christ and grows in the grace and knowledge of Christ through the Holy Spirit who fills the believer with the things of Christ. This occurs as the believer beholds Christ and the word of God. as he walks by faith, moment by moment, abiding in Christ. The believer is to walk and rest in the eternally established identity that he possesses by virtue of his faith in the crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, and seated person of Christ. That's his position. In his identification with him in these things, Christ's life is then lived in the believer, which is evident to those who do not know Christ and to those who share Christ's life. to those who share Christ's life. So what we're doing here is very definitely tied to our walking, our very life, the very source of life within the believer.

Okay, so the first phrase that comes across there, but we all. So Paul is including all those who believe, certainly writing to those who are with him, writing to the believers there in Corinth, and writing to us as well, because we're included. We all is what's spelled out there. All believers, just as it does in other passages there, Paul's applying this to all of us. Every believer here this morning is included in what Paul is about to say.

So it isn't a matter of, but we all except for a few of you. But in fact, every single believer here this morning is included in this. There are no exceptions. There is no privileged class that gets to do this and the others are excluded. Every single believer here is intended in this we all.

With unveiled faiths, now the context here is that The wearing the veil meant still being under the Mosaic law. It either was something that had to do with Moses or those who were listening to and reading the law of Moses. And it's having a veil either over your head or over your heart, over your eyes, was something that was removed only when a person turned to the Lord in faith, that is calling upon the Lord's grace and not the law. not upon the works of the law.

The law does not have something to contribute. It's unveiled faith. It's without the law. The law has no involvement in this process. Beholding the Lord does not get improved one bit by bringing one or ten or any number of laws in. It doesn't help. We all with unveiled faith because we don't have one, or ten, or any number of laws over the top of us. The believer's beholding of the Lord is not enhanced by the law. The law is a veil. So, if you were to say, okay, we're all going to put our hands over our eyes. Now, look up here. It's not going to do any good, is it? You're not going to see. The law does not help us behold the Lord. Not at all.

Any more than I could invite you to see while you all have your hand over your eyes. Beholding as in a mirror. Now this one, these four words are actually translated from just one word in the Greek. It's the word for looking into a polished first surface mirror.

Now in those days, they didn't have this idea of clear glass. They in fact had glass, but it wasn't clear. It was all bubbly and warped and colored. It wasn't the idea of looking through a clear piece of glass with silvered back as we have in our modern mirrors. Not at all.

It was instead a polished piece of metal which would in fact tarnish and a lot of the mirrors would even have something tied to the mirror that you'd go and polish off the mirror every time so you could actually see yourself in it. So that was the kind of mirror he's talking about.

There are a couple examples here. In fact, I got these pictures at the British Museum when Bruce and I went over there. And so those are examples of Corinthian mirrors. These are actually from Corinth. Corinth was famous for these mirrors. They were famous for other things, too, but we won't get into that.

All right. Paul also used this word for mirror in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, as James did in James 1, 23. Have you gotten to James 1, 23 yet? You haven't gotten there yet. Okay. All right. So we've got this elective here. They'll be getting there. So be prelude to that.

James 1.22-24 goes this way, So beholding as in a mirror, All three passages, 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, the mirror represents God's Word. All three passages. Now, the glory of the Lord. One of the things that we need to look at here, glory, what is it? Glory is the radiant essence of who God is.

The new heavens and new earth won't have any sun. Will everything be dark? No. Why? Everything will be lit by the radiant essence of who God is. So when we say radiant essence, we're not just kidding. And we're not kind of overstating it. It will be a replacement for what we have as the sun and all the artificial lights that we have.

Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. All glory is derived from God since he's the ultimate source. Glory is not just when the Broncos win the Super Bowl. God is the source, the ultimate source of glory. And the other thing is because glory is personal to Him, it's not a commodity. You can't walk into some specialized store and say, hey, cut me off five pounds of that there glory. I'd really like to have some. Wrap it up. I'll take it home. It's not a commodity.

It's personal to who God is. It's radiating from His own essence. It's not just a thing, it's personal to Him. Our Lord even portrayed in the final hours of His earthly life that we would see His glory. He prayed that. Isn't that interesting? The Lord prayed that you and I would see His glory. Very interesting. Which will be ultimately fulfilled when we see Him face to face.

John 17 26 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 before the foundation of the world the Lord prayed for you you know if you think about this what do people do in the hours before they're gonna die if they know they're going to die, especially. They're going to say and do things that are important to them. They're probably not going to play bingo. Probably not going to play bingo. So what happened? Here is Christ in the hours before He was to be crucified.

What does He do? He prays for you and for me. That's important to Him. And what does He pray? that we would see His glory. And that's what we do as we behold the Lord through His word. That's exactly what we do as we behold the Lord through His word. Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed. The Greek word translated beholding as in a mirror is a present tense verb conveying an ongoing action on our part. We don't say, you know, I beheld the Lord's glory once and I'm good with that.

I'm done. This is something that is an ongoing thing, isn't it? It's something we come back here once a week. We meet together midweek. We take personal time. It's an ongoing thing where we behold the Lord through his word. It's not something once done and you're all completely finished. Ongoing is God's intent. The Greek word translated, our being transformed, is also present. Present tense, it's ongoing, as we behold the Lord through his word, but it's passive.

Why? It's because we receive the action. We behold, that's our doing the action, but we receive the action of being transformed. We don't transform ourselves. The transformation happens as we behold the Lord And as we'll see here, it is a work of the Holy Spirit. We don't transform ourselves. I don't go... and change myself into something different. That's not the way it works. It is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit upon each believer as they behold the Lord through His Word. So we're being transformed, beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord through His written Word.

And by the way, let's ask this question, is the written word read anything different from hearing it? You can learn both ways, or both, and it still counts. In the beginning of the book of Revelation, it says, blessed are those who read and hear. the words of this book. So both reading and hearing are means of beholding the Lord. Both reading and hearing are means of beholding the Lord.

There are people in various parts of the country, even different parts of the world, who are going to be listening to this message. They're going to be hearing the Word of God in different places. There are people who don't have such a place as Holly Hills and so they'll listen from a distance. They also are going to be learning about beholding the Lord and they will be beholding the Lord through His word even as they listen.

On the other hand, being transformed is not something we do, it is something that is done to us as a ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit's work in our hearts and minds and lives. Romans 8.29, it says, For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son. It's interesting, we pointed out in an elective we had now a couple years back, that it's interesting that there is a conformed to the image of Christ and there is a transformed to the image of Christ. They are in the same direction, the image of Christ, but two different processes. Two different ways that the believer is made into the image of Christ.

So, into the same image refers to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, similar to what we see there in Romans 8.29. So we're looking at one of the two ways that a believer is made into the image of Christ. That one is a conforming process. This is a transforming process. God works all things together for good. What good? Does it mean everything is good? No. It does not mean everything is good.

Some things are horrible. But for the good, that we're being conformed to the image of Christ. This is the transforming process that we're talking about. It's a ministry of the Holy Spirit. It has the same end, but it's a different process. God intends both. God intends both.

Now, we talk about this word image. New Testament times, the Greek word was icon. Similar, we get our word icon like we use on the computer. which is translated image, referring to representation of something. It's not the exact thing, it's a representation of something, or someone in some respect. Not to an exact likeness necessarily.

We have an example here in Luke 20, 23, and 24, but he perceived, that is, Jesus perceived their craftiness and said to them, why do you test me? Show me a denarius, that's a coin that's a day's wage, whose image, that's the same word, Akon, and whose image and inscription does it have? And they answered, Caesar's. So that's the same idea, into the same image. So what does it mean?

God is changing your image. God is changing your image. And he's doing so not as a PR campaign, but as a spiritual process. So as you look at this here, The word image, Greek icon, in the context of 2 Corinthians 3.18 and Romans 8.29 refers to being changed into Christ's spiritual character in every respect but His deity.

There will come a day, 1 John, there will come a day when we will be face to face with the Lord and we will be like Him. We will be like Him in every respect except for His deity. Will we have a body like His? Yes, we will have a body like His. We are being made in character like Him. And the only way in which we will not be like Him is in His deity. He uniquely will have that. But we will have a body like His, we will have a character like His.

We are right now with these old bodies, and boy, I'd sure be glad for a new one. Anyway, we are right now being changed into the image of Christ. God is already working in the direction of how God will have us be for all eternity. He's not saying, wait till you get to heaven, we're going to fix everything then. He's saying, I'm working on you right now so that you're being, even as time passes, made more and more fit for the place you're going to be. I'm conforming you, I'm transforming you into the image of Christ. And there will come a day, and I hope the Lord comes for us today, there will come a day when we will be completely and ultimately transformed and conformed totally into the image of Christ with a body like His. And we will see Him face to face. We'll see Him face to face.

From glory to glory. Now, I need to talk about this. From glory to glory is Paul's expression of increasing from one level to another. It's a way of expressing the fact that he uses in a number of different places. A chapter earlier, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2, 15 and 16, for we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one an aroma from death to death, more and more death, To the other an aroma from life to life.

More and more life. It's an amazing thing. For us as believers, more life. For us as believers, more glory. There's a growing in this. It's a way of expressing growth. You want spiritual growth? This is it. Life to life. Glory to glory. It's a way of expressing growing and increasing. Just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

This growing from glory to glory that he talks about here is not the result of our trying really hard to be glorious. There is no value and benefit in us trying to be glorious. You can do whatever you want with the makeup. You can get plastic surgery. There's nothing you can do that's going to increase this glory apart from what the Lord does. We are not trying to be worthy of Christ's glory. That's not the process either.

It is a process resulting from a ministry of the Holy Spirit. I got an elective downstairs where they're looking week after week at the ministries of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. So this is a ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's a very important one. In fact, I can't think of one that's not. but is a ministry of the Holy Spirit to transform the believer in growing glory, from glory to another level of glory.

The Holy Spirit is in fact the one who brings the Word of God to us. How was the Bible written? It was written by the inspiration of the Spirit. So the Bible was written by the Holy Spirit, we understand it by the Holy Spirit, and we are transformed as a result of it as a ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is involved all the way along. But does the Holy Spirit get all the attention? No! The Holy Spirit is not the focal point, even though the Holy Spirit is involved all the way along. What does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit directs our attention to Christ. Beholding Christ is what the Holy Spirit works with to transform us. So this transforming process is a work of the Holy Spirit in each one of us as we behold the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we recall from our study of Romans chapter 8, we are in the Spirit. We are also in Christ. Christ is in us and the Spirit is in us.

And those are not identical, even though they sound the same. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has different ministries in doing so than Christ. All right. Now we come to the part that's called Expanded and Explained, and it's not about me because I don't want to be expanded, and I can't be explained. Okay.

Now, here is 2 Corinthians 3.18, Expanded and Explained. You have this on page two as a slide. And what we try to do here is to take the passage, include more meaning from the context and from the Greek language. Now it gets a little wordy, but I think it helps us understand.

We put it this way, but all of us who are in Christ with a face that is not veiled by the law. having died in relationship to the law and living by God's amazing grace, are right now continuing to behold as we read and hear the written word of God, seeing as one who looks into a mirror the glory, the radiant essence of who Christ is, the glory that comes from Christ himself, and we are in fact in the very process of being changed and transformed into the same spiritual character Growing from one level of Christ's glory to the next and every part of this beholding and transformation is from the God-given ministries of the Holy Spirit Got that This is this is an amazing passage Growing as a ministry of the Holy Spirit in the radiant essence of who God is and So God wants you and me, as we behold the Lord through his word, God wants you and me to be growing in the radiant essence of who God is and to be changed in the direction towards which we're being changed for all eternity. We're getting ready for forever. We're getting ready for forever and this is a part of what God is doing as we behold the Lord through his word here this morning We're not just getting spiritual data We're being made ready for that day when we will see him face to face It's getting ready time folks. Hey, I For an unbeliever, think of what they're looking at.

You know, life goes from here to here, and when they get towards the end... As a matter of fact, my grandpa used to use this illustration. He says, for an unbeliever, it's like a funnel. You know, and life is big, and then it gets smaller and smaller and smaller until you get to the end of the funnel, and then it... Right? For the believer, it's the other way around. Okay?

For the believer, this thing is growing and getting wider until we go home to see the Lord face to face. So we're getting ready, folks. We're growing in the things that count. We're growing in the things that count forever. We're being transformed into the image of Christ. And the image of Christ is all about what we're going to be forever. All about what we're going to be forever. This is a wonderful thing.

There is, however, something I want to underscore. Beholding the Lord is an essential aspect of our fellowship with Christ. It's not just some little separate spiritual process that goes on, and it's certainly not an intellectual one. It's not one that has sort of a commodity value.

It is a part of our fellowship with Christ Himself. John 15, we read of Christ's call to abide in me. to depend upon Him, and to have intimacy with Him, to have continual fellowship with Him. Abiding in Christ is also an aspect of the fellowship with Him that conveys our continual dependence and intimacy with Christ. So when we talk about beholding the Lord through His Word, sometimes people will go, wow, that was really something. What is it? What's beholding? It is a part of our intimacy and fellowship with Christ. So John 15, when Christ says, abide in me, is not talking about something that's wildly different. This is connected up with beholding the Lord.

Romans 6.11 and Galatians 2.19 and 20 both refer to being alive to God or live to God. Both of those passages. Being alive to God or living to God is our ongoing fellowship with God based on who we are in Christ.

It has to do with fellowship. It has to do with relationship. I use these words fellowship and relationship. Let me explain. Relationship is what we actually have as believers all the time. I have a relationship with Nancy. She is my wife. Now, fellowship is the living out of that relationship. Same thing with the Lord. If you're a believer, you have a relationship with the Lord. The fellowship is the living out of that relationship. See the difference? So when we use the word relationship and fellowship, I don't mean to use them interchangeably. Fellowship is ongoing living out of the relationship that's there.

Colossians 3, 1 through 4, and this also is expanded and explained, I think, gives us the perspective. Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, and it is true that you have, you must keep on seeking the things above where Christ the Messiah is seated at the right hand of God. You must keep on setting your mind on the things above and not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ the Messiah in thee God. When Christ the Messiah who is our life is revealed at his second coming, Luke 17 30, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. It is about the fellowship that we have, the relationship that we have with Him, that's what beholding the Lord through His word is about. And it has a purpose that goes on into eternity.

It's not just every Sunday. Setting our minds on thing above is not just about location, it's about fellowship with Christ. Setting our minds on things above is not just saying, boy, I sure like those golden streets. This has got the best pavement in the whole world. No, out of this world, right? It isn't just about things as in things, but it's spiritual realities and it's focused upon Christ Himself. Set our minds on things above centered on Christ. Fellowship with Him.

Colossians 3, 16 and 17 expand and explain conveys a similar notion. The personal communication of Christ must richly dwell and make a home within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another, with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your heart to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, you must do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. meaning His person and character and all of His accomplishments in you and on your behalf, giving thanks through Christ to God the Father, as both Romans 8 and Ephesians 2 indicate, by means of and as a ministry of the Holy Spirit. It has to do with fellowship with Him. Beholding the Lord through His word is, I just got an A on my seminary exam. It's not just, boy, that guy sure knows a lot of stuff.

It's personal fellowship with Him based on relationship that's been established. Our beholding the living Word of God through the written Word of God is an essential aspect of our fellowship with Him. Our beholding the living Word of God through the written Word of God is an essential aspect of our fellowship with Him. We don't get closer by bypassing it. It's not incidental. It's essential. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you. You made your word inspired and available to us. You preserved it, even though there have been centuries in places where having a Bible has been illegal. And yet, you made it available to us because you love us and you care for us. And in fact, you have a great many purposes for it. And one of those important purposes is that we be transformed, changed into the image of your son.

Until that day when we see him face to face and Lord we would pray that that for all of us would be today. Until that day Lord we just give you thanks for this wonderful thing that you have in place that we behold you through your word and you change us into the image of your son. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.