Two Identifying Marks of a True Believer

Hello, my name is Fred Tomlinson and I am delighted to have this opportunity to talk to you and I wanted to say at the outset that one feature of this process is particularly amazing to me. One half of that is that I'm able to address so many people from the room where I'm recording this right now. You just see the numbers of people on Sermon Index that tuning into it is amazing and thrilling. The other aspect of it is when I think about the fact that so many people are listening to what I am saying and yet they have no concept of who I am at all. I've not been around for a long time on the internet, I've not written lots of books or anything like that. I'm just anonymous. Anyway, in the light of that I thought I'd just take a few minutes just before I say anything else to give you a little idea as to who I am and I should start, I suppose, by saying, well, of course, I'm English. My accent probably betrays that fact but my wife and I have been adopted by Canada and this has been our home for quite a long time now. We married 57 years ago. Isn't that amazing? 57 years ago and we were courting. There'll be people listening to me who don't even know what that word means but we were courting for four and a half years before we actually married. So we've been around with each other for a long time since we were quite young and that union was clearly ordained of God and provided by the Lord and the journey has been and continues to be very wonderful. I thank God for giving me such a wonderful life partner as he has with my wife or in my wife, Sheila. Together we have four children that are now completely grown and have their own families. And one of our daughters, we have two sons and two daughters. One of our daughters went back to the UK. She's married and has a family in the north of England and attends a fellowship in the north of England and the other three, again, all married with their own families, live within a five-hour drive journey from where I am speaking right now in Western Canada. And those, our children have given us 16 grandchildren and they have given us 12 great-grandchildren. So we've gone forth and multiplied and that's wonderful. And with regards to myself, I started a career with the Liverpool City Police in the UK, of course, and I felt at that time that I had found my niche so far as employment was concerned. It was not merely employment. It was so incredibly enjoyable and seemed to suit me and fit like a glove. But something happened that changed everything and that was that the Lord intercepted us. We had been raised in a Christian home, in a good evangelical home, sound Bible teaching and so on. And we were committed to the assemblies. But we ended up meeting a group of people and those people made a profound impression upon Sheila, my wife and myself, as we sensed that they were experiencing something in the Christian life that we really didn't know anything much about. And it wasn't so much that the words were different, but the life factor was enormously different. These were people who knew God. And as a result of meeting them, we made our own responses to the Lord ourselves. This was not some outlandish charismatic type of situation at all. And to help you understand a little more about that, way back in those years, when we first met the people, which would have been in the 1960s, a newspaper reporter came to one of the leading brethren in the group and asked if she could have an interview actually, and then write an article about what was happening there. And that brother said, well, I'd rather not do an interview, but you're most welcome to come to one of the meetings and write and just write whatever you find. Some people would have thought that was a rather risky thing to do with the media, but she did a fantastic job. And when the article was published, we were thrilled to read what was going on in our group through her eyes. And particularly, we were impressed with the title that she gave to the article, which was Knowing God for Themselves. When we read that, we thought, well, that's exactly what this is all about. We were a group of people who were definitely not satisfied to know God by hearsay. We wanted to know God ourselves, and we believe that that was a possibility that God had arranged. And so that was wonderful. We were, in so many ways, we were intent upon rediscovering and experiencing the life and power of New Testament Christianity. And so once again, that pivoted our lives, my career, everything. We gave our all to what the Lord was opening up. And before long, I was included in the leadership of that group. And from there, I traveled here, there, and everywhere, and had opportunities in many places to preach this wonderful gospel of God, as the Apostle Paul calls it. And we ended up in Canada, and that's the way the story goes. There's ever such a lot more, of course, that I could share with you, but there's a start. And maybe I'll share something else in other sessions. But now I would like to turn your attention to what we want to focus on in this session. There will be those of you who listened to the message that I brought a week ago, and in many ways, this is a continuation of that. I had chosen to focus my thoughts and base my thoughts around aspects of the life of Moses. These are very abridged, tight little sessions, because quite a while ago now, I did a series that started in the children of Israel in Egypt, and moved all the way through, and into the Promised Land, and so on. That took months of time to accomplish. So these are just tight little abridged sessions. Not that I'm repeating anything that I said back then, that I remember anyway. But when we were in the session last week, we had joined Moses when he was 80 years of age. Many of you will have recognized as you read through the story of Moses, that his 120 years of life was separated into three categories of three 40-year periods. And he had spent 40 years living with the royal family in Egypt, and 40 years then in the backside of the desert, having become married there. The thing is, for those who are not quite so familiar with the story, the fact is God had sovereignly and providentially protected his life at birth, and shortly thereafter, when he would have been killed because of what was going on in Egypt at that point in time. But God not only preserved his life, and acted providentially to do that. But the fact is, there was a further aspect of that sovereign, providential hand of God, in that he arranged that Moses was taken over and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, and taken to the palace. Moses' mother was actually commissioned to be the baby's nurse. And so she had the privilege of raising her own child in so many ways under these new conditions. And of course, all the setting was alien to them because they were in a pagan setting. But God had his hand in it all, not merely preserving his life, and not merely even having his mother there. But this gave a tremendous beginning for Moses in the sense that his mother, who was, of course, Jewish, and fully recognizing what was going on, and how God's hand was in all of this, we can rest assured that she gave herself unreservedly to teach the young child the things of the true and living God, and the history of God's work with his people, with their people. And that was a very essential foundation for the remainder of his life. But at the end of 40 years, there was an incident that took place, and he saw something taking place, which was clearly wrong. He intervened, and as the result of his intervention, an Egyptian soldier was killed, and Moses fled for his life, I'm sure. And that was the end of his time in the palace in Egypt. He started a new life, met his wife, and so on. But then we find him looking after his father-in-law's sheep, and many of you will remember, and we touched on this last time, how that there must have been many, many times during those years when he looked back on the way that he had intervened in that situation. Was he too rash in doing what he did? He may have thought to himself. But there was more going on in Moses than just that, and I know that from reading Hebrews chapter 11, in the New Testament, of course. But the fact of the matter is, being human, there must have been times when he thought, I just screwed up so badly, messed everything up, and here I am, here in the desert somewhere, looking after my father-in-law's sheep. What has my life come to? You know what? I think there's a lot of people today who think along those lines. In fact, I've met a good many of them in the course of my own life and ministry. People who feel that as a result of something they've done, or something they didn't do that they ought to have done, or whatever it was, that they have just completely messed everything up, and there's no hope now that God could ever make anything of their lives. Nothing could be more wrong, actually, and what I believe to be true is this, that if the call of God is on a person's life, no matter what goes on and what twists or turns they take in life, that which God starts, he will finish. And I believe it's true to say that through all of those long years, all 80 of them, the eye of God was upon that man, and he was God's man. He was here and he was there, he was doing this and he was doing something else, but the fact is God had not forsaken him at all, and this is the wonderful thing about God. In fact, there's one amazing thing to me is that God, in his own unique genius, if I may refer to it like that, he is able to take the things that we have done, which even we have looked back on and said, that was a mistake to have done that, or we shouldn't have gone there, or whatever it is, but God, he is able to weave together even those events and even those activities, and somehow weave them all in together into his great purpose. There's other things that happen to us, people disappoint us, people hurt us in our journey and seem to throw us for a six, as we'd say in England, but God is able to overrule them, continue to work out his plan and his purpose in spite of everything, and that is a wonderful thing. And all of this to get us to the place and position that he needs to get us to, in order for us to be or do what he has in his heart. A couple of months ago, is it now, I think I spoke about Joseph, and he's a classic example of this. Do you remember when, after all was said and done, he said to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, and he was thinking of all of the twists and turns that have taken place in his life as the result of the behavior of his brothers toward him. But God was in it all, and God used it all to get Joseph to the place where he needed him to be, in order to become his servant, God's servant, in the situation which would develop in the fullness of time. Oh, that's very, very wonderful. And so, in the life of Moses, he's there one night, looking after his father-in-law's sheep. I don't know what in the world he was thinking, or whether he was going over some of these things I've just suggested, I don't know, but there he was, and then God broke in right on time. You will have noticed that phrase in scripture, at least it comes in the Old King James, like this. That's the translation I was raised on for many, many years, and still use it largely as well at this time. But in the fullness of time, in the fullness of time, such and such, this is God. He has not just a program, he's got a timetable. And for Moses, this man with 80 years of wandering and doing and whatnot, disappointments and hurts, in the fullness of time, that particular night, in the backside of the desert, in the dark, except for a starry sky, God broke into his life. He broke the silence. I've got no record in the Bible of actual conversations between Moses and God prior to that. I'm not saying they weren't there, but I don't have them. But all that changed that night. God broke into this man's life, and as a result of what took place there, which we talked about last time, that triggered a whole series of events then. Many, many things happened that we can read about. I'm thinking of the actual commission that God gave to Moses that night, and how that began to work out. And I'm thinking of the contest that took place between Moses and Pharaoh. You remember with his repeated visits to Pharaoh, with his command, let my people go. And then, of course, there was the great spectacular deliverance from Egypt's bondage when, under Moses' leadership, but God was working and brought the people forth from that place, and then caused the Red Sea to open. And Moses was watching all of this. He was a key player in it all, in many ways, but he knew it was God doing this. He couldn't have done any of these things. And he watched the Red Sea part, and how they crossed through there. And he knew that God was in it the next morning when they saw all of Pharaoh's armies all washed up on the seashore, and so on. Such an amazing deliverance, and so on. And then now, and coming more particularly to where we want to be tonight, they come to Mount Sinai, and in this area of the mountain, and a number of things happen. Lots of things took place that are very, very interesting, very significant, and instructive, and very important in the whole program of God that would take place there. But, you know, for tonight, and in this session, I want to focus in on two particular enormous gains that Moses sort of garnered, as it were, as the result of these stunning encounters with God that he had there at the mount, and on the mount. Amen. And I want to view these two encounters in this session, but I want to do it through the lens of the New Testament. We're in such an incredible position, are we not, where we can reread the Old Testament, but we can read it from the perspective of the New Testament, or the New Covenant. And we can look back through the cross and all that was part of the great redemptive work that took place there, and then look back through that lens to the Old Testament. And God, who, if I may refer to his genius, which is probably a completely inappropriate way to refer to God, but in his masterly way of operating, he has woven so much into the Old Testament. And in some of the sessions I would like to take in the New Year, I want to look at some of the Old Testament shadows and types, and see how God arranged so many particulars, and so many situations, and so many people in such a way that they would be symbolic and helpful to understand New Testament truth. Sometimes I've referred to the Old Testament as being like the pictorial section of the Bible. It's far more than that, but nevertheless, some things are sort of worked out, as is the case in this that we're looking at in this session. And then just when we look at them from the perspective of the New Testament, we see that they're incredibly significant and helpful for us today. And so what I'm looking at with these two, I've called them gains that Moses garnered, I'm looking at them as two features that, in a very real way, mark the identity of all true Christian believers. Now there are many more marks that fit into this category than just two, but we'll limit things to two for this session. The first mark that I'm looking at in Moses is that Moses' knowledge of God never fully satisfied him. That's my first point. It never fully satisfied him, which is amazing, because I've already listed to some degree some of these amazing events that took place where Moses, as I have said, was, as it were, standing back watching God doing these things that were so supernatural, so amazing, so staggering in so many ways. And he was a man who was watching, he was taking a front row seat and watching God work. I'm reading here in Exodus chapter 33, I'm reading just two verses in this chapter for now, and I think I'm going to read three verses. Verse 7 of chapter 33, now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside of the camp. This was not the tabernacle, this was before the tabernacle was constructed. This was a temporary tent and location where it was understood that God's presence would be and where people could commune. You'll see that when I read this section. But he took the tent and pitched it outside of the camp. Forgive me, but I must just stop and just tell you he's doing this because some terrible sin has come into the camp. And when sin comes in the presence of God and the blessing of God is lost. So that was happening sort of symbolically and in a real way, actually. So Moses, he moves the tent outside of the camp and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. And it came about whenever Moses went out to the tent that all the people would arise and stand each one at the entrance of his own tent and gaze after Moses until he had entered into the tent. Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses. Listen to this. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. And when Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. He'd gone in and joined him at some point, obviously. But what an amazing thing. We're talking about Moses and his knowledge of God. And these verses are amazing. We're talking about the almighty God who had chosen to make himself known. Bear in mind that God is a self-revealing God. We may get there again in a few minutes. But this wasn't Moses' idea. He didn't dream up any of these things that we've been referring to. God is always the initiator, never man. God is the initiator. He's the alpha and he is the omega. He'll finish it all as well. And so God arranged all of this. And God has chosen to become involved in the life of Moses and in the life of the people, of course, that he represented. And what a wonderful thing. We could pause and be amazed at just so many phrases right there in those verses. But the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. How amazing is that? It's remarkable. And, you know, Moses carries on speaking here. He said to the Lord in verse 12 of this 33rd chapter of Exodus, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you yourself have not yet let me know whom you will send with me. Moreover, you have said, I have known you by name and you have found favor in my sight, says the Lord. How about that? Now, therefore, says Moses, I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I may know you so that I may find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people. And he said, my presence shall go with you and I, the Lord, will give you rest. Amen. And so I'm talking about Moses. I'm talking about his knowledge of God. And do you remember I said my heading for this part of the message is that Moses' knowledge of God never fully satisfied him. And I think I'm hearing him, you know, this is the way it goes. You know, God has just said my presence shall go with you and I will give you rest. And then Moses responds to the Lord. And he said, Lord, if your presence doesn't go with us, don't lead us up there. Do you hear Moses? It's as though he's saying, Lord, this is a wonderful thing that you're saying that you're going to go with us. He said, but you know what, Lord, I'm taking that for granted because if you're not with us, I'm not going. There's no point at all in going any further. And then it's as though he's saying, Lord, I want something more. I want something more. He was never satisfied. And so I can read on and I could go to, well, let me just turn over the chapter a little here. In verse 13, where am I going to here? In verse 13, where I read to you a moment ago, he says, now, therefore, I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways. And it's this phrase I want that he goes on to say. He said, that I may know you. That I may know you. Well, do you not know the Lord already, Moses? Is this not enough that you have at this point in time? He's saying, Lord, I want more. I just want more. And then he goes on and he says, Lord, I so desperately want to know you. I can't rest. And so God actually makes a concession for Moses. And we can read about that. And God says to him, all right, I'll do this thing which you have spoken. For you have found favor in my sight and I have known you by name. Then Moses said, I pray you, show me your glory. Now, do you see what I'm meaning when I say he's never satisfied? He's got all these miracles taking place. He's got God speaking to him in some way. And this tent of meeting and this cloud of his glory descending. But Moses is saying, Lord, there's more. I know there's more. I want to really know you. Now he's saying, show me your glory. And this was an audacious thing that he's requesting of God. But you know, the wonderful thing is God, of course, knew exactly what Moses was up to and what he wanted. And so he responds to that question in verse 18 and he says, I will make myself and all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And then he goes on to say and show compassion and all I will show compassion. And then listen to this. This is God. He said, but you cannot see my face. For no man can see me and live. Here's my point again. When Moses said, Lord, I'm not satisfied. I'm not satisfied. Show me more. I want to know you. Show me your glory. God knows what he's up to. He knows that what Moses really wants is Moses wants to see his face. It's as though he was saying in sort of a strange vernacular, Lord, I just want to see your face. That will be your glory. I could just see your face. Because all this was under the old covenant and. But God made this concession that I've been saying and and that was very wonderful. And but God said, well, no one can see my face and live. I can't help but just interject a phrase that's come into my mind of Charles Wesley. I love so much of Charles Wesley's hymns. But but Charles Wesley responding to this very situation in one of his hymns, he said, then show me your face and let me die. That was that was Moses. That was John. Forgive me. That was Charles Wesley saying that, you know, the fact of the matter is what I'm suggesting here may sound sort of, well, doesn't everybody want this really? But that's not the point that we need to get to. I believe that today that there are this tremendous complacency within what would be referred to as the body of Christ. And so many are just too easily satisfied and satisfied with shallow and as the result, there's such a widespread, low view of who God really is, of God's true identity and familiarity in terms of words and even scripture tests. Thick text has created this sort of complacency in so many people, very sadly. And there's no real interest in being shown that there's actually more. Do you remember when Apollos was shown by Priscilla and Aquila the way of God more perfectly? I think it's tremendously to the credit of Apollos, because he was told right in the text that he was a gifted preacher, mighty in the scriptures and preached boldly and so on. But after he finished preaching, Priscilla and Aquila, this husband and wife, took him to one side and they showed him the way of God more perfectly. And the credit due to Apollos is because he opened his heart to what they were saying. And he received what they're saying. For a preacher to open his heart to what someone else is seeking to show them, which is higher or better or richer, is not so common. But there you are. And sadly, that's true for so many people. They're just not interested in anything that would challenge their own status quo or the comfort zone that they found in the nominal form of Christian commitment that they're engaged in, and so on. And that's very, very sad. But, you know, praise God, there are still those around who have, as it were, a fire burning in their bones today, who have a longing to really know God in a much deeper and richer way. And like Moses, they suffer from a very healthy form of dissatisfaction. And although they may have some knowledge of God, it never fully satisfies them. That's what we're taking away from Moses here and applying to ourselves in this day. That sadly, there are so few in this category. But the fact is, those in this category, they're a great company of people. They've just got a hunger for God and a passion for God. And no challenge is too great. No sacrifice is too great. And no temptation is too strong, strong enough to draw them away from that place. Amen. I think, once again, Charles Wesley probably says it best in one of his hymns relating to this section of scripture. Let me just read two verses to you of what he wrote. By faith, I see thee passing now. He's thinking of the cleft in the rock, the hiding there and God moving past and covering over the opening as he moves past. We've got this in the text here. And then removing his hand after he's passed so that Moses is able to see the backward parts of God, but he couldn't see his face. Right. So here's Wesley. By faith, I see thee passing now. I have, but still I ask for more. A glimpse of love cannot suffice. My soul for all thy presence cries. I cannot see thy face and live. Then let me see thy face and die. Moses, thy backward parts might view, but not a perfect sight obtain. The gospel does thy fullness show to us by the commandment slain. The dead to sin shall find the grace. The pure in heart shall see thy face. I cannot see thy face and live. Then let me see thy face and die. Amen. What a wonderful and profound statement of faith and confidence in God, which is based solidly on the teaching of Scripture. Hallelujah. God made a concession for Moses. He took advantage of it. And the fact is, as the glory of the Lord passed by on that occasion, Moses was hidden in the rock side and he sees and he bows. When this took place, I'm reading in chapter 34, verse 8, Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. Hallelujah. Under the line from a well-known Wesley hymn goes, lost in wonder, love and praise. And I, if I know anything at all, I believe that Moses, as he saw this sight, this awesome, stupendous, staggering sight of the almighty God revealed to him in this way, vague in one sense, but incredibly clear and powerful in another. He must surely, most assuredly be filled with wonder. Wonderful God. And he bows himself down to the earth and worships. Amen. Even that fact itself would be highly symbolic for us looking through the lens of the New Testament. Surely it all points to the new covenant glory of the life hidden with Christ in God, as we read. One of the Apostle Paul's beloved phrases that he uses repeatedly is, in Christ, in Christ, in him, he is the rock in whom we shelter. And it is there where he reveals his glory to men and women today. Amen. And you know, when a man sees him, yes, it's by faith, but somehow it's something that only those who are spiritual can understand. Paul explains that in 1 Corinthians 2. It doesn't mean anything to those who are not moved upon by the spirit of God, but here's the truth for every man and every woman who is truly hidden in that cleft in the rock, hidden in Christ, to whom the Lord by his spirit begins to reveal himself. That individual always falls, always falls. And I might say, not intending to be provocative in a careless way, but never on their backs, which suggests helplessness, but always on their face, they bow down to the earth. We just read, they bow down. When a man sees him, he always falls. True worship is exclusively a response to a revelation of the glory of God. I read this in many different passages, but certainly perhaps a classic is in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 17, where John is talking about his experience, where the Lord is revealing himself in that glorious way in the midst of the church, as you remember. But then there's this one succinct statement, it's so telling, where John says this, and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. It's the most natural, the most obvious thing in the world. In Malachi chapter 3, I read, who shall stand when he appears? And the answer to that is no one, no one. Amen. The fact is that his presence, the presence of the Lord made real to us by the Holy Spirit today under the new covenant, is such that it always gives birth to worship, always, inevitably, spontaneously. And the key factor to true worship is wonder, is wonder, lost in wonder, love and praise. Moses was lost in wonder. When any man or any woman today is so privileged as to have a sense that the very Spirit of God is revealing something of the glory of God to them, it fills you with wonder and causes you to bow down and to worship. Amen. Do you know that there's no higher, more lofty experience or activity in which a human being can engage than in true, authentic worship of God? You know, we're pretty good at making a joyful noise, and I'm not saying as long as it really is the right kind of joyful noise, there's nothing wrong with that, I'm not saying that, but we're good at doing that. We're pretty good at bringing prayer requests. We're pretty good at deathly-like silence as well. But you know, true worship is something else altogether. And you know, in my experience, even just looking at the effect of men and women truly worshipping God, I've seen it cause men and women to get up from their seats in a meeting and run out of the meeting and leave the building, reminding me each time of the Scripture it says in the Book of Acts that in that early church, no man dares join themselves to them. You know, if the presence of God is being revealed in the context, it always exposes sin, and it always exposes self or the flesh. I've seen demons cry out in meetings where true worship is taking place. But you know, I've seen and almost feel as though I've heard strong chains breaking in men and women's lives in the presence of God. And I've watched as adamantine hard hearts have been melted in the presence of God as he's revealed himself, as worship is taking place at the same time. Amen. His true presence will always produce true worship. Amen. And such worship is never a form of entertainment. And such worship can never be controlled or led by mere men. We're talking again of something so incredibly lofty. And that's the first thing. I'll be a little briefer with the second point I want to make here. But with respect to Moses, when he descended from that place where he'd hidden in the rock and seen this great sight take place, he descended from the mount. And the wonderful truth is this, that I'll read in verse 29. I can do no better than read the scripture. It came about, this is chapter 34 if you're following me, in verse 29. It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai and the two tables or tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down the mountain that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him, with him, with the Lord. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near to him. Then Moses called all of them together and so on. And when he talked to them, he had his, he put a mask on his face. And when he talked to God, he removed it. It goes on to say here, Amen. When he was in the presence of the King of Glory, he could take the mask off and worship with open face there. Amen. And as he came down the mountain, he had no idea. He had no idea that being there in the presence of the glory of God had actually changed his appearance dramatically. But he was unconscious of the radiance that was shining there. Reminding me of Psalm 34 where we read, they looked to him and were radiant. Amen. The Apostle Paul in the New Testament, back to the New Testament lens, he seizes this event and builds upon it. And I want to read now some other verses from 2 Corinthians 3. I'm not going to read all the verses here and perhaps I need to leave the reading because of time's sake. But if you'd like to read from verse 7 through to the end of the chapter, wonderful. I'd like to take the rest of the session just right on these verses here. But what Paul is doing here, he is expounding the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant. And he seizes upon this event we've been looking at in Exodus to illustrate his point. And he's talking about the Old Legal Covenant having a glory, certainly, but he goes on to teach here in this section that it was a temporary glory and it faded just like the glory on Moses' face which faded as time went on. And the outcome of that Old Legal Covenant was death. And then as he goes on expounding this passage and this great truth, he shows how the New Covenant has a glory which is greater by far than the glory of the Old Covenant. And he says this glory is not temporary, it's permanent and it doesn't fade. And instead of producing death as did the Old Legal Covenant, he said it produces life. And that's his message here. And he goes on to teach and show how that in Christ, the veil is taken away. And I'll read those last couple of verses. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with open face, without masks and without anything in between, he says, with open face beholding as in the glass, the reflected glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by the spirit of the Lord. What a wonderful thing. And this is how he's lifting out of that Old Testament passage with Moses and bringing it into the light of the New Testament and showing that the New Covenant is a better covenant based on better promises and it brings better results than did the Old Covenant. And he's in raptures about it and we ought to be as well. And basically he's saying, and we may behold him. We don't see him as we shall yet see him in the fullness of God's time. In that great day, we will see him face to face. But at the moment we see as it were through a glass dimly we're told, but it's real and faith illuminates the scene always as we bow in his presence. Amen. And as we gaze, the Apostle John, he puts it very wonderfully writing in his first epistle. He puts it this way. This is the first verse of the first epistle of John. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon or gazed upon and our hands have handled of the word of life for the life, the life was manifested and we have seen it. And then he goes on saying we're bearing witness to it. And so this is John. This is not Moses in the old covenant. This is an apostle of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And he says, listen, we actually saw the Lord of glory. He's talking about the Christ of God who came to be our redeemer. And he said, we saw him in his life. We were with him. We saw him, we handled him. We saw him with our eyes, but then he goes on and we gazed upon him. They were filled with wonder as they gazed upon him. And even then they didn't really, really, really know and understand what they would understand in the fullness of time. And I'm referring to what happened on the day of Pentecost. But there you are. But the apostle Paul is saying here to the Corinthians, he's saying, as we gaze upon him, we are being changed by the spirit of God from glory to glory. And that the promise is that we've been preordained by the heart of God to be conformed to the image of God and to bear his image. What a wonderful thing. You know, as I draw this to a conclusion, just thinking back over these two categories that I've made mention of, the continual posture of worship before God and a life that is radiant with his presence, both of these factors are mysteries. And neither of these can be learned. They can't be mimicked. They can't be practiced. They can't be produced in any way. They're never the product of human personality and they're never the product of natural resources. They are exclusively products that result from the consistent exercise of climbing alone. That will take you back to what I was talking about in the last session. They're the exclusive product of climbing alone climbing this mount alone, as it were, and abiding in the cleft of the rock and gazing upon him who is in fact invisible. And thus, these things are fundamentally impossible apart from the indwelling spirit of God. Amen. But they are descriptions of that which is available by the grace of God and through the redemptive work of Christ and now the giving of God, the Holy Spirit. And these, beloved, are just two marks that will always identify those who truly know God. Amen. I trust that behind my words, you may have heard the word of God to your heart. And I trust that you will find it in your heart to get alone with him and to bow before him and refresh your relationship with him, assuming that you already have a relationship with him. But I trust that you might be like Moses, and that is never satisfied with your current knowledge of God, because there's always more. There's always more, beloved. No matter where you've attained to or whatever's happened, or whatever God has revealed to you, there's always more. There's always more. Keep your heart open. Jesus said, my sheep know my voice. Have your ear cocked, be listening. And God may speak to you in strange ways, even the very fact you're listening to me right now. It could be that by God's grace, he's saying something to you in particular through this message I'm bringing. I don't know. I have no idea. All I know is that God gave me this to share with whoever would listen. And I trust that you will find it in your heart to bow before him and surrender yourself to him more fully in a more conscious understanding of the richness of this great salvation that he has made possible for each and every one of you. Before I leave, I would like to say just one word back to the internet. I honestly cherish the encouraging remarks that many of you have left there for me to read. I have read them. And right after making this recording, I'm going into a Zoom prayer meeting. And I can assure you, we'll be praying for everyone that has listened and will yet listen to this message. And I trust maybe you'll choose to join me next week. And we'll see where we go to then. God bless you. Amen.