Transfigured

2 Corinthians chapter 3. For some of you who weren't here last week, this is kind of a second part of this chapter. We talk some about Paul's comparison here between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And he's going to talk here about the glory.

Yes, the Old Covenant had a glory to it, but the New Covenant's glory far exceeds. And he makes a comparison. I'm not going to go down through this comparison that we made last time, but we learned last time just in an overview that the Old Covenant could not help you and I. The Old Covenant could not help us.

It was a beautiful standard. Paul said in Romans 7 that it's holy and righteous. It's a beautiful standard, but it could not help us.

It could not redeem fallen humanity because humanity is fallen. And all the law could do is expose our need and our helplessness. Romans 8 says what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh because of our fallen nature, the law could not accomplish the purposes.

And so it was like a doctor. It was a diagnostic tool that showed us our condition, our sinful state of being. The Old Covenant was an outward influence.

It was written on stones. And all those outward influences could not change humanity. I'm thinking about the time when God came down on the mountain there and Moses went up and that mountain shook and it smoked and there was lightning and the people were so fearful.

There was a fence built around it. If anyone touched the mountain, they would be thrust through with a dart. I mean, just terrible things.

Very fearful things. And yet, in all of that, you would think, my, if people would see that and they would have the fear of God and they would know that the fear of God is something that is very real, that would turn them from sin. They would live a perfect, obedient life.

No, that didn't do it either. And it cannot do it. All the fear of God.

So the Old Covenant had an outward influence. The fear of God. The tables of stone.

And all the influences from the outside. But the New Covenant is an inside job. We talked about that some last week.

I want to read to you here in Hebrews 8 again. I read this last week in verse 10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their mind and write them in their hearts.

And I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people. So in this New Covenant, the law is not written on stone by ink on parchments. It's written in the tables of our hearts.

There is help for us on the inside. We call that grace. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

We need help on the inside. We need a deliverance. Brother John mentioned liberty.

We need freedom and grace. So God's true work, as we learned last week, is an inside-out job. Cleanse first that which is within the cup.

An inside-out job. And all of this is review here. I want to just give a little bit of review for those who weren't here in Romans 2. This is one of my favorite verses here on this subject.

It says, For He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. That was an outward thing in the Old Covenant. But He is a Jew which is one inwardly.

And the circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. And so in the New Covenant, it's a circumcision that is internal. It is a cutting away of the affection of your heart from the world to the Lord Jesus.

It's an internal thing. And that will be manifested as time goes on outwardly. But it's not the outward pressure that the Old Covenant would put on you.

You need to do this, or you're stoned. You need to do this to be a part of the people of God. You need to be circumcised.

All these outward things to try to get people to comply. But it's an internal covenant. And that which is worked out from the inside by the grace of God.

And so we talked about glory. And this whole chapter here is in large part about glory. I'm going to read a few verses here.

And look at how many times this word glory or glorious is used in chapter 3 here in verse 7. But if the ministration of death written and engraved in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

And then jump down to verse 18. But we all with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. If you counted those, I think you got 14.

14 times where this idea of glory. And it's oftentimes referred to as the glory of God, the excellence of the Lord, the honor of the Lord, and that's the heart of God to produce that glory in you and I. This beautiful image of His Son. So we're told here that the Old Covenant was a glorious covenant.

But the New Covenant was a much more glorious covenant. I likened it to a 60 watt light bulb in comparison to a flood lamp, you know? Both of them have a glory, but one glory far exceeds the other glory. Now here's something that I drew on the board.

I want to draw it again. That is very essential to this chapter. This is Moses on the mountain.

And God was there with him. And the Lord had a glory about Him. It's called the Shekinah glory.

And that glory shone onto Moses from the outside. The glory came to Moses. And it says that Moses' face shone.

That glory was seen on his face. But in the New Testament, things are different. And that glory is not external.

The Lord actually comes and lives in us. You are the temple now of the Holy Spirit of God, and God writes these things, and He lives in our hearts, and that glory is going out of us. As opposed to coming to us and affecting us outwardly, Moses' skin just shone on his face because of the glory.

In the New Covenant, it's this here. The glory of God coming out of us because the Lord is within us. If you look at 2 Corinthians 4, and we're just laying this review foundation here in verse 6, it says, For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that's in creation, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That's what this is here. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

And so Paul considers this here in the New Covenant. This is a treasure that you have in your earthen vessel. And this treasure should be coming out.

And even in the next chapter, in chapter 4, we're going to be talking about some of that. And I'm going to look at chapter 4 a little bit here this morning. So let's jump into some new things here.

And he goes on. We're going to start in verse 12 down through verse 18 today and finish up the chapter. But Paul is going to make a comparison between Moses and this glory that was on his face and the New Testament glory.

And there's some lessons I think we can learn from this passage, and I'd like to bring out those lessons. There's three comparisons that he makes, at least what I can see here, about these two and how the New Covenant glory far exceeds the Old Covenant glory. I want to start out with this first one here in verse number 13.

I'll tell you what. Let me read down through this passage starting in verse 12 and then we'll come back and look at these three comparisons. Verse 12 of chapter 3. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished, but their minds were blinded.

For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts. 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, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. There's so much in there.

Even just reading that again, I just saw some more things there. So much we could talk about in this passage here and of course in many other passages. But I'd like to look at some of the comparisons that is made here by Paul.

And the first one is back in verse 13. It says, And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face. Now jump down to verse 18.

Here's the new covenant. But we all with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord. The old covenant had a glory.

Moses experienced that glory on the top of Mount Sinai. But it says here, Moses. Moses was the only one that experienced that glory.

This glory was not available for the congregation. As a matter of fact, even Joshua went up with Moses, but he didn't get the opportunity to go up actually in the presence of God. He was waited at a lower place.

And one person, Moses, got the privilege of being in the presence of the Lord and experiencing this glory so much so that it says his face shone. But I want you to notice here that he's the only person. It wasn't Joshua and all the priests and all the people had a shining face.

It was one individual. Moses. On the top of the mountain had this privileged opportunity.

But in verse 18 in the new covenant it says, but we all we all we all can behold the glory of the Lord. You see, the old covenant limited it to certain individuals. Moses on Mount Sinai.

Even those who were wanting maybe to come up to see God, they were fenced out. They were on that mountain. The mountain shook.

And so, Moses was the only one who could experience this glory that he saw that affected him in such a way. But in the new covenant, praise God for this, we all, we all, the new covenant gives us all the privilege of experiencing this glory. And the Bible tells us to let us come boldly unto the throne of grace.

That's us. All of us. And you know, this is the way the Old Testament was.

It was only certain individuals who could experience things. For example, the high priest could only come into the Holy of Holies where the Shekinah glory was, where the mercy seat was, once every year. One man, once a year.

But in the new covenant, when Jesus was crucified, that veil was rent. And now, all of us, everyone from the least to the greatest, have the privilege of the great high priest to come into the presence of God boldly unto the throne of grace. And so we're moving away from a Moses and a high priest to all of us are now privileged to experience this glory.

Not only that, the prophets, I've shared this before, the prophets, they were special and privileged people, the Isaiahs, the Jeremiahs, because the Spirit of God would come upon them and they would be filled with the Spirit and they would prophesy. But as we read there in Acts chapter 2, that in these last days, in the new covenant, God is going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, that we're all again. And young men and young women, they shall be prophets too.

And old men and old ladies and old women shall prophesy. And that blessing that only a few experience will be experienced by all. One of the reasons why, we'll see this a little later on, they read the Old Testament and many of the things were blinded from them.

They couldn't see. Many people today live in the Old Testament still. They live in the Old Testament.

And it's something that still blinds many. We'll look at that here in just a little bit. But I thought about the false systems.

And this is important for all of us. The false systems of religion. They oftentimes form some sort of a hierarchy or a special position or privilege that only a special few people can experience.

You know, you take the Catholic system. You take the Pope. Who can really talk to God but the Pope? And the Pope comes and tells us what God says.

It's kind of like Moses. I'll go up on the mountain and get the revelation, and I'll come down and tell you, you peasants, you lower people, what God is trying to say to you. And the Catholic system is very much that way.

It's a hierarchy. Even those priests who have some sort of a special way of saying words that turns the bread and the wine into the body and blood of Jesus. Well, they are the only ones that can do it.

All of the false systems of religion seem to go in this direction. Popes and cardinals and priests. You know this one.

Some of you have experienced this. Don't read the Bible. Only special people can understand it.

Only people who are high up, who really are close to God. You know those who went up on the mountain like Moses and talked to God. They'll come down and tell you what it means.

That's Old Testament. Amen? You have the privilege to come boldly unto the throne of grace. You have the privilege to, as I shared with the children this morning, to understand all the wisdom of God.

You have this treasure in an earthen vessel. It's not you behold the glory of God and come down and tell us the secrets of what God is saying. These things are not hidden anymore.

Amen? 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. It says, but we all with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It's not hidden.

We're going to look at that open face here in a minute, but we have an open face. There's no veil hiding anything. You see, Moses was behind a veil.

He was hiding the glory. But we have an open face. There is nothing hidden.

Look down at chapter 4, verse 2. But we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. And we're not to be hiding it.

You've got these people that say, I have special revelation, and it's hidden, it's only for me, and you need to come to our church, you need to be a part of our group, and I can give you this special revelation. That's cultic right there. You've got to be careful.

And there are many groups that are in that system. You have the Mormon church. You have this great tabernacle, and all the secrets that are there.

And God has many secrets. And you can't have those secrets, only the special people that are in special positions. And so we speak to you in Latin languages so that you can't really understand.

We speak to you in German languages, so we don't want you to really understand the truth. It's hidden. And so you have this.

Most cults have their special leader that gets revelation from God, and we listen to him because we don't know how to go to God. And God doesn't speak to us, but He only speaks to this man. The Koreshes and the Joneses are the two ones in my youth that I remember very specifically.

Let me read to you Galatians 3. You don't have to turn there. For you're all... I like that word, all. For you're all are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. It doesn't matter your culture. There's neither bond nor free.

It doesn't matter your status. There's neither male or female. It doesn't matter your gender.

For you are all one in Christ Jesus. So there is a level ground at the cross. And so it was Moses in the Old Covenant who had this glory.

He was the only one. But you know, in a New Covenant, we can all have it. It's for all of us.

And you'll find that as a New Covenant concept that oftentimes people will say it's only me. It's only some special people. No, no, no, no.

The privileges of the New Covenant are for everybody. You know, D.L. Moody once said that the world has yet to see what one man fully surrendered to God can do. You know, it doesn't matter what your name is.

It doesn't matter what your position is. It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile, bond or free, rich or poor. If you'll surrender yourself and let the glory of God come out of you, only God knows what He can do with you.

And it doesn't matter what family you were born into. It doesn't matter whether you're despised or loved. And so I want to encourage us with that.

You know, you're sitting here and you're a child of God. You have the glory of Christ in you, the hope of glory in you. Hey, the sky's the limit.

Amen. The sky is the limit. I don't need a priest.

I don't need a pope. I don't need a guru. Well, the second thing that we want to look at here in this passage here is the contrast between a veil on the face and an open face.

It says here in verse 13, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. And then verse 18, but we all with an open face. So we have a veiled face in Moses.

And in the New Covenant, all of us, we have an open face. No hindrances. Now why does Moses put a veil on his face? Why does he do that? Well, it says it here in verse 13, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.

For example, if Moses would have come down with this glory on his face, the people would have said, I want that. I want that. I want that glory that you have, Moses.

And in Moses' heart, because he understood, he would have said, no, you don't want that glory. God's got a better glory for you. There's a greater glory.

And not only that, this glory that I'm experiencing being in the presence of God under the Old Covenant law, this glory is going to be abolished. That's what it says. To the end of that which is abolished.

But the glory that is coming is going to go on forever. Amen. And so Moses hid.

He hid the glory. But we are not to hide anything. Amen.

You know, if you have the glory of God in your life, you don't have to put a veil over your life and say I don't want people to see the glory of God in me. I don't want people to see the Shekinah glory coming out of me. The wells of living water.

The springs that spring up into everlasting life. I don't want people to see that, so I'm going to cover myself with a veil. Well, that's not wise.

Because this glory that we have in the New Covenant is not going to be abolished. Amen. And verse 12, it says this, seeing then that we have this hope, we use great plainness of speech.

That word plainness means this. I took it right out of the vines. Freedom to speak.

Unreserved to utter. Speak plain without ambiguity. Without figures of speech.

No longer types and shadows. Without the absence of fear and in boldness. Great plainness of speech.

And it's interesting that when this happened on the day of Pentecost, and that glory came inside of them and the New Covenant began, that this plainness of speech was manifested very clearly. I mean, they just spoke boldly. And they were even ridiculed of being Galileans and fishermen and low class people.

How can you speak like this? You speak like Jesus. You have been with Him. And so, brothers and sisters, really, there's nothing we should hide.

Amen. We don't have to put veils over this that we have. We need to speak plainly and with confidence and with boldness.

This is truth. This is not going to be abolished like the Old Covenant. This is the New Covenant.

This is going to take us throughout eternity. So Moses here, he was hiding his faith. And that's the way many of these groups are today.

They're hiding things. Hiding understanding. Hiding knowledge.

That's dangerous for us to hide it. Or try to hide it. And this last comparison I want to spend a little more time on here.

And that is this, that Moses' glory did not last. You know, I think Moses had a great experience. He could talk about it.

But that shining face disappeared after a while. I don't know how long it was before that glow was gone off of him. It was not a lasting change.

But our glory that we have in the New Covenant brings a lasting change. It changes us and it is a lasting change. Look down to verse 18.

It says, but we all with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. I like that. You know, the Bible talks about from faith to faith.

Growing in faith. Or growing in glory. From one glory to an exceeding glory.

To an exceeding glory. And by the way, there's no end to it. It's an eternal glory.

And so Moses, he was limited. The glory on him, probably the first day he received it began to wane. And he lost his glory.

But this glory is something that we can gain throughout eternity. And especially here in this life. Growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And so his glory was passing away. And our glory is not. But I want you to notice here, especially here in verse 18, this word changed.

But we all with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image. I want to look at that word changed because it's the word metamorphosize or metamorpho, which means to be changed thoroughly from the inside out. And Jason read that this morning.

I don't know if he knew what we were going to talk about this morning and he picked that passage. I appreciate him picking that passage because when Jesus went up on the mountain, He gave us a glimpse of the future and eternity and it says He was transfigured before them. Transfigured.

And that word is the same word as we got here. Changed. He was metamorphosized.

His whole being. He went from a human with sinful flesh to being this spiritual. It was a picture of His resurrection body.

His glorified body. He was transfigured before them. It was a complete change.

And you know when Moses went up on the mountain, he got some glory on his face, but it didn't change him. He came down and he had the same heart, the same body, the same things he went up with. He just had a wonderful experience.

And you know like we go to revivals and have a good experience for a week, but it doesn't change it. He had a good experience on the mountain for 40 days and met with God, was in the presence of God, had a glowing face, came down, but it didn't do him any good for the next year or two or three. Here, this new covenant glory is something that is transformative.

It is changing us from the inside out. Romans 12.1, a very familiar verse. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed.

There's the same word, metamorphosized by the renewing of your mind. It's an internal thing. It's something that the Spirit of God does internally in your heart and in your mind, your affections and your thoughts.

And that's the only way the outside is going to show the glory of God is if we're willing to submit and surrender to what God is doing on the inside. Amen. You're a quiet bunch this morning.

I keep saying amen to try to encourage you to say it. Christ in you. I like this.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now we read that and we say glory. Well, that means some place out in the future.

No. Christ in you, the hope of glory now. From glory to glory.

Now. You know, you meet people, boy, that guy's got a glorious life. His character, his diligence, his attitude, his affections.

It's just honorable. There's some glory on this person. This young lady.

There's some glory there. Well, there can be more glory there. Chapter 4, verse 7 describes it this way.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. It's not going to be your strength to get you to the place where you're a godly, Christ-honoring individual. It's the power of God.

It's this Shekinah right here that God has placed in you the Spirit of the living God where John mentioned here this morning where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Do you know why there is liberty? Because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And there is great liberty.

And so we're not to be conformed. You know what, young people, what conformed is, it's the pressures from outside. It's the pressures of this world.

You need to do these things. You need to follow our example. You need to dress the way we dress.

You need to conform. Be not conformed by the world, the outward pressure, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let the Spirit of God change you from the inside out.

Now there are, I was thinking about animals, you've probably seen these specials on National Geographic and things like that. There are animals that will conform to their environment. So they're in a green environment.

They turn a little green. And they're in a dark and brown environment. They get brown.

They just have this ability to change. And that's the way many people are. When in Rome, you do as the Romans.

You just kind of change with your environment. Fit in with the environment. Now culturally, sometimes we have to do as the Jews, be a Jew, as the Greeks, be a Greek.

But here we're talking about truth and the Bible and obeying the Scriptures. Do not let the world conform you, but be transformed. Transformation is something that comes from the inside out.

Now God has given us a beautiful example of this. And that is that worm. By the way, we're all worms.

Did you know that? Yeah, we're worms. Even Jesus said, I feel like I'm a worm and no man. And on the cross there, in the prophecies there in Psalms.

But we're worms. I mean, we're down on the ground. We're stuck in this wicked place.

We can't fly. We are slimy. We're not pretty.

We're ugly. And maybe sometimes you feel like a worm tied to this earth. But the Lord is able to take a worm, an ugly looking worm, and free that worm up and make it into a flying beautiful machine.

Amen. That's a miracle. And that's where the word transformation comes from.

So, in a very real way, if you feel like you're a worm today, that's okay. But God has got better plans for you. He's looking to make you into a butterfly.

If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's a new creation. Liberty.

Now, my children go to school in St. Maurice. Children go to the school over here in Melita. But from what I hear, Ms. Lois, their teacher, they have some worms there that were cocooned up and they watch them.

And I was just out there this week picking the children up at school and they had a bunch of the kids around Ms. Lois and I think they were letting one go free. One had just come out of that cocoon and it was free. It's liberty.

Brother John, it's liberty. Being a butterfly is liberating. It moves you from a worm to a butterfly.

That's transformation. But there's a couple of things here in this passage I want to talk about because to be practical, transformation takes some understanding. There are two things that cause transformation.

And that's here in v. 18. There's a lot packed into this v. 18. It says, but we all with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Now the first thing that's necessary if you want to be changed from a worm to a butterfly is you need to be born again. Number one, you have to have the Spirit of God doing that work in you and working in you even as by the Spirit of the Lord. But the second thing here that is mentioned is we need to behold the glory of the Lord.

Now when Moses was on the mountain, he beheld the glory of the Lord. And his face shone for 40 days. We get to behold the glory of the Lord too.

You don't have to go up to the top of Mt. Sinai to do it. The Bible says we can behold the glory of the Lord right here in the face of Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us. The glory of the Lord is in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's why we have this Bible because this Bible is the tool that the Spirit of God uses to transform you.

And there are two means in the New Testament of sanctification, of changing you from a worm to a butterfly, and those two sanctification tools are the Word of God. Sanctify them through thy truth and the sanctification of the Spirit. And if you have the Spirit of God and you love and meditate and study and put your mind in this book and live in it and love it, the Spirit of God will use it and it will change you into the image of His Son.

And that will bring glory to your life and glory to God. Looking to Jesus. Beholding the glory of the Lord.

And so we see that in the New Covenant. Chapter 4, verse 6 says this, For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Not in the face of Moses. That's interesting. Let's see the glory of God in the face of Moses.

No, no, no, no. No, I'm going to hide my face. I don't want you to see the glory of God in the face of me because this Old Covenant is vanishing away.

I want you to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the glory. That's the New Covenant.

Looking to Jesus. I preached a sermon one time. I really like this thought.

You know, when you come to Jesus and you're born again, you look to Him on the cross. That's the Gospel. You look to Him.

The serpent on the pole. You look to Jesus. And when you look to Jesus, remember I had these three circles last week.

We have soul, spirit, and body. When you look to Jesus on the cross, God quickens your spirit and you're born again. And then after you're born again, you look to Jesus in His Word and you meditate and love His Word and God uses His Word then to transform you.

And then one day the Bible says when Jesus comes, when we see Him, we shall be like Him. And our bodies will be changed and the work of salvation will be complete all because we are looking to Him. Look to Him to be saved.

Look to Him to be sanctified. And look to Him for the glorification of our body. Now something that Paul's going to address and he has addressed and I want to address here this morning is looking to the face of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.

By the way, let's go back here in chapter 3 and look in verse 14 here. It says, "...but their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament." Verse 15, "...but even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart." Now the Old Testament represents the law and that's Moses. Moses and the prophets.

We've gone through this before. There's a veil. There's a veil over those whose hearts are in the Old Covenant.

The Jews who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a veil upon their heart and as John said, when that heart turns to the New Covenant, turns to the Lord Jesus, the veil shall be taken away. But I find many Christians today still like to live in the Old Testament.

That's troubling. The law and the prophets. Now I believe it's the Word of God, but it's the Word of God for a people back then.

But we need to be in the New Covenant. Amen. And see the face of Jesus.

Now one thing about the face of Jesus which Paul is going to talk about here in chapter 4 is that when we look upon Jesus, we see a bunch of great things and wonderful life and healing and all the good things. We also see some difficult things. And I've talked about this.

And Paul's going to address it again. But we see suffering. And we see trials.

We see great hardship and difficulty. All that we see being rejected. And so when the Bible says to look upon Him in His face, you know, sometimes His face is glowing and He just healed someone and they're rejoicing.

And sometimes He's on a donkey and He's coming into Jerusalem and you've got these people throwing their palm trees and blankets in the way and shouting, Hosanna to the King. But sometimes when you look on His face, it's marred. It's got bruises from being beaten.

It's got a crown of thorns. It's got blood flowing down it. And you look on His face.

There are times when His face is difficult to look on. And as I've shared before, a lot of people don't want to look on that part of the face of Him. The suffering face.

The difficulty. I read this story. I think it's a beautiful example of this.

I read a story of a man who was in his office one day and he had seen that there was a worm in a cocoon in the whole nine yards. And I'm not a biologist by any stretch of the imagination, but he wanted to observe. And over the days and weeks, he saw this cocoon and waited for it to break out of its shell and watched this butterfly come out as they were doing there in the classroom at Miss Lois.

So as he is sitting there one day, he sees something breaking out of his shell and the cocoon starting to emerge. And he's watching it very closely and very intently. And he sees the struggle that this butterfly is under to try to get out of this cocoon.

And so he is compassionate. He is, as many churches are today, all about love. And he thinks, I'll help it.

I'll help it get out. And so he breaks the cocoon open and tries to make it easy for the... And after a while, he realizes he's done a great disservice. Because the very desire to make it easy for this butterfly has caused the butterfly to not have to struggle and to labor and to work to get out of this situation and therefore be able to be strong and to fly.

And the Bible teaches us this over and over again. You know, we want it oftentimes to be easy. That's why I shared last week we want teachers having itching ears or we are the ones who have itching ears.

Tell us what we want to hear. You know, open the cocoon for us so we can just get out and fly. We don't want to behold the face of Jesus when it doesn't look pretty.

And yet, if you go and try to free that butterfly, you're going to harm it and cripple it in many ways. And so we have verses like this and there's just a few of them I'd like to read to you here just to remind us of the importance of let the people go through hardship. Let them deal with it.

Encourage them, but don't try to make it easy. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience, but let patience have her perfect work.

You know, hey, this butterfly may take two or three days struggling to get out of this cocoon. I don't have the patience for that. I'm just going to open it up so it can be free while you're doing a great disservice.

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience, but let patience have her perfect work. That you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. So when you get into difficulties, you say, rejoice in these things because in this struggle, in this difficulty, God is preparing me for flight.

Follow me here. I want to try to encourage some of us here this morning. 1 Peter 1 is another example.

We don't have to turn there. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season. If need be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire.

Oh boy, nobody likes that. Tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and... you know what the next word is? Glory. At the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hey, it's good to be in the fire. It's good, you know, to struggle and to have some great difficulty because it's in that that you learn how to address your wings and you become a real functioning butterfly. Amen.

Well, let's just make it easy. Let's preach an easy gospel. Let's take out the cross and suffering and self-denial.

Let's just make it easy. We'll get a good crowd. We'll get a bunch of butterflies in here that can't fly.

They're crippled. Now here's something, I think it's very important for all of us. May this try to encourage some of you.

It's in the struggle that you're set free. It's in the struggle that you're set free. If you watch that cocoon and you watch that butterfly, it's in the struggle.

The process of struggling through that is free. The Bible talks about it in Peter. It says in 1 Peter, For as much sin as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise to the same mind, for He that has suffered... People don't understand what this means.

For He that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Oh wow, we all want that ceasing from sin. But before that, it's He that has struggled in the flesh has ceased from sin in the context of suffering.

It is in the struggle that we are set free. I want to share with you a danger for us here and just to tuck this away in the back of your mind not to lose hope. But in 2 Peter, listen to what I'm reading here in 2 Peter 2. It says this, For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than from the beginning.

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it's happened unto them according to the true proverb the dog has turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. They've escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior then they're entangled and then the next word's important, they're overcome.

In other words, here's a person who says, I give up. I'm done. I'm just going to let my flesh run.

I'm just going to give in to sin and go for it. I'm overcome. I just want to encourage you today to stay in the struggle, amen? Stay in the struggle.

Stay in the fight. Don't give up. Don't just give in to your flesh and to your lust.

Here's another one. There's many of them in the Bible, but here's another one to think about in Jude. We had this one memorized.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. There were people in Sodom who probably struggled with the immorality in Sodom and their involvement in it. And some of them struggled against it and maybe overcame those struggles, but many of them said, hey, I'm just going to be given over to it.

I don't care anymore. I'm done. Let's just go for it.

That's a bad place to be, amen? Not a good place to be because you're giving up the struggle. And so, it's in the struggle that we're set free. Don't be discouraged that you have the struggle.

Thank God that you're still struggling. I'd be really concerned if you're sitting here and your heart is, I don't care anymore. That's not a good place to be.

Don't be overcome. Let's look here at 2 Corinthians 4 again. I'm almost done.

2 Corinthians 4, verse number 8. We are troubled on every side. All this goes together. We'll pick up this next time.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Maybe some of you are perplexed and your struggles don't despair.

We are persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Here's one of my favorite verses.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That's our place. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

That's the glory. That's this coming out. That outer shell that needs to drop off.

It needs to die. That cocoon. And that's a beautiful thing to see that cocoon open up and that life come out of there.

And verse 11 repeats it basically. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. The glory might come out and manifest in our mortal flesh.

We can see some butterflies coming out. Are we tired being worms? Okay, it's a struggle. Well, liberty is in the struggle.

You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Sometimes God has to give you a good whipping. It's a good thing.

If you don't get a whipping, you're not a child. You're a bastard. But bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

You know, we all need to really move in the direction of more fasting or prayer. More saying no to things. More unwilling to suffer, Lord.

Or just think, I want to kneel. It's painful. It's okay.

More just bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus. And you know, our flesh is that which might have the same flesh as you do. Our flesh is easy.

What's easy to have? What's the easy way of going about this thing? I'll just take the easy route. It's always the easy route. It's not going to bring out the glory of God in you.

And so there, and I'm going to get ahead here. We'll get to these passages in Chapter 4. But there are two musts for sanctification in us and change and this metamorphosis. And that is you must have the Spirit of God in you.

If you don't have the Spirit of God, we're not going anywhere. You're just going to have a dead form of religion. You're going to try and fail.

And it's not going to go anywhere. You have to have the treasure and earthen vessel. New Covenant.

And you have to be looking to Jesus in His Word. So you picture this. With the Spirit of God in you and you meditating and loving His Word and immersing yourself in it.

And there's a process that happens when the Spirit of God is in you and you're in His Word. You get metamorphosized. And people start to say, I see Jesus in you.

I don't think there's any better compliment than that one. That you're on the right track. And someone says, brother, I see Jesus in you.

That's a good one. And so we have a great privilege. We're here and not here.

Oh, I'd have loved to have been on the top of that mountain with God, and my face would have shone for maybe two or three days. My face would have shone for a couple of weeks. But I'd have been back to the same person as I was.

But here's where you want to be. New Covenant. Where your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.

And the Lord desires to sanctify us. And if you don't love the Word, if you're not in the Word, don't plan on growing. The Bible says growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If you're here this morning and you don't have the Spirit of God in you, don't plan on growing either. There's no life in you. But if you have the Spirit of God and you're in the Word of God, then you probably are going to be struggling and God is going to bring temptations and trials and difficulties and hardships and learn to struggle through them and not to give up.

Don't give up. Sometimes in my life, I've got to the place where it's like, what's the use? What's the use? Right? What's the use? But don't give up. Perplexed, but not in despair.

Amen. And someday, as John said, there will be a true liberty. And I realize that that metamorphosis in many ways takes place in this life and you ought to be able to fly like a butterfly and overcome and live a godly life and be fruitful and bless people and have a good attitude when people are cursing you and blasting you and people are doing evil to you and just bless them and that's good.

But there's coming a day when the graves will open and you'll get a real liberty. And that body will come out as a real butterfly and you'll be set free. And that's when the resurrection occurs.

So, let's make sure we don't give up. Don't give up the struggle. Let's close with a word of prayer.

We had a little bit of time here. I thought we were missing something. Maybe we were.

I don't know. 15 minutes. Let's pray and then we can open up for anyone who'd like to share.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for the instruction here in your word. And Lord, each one of us, I believe, desire to be free and at liberty, as the illustration of the butterfly here. I pray for those who are struggling here in our congregation that, Lord, that you would impress upon their heart that the victory is in the struggle.

May they continue to work and labor to cry out to you for deliverance and help, confessing their failure. Lord, bless our congregation here and each one that attends. May we all head in the direction of being transformed by the power of your spirit and the word of the Lord.

Thank you. And Lord, direct us, guide us. Yes, he sings this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen.