2 Corinthians 3, verse 17. Let's pray, and we'll
get started. God, we thank you for these good
words, and I pray that you would help us to find
some encouragement in them tonight. It is a good
reminder for us, dear Lord, that we are free
in Jesus Christ. And so I pray. that we would
rest in that freedom and find peace in that freedom.
I pray that your Holy Spirit would free us of
the worries and the distractions and the things
of this world, dear Lord. I pray that you would
help our minds and our ears and our hearts to
listen to you tonight, dear Lord. I pray that
you would hide me behind the cross, that I would
preach and teach in a way that brings glory to
you, and I pray that you would let your word
speak to us tonight. In Jesus' name I ask it.
Amen. Paul had talked about in the verses before
that we looked at last week that God had given
the law in the Old Testament, and the law was
good. It served a purpose. And when Moses was
communicating with God on the mountain, and Moses
wanted to see the glory of God, and God said,
Look, Moses, you cannot see me in all my glory
and live. But he allowed Moses to see his back
as he walked by, just a little bit of God. And
this experience affected Moses physically because
when he came down from the mountain, his face
was glowing and it was evident before all who
saw him that he had been in the presence of God
and the glory of God was radiating from Moses'
face. Moses wore a veil when he came off the
mountain when he communicated with the other
Israelites so that they wouldn't see the glory
of the Lord fading. It says that the people were
afraid of Moses when he came down, and I'm sure
that probably was kind of a crazy thing. However,
because of what it was, you would think there's
really nothing to fear with the glory of the
Lord. Nonetheless, Paul uses this story to make
an illustration. He says, look. In the Old Testament,
we saw God's glory a little bit. We saw a little
bit of the glory of God in the way he interacted
with his people, in the giving of the law, in
the commandments, and all of the things in the
Old Testament showed us just a little bit of
the glory of God. But Paul is really making the
point that in Jesus Christ, we have seen God
in all of his glory. We have seen the love of
God in Jesus Christ who came to this earth and
gave his life on a cross so that we could be
forgiven. We have seen the fullness of who God
is. God came in the flesh, so to speak, and so
we know God. Now, we haven't seen God in the
way that we're going to see him one day when
we are with him for eternity, but we have seen
enough in Jesus Christ that it does not get any
more beautiful. What is more beautiful than a
man laying down his life? Than God sending his
only begotten son to give his life so that our
sins could be forgiven. Now the problem with
many of the people of Israel in Paul's day and
still today in our world is that they still seek
to live by the law. So Paul uses this story with
Moses and he says, look, the way it is now is...
The people of Israel are still trying to live
by the old ways, and it's as if a veil is covering
their face. They're not seeing the glory of God.
They didn't see it with Moses because Moses'
face was veiled. And he says the Israelites are
still missing the glory of God. Why? Because
they are missing Jesus Christ. And so he says,
look, it's still as though their faces are veiled
even to this day, Paul says. Fast forward to
2025, it's still true. The Jewish people still
do not trust in Jesus Christ. They still seek
the law. That veil is still there. They still
have not experienced the glory of God. And so
that's kind of a recap of what we talked about
last week. But with that in mind, we continue
to verse 17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in
a mirror at the glory of the Lord, and are being
transformed into the same image from glory to
glory. This is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Now, what a beautiful verse we have there in
verse 17. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is... Freedom. Now,
in the context of the audience he's talking to
here, he's certainly talking about, in some level,
I think, freedom from the law, that we are not
under the law of Jesus Christ, that we are not
under the wages of sin that is death, but there
is freedom for those who are in Christ. We are
not seeking to live by the letter of the law,
but we have found redemption in Jesus Christ.
Now, when you flip over to Galatians and read
it, that's kind of the... One of the main themes
in the book of Galatians is freedom in Jesus
Christ, that we are free, that we are freed from
our sin, that we are freed from the law. And
what do we do with that freedom? Paul says, look,
don't use your freedom for yourself, but use
that freedom that you have received in Christ
and use it to serve other people. The love that
you've experienced in Jesus, you need to use
that to love other people. Now, where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now, you may
remember at the first part of chapter 3, he had
spent some time talking about the ministry of
death. That is the letter of the law, a letter
that was chiseled in stone. We are familiar with
the Ten Commandments. And there were, of course,
plenty of other laws. But when he talks about
these laws chiseled in stone, he's talking about
the law, the Ten Commandments. He's making a
point at the beginning of the book. He says,
look, we're looking for something better than
letters chiseled in stone. We are living letters,
he said, by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ.
There's something unique. There's something beautiful.
There's something about us that is more beautiful
than the old system. And so he says, look, we
don't live by... the stone laws that are going
to lead to death, but we live by Jesus Christ
who brings with him the Holy Spirit once we accept
Jesus Christ. And so once we have accepted Jesus
and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, there is freedom.
Now that's good news for us because in the law
we are doomed. If we lived under the law still
today, we'd be doomed because our sins would
be ever before us. We would be a slave to our
sin. Even things that we may have quit doing
that we don't do anymore, we would still have
to answer for those sins. There would be no sacrifice
that would be sufficient for those sins. And
that is no freedom. There's no freedom in that.
And so Paul says, look, why would you want to
be a slave to the law? Go read Galatians again
if you want some homework this week, short book.
But that's the point he's making. Don't be a
slave to the law. Don't be a slave to the letter
of the law, but experience freedom in Jesus Christ.
There's no peace if you know your sin is ever
before you. There's no peace if you know that
there's no power to overcome your sin. But there
is great peace. When we have put our faith and
trust in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit indwells
in us, there is a freedom and a peace there.
That when we come up against the sin, that we
don't have to give in to it. Now maybe we do.
Maybe we do more times than we want. But we don't
have to. We have freedom over that in Jesus Christ.
Those past sins that maybe even still the devil
wants to bring up to us, we're free from those
things in Christ. When we have asked Jesus Christ
to forgive us and become our Lord and Savior,
he has forgiven our sins, and they are cast as
far as the east is to the west. And so there's
great freedom, and there's great peace, and that
only comes in Jesus Christ. And so Paul says
where the Spirit of the Lord is, if you're following
Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is within you,
and you need to live in the freedom that you've
experienced. Freedom from the law and freedom
from our sin doesn't mean that we just have a
license to sin and go and do what we want to
do. That totally misses the point, if that's
our attitude. Oh, wait, Jesus died for me, my
sins are forgiven, I can do what I want to do.
Well, we haven't appreciated the love of Jesus
Christ. Jesus didn't die so we could do what
we wanted to do. He died so we could have freedom,
so that we could say no to sin, so that we could
have the strength to stand up to sin. And that
strength comes through Him. So where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is freedom not to sin,
but freedom to serve. Freedom to serve the Lord.
Freedom to choose Jesus Christ. Yeah, we could
choose to sin, but we don't have to. We're free
from that. And that's a beautiful verse for us
to remember. Verse 18, we all with unveiled faces
are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the
Lord and are being transformed into the same
image from glory to glory. Now, this is an interesting,
interesting verse. You may remember in 1 Corinthians,
I believe it's chapter 13. Where he talks about
that now, in the current world, we look in a
mirror as though we're looking dimly. Like we
can kind of make out what the glory of God is
and how God works, but we can't see it clearly.
Now, we have to go back in time to understand
what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians. Now, when
we look in a mirror, you see a perfect replica
of what you are. I mean, it's as clear and as
pretty as it can be. But in those days, they
didn't have mirrors like we do. It would have
been a piece of metal that would have been just
polished to perfection. And while you could have
seen your reflection pretty good, it probably
wasn't quite as clear as what we would see in
our mirrors today. So in 1 Corinthians, Paul
talks about kind of seeing in that mirror dimly.
We don't see God fully. We don't see everything.
We just kind of see a part of God's glory. I
don't know that he's using that same idea here.
I think he's using, when he uses the term mirror
here, he may be using it differently. Now, he
may be using it the same way. I suppose it's
possible that he's saying, even still, we see
God's glory, and even in Jesus Christ, but even
still, we haven't seen God in all of his glory.
And that certainly could be what he's saying.
But I think that he's making a contrast with
the veil. That is, those who wear a veil, they
can't see God's glory at all. And so for those
who are in Christ, we're not looking at a veil,
we're looking at a mirror. We see in Jesus Christ
the glory of God. When we see Jesus, we see the
glory of God. It's reflecting back on us. We
see the works of Jesus and the words of Jesus
and the sacrifice of Jesus and the resurrection
of Jesus. And we see that, and that's reflecting
on us and should reflect from us onto other people.
And so he says here, we all with unveiled faces,
that is, we don't have a veil on our face anymore.
The veil has been removed through Jesus. We are
seeing clearly. We are seeing so clearly. We
are seeing exactly what the glory of God is in
Jesus Christ. And he says, we are looking as
in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are
being transformed in the same image from glory
to glory. Now what does that mean? Well, it means
that we've seen the glory of God in some way,
I think. but we haven't experienced it in its
fullness. That we've come to Jesus Christ and
we've seen the love of Jesus Christ, and when
we accept Him and follow Him as our Savior and
put our faith in Him, then we experience the
glory of God, but it's a process. It's not an
instantaneous thing, but it's a process from
glory to glory, to the glory that we've experienced
now, to the glory that we will one day experience
in its fullness. once we spend an eternity with
God. And so we're in this process of going from
glory to glory. So maybe this is a good test
for us, is to look at our life now, and look
at our life six months ago, a year ago, two years
ago, ever how long it's been since you came to
Jesus Christ, and you should look more like Jesus
today than you did a few years ago. Now, if we
accept Jesus and 10 years go by and there's not
been much change in our life, I'm not saying
you're not a Christian. Your sins may very well
be forgiven. You may very well have faith in
Jesus Christ, but there needs to be some growth
in this process of going from glory to glory,
that once we experience the love and the forgiveness
through Jesus Christ and experience the glory
of God, there should be some growth in our life.
And so the question that we have to answer is,
is there any growth? Am I walking closer to the
Lord than I was then? Do I love people more than
I used to? Do I serve the Lord more than I used
to? Do I serve others more than I used to? Those
things that used to be a struggle for me, the
language that I used, do I still use that language?
My attitude, do I still have a bad attitude?
Do I still treat people poorly? Do I still gossip?
I mean, there's lots of areas in our life. We
all struggle in different ways. I don't know
what your struggle is. We all got them, though.
And there's some things you struggle with that
I don't, things that I struggle with and you
don't. But there should be some measure throughout
our life in which we can say, you know, this
area of my life is getting better. And maybe
there are some that are getting better and some
that you still need to work on. Praise the Lord
God is patient. Praise the Lord, God doesn't
say the day that we follow Jesus Christ. And
now you must do everything perfect. If God revealed
everything to us the day that we came to Christ
and said, Okay, here's all the things that are
wrong with you. You better change them right
now. Boy, we'd be in big trouble. Because we
could not change all those things. But that's
why it's important for us to come to meetings
like this. To read our Bible. To pray. Because
as we walk with the Lord, We grow in the Lord.
And there are things that God reveals to us maybe
15, 20 years into our walk with the Lord that
maybe we weren't ready for. We weren't spiritually
mature enough to take those things on to grow
in that way. And so God knows that it's a process.
Some grow faster than others. But there needs
to be some level of growth. If you have a child
that's in kindergarten, and then they go to first
grade, and then they go to second grade, and
every year they're... They take every test, and
they're still doing the same things they were
doing in kindergarten, and then there's a failure
in the system somewhere. If there's a failure
in the system, it's not with God. It might be
us. It might just need to be that we need to
look at our life and say, okay, God, maybe I
need to take some more things more serious than
I am. God, maybe there's some areas that I don't
know of. God, help me to see those areas that
I'm not growing. Help me to continue to grow
in those areas that I am growing. But there needs
to be some sign of progress in our life as we
are growing from glory to glory. And so Paul
says to his people here, he says, look, don't
get caught up in the things of the world. Don't
get caught up in the law and the old system and
all those things. Don't be a slave to sin. Now,
we might not be caught up with the law of Moses.
We're probably not struggling too much with that.
But maybe there are things in our life that we
have become a slave to. That we have become a
slave to this, or we've become a slave to that.
And these words that Paul speaks are true for
us today. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is freedom. We don't have to be a slave to our
sin. It might not be easy to overcome those temptations,
and there still may even be times that we fail.
But we have to realize that there is freedom.
That if we would seek Jesus, if we would call
on Him, that He would give us the strength. that
he would give us the power to overcome those
temptations, to overcome our attitudes, to overcome
opening our mouth when we shouldn't. Whatever
it is, he can give us the ability to conquer
those things. And it's not easy. But once we
trust in Jesus and seek him, and once we begin
to overcome one thing and two things, boy, the
weight of that sin and that struggle that we've
been battling against, it just lifts itself.
And we begin to experience that. Freedom. And
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
And we want to live in that freedom through Jesus
Christ tonight. Let's pray. God, we come to you.
We thank you for these good words, and I pray
that we would take them to heart. Dear Lord,
I pray that if there are any areas that we need
to grow, that you help us to see those areas.
And maybe there's some you've been working on
us, dear Lord, and sometimes it's a slow go,
but we appreciate your patience, God, and we
thank you for giving us the grace and mercy.
So help us to continue to improve and seek you
on the areas of the things that we know we need
to grow in. And I pray that you help us to be
aware maybe of some things that we are not aware
of. Maybe some areas that have slipped up on
us. There's some new things in our life that
have reared their ugly head, dear Lord. And I
pray that you just give us freedom over those
things. So help us, dear Lord. You know where
we are. You know what our struggles are. You
know what our sins are, our temptations are.
I pray that you free us from those temptations,
but when they come, I pray that you give us freedom
in them. That through Jesus Christ, dear Lord,
through the Holy Spirit that dwells within us,
that you would strengthen us and guide us and
help us to find freedom tonight in Jesus Christ.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.