We're turning this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We'll read this entire chapter together. 2 Corinthians 3, beginning the reading of God's Word in verse 1. Let's give our attention now to the public reading of the inspired, infallible Word of God. Do we begin again to commend ourselves Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven 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 the 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. 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 heart. 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. May God add His blessing to that reading from His Holy Word for His name's sake. Would you bow your head now with me just for a moment please. We need the Lord's help. All of us together need the Lord's help. Let's seek Him for that. Father in heaven we do come in Jesus' name to Thy throne of grace. We do need to obtain mercy for our sins and grace to help us for our weakness in this time of need. We ask our God that Thou wilt remove the wandering thoughts from us, put down every distraction. We pray that Thou wilt ban Satan, as it were, from interfering in the preaching of the gospel of Christ this day. We ask our God and Father that there will be that revelation of Christ afresh to our souls through the Word. Take away, Lord, the dimness from our eyes. Take away any dullness of hearing, so that we won't simply hear a sermon, but we'll hear the message from Thee to us in the sermon. Grant this day that there will be a holy hush upon this place, not the hush, Lord, of boredom, not the hush of death, but the hush that comes upon Thy people, when Thou dost come down in power, instill our hearts, and give us those ears to hear, and the hearts to receive whatever God the Spirit has to say. We pray this in our Savior's name. and only for His glory. Amen and Amen. Last evening we were looking at that very well-known verse that comes at the end of Romans chapter 7 where Paul in agony of soul cried out, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? As he has been describing this awful struggle he's had with sin in his life. He does not leave us waiting very long to find the answer to the question because he immediately writes, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Make no mistake about it, the only one who can deliver sinning saints from their sin that causes them so much grief is Jesus Christ. And as we saw at the close of that message last night, the Apostle assures us that in this struggle, this lifelong war that we have to wage against sin that dwells in us, Christ will deliver us and we will win the victory. That's the assurance at the end of Romans 7. The thing that I said we must find out is just how Christ does this. It's not enough just to speak the mantra, it's all Christ. We have to learn from Scripture how Christ actually delivers His people from the thralls of sin, from the sin that plagues us, that leaves us, as you remember in that brochure, that leaves us acting at times more like the devil than it does Jesus Christ. We know that Christ is the answer. None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. And none but Jesus can do helpless saints good as well. How does He do it? So I turn your attention this morning again to a very well-known verse of Scripture found in verse 18 of the chapter that we read this morning. 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. It is that word changed, changed, that beats at the heart of what Paul was crying out for in Romans chapter 7. Few words better describe what the difference or I should say the deliverance from the dreadful trouble we have with sin in our life than the word changed. Most of you know that the word Paul uses in that verse in the original is the word metamorphosis. changed into another form, it means. Metamorphosis. The caterpillar changing into a butterfly through metamorphosis. It is only used three other places in the New Testament. The experience that Christ had on the mount with Peter, James and John when His face shone as the sun and His clothing was as radiant lightning are described by both Matthew and Mark using that word. Christ was transfigured. There's our word changed. Christ was transfigured before them. And here in verse 18, I should back up and mention Romans chapter 12, verse 2, the third occurrence besides this one, where he encourages the church at Rome not to be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Changed, transformed, transfigured. Changed from one form into another. And here in verse 18 he states that we all are transformed into the same image or likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I say again, few words could better describe what these victories over our rotten, sinful flesh is all about than this word metamorphosis, this transformation where fallen, wretched, vile sinners are changed into gracious, holy servants of God. Paul refers to the beginning of that change in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, where he writes another well-known text to you all. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, or he is a new creation. Old things pass away. Behold, all things become new. That's where the transformation begins. When you're born again by the Holy Ghost, you're a new creation in Christ. Things begin to change in your life. But that's only the beginning of it all. What God has been doing ever since that time, what He has been doing without fail is to develop and to deepen in the life of every one of His people to the point that one day we will be transformed perfectly into the likeness of His Son. In other words, God's great aim in our salvation is our glorification when we will be perfectly holy. What a day that will be. No sin within a million light years of us. It's gone, forever gone. No bad thought, no wrong words. Nothing to grieve over. Sinless on that day. But the question still needs to be answered. How does Christ deliver His people from this body of death that seems just to be tied to us like a dead corpse where the things we would do, we don't do, the things that we don't want to do, we do those very things. Who shall deliver us from this way of life? Who will change us? How does Christ do this? How can I overcome these sins in my life that brings me so much misery, that do so much hurt to my own soul, to those around me who are touched by my sins, to the honor of God? How can they be overcome? How does Christ deliver us in this life? It's good preacher. I believe you one day it's going to be wonderful when we have no sin, but it's the here and now I've got to deal with. It's today. It's when I get up in the morning and I go to work. Or I come home or I'm at home as a mother and dealing with problems of the children and with people and all this. How does Christ actually work out that deliverance in my life now on a daily basis? I want to spend some time in the conference on Paul's well-known statement there in verse 18. This verse that is all about the transformation that we know we need and that we want the Lord to bring about. Christ carries on in our life as He destroys the power of sin so that we look like Him. So that when people watch us and when they hear us, They see more and more of the Savior. They have His mind set more and more. They talk like Him more and more. The words that come out of the mouth are more and more gracious. The thoughts that fill the mind are more and more on things above and not on things of the earth, so that Christ would not need to, as he did to Peter one day, say, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. He said it to Peter, an eminent disciple. The word is minded. You're not minding the things that be of God, but those that be of men. That's what we're needing. That's what we're wanting. And I am praying and have been praying with you that God will do that gracious work in a wonderful way in all of His people throughout this Bible conference. Last evening, we considered the mournful cry of sinning saints from Romans 7. This morning I want to turn your attention to the magnificent change in sinning saints. And we'll be there for a few times that we come together. This magnificent change in sinning saints. As I said, Paul assures us that deliverance is going to come from this sin that brings us so much grief and that deliverance comes through Christ. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This text before us this morning shows us just how Jesus Christ brings about that deliverance. And where we can say, I thank God it's been through Jesus Christ that this magnificent change is being wrought in my life. That I'm not the man or I'm not the woman I used to be. Praise God. He's changing me. The only thing I want to deal with this morning is this. The transformation of a believer into the image of Christ is a work of the Spirit of Christ. The transformation of a believer into the image of Christ is a work primarily of the Spirit of Christ. Here in our text, Paul says this work of being transformed into the image of God's Son, into that image of Christ from glory to glory is, at the end of verse 18, by the Spirit of the Lord. If you think just for a moment about something Paul said in Galatians 5, verse 17, Ah, here's that war going on we talked about last evening. For the flesh, this sinful corrupt flesh, this sin that still dwells in our members, It lusteth against, it wars against, are contrary to one another, lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." A more literal translation would be, so that you do not, ye do not the things that ye would. The things I would do, I do not. The things I would not, those I do. Does it sound familiar? Maybe you had that experience this morning before you came to the house of God. Maybe it wasn't a pleasant time around the table with the kids. Maybe you fell out with your spouse. Maybe you've come here and you've been offended by someone and you're just not a happy camper and you're just groaning and moaning and mumbling about how bad things are. We do not do the things that we would. There's the struggle. There's the battle with sin again. And the question is, who is doing the warring against the flesh? In Galatians 5, it's the Holy Spirit. And I want to stress that the primary agent in our victories over sin and our transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of Christ. And in no way am I denying what the Apostle Paul said when he answered the question, who will deliver me? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. They're both true. Remember that Jesus promised his apostles they were so distraught he was going to glory. I will send you another comforter. I will send you another helper. I will send you another paraclete. Another means another of the same kind. I will work in your life through him. We shouldn't be surprised, therefore, when After Paul at the end of Romans 7 refers to this struggle and who will deliver me, I thank God through Jesus Christ. When you go into Romans Chapter 8, you'll find so much truth about the Holy Spirit bringing the believer into the experience of life in Christ and deadness to sin. He puts the attention upon the Holy Spirit because it is the Spirit of Christ who does this work. It's here that I want to stress something as far as how Christ does not, this is going to be the negative side of things this morning, at least in this part of the message, how He does not deliver us from the body of this death, from this sin. We, we are not the primary agents in our spiritual transformation into Christ's image. We're not the main ones. I know, I would imagine that you understand that truth right there. You believe that truth. This is really fundamental. But, I am not so sure that while we believe it, we really believe it. that we are not the primary agents in our own transformation. Because I'm afraid that all too often we act like it. We think like that. And it leads us into a lot of trouble. And we actually hurt ourselves instead of helping ourselves. We get ourselves into trouble and end up living in defeat and despair over our battles with sin that we lose when we think that we are the primary agents. Our focus becomes on what we do or haven't done and not on what the Spirit of Christ does in us. We are no different than the Christians in the Galatian churches who thought they were going to reach great levels of holiness by adherence to the ceremonial laws of God. By doing certain things, that's what the false teachers were telling them, oh yes, it's by grace, salvation is by grace, and sanctification is by grace, but, here's the but, you need to be circumcised. You need to follow those laws of Moses. And that will be the means of bringing you to higher ground like us. And every approach to holy living that begins with our activity, with our work, ultimately comes down to looking to the law of God and not the grace of God to deal with our sin. I know we've just gotten past what's known as Reformation Sunday. We know that the great cry of the Reformation was sola gratia, sola fide, sola Christo, salvation, justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But I have come to the conclusion that we need a far deeper understanding of what grace is in the life of the child of God than we do. Because I think far too often we start out on the wrong foot. We start out thinking that it's our activity, it's our doing, and we end up looking to the law to sanctify us, to make us like Jesus instead of the grace of God that is in Christ. God's law None of it was ever given for that purpose. Yes, it is true that the law was given us to show us our sin and our sinfulness. Yes, God's law was given to reveal to us the holiness of God, but that was in order to teach us how helpless we are to change ourselves, and that we need someone greater than we are. We need Jesus Christ to deliver us. We need the Holy Ghost to come and do what we could never do, either in our own salvation or in our sanctification. It's the law. It's the law. It's the law. The law was never given to us as the source of deliverance from those sins that trouble you. They will expose them. And the more you study the law, and I recommend you study the law, the more you dig down into what the law requires You won't find deliverance. You'll just find more sin that you need delivered from. That's what's going to happen. It wasn't designed to deliver us from sin. It was designed to expose our sin in light of the holiness of God that we might say we need another, another. It was never to be used as a motivation to pursue holiness. What happens when this error is made is that preachers, and they abound in my country, preachers use the law to produce a feeling of guilt in their congregation. Their emphasis is upon duty, obligation, demands of the law. And their thinking is that the way that you motivate Christians to be the kind of Christians they should be is by guilt, making them feel badly about themselves. I was referring to this, was I not? It happens so much on so many levels in human society. Using guilt to try to get people to do the things you want them to do. Tell me, husbands, are your wives not masters at that? The silence is deafening. I don't mean there's something sinister in that, but boy, I know how it feels when I haven't done enough. I should have done that and I didn't do it. Guilt is not the way to motivate God's people to pursue holiness. That brings fear. Is that how we are motivated in this battle we have with sin? Fear? Guilt? The end result of that approach to spiritual transformation is that you have one of two results. On one side you have Christians who become Pharisaical because the Christian life in their mind is all about a carefully constructed code of conduct. A carefully built code of behavior based upon law. That's the code. In other words, you've heard it about a list of do's and don'ts. Be this, don't be that. Do this, don't do that. They've got the code. They've got it down. And since they judge holiness by their own understanding of the law, they think that everything is all right with them. So the awareness of the great need to be transformed is absent. Everything's okay. Because they've got the code. They're the ones that judge what is holiness. And man, if you don't fit their bill, you're not holy. That's exactly what was going on in the church of Rome. You had the Jews and the Gentile believers, and they were fighting. The Jews were very strict about certain fast days and holy days, and they wanted to keep them. The Gentiles, what are this about? That's the ceremonial law. That's a burden. We don't need that. And there was contention in that. The Jews were looking askance upon the Gentiles because they didn't keep the holy days, and they didn't keep the fast days, and they were saying, in essence, you know, if those Gentile believers were really serious about holiness, they'd be keeping these fast days, these holy days. They had the code, and they were judging everybody else by that code. It's causing tremendous trouble. We begin to focus, when that's our case, we begin to focus on the external and forget all about that holiness is something that's internal first, that works its way out in the life. Focus is exterior. So, if I can give you a few examples, that the mentality would be, I don't cuss, And I don't chew, and I don't run with those who do. I'm holy, but I've never said a word to those that cuss and chew and live in sin about their souls. I've never said a word to them. I'm okay because I don't cuss and I don't chew. But I've never wept for those who do. You see the external? Start with the law, the code. I will fight to the death for the A-V translation. But, truth be known, I don't read the Bible very much. And yet you will think someone is almost a devil in clothing if they dare, if they dare even mention any other translation. I realize I got to put a caveat here. There is no better translation of the scriptures than the authorized version. But I am telling you. When it begins with self, us, the law, as far as our behavior, we fall into this trap of judging everybody by our little code. And we don't deal with the internal. Do you see how hypocritical it is to actually say, I'll fight to the death for the A.V.? But you don't even read the A.V. You'll be very sure if you're a woman to have your head covering on for church. And you'll look askance if you see some woman in without her head covered. But it never occurred to you to look at the immodesty of the dress that you're wearing. I got my hat on. That's what happens when you begin to look at everything external. You've lost really the understanding of what real holiness is about and how it's brought to pass in the life of God's people. To take the words of Jesus Christ, you strain at gnats and swallow camels, but ignore the weightier matters of the law. Sad things like this take place when we look to an outward conformity to the law to give us the victory over the sin within. On the other side of things you have Christians who keep hearing the preacher trying to use the law to motivate them through guilt that they're not what they ought to be, beating them down, and this is just where they live. They live under the misery of guilt. Shame! And they keep trying to do more and do more. I have talked to folks, people, Christians, and they have thrown themselves into every possible activity of the church to the point where their own family is being ignored because they think, if I can just do more and be more active for God, it will deal with this guilt and this misery that I feel because of my guilty conscience that I'm not what I should be. And that's not where you want to live, is it? When you're there, you don't... I put it like this, the experience of the joy of salvation, which has been bought for us by Christ, He didn't redeem us so that we would go about with long faces and live in misery and think that somehow that's holiness. He died that we might be blessed and the word means happiness. Happiness. So when you try to use guilt, the law, What you find, there's a voice in the back of you, in the back of your head that keeps saying, hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite. In either scenario, it produces a life where acceptance with God and transformation into the image of God's Son is performance-based. It's performance-based. I have to attain. It starts with me. I'm the chief mover. The Galatian believers were caught up with this folly. Their way to holiness was the law, as I said, but you find out one of the effects that was taking place in these churches when you read Galatians, Paul says that you are biting and devouring one another. It is the natural outcome when such a spirit takes over a church, a denomination, it's going to be abiding and devouring of one another. There has been a total missing of the fundamental gospel message that says Christ is my salvation and Christ is my sanctifier. By His Spirit He moves. I was fighting, you couldn't believe. Isn't that strange with their emphasis upon the law, the law, the law? Tell me, tell me. Summarize the law for me in one word. Summarize the law for me in one word. What is it? Love. Christ did it. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, strength, and might, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And here they were in the churches of Galatia, all focused upon the law, the law. But where was the love? It didn't produce it, did it? Now, positively. The Holy Spirit changes us into looking more like Christ first by increasing our knowledge of Christ. Knowledge. We have to be, we will need to be good students. I drive my son to school every morning. And well, I just know he can't wait until summer comes and he's out of school. Because school requires study. There's knowledge he has to gain. And if he doesn't gain the knowledge, he's going to have a real difficult time passing the tests. be ye transformed by the renewing or literally the renovation of your mind. So we're brought to the truth. Here's what the Holy Ghost does first. He brings us into a growing knowledge of Christ. We all, look at the text, we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image. Note please that word open face. It means literally unveiled face. And it's referring back to the fact that when Moses came down from the mount where God met with him and gave him the law, gave him the law, He had to cover his face. Why did that have to happen? Because the glory that was in the Old Testament ministration of the gospel was a fading glory. They had the types and the shadows and the tabernacle, the temple, and the sacrifices. All of that was prefiguring Christ. But it was fading. It was going to be abolished one day. And that was a veil put over his face so that they would not see that that glory is fading. That's the context. And Paul says that that veil is still on the hearts of the unbelieving Jews in his day. Look down please at verse 14. 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 heart. They hear the reading from the Pentateuch, which is all about Christ, all the foreshadowings of Christ, and they do not see Him. And it isn't until they see that the Lord Jehovah is Christ, the one they crucified, that darkness will remain upon them. But seeing Jehovah is Christ, the veil is lifted. Now Paul says, we all, every one of us, every child of God, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord that does not fade away. And by beholding the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into that same image. The critical thing, brothers and sisters, is beholding the glory of the Lord. Beholding the glory of the Lord. Paul says in the very next chapter, God commanded the light to shine, to shine out of the darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What's that about? I'm sure you've read it many a time. What's that about? Beholding the face of God or the glory of God in the face of Christ? We're not, of course, directly beholding that glory of God just now. We haven't beheld Christ's face yet. What we're doing is looking at its reflection in a mirror. We as Christians are looking at a reflection of the glory of God in a mirror. And that mirror, in the context of what Paul has been teaching here in chapter 3 of II Corinthians, that mirror is the gospel of Christ. Again, the flyer said, here we are, saints, and yet We have to confess, there's more than one occasion we act like the devil instead of a saint, but the gospel, the gospel that justifies us is the same gospel that's going to bring about that deliverance. And I find when I come to 2 Corinthians that I'm going to behold the glory of God in the face of Christ by beholding that glory. It's about beholding the glory of Christ in the gospel. Beholding the glory of Christ in the gospel that we are changed. that our thought life changes and that how we talk to each other changes, how we behave ourselves changes. And I promise you this, apart from that being done, we'll find ourselves thrashing about in life, defeated, discouraged, depressed, and all that goes along with it. And our testimony will be affected adversely. And your children will watch you. And they'll say, mom or dad sure, sure don't act at home like they do in church. This Christianity stuff must not be real. And they walk away from it. There's coming a day when we will see Christ with our own eyes. I've often wondered what He looks like. I don't know. But one day I will. And I will know there's the beauty of Christ. For I will see him as he is, and I will see that glory. Is that not what Christ was praying for in John chapter 17, that the Father would bring them, that they would behold His glory? The Apostle John tells us that when Christ returns, we shall be like Him when we see that glory. 1 Corinthians 13, 12, "...for now we see through a glass, a mirror, darkly or obscurely, but then face to face, no longer seeing Him in His glory in the reflections of the mirror of the gospel, but seeing Him in all His glory." Now the basic truth being taught here is that by continually beholding, continually studying someone, we become like Him, like them. You find my son Aaron, forgive me if we're talking about him, but I've got one child left at home. We've had seven kids, you know, and you're down to one and it's strange having one person that sort of just It gets your attention all the time, but you know, he loves what you call football. We call it soccer. That's the real name, but you call it football. He loves soccer. And his great idol in soccer is Ronaldo. He can tell you more about Ronaldo. His games, scores. I wouldn't have a clue. He studied him. He studied him. He would try to play like him, but it's never going to happen. That little simple picture there, you have to get to study someone. You have to get to know them if you're going to be like them. Therefore, the chief way. The chief way in which the Holy Spirit transforms us into the likeness of Jesus Christ is by revealing to us His glory, His beauty, His perfections in the gospel. What we're talking about in this conference is all about growth in holiness growth in the likeness of Christ's image is by growth in the knowledge of Christ, growth in the knowledge of the gospel. That's the way the Holy Ghost works. God has given us, Peter said, did he not? 2 Peter chapter 1. He's given unto us all things. It's done deal. He's given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. How? Through the knowledge of Him that called us. Life and godliness? Weren't you with me groaning last night as we thought about our sins and our failures? Alright. Alright, fine. Groan, we're going to. But how's it going to be dealt with? I know like me probably you'd love just to wake up one day and I got the victory. Wouldn't that be nice? Wouldn't that be so nice? Wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't it be nice brothers and sisters if our thinking is God would just come this week in this meeting down in power and I would be wonderfully transformed forever and the little sidebar would be, and I wouldn't have these struggles with sin anymore. I tell you now, it is never going to happen. That old flesh, rotten, filthy, will be with you to the day you die. And you will have to wage war with it till the day you die. But the way that the Holy Ghost gives us that grace to war and overcome, to assure us of these victories, is to bring us into a fuller knowledge of Christ and His gospel. If you're not interested in that, what's the point of even coming back? Peter said at the end of that same epistle, 2 Peter 3 verse 18, you know the verse well, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now you look at that in the light of what Paul says about the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12, he says this, we have received the spirit that, here's the purpose, we might know the things freely given to us of God. That's a big statement, brothers and sisters. We have been given the Spirit and we have received the Spirit in order that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. And again, when you read that in its context, 1 Corinthians, you find out the things that are freely given to us are the things of the gospel of Christ. The work of the Holy Ghost, therefore. is to grow our knowledge of Christ. All that Christ has provided for us, freely given to us, not that we have to earn it and merit it and be good enough to get it. That was my thinking for years, folks. I thought I had to attain to a certain level of holiness before I could ever really know the joy of the Lord. Like you, the focus was upon my sin, my sin, my sin. And then, because the Holy Ghost revealed to me the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I came to realize I will never attain to a level of holiness to achieve that. I'm not, my joy is in the Lord. Yes, press on for holiness. But if I've got to attain to a certain level before I can expect any real joy and power and peace and happiness, I will never get there. It's not going to happen. I'm only creating frustration for myself. Christ said of the Spirit of God, He shall glorify me. For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. That's plain, isn't it? The Holy Spirit, I'm going to send you this other comforter who's like me. He will receive the things that are of me, and he will show them, he'll reveal them to you. And that's going to make so much difference in how you live in this world. How does it all work out? this glory that changes us. I've got a question I want to ask you. When you think about your sin, your sin, where do you find the glory of Christ shines the brightest, has the most effect on your life? When you are overcome and you're saying, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I know one thing for help for my soul. It has to do with me beholding the glory of Christ. And let me ask you the question, what pray tell in the world does the Holy Ghost do that brings us that deliverance at just a time as that? Can I give you the answer? It is beholding the glory of Christ on the cross. That, in that place, sin is broken. I saw one hanging on a tree, in agony and blood. He fixed his languid eyes on me, As near His cross I stood. Sure never till my latest breath can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with His death, though not a word He spoke. My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins as blood had spilt and helped to nail Him there. Alas, I knew not what I did, but now my tears are vain. Where shall my trembling soul be hid, for I the Lord have slain? A second look he gave, which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for thy ransom paid. I die that thou mayest live. Oh, can it be upon a tree the Savior died for me? My heart is filled. My soul is thrilled to think he died for me. Is it not your testimony that when you've seen that glory of Christ hanging on the tree, It kills your interest in sin. You just want to go out and live for the Lord, and you just want to love Him. You don't want to grieve Him. You're broken, because all that's in your heart has been put on the cross. and all that's on the cross has been brought to your heart. Can I ask you what has taken place? The Holy Ghost has brought you to see the glory of Christ. You've seen the face of God. You've seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You've grown in the knowledge of Him. And it had nothing to do with your resolutions, with all your striving. All you did was look. You beheld. You had a knowledge of Him that changed you, right? It changed you. You see the point I'm making. The greatest motivation and we need it. We need motivation. Every day we get up we need motivation to live holy. The greatest motivation to be holy is the love of Christ for our souls. You can browbeat somebody, you can shame them into doing something, you can guilt them into doing something, but I'll tell you one thing, it is not an obedience rendered from the heart. It's conforming to outward standards to please a man. But when you have been brought to Christ to see him on the cross by the Spirit of God, you want to please him from your heart. And you grieve over your sin and it breaks you from it. And that's why Paul said, my great aim in life is that I might know Him. That I might enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. Being made conformable unto His death. Ah, you hear those words, you've heard them, you've read the verses many a time. But don't you see what they're saying? The Holy Ghost brings us into that knowledge of Christ. That sin might be put to death in us. Sometimes the sight of the Lord's glory will bring great sadness. Peter saw it there in that Pilate's judgment hall as the Lord just stopped upon that third denial. The Gospel writer says he stopped and they looked at each other. He looked upon the face of Jesus Christ. He saw his glory and he went out and wept bitterly. Sometimes it brings sadness. Sometimes it brings great gladness. The disciples were in that closed room, hiding behind closed door for fear of the Jews. Oh, they were discouraged and they were sad. Believe you me, they'd have felt the guilt of forsaking and abandoning their Savior. But then Jesus comes into the midst of the room. He stands before them, the risen Christ, and they behold His glory. And what does John say? Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. The word saw is not that physical with the eyes. They perceived. They understood. There was a knowledge. This is Christ. And they were glad. John Owen said, there neither is nor ever was in the world nor ever shall be the least dram of holiness, but what flowing from Jesus Christ is communicated by the Spirit according to the truth and promise of the gospel. Octavius Winslow, contemporary with C. H. Spurgeon, He said, let no man dream of real sanctification of heart who does not deal constantly, closely, and believingly with the atoning blood of Jesus. Don't dream for a moment that you're going to find the answer to your sin problem, child of God, when you act like the devil instead of Christ, if you aren't continually dealing with the glory of Christ crucified. We're transformed into Christ by the Holy Spirit as he increases our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Therefore, pray to the Spirit, open my eyes that I might behold him, his glory, and be like him. That's going to make a difference, you know, in how you act. what you do when you get up tomorrow. It won't be just the old, I'm going to shower, get dressed, have my tea or coffee, my piece of toast, and walk out the door and go to work. You're going to run the problems. Your sin is there. You've got to behold the glory of Christ crucified. You daren't come to church without beholding the glory of Christ crucified. You needn't wonder why I didn't get much from that message. You weren't prepared. This is what the Holy Ghost does. He's the primary agent. His work. Thank God. Thank God that is true. God write that word on our hearts for His name's sake. We bow in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We thank Thee He indwells us forever. What a gift He is. We know without His work in us continually, we would not see Christ. It's our desire this day in our petition, in this conference, that Holy Ghost will show us Christ. We'll see the Lord exalted in our midst. And we'll find ourselves being transformed day by day, moment by moment. In Christ's name we pray, Amen and Amen.