The text we pray the Lord be pleased to speak to us from is John's first epistle, chapter three, verses one through three. First John chapter three, verses one through three. I want to speak on the theme, the mystery of the Christian life. A Christian apologetic, the mystery of the Christian life. a Christian apologetic. First John chapter three, beginning with verse one. We'll be reading from the King James Version. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath his hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. The Christian is the greatest mystery on the earth, far greater than the ever-expanding universe, far greater than the modern science discoveries yet to be made. The Christian is the most inexplicable creature of them all. And yet, in this age of skepticism, the church finds herself on the defense. Secularism demands from the Christian a reason for his or her existence. Questions fly toward us, not for honest inquiry, but like missiles and rockets and bullets. They're meant to expose our folly for believing in mythical stories. You see, modern man thinks himself too sophisticated to believe in the God and much less in the Bible, for they see the Bible as nothing but a collection of fairy tales. Instead, we are called upon, not seen as the miracle we are, but as something shameful to be despised and rejected. Indeed, the believer cannot produce a photograph of his God. Nor can he announce that on a certain day and a certain time, God will present himself to the doubting world, giving empirical data for his existence. Because the Christian is a mystery to this world, the world explains the Christian as a product of religious hysteria. They think we're intellectually insufficient to get through life without our religious delusions. And so, for this sake, The world reasons that we are no longer to be taken seriously. And therefore, they don't have to take a serious look at Christianity. The worldly wise men can forget about the Bible and Jesus, having placed all Christ believers in this category of the intellectually weak and the emotionally unstable. And that's the way the world is dealing with this, a complete dismissal. This is how the world deals with this mystery of Christianity. But as much as we are a mystery to the world, we are a mystery to our own selves as well. Who can really understand and explain how God turns a sinner into a saint, a criminal into a child? I can explain it to you theologically. But I cannot tell you how the Lord executes the theology within the human soul. Jesus said it's impossible for us to completely understand and to achieve. In fact, he called it the wind, like the wind. You see, you feel it, you can see its effects, but that's all you cannot tell me where it comes from, what it really is. So how do we explain the Christian and Christianity? How do we give an answer for the hope that does lie within us? Recently, I was asked by a young Christian teenage girl who was asked by a skeptic this question, how do you explain why God is real to you? How would you answer that question? What is our Christian apologetic? How do we explain the mystery of a person who's blind to the very reality of this mystery? It almost seems impossible, doesn't it? And yet greater still is the impossible task of defining and fathoming the love of the Father to make us his children. Here John in our text is carried along and moved by this great amazement. Listen to what he says. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we, he includes himself, that we should be called the sons, the children of God. He's an old man now. Decades have rolled past him and left him nearly a hundred. He's no longer the youthful young man following the master on the seashores of Galilee. And yet as an old man, he's still carried along by this amazement. He still had wonderment that God should love him. I wonder if it's so for you today, especially those of us who've been saved a while. Are you still carried by that wonder of a child, that sense of amazement that God would love you? Yesterday I celebrated my 32nd spiritual birthday. And oh, I remember, I remember the load of guilt I felt moments before he came into that room and lifted the burden from me. I was doubled over bent, a religious hypocrite. I felt the weight of my sin. but I will never forget as if it was just yesterday when the Lord came into that room where I knelt and took all my sins away and washed me clean and made me pure. 32 years later, I tell you the truth. This is no exaggeration. I am more amazed today than I was that day long ago You say, how can that be? Because I know myself better today than I did at 26. I've gotten to know God better and thereby I know me more and I know what he's delivered me from. I see it more today. The corruption that is still lingering within me is enough to damn me a thousand eternities. Oh my friend, I am, I'm amazed. that God would love me. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? That should be the song of all of our hearts this morning. How can you recapture that wonder? Well, normally I would advise not to do what I'm about to ask you to do. I would say it's not healthy to take long looks inside of your own heart. Because it doesn't take very long, at least looking in the mind, to be discouraged quickly. And if I look for very long, I can end up spiritually depressed. I remember the words that Paul said, there is no good thing that is in my flesh, no good thing in me. And the longer we peer around in these hearts of ours, we find nothing good. But yet I would ask for a moment that you would permit yourself to look inside your own soul. Look within and recapture the amazement that John is experiencing as he's penning these words. Look within and see there's no good thing within you either. There's nothing that you have achieved spiritually, sir, to commend you before God. What have you done, madam, that has placed you in a position that you can stand before God without the fear of His wrath? Nothing, absolutely nothing have we done. It is all His great love for us. We stand here today, testimonies of nothing but one thing, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Do you believe? Because He says if you believe, if you'll trust in Him that He does love and that Christ's love on the cross is sufficient to wash away all the stain of your sin, then you will not perish but have everlasting life. You will live. You will be transformed into His very likeness. This is where John is. He's amazed. And as I look within my heart, I cannot point my fingers at Judas and say, oh, that evil, that debaucherous man who would betray our Lord, for I've betrayed him a thousand times. Nor can I point the finger at Peter and say, how shameful, how you disappointed the Lord in the hour of your denial. But my friends, I've denied him a hundred times. Maybe not with cursing and with oath that I did not know him, but with the way I lived. the way I operated, the way I functioned. I've denied him a hundred times over and over. No, how can it be that my God should love me? Behold, says John, behold, look! What manner of love is this? That you should be called the child of God. I look within my heart and all I can find is that my name should be scoundrel and the shadow of shame should follow me always, No, I don't stand in the shadow of my sin, but in the shadow of his forgiving and merciful love. I would never justify sin ever, please don't misunderstand me, but if there's any good that God can work from our sin, I think it is this, to cause a fascination for his love for us. So as you look within your heart, don't look too long, only look long enough so that you have to run to Calvary, but there at Calvary, Seed the love of God for you. Maybe you're not a Christian yet. Maybe you're exploring the Christian faith. Maybe you're a child who's growing up in a Christian home whose mom and dad loves Christ, but you have yet to experience the love of God to forgive you, forgiving you of your sins. My dear friend, right now, look at Calvary's cross. There's the testimony of how much God loves. Oh, you say, but yes, but he loves the elect only. That's in the wisdom of mind of God. What's in your mind? The Bible says if you believe upon him, he will set his love and forgive you of your sins. The matter now is in your court. The ball is in your court. The matter is with you to decide, will you love him? And the only way you'll love God is when you see how much he loves you. And this amazement is an expression, I believe, of this mystery that a Christian is. John feels compelled to say it again, verse two, look at it. Beloved, now are we the sons, the children of God. He can't get over it, he has to repeat it a second time. Has your heart grown lukewarm to the love of God? Is it like a piece of furniture in your household? It's there, you know it's there, but you never pay attention to it. You can even navigate in the dark around it, but you never notice it really. It's become the norm. Even you in your backslidden and lukewarm state can say, now I am the child of God. Right now I am, why? Not because of your performance, oh no, but because of his great love for you. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song. Oh, I pray you can join the chorus with us today and sing it loudly. When I look at Jesus, yes, I can see that he's the Son of God. That's not very difficult, is it? He said, I am the father of one. If you see me, you have seen the father. The writer of the Hebrews says of him in the opening chapter, verse three, he is the express image of God. I came from the Ozarks, back in the Ozarks, we would say it this way, he's the spittin' image. It means he is, looks like his father, and not only did he look like his father, but he talked like his father. He acted like his father. There was every, every form of family resemblance in Jesus. But when I look at me, I don't so much see the family resemblance. And sometimes I confess it's hard to believe that I am a child of God. Sometimes hard. When I look at my so ungodly and unrighteous ways, When I look at my heart sometimes cold towards Him, isn't it a shame that we get up to do our, quote, devotions and we have to prime the heart in order to be devoted? And yet that's the way it often is. And I look at that and I think, how can I be a child of God? But I am. And the reason I am is because it's the work of God. God has done this in me. It is His miracle. It is His love that has wrought this change in my soul. It's this work of God that's done something to us that has changed us. We have not changed ourselves. No, it's God. And this is why John is amazed here. He's moved by this bewilderment that God could have loved him, even, yes, him, and transformed him into what he is. a son, a child of God. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. That's that old song, I remember seeing it as a child. And wonder how he could love a sinner condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. It's the miracle of God's love that has changed us, and it's the work of God's love that causes the world not to recognize us. Go back to verse one again. The work of God's love causes the world not to recognize you. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. While we may not be all together like our Lord, we are not what we once were. There's something that's happened that changed us that even the world can recognize but not explain. They don't understand us. They have confused what has truly happened to us. They've tried to psychologically answer it or emotionally answer it or just leave it to conditioning and upbringing. Arguments fly and say, well, it's a matter of where you're born. If you'd been born in the Middle East, you wouldn't have been born a Christian, nor would you have ended up professing faith. But thank God, the miracle of God's love is disproving that right and left, as we hear of even revival in places where the gospel is not free to be preached publicly. No, my friend, the only explanation for you and I is this great, amazing love of God that has transformed us so that we are not the same. And those around us who knew you, friends and family, work associates, they've seen the transformation. And though they cannot explain it, there's something about it they are repulsed by. Why? Because it's something like Jesus about you. In fact, John will say even later in this very same chapter, verse 9, "...whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him." That is the seed of God, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. I remember reading that the first time after I was converted and my heart skipped a beat and panic kind of flushed me, came over me because I thought, well, does this mean the first time I sin since I've been converted that I'm no longer a Christian? Because by that time I'd already sinned more than once. Well, thankfully we know that's not what it means because none of us could ever be saved then. We know it can't be because the Bible doesn't contradict itself. John has already established that in the first chapter, that he that says he has no sin is a liar and the truth is not in him. So he doesn't mean that if you sin after you've been converted, you've never been saved. No, we understand that what he's talking about is lifestyle. the practice of one's life, the habit of one's life. In fact, you've been so transformed by Christ and his amazing love that now when you sin, you can't even sin in the same way you did before you were saved. It's not the same anymore. And we don't practice habitually a lifestyle of sin. Peter unpacks this and explains it further in his first epistle, chapter four. verses one through four. I invite you to turn and follow along and see this. First Peter, chapter four, beginning with verse one. For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. That last phrase there in verse three, the new King James says it this way. I like it. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles. We lived that way. This was what we were by nature, children of wrath, even as others. But then he says, When we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, that means drunken orgies, banqueting, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries, wherein, now notice verse four, he's explained what they once were, these Christians to whom he's writing, but now he says, verse four, wherein they think it strange. Who's they? The world. previous associates, those who ran with you and did those very things. He said, they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. You see, my dear friend, if you are a true child of God, even those around you notice something different. They note that there has been some kind of transformation. They don't understand it. They can't explain it, and what they do know they don't like, and they reject it, and they even speak evil of you, but the point is they recognize that something's happened, and you and I are not the same. The amazing love of God has done a work in us. And that amazing work of God's love produces a glorious hope. Look at verses 2 and 3. Yet again, the Christian is a mystery. We don't even know what we're gonna be like, he says. Look at verse two. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. I can tell you this, I don't understand me. I've already explained the love of God is beyond my comprehension. I can't explain the miracle of the new birth to you, but I can't even tell you what I'm gonna be like. It's a mystery to me what I shall be. We have glimpses, we have statements of revelation in the word of God, but they're not enough to come to some kind of composite, some kind of definite identification. All I know is this, that it will be seeing Jesus that will transform me and you. Look at verse two again. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is now there is a principle a law of god's kingdom he states it But he doesn't state it as a law, he just states it as a fact, that's what's going to happen at the resurrection and the return of Jesus Christ. You're going to see him, and the moment your eyes see him, transformation complete, final, once and for all. You're just like him in his image and likeness. But there is a law and principle here nonetheless, and it is the law of seeing Jesus. It is seeing Christ, my dear friends, and his glory that transforms us. That's what's gonna happen at the resurrection. When he returns, you're going to see him, not in a glass darkly or dimly. You're not gonna see him through a veil. You're not gonna see him just in glimpses here and there, but in his full beauty, in his complete rapture of joy and ecstasy, you will see him and that's what's gonna change you. You can't see Christ and stay the same. It's a law of the kingdom. And so it's seeing Christ that will transform us. And then he says that this glorious hope that we shall see him and be transformed when we see his glory works to purify us now. Look at verse three. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. And you say, wait a minute, Brother Michael, John does not say that this glorious hope works to purify us, rather it says that every person who has this hope in him purifies himself. Why did you say this hope works to purify us? Because of the law of the kingdom. because I believe it is this hope in you, this hope of seeing Christ in his fullness and his complete beauty and his glory that is motivating you right now to work to purify yourself. Your working to purify yourself has no root in you or in me. The basis of our purifying ourself cannot be found within these hands. They're found in the amazing love of God that has produced this hope in us. And that is what motivates us to now purify ourselves. Let me see if I can make this clear to you. Why are you a believer? Can't explain the work of God in your heart, but that doesn't mean we can't understand certain things about it. Why are you a believer today? Why are you here testifying that Jesus Christ has saved you by his grace and grace alone? Well, the answer is because at some point in time, you saw Jesus. Every person in this room who is a Christian has beheld the glory of God. You may not have ever thought to phrase it like that, but that's what you're going to see here in just a few moments. This is the testimony of the new covenant. This is the rule of God's kingdom. How does he transform people? By simply showing up and showing his beauty. by simply removing the scales of blindness and letting you see just how great, majestic, beautiful, and good he is. That's how he does it. That's how he saves. Every time, all the time. Now let me see if I can help you to see this. By seeing Christ through the message of the gospel, you were initially transformed. It's interesting how the first epistle of John and the gospel of John so read in some places so close, if not identical. For example, in John's prologue, that's the first chapter of the gospel of John, verse 14, he writes, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And then what does he say, church? And we beheld His what? His glory. The glory of the only begotten Father full of grace and truth. John is saying, here's what changed me. The word became incarnate. He dwelt among us. I saw that glory and I was transformed immediately. I was changed by that glory. From grace to grace, he will go on to say in the 16th verse. But it took the great logician of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, to really give us a better understanding of that. And so, in 2 Corinthians 4, verses four and six, we see what John is saying in propositional statements, we see Paul explaining it. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 4, beginning at verse four. 2 Corinthians 4, four, this is what happens And oh, that God would be pleased to do it even here this morning. To do this very thing for someone here who is yet to believe. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Please stop and look and listen. If you're not a Christian this morning, that describes you to the T, to the letter, that your problem is not just an intellectual problem of Christianity. You may think it is, but that's what he wants you to think. Who's he? The satanic oppression, the satanic blindness, the kingdom, the prince of the kingdom of darkness. My dear friend, unbelief is not just an intellectual problem, it's always also a spiritual problem. And you don't like this, I'm sure no one would like to be told that they have a demonic problem. Not in the sense of we thinking of the exorcist and the kind of the things we've seen Hollywood try to portray. But the Bible says that there is a struggle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. That's as much a part of reality as the things you can see and the senses can empirically process. There is the spiritual aspect to all of the things that we see. Even modern science is discovering now things that cannot be brought under a microscope or put in a Brunson burner and tested, but they know that they're nonetheless real even though empirical data cannot test them. There's a supernatural, spiritual dimension. And what this text is saying is that you don't believe for two reasons. Number one, you don't want to believe. You have an aversion to God. You were born with it. You were born like your father, Adam. You don't want to submit to God. You want to live according to your own dictates and your own will. And I'm empathetic with you because I was once like that too. And we still yet, even after having been converted, still battle that struggle of the flesh and its desire for dominance versus being submissive to the spirit of God that dwells within. But it's more than that you just don't want to believe. You're kept in darkness. That means right now, as I'm speaking to you, please listen. As I'm speaking to you right now, there's another preacher preaching. And he's preaching lies. He's telling you to dismiss everything you're hearing right now. Don't pay attention to that guy. He's just a theatrical guy. He's more animated and therefore you can dismiss him with his antics. Or he's just, you gotta be careful, because he's a passionate guy. He might persuade you, doesn't you know? Whatever the argument, let me tell you that it's an argument from a spiritual force of darkness. That's what this text is saying. This is what the word of God is explaining. so that if you're not a true Christ follower in love with him because, not because you chose to do so, not because you made a religious decision, not because you prayed a prayer, but because you saw him. You beheld his beauty and his majesty and that transformed you. If that hasn't happened to you, my dear friend, you are under the spell of a liar. Here's why he doesn't, wants you to see and what he does not want you to see. In whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest, lest, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. He doesn't want you to see the glory of Jesus Christ that is in the gospel. If I close my Bible and stop there, it'd be a very depressing world, wasn't it? Thank God for verse six. Because if you're in that condition today, my dear friend, do not despair. There is a King of glory. There is a King of glory. There is a King mighty in battle, who has overcome the satanic force and darkness. He has overcome him. And the Bible says in verse six, 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. Paul purposefully makes you want to go back, your mind to go back to Genesis 1 and creation when there was nothing but darkness and the Bible says, and God said, let there be light. And then the word of God says, and there was light. Paul says, your hope today is that God in his great and inexplicable love will speak to you and that word spoken will remove the veil that blinds you so that you can see just how amazingly good and wonderful and beautiful Jesus is. Oh may He do it even now, even now. It's in the gospel that we see the beauty of Jesus Christ. We get a glimpse of it, and the glimpse is all that's required to be saved. You don't have to be a theologian. Don't try to make theologians out of people, no, no. Proclaim the gospel, because in the gospel is the beauty of Christ. So it was seeing Christ that's what transformed me, isn't it? Guess what's transforming me even now as I'm speaking to you and you're listening. Seeing Christ now is what's transforming us. I want you to turn to your Bibles, just one chapter back, 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. 2 Corinthians 3, 18. 2 Corinthians 3, 18. But we all, talking about Christians, with unveiled face, see the face has been unveiled, we can see something's happened. What happened? We were allowed by the creative power of God to see the beauty and the glory of Christ in the gospel. And now he says, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now what does this mean? How do we behold him now? He says we behold him as in a mirror. When he returns, there'll be no mirrors, no mirrors. What was a mirror in the day of Paul? Well, it's not what you think or maybe what you think it might be like what you have at home, no. At this point, mirrors were basically polished pieces of metal, brass mostly. If you've ever looked at a polished piece of metal, it gives you a reflection accurately, but not distinctly, does it? that's somewhat distorted, maybe, perhaps, or not clear, not plain. So he's saying, right now, we're beholding the glory of Jesus as in a mirror. But one day, this glorious, blessed hope, we're gonna see him, not in a mirror, face to face, we're gonna see him perfectly in his fullness. And immediately, we're gonna be transformed. in between the initial sighting of Christ through the gospel and that glorious day, right now, we get to behold him as in a mirror. What is the mirror? Well, if you read the context of 2 Corinthians 3, you'll find out it's the new covenant or, i.e., the gospel. The gospel, what's the gospel? It's Revelation, excuse me, Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. It's this book. This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the testimony of Him, the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. And so, now please listen, this is where I've all of this time to bring you to this point, and it won't take very long to do it. If I'm to be continually transformed into his likeness, I must get in front of the mirror. But getting in front of the mirror is not enough. Most of us think if we just get in front of the mirror, that's a great achievement and that's sufficient. No, not hardly. As I'm in the mirror, I need to be distinctly looking, not for my reflection, but for the reflection of another. Who is the other? Jesus. the glory of Christ as seen in the gospel. Paul tells the Colossians chapter one verse six, as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, so also walk in him. In other words, just the same way you got saved is the same way you keep walking with him. And we were saved by grace through faith, so by grace through faith, I read this book looking for one thing only, the beauty. and the majesty and the greatness of my Lord. Believer, if you want your heart to once again feel the glory and the wonder that you once experienced, there is a primary way, not the only, but the primary way that God has given us, and that is to get in this book with the cry Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things in thy law. What are the wondrous things? It's really namely one person, Jesus Christ and his glory. How many of you would say, don't lift your hand, but answer then, I need personal revival. I need it. We don't have to have protracted and special meetings to have revival. Thank God. We only have two of them, I think, here a year, two of them, then a retreat or two. What are we going to do in between time if that's the only way? No, no. It's not about getting involved in doing something for God, no, that's not it either. Here's the key to personal revival, and it can happen as soon as you do what I'm suggesting to you, and that is get in this book with one plea, Lord, show me who you are. Reveal yourself to me that I may behold you. And when I behold you, I will not be the same. calls thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved, says the psalmist. Now what does that mean? It means you and I are going to have to stop reading our Bibles. Stop, S-T-O-P, just in case you thought you misunderstood me. No, you heard me right, stop. Gotta quit reading your Bible. You see, if you don't know why you're supposed to read your Bible, you will not know how to read your Bible. You do not read this book to gain information only. You do not read this book like so many Christians have been taught. Read at least a chapter a day to keep the devil away. You don't read the Bible because you're under some religious obligation to do so, and if you don't, well, you won't have God's blessings for today. Friends, those are not biblical motives for reading the Bible, and they will not help you to see Jesus and his beauty. What is the reason to read your Bible? I just gave it to you, to experience him personally, to see his beauty in such a way that you walk away and say, I had an encounter with God. And you don't have to feel things. It doesn't have to be sensational. All is required is by the Spirit of the Lord, 2 Corinthians 3, 18, he takes Jesus and makes you to see something of his love, something of his greatness, something of his beauty, something of his majesty, and you see it. And you and I both know when we see something, what we mean by that. We just don't understand it, but we have experienced it. That's what's missing in most of our Bible reading. We have forgotten that this is a mirror and what we're looking for is not, okay, Lord, here I am in the reflection mirror, tell me how good looking I am. No, no, no. You look in the mirror for the true beauty, the beauty of the Christian gospel, Christ himself. That's what you look for. And friend, God will honor that. Because they that hunger and thirst after righteousness have been given a promise, they shall be filled. I have other things I could say about how to read your Bible in order to see the glory of God, but that's for another hour as God appoints. But when you behold Christ, you cannot be the same. We can behold him in many different ways, fellowship of saints, the worship through hymns and all the other ways that we know the Bible speaks of, but my dear friend, the primary way is getting into this book Not trying to become a better theologian, although that's good, but I'm learning this theology in order to lead my heart into doxology, into worship, and I don't worship with the heart until I delight in the object of my worship. And that's what's missing in most of our reading and praying, and may I say, quote, worship. No delight, no joy, no pleasure in what I'm seeing because all I see is with the brain, the mind's eye. It hasn't captured my soul. I must conclude. What is the Christian apologetic? This is it. How do we answer the little girl's question? How do you know God is real? That we are being transformed in the likeness of Christ by seeing his glory primarily in the gospel. How else can you explain you? The answer for the hope that lies within is the beauty of Christ in the gospel and you beholding that glory and being transformed by it. There's no other explanation for the Christian. It's not a psychological answer. It's not an emotional answer. It's not a societal answer. No, no, the answer is something supernatural is taking place. But only God could do that work. Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul. Not what my tolling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Then what is it? Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Thy love to me, O God, and not my love to thee, can rid me of this dark unrest and set my spirit free. The love of God. When was the last time that you beheld His love for you in the glory of Jesus Christ, in the gospel, and you took delight in it? That's our apologetic. It's the best one there is. It's the one that the Bible endorses. I'm not against Christian apologetics. It is good that we live in a time and an age where we have answers that deal with honest inquiry, but my dear friend, they all pale in comparison to the beauty and the majesty of the Son of God, so that the Christian apologetic isn't a declarative apologetic. It declares, trusting that God will speak and light will shine upon the sinner. And so I say, shine, Jesus, shine. Shine, Jesus, shine. Let us behold your face and we shall be revived. Amen and amen. Let's pray. Oh, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Oh, Lord, we cannot get over this. We don't want to get over it. We pray that we would see it more, experience it more, that it would become the driving force of our life. Knowing that one day the transformation will be made complete when we will see you without any mirrors. But in your completeness, in your fullness, oh Lord God, would you hasten that day? Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We tire so much. of our imperfections, our sins, our corruptions, our imperfections. Oh Lord God, to be transformed into His likeness, to have full and sweet communion at its very best, not seeing through a glass darkly. Oh Lord, we would behold you even now. Come. But we know that the times of the Father are not ours to try to decipher. We trust in you, Lord, that you're not willing that any should perish. And you tarry, your patience is long, and you suffer long. Lord, I pray for that dear person here tonight, this morning, whom you have been lifting the veil and they've seen something of Jesus. They've caught the beauty of your love for them. They're amazed that you would love them. Oh Lord, that's it. That's the very flavor of the gospel that they're tasting. And you're giving them spiritual appetites and taste buds to taste that. Oh God, bring them to full birth. Protect them from the evil one who would deceive them. And Lord, we who are your children already, who we have experienced your love, would you revive and rekindle that love so that it's like the first love, the early days when we walked with you in complete rapture and amazement that you, my God, would die for me. Restore that to us. Restore this to this church, to all of your people across this globe, be a revival, in the love of God, in the glory of Christ, in the gospel. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.