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We'll get the citations out of
the way right now. My sources are Matthew Henry's
Commentary, Wikipedia, and Collier's Encyclopedia, and the Bible. Imagine a woman. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
ask, Lord, that you'd speak to us today because of your son,
because of your glory. May your children, Lord, reflect
his glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Imagine
a woman who looked in a mirror this morning. That shouldn't
be hard. A mirror in the bedroom, in the
bathroom, by the door as she goes out, and the compact from
her purse. She then proceeds to back out
of her driveway and collide with another car, whereupon the driver
in the other car asks, don't you ever look in your mirror?
Now in reality, Women were using mirrors to see behind their vehicles
as early as 1906. And automobile manufacturers
didn't introduce rearview mirrors until eight years after that.
It's documented. Today we'll be looking at things
done with mirrors. Hence the title, It's All Done
With Mirrors. Let's turn to James 1. We've
already read the text. James chapter one. Now for me
to really get started, I have to put a pen in my hand. We looked at verses 19 to 27. And I want to read for us verse
18, because verse 18 gives us, well, let's read it first. Chapter
one, verse 18. In the exercise of his will,
he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we might be,
as it were, the firstfruits among his creatures." This verse gives us the reason
behind the rest of this chapter. God used his word to make you
the pinnacle of his creation, namely, redeemed souls. Something to put on display as
the firstfruits. Now, he says in the rest of this
chapter, be presentable. Achieve God's goal of righteousness
in you by looking intently at the Word of God, the same Word,
and living by it, especially in your speaking and in your
helping the helpless. I saw an episode of the original
Star Trek a few days ago. A woman was the sole survivor
of a spaceship crash. And she was severely injured.
And she didn't crash on the Earth, by the way. There were many people on this
ship, but she was the sole survivor. And aliens on the planet that
she crashed on put her back together. But they had never seen a human
before. And so although they saved her
life, she was grotesque. Is that God's goal? Grotesque
Christians who do not achieve His beautiful righteousness.
Or worse yet, do we just imagine that we are religious and we
are actually still dead, as mentioned in this chapter and the following
chapter? We need to look at the mirror that God has provided
His Word. It shows who we were and it shows
that we are freed from bondage to sin. We mustn't turn away
from this mirror or else we will quickly forget these things.
I got up Saturday to work on this message. I didn't comb my
hair. I walked about in a robe all
morning. Then Sandy Wade came to see Debbie. Well, there I
was having forgotten what I looked like. Eventually, I got dressed. Notice that in the book of James,
the person who forgets what he looks like is a man. Okay? Okay. But then it says, then the rest
of it talks about anyone that's not particularly masculine. Okay. One way to keep looking
at that mirror of God's word is memorization. Two weekends
ago on Saturday, the Student Life Clarity event was held in
the Birmingham area. And some of our youths heard
Dr. David Platt quote Psalm 119,
all 176 verses. He got up on the stage and quoted
that psalm from memory. He was emphasizing the importance
of God's word by memorizing and reciting a huge psalm about God's
word. And I think it impressed everyone.
I mean, it did. Everyone stood up. Part of his emphasis in the message
was the centrality of God's Word. And we always stand up at these
events for the band. He said, why don't we stand up
for the Word? And so everyone stood up. And when he recited
that, he was standing there. I didn't even know it. Someone
had to tell me, because I was looking in my Bible. I didn't notice. He was just standing there speaking
that psalm. Someone had to tell me, he quoted
that. He did? Woo! Wow. If we do these things, James
says, we will be happy and we will see the kinds of results
that count. So if God saves us using the
mirror of his word, he also liberates us using the same mirror, making
us the first fruits to put on display. It's all done with mirrors. What else is done with mirrors?
Well, beginning in 1969, the crews of Apollo 11, Apollo 14,
Apollo 15, and two unmanned Soviet space flights placed mirrors
on the moon. Today, scientists, even today,
yeah, scientists measure the distance to the moon to an accuracy
of less than a tenth of an inch by pointing a laser at any one
of those mirrors that are still operating. They're not all still
operating. I mean, they don't do anything, they just sit there,
but whether they're covered by dust for some reason or what,
but some don't, or they can't locate them because they moved,
whatever. One of them, you know, the Soviet ones were on mobile
transport, and so they're not sure where they are. But they
can still measure to the moon today and do. And they've determined
that the moon is getting further from the earth at the rate of
1.5 inches per year. And so my question to you is,
are you further or closer to Christ today? Look in the mirror
of God's word to see. The hall of mirrors at the Palace
of Versailles in France has 17 windows, 8,000 square feet of
floor space, 40 foot ceilings, and 357 large mirrors. It was there, in the Hall of
Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, that Germany signed the 1919
Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I, thereby reconciling
the central powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman
Empire, and Bulgaria to the Allies. Notice the central powers get
listed and Allies don't. Of course, there were very many
Allies. Have you been reconciled to the
Lord of the universe? Stand before the mirror of God's
word to see. Let's look at second Corinthians
chapter three. Second Corinthians chapter three,
verse two and three. You are our letter, written in
our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that
you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink,
but with the spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone, but
on tablets of human hearts. In our first text in the book
of James, James emphasized the function of the Word of God in
conversion and sanctification. Paul, on the other hand, is emphasizing
the function of the Spirit of God and the function of the person
who carries the Word of God to the unsaved. Actually, what Paul
is saying is we carry not just the Word of God, but we carry
the Spirit of God to the unsaved. And in a sense, this spirit is
transmitted from us to the unsaved. Sounds like heresy, I know. In
a sense, look at verse two again. You are our letter written in
our hearts. I looked at that over and over
again. How can it be written in my heart? You look at the rest of the chapter,
it talks about writing in their hearts. But here it says, written
in our hearts. The point is, that's the source.
Paul wrote the letter in his heart. And the result is the
letter in... The result is the Corinthian
church, which is the letter. And now the Spirit has been written
on their hearts. And so, Paul wrote the letter. He's the source
of the letter. It's written in his heart. It's his life. It's
because of his life. It's because of his example. It's because of His obedience.
It's because of His love for the Corinthians that the Corinthians
exist as followers of Christ. And so they, as a letter, were
written in His heart. You are a letter we wrote with
our lives, with our beings. You are who you are because of
who we are, and we sent you out. Look at verse 3. Being manifested
that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not
with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets
of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. He's saying it is by
Paul's instrumentality that the spirit of God wrote on the Corinthians
hearts. So in a sense, the spirit of
God is transmitted from one Christian's heart to the next. Look at verses
five and six. I mean, that's a heavy statement.
And similarly, in Romans, when he says that God is in control
of salvation, well then, who can object? He has to answer
that objection. Well, likewise, he has to answer
the objection. You're kidding me, Paul. We do that? Well, he
comes back on verse 5. Not that we are adequate in ourselves
to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy
is from God. who also made us adequate as
servants of a new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. No longer is there Moses, or
Aaron, or a priest, as there was in the old covenant, telling
the Jews to know the Lord. All Christians know the Lord,
and are qualified to spread the new covenant, carrying the Spirit
of God to the world. Christ is all and in all, says
the book of Colossians. Moses' face glowed. But that
glory is nothing compared to the glory of Christ in you, verse
10. For indeed, what had glory in
this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it.
The world sees Christ in us, verse 18. But we all, verse 18, With unveiled
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as
from the Lord, the Spirit. I'm afraid this is one time the
NIV has the correct translation and the one I just read, my cherished
NAS, is wrong. And the King James and New King
James likewise are not as good as the NIV in this case. The
English Standard Version at least footnotes a good translation
of this verse, but the text is the same as the NAS. But let
me read the NIV to you right now. And we who with unveiled
faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into
His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord,
who is the Spirit." And we won't worry about the last part of
that verse, because I think that's even harder to translate. And
I'm not a Greek scholar. But Strong's says that this word
that the NAS translates as, beholding as in a mirror, is reflexive. So I conclude that it should
literally say, we reflecting ourselves, the Lord's glory.
And it doesn't make much sense in English, but maybe we could
rearrange it as, we ourselves are reflecting the Lord's glory.
I don't know. But if it's reflexive, then we're
the mirror. So the glory of the Lord reflects
off of us. And what is the point of it except
that it should reflect to another person? Look at verses 7 to 13. of chapter 3, 2 Corinthians chapter
3, verse 7. But if the ministry of death
in letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the
sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses
because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how shall the
ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation
has glory, Much more does the ministry of righteousness abound
in glory. For indeed, what had glory in
this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it.
For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that
which remains is in glory. Okay, continuing. Having therefore
such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech. and are not as
Moses, who used to put a veil over his face, that the sons
of Israel might not look intently at the end of what was fading
away. Let's go down to chapter 4, verse
6. For God who said, this is chapter
4, verse 6. For God who said, light shall
shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, or jars of
clay, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and
not from ourselves. WDJC has been playing a song
by the band Salvador, which just means Savior in Spanish. And
it's entitled Shine. Lord, let me shine, shine like
the moon. reflection of you in all that
I do Lord let me be a light for your truth light of the world
I want to be used to shine for you mirrors are made for many
things there's a mercury mirror in a telescope in Canada mercury
for those of you who don't know is a metal that is liquid at
room temperature. Most of you know that, but I
just want to remind most of you. A 20 foot wide bowl, in this
telescope, a 20 foot wide bowl is filled with a thin layer of
pure liquid mercury. And the bowl rotates at 6 rotations
per minute to give the surface of the mercury the correct shape
to reflect and focus light. This telescope can only look
straight up. It can't aim it, because it would
pour out. Most telescopes you can aim.
But today's mirrors are glass and back-coated with aluminum.
You know all that. And this process of coating the
back with aluminum is called silvering. Obviously, right? Well, because
both silver and quicksilver, which is another name for mercury,
were used as earlier coatings for mirrors. Now, clear glass,
the clear glass that we use in mirrors, wasn't made until AD
100. Soon after that, the method for
making clear glass was lost when the Roman Empire fell. And so
the 11th century, saw the emergence of glass mirrors in Islamic Spain. I don't know if this was with
clear glass or not, but they had some type of glass that was
used as a mirror. But mirrors made from clear, uncolored glass,
which was called cristolo, were made in Venice, Italy in the
16th century. So my point about all that is
that The history of glass mirrors begins maybe in AD 100 at the
earliest, okay? And so the mirrors spoken of
in the Old and New Testaments are not glass, but bronze mirrors
or something like that, which gave a colored, wavy reflection. This is why Paul can say in 1
Corinthians 13, 12, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then
face to face. Now I know in part, but then
I shall know fully, just as I also have been fully known." If they used the mirrors we have
today, he wouldn't say something like that, because you can see
perfectly clearly in today's mirrors. Our present understanding
is by seeing Christ in the Bible and in other Christians, both
of which reflect Christ sufficiently, but not perfectly. You know,
Paul said, be followers of me even as I am of Christ. And so
we see Christ in Christians. And Paul said, follow me. So
it's not improper to say that that's a place that we see Christ. Similarly, in 1 John 3, 2, when
he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him
just as he is. We don't see him just as he is
right now, but we will. So why do some of our Bible translations
refer to mirrors as glass or looking glass? When the Bible
was first written, there was no clear glass, okay? And the
mirrors were brass. Well, the term mirror was used
for the old, poor metal mirrors. And so when glass mirrors became
popular, I suppose they were distinguished from the earlier
ones by using the term glass, looking glass. And this was still
the case when our early English translations were made. But eventually,
the term went back to being mirror, because there weren't any brass
mirrors in use. And so there wasn't any need
to distinguish anymore. And here, let me take off my
glasses. Or should I call them plastics?
There's not any glass in them. But we still call them glasses. Elihu, the young man who speaks
after Job's three counselors have finished their speeches,
Elihu glorifies God as he describes the strong forces of the weather
that God controls. He summarizes, I think, by stating
in Job 37, 18, you don't have to turn there, can you, he's
speaking to Job, can you, with him, spread out the skies strong
as a molten mirror Strong, heavy mirrors were cast from brass
and polished, reflecting light as does the sky when the lightning
lights up the night. So I can see the comparison between
a mirror and the sky. And the strength of the sky is
in the terrible destruction that we see that comes from it. Isaiah paints a terrible picture. proud women because our topic
is mirrors I'm afraid men don't come up too often except in the
book of James where they don't use the mirrors enough so they
forget what they look like Isaiah chapter 3 Isaiah chapter 3 verse 16 we're gonna read to the end of
the chapter Isaiah chapter 3 verse 16 moreover the Lord said because
the daughters of Zion are proud and walk with heads held high
and seductive eyes and go along with mincing steps and tinkle
the bangles on their feet therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp
of the daughters of Zion with scabs and the Lord will make
their foreheads bare In that day, the Lord will take away
the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments,
dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, headdresses, ankle chains,
stashes, perfume boxes, amulets, finger rings, nose rings, festal
robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses, hand mirrors, undergarments,
turbans, or some versions say tiaras, and veils. Now it will come about that instead
of sweet perfume, there will be putrefaction. Instead of a
belt, a rope. Instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out
scalp. Instead of fine clothes, a donning
of sackcloth. And branding instead of beauty. Branding. Your men will fall
by the sword and your mighty ones in battle, and her gates
will lament and mourn, and deserted, she will sit on the ground. Are we men or women? Are we proud? Do we tinkle the
bangles on our feet, show off our bling bling? Then we should
take heed lest we fall. Our final text is Exodus. Turn to chapter 25. I think this is really my text,
but don't worry, that wasn't all just introduction. Exodus chapter 25. Starting from this chapter, God
gives Moses instructions for the construction of the tabernacle,
which would be a large makeshift worship center, which could be
assembled and disassembled for 40 years as they travel through
the wilderness. It's not a little thing either.
His first instructions, God's first instructions to Moses are
to raise contributions from personal items and from plunder that they
had taken from Egypt. Look at chapter 25, verses 1
to 9. Then the Lord spoke to Moses
saying, tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for me.
From every man whose heart moves him, you shall raise my contribution. And this is the contribution
which you are to raise from them, gold, silver, and bronze, blue,
purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, ram skins
dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices
for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones
and setting stones for the ephod and for the breast piece. Let
them construct a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them. According to all that I am going
to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern
of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it." After
this first bit here where he's giving instructions to Moses
saying collect donations for the construction of the tabernacle,
then detailed instructions for the construction of the tabernacle
are given by God to Moses in chapters 25 to 31. And then in chapters 32 to 34,
the people become impatient, waiting. As God is giving all
these detailed instructions, they're waiting down off the
mountain, and so they're impatient, and they're waiting for Moses,
so they make a golden calf. And after this is resolved, understatement,
We're trying to look at this very quickly, but an overview
After that issue is resolved The law is once again written
on tablets and Moses comes down His face is shining so a veil
is placed over it as we read in the New Testament and then
in chapters 35 to 40 Moses relays these instructions to the people
That he had received and the construction is performed let's
look at chapter 35 so skip it over to chapter 35 you know we
skip a whole lot that I just described to you and verses 4
to 5 and Moses spoke to all the congregation
of the sons of Israel saying this is the thing which the Lord
has commanded saying take from among you a contribution to the
Lord whoever is of a willing heart Let him bring it to the
Lord's contribution. Gold, silver and bronze. And
it continues, but I'll just stop there. Now skip down to verse
21. And everyone whose heart stirred
him and everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought the
Lord's contribution for the work of the tent of meeting and for
all its service and for the holy garments. We're going to read
down to verse 29. Then all whose hearts moved them,
both men and women, came and brought brooches and earrings
and signet rings and bracelets, all articles of gold. So did
every man who presented an offering of gold to the Lord. And every
man who had in his possession blue and purple and scarlet material
and fine linen and goat's hair and ram skins dyed red and porpoise
skins brought them. Everyone who could make a contribution
of silver and bronze brought the Lord's contribution. And
every man who had in his possession acacia wood for any work of the
service brought it. And all the skilled women spun
with their hands and brought what they had spun. It blew in
purple and scarlet material and in fine linen. And all the women
whose hearts stirred with the skill spun the goat's hair. And
the rulers brought the onyx stones and the stones were setting for
the ephod and for the breast piece. and the spice and the
oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant
incense. The Israelites, all the men and women whose heart
moved them to bring material for all the work which the Lord
had commanded through Moses to be done, brought a freewill offering
to the Lord. So the people brought their possessions
and they were used for the construction. Look at chapter 36 now. verse 4 and all the skillful
men who were performing all the work of the sanctuary came each
from the work which he was performing and they said to Moses the people
are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which
the Lord commanded us to perform so there's just plenty And many
of the workers were singled out by name. Many of the workers,
their very names are recorded here, as each had skills given
to them by the Lord to perform their work on constructing the
tabernacle and tent of meeting. But the donors of the material
aren't singled out by name. The workers are, but not the
donors. Only two groups of donors are
identified, but not by name. They're named... What group they
are is told to us, okay? At least this is what I could
see. Only two groups. The two groups are identified.
One from each end of the privilege spectrum, okay? The rulers are identified. Look
at chapter 35, verse 7. Go back to chapter 35, verse
7. And that's not it. It's 27. Verse 27. And the rulers brought the onyx
stones and the stones for setting for the ephod and for the breast
piece, which he read. And so the rulers are identified
as bringing those rich items that were necessary. And now
one final group. was identified look at chapter
38 verse 8 this is all the description of the construction going on
of the tabernacle and they're all fulfilling what the Lord
had commanded to Moses and what Moses had relayed to the people
and God had moved his spirit in the hearts of the people to
bring the donations and given talents to the people to perform
it goes through all this in these chapters to perform the work
to build the tabernacle and then verse 8 chapter 38 verse 8 moreover he
made the uh i can't even pronounce it the laver the wash basin the
sink of bronze with its base of bronze from the mirrors of
the serving women who served at the doorway of the tent of
meeting can you imagine that women donating
their bronze mirrors for the work of the Lord. Mary Magdalene
white Jesus's feet with her hair, hair that had participated in
her harlotry. Did the serving women give their
mirrors out of repentance? Repentance from abuse of those
mirrors? like we saw in Isaiah, where
the women were proud and they bangled their bells and whatever
it said. But the point is that they were
proud of their appearance. They were proud of their riches.
Or perhaps, you know, in the earlier episode with the golden
calf, as the people were violating the commands of the Lord and
worshipping the golden calf, and performing all sorts of idolatry,
and the mirrors may have been involved
there as they prepared themselves for whatever acts they would
take part in. Or perhaps, merely out of zeal
for the work of the tabernacle and their hearts were moved to
give of those things that they cherished, that they needed,
their mirrors, their bronze mirrors. Unlike the woman driver at the
beginning that I mentioned, we need to be looking in the correct
mirrors. We need to be looking in God's
Word. We need to be like those waitresses who gave up their
mirrors for the tabernacle construction. Is God moving in your heart to
give up something of yours for the work of the Lord, something
that you cherish, something that you seem to need? So we have
several spiritual mirrors. The Bible is a mirror. It shows
us who we were. And the Bible is a mirror that
shows us who Christ is. We are mirrors of the glory of
Christ shining to the world. And mirrors, in this verse here
in Exodus, is a symbol of the things that we cherish that ought to be given to the
Lord. And as we sing this next hymn, when we sing of God's glory
filling this nation, let us remember what vessels will be showing
that glory. We are the vessels.
It's All Done with Mirrors
| Sermon ID | 410081315163 |
| Duration | 36:54 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | James 1:18-27 |
| Language | English |
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