Friends, there's a big premise this morning from this passage, and I want to dig deep into our hearts to think about this, and it is this. Here's the premise. We become what we behold. We become what we behold. I wonder if you've thought about this truism. Here's a truism. A truism is something that is obviously true anywhere you go in the world. Here is a truism. Addictions are bad for us. That's true, isn't it? Anyone could nod their head. Addictions are bad for us. And humans have always had our addictions. No one is going to deny that there is such a thing as alcohol addiction. No one's going to say there's no such thing as alcohol addiction. We all nod our head. There is such a thing as alcohol addiction. There is such a thing as a drug addiction. There is such a thing as being addicted to sex in unhealthy ways, lust, things like that. Of course, there are good things in life. But what we do in our sin, in our distortion of God's good gifts, is we turn those things into good things, into God things. We make them our gods. We fashion them into things that we live for. We worship. And when that happens, those good things become bad for us. When we become addicted to those things, they take over our life, they enslave us, and we know we're in trouble. Now, some people, the addict will say, of course, I can give up at any time. Don't they? It's a common thing, isn't it? I can give up at any time. But the tragic irony is, they can't. Well, that is why they're an addict. They are enslaved to that thing. In those addictions, the reason we become addicted is because we think we will find our comfort in that thing. We think we will find our pleasure there. We think we will find our joy there. And yet, every study on the planet, every human experience tells us that's just not true. And every addict deep down knows this. But they're also deep down way too deep to get out. They think. But the tragic trajectory of the life of an addict is it didn't start that way. It starts in small ways. From one degree to another, even incrementally, they can't see it. The addict becomes what they're addicted to. And to just say, if you ever ministered to someone who's an addict, to just say, as preachers, lazy preaching would be. Lazy preaching is, lazy application is, just stop it. The problem is they can't. It's like telling a Kenworth truck at 110 on the highway to stop it. Or a train coming to a level crossing, just stop. They can't. Even friends helping friends is helpful. But the addict needs something else. The addict needs what the Scottish Presbyterian minister of the 1800s... So it was a while ago, but he saw this. He said this. Thomas Chalmers, he was a Presbyterian minister in Scotland, and he wrote this book, this treatise, and the title is famous. We need this. The addict needs this. The expulsive power of a new affection. We need to love something more, that is better than the thing we're enslaved to. The addict's only help is that they will find comfort and pleasure and their joy in something greater than what has them in its grip. Friends, there is another truism in our society today. This is a new one, but I'm thinking you could nod along and agree, and if you don't, yeah, just bear with me. I think this is obviously true, even if we're less likely to admit it. There are more of us prone to this than any other addiction that's been, and it's called screen addiction. I know the irony of saying that as I preach off a screen, that's where my notes are. Often I've got a mobile phone in my pocket. I know most of my life I need to use email and computers. My work is screens. Some of you, your work is screens. But also our life is screens, isn't it? It's just how we communicate, how we're connected. Be that social media or any other media. I talked about subscribing to our weekly email on the website or screens. Again, good things. Hear me. I think screens are good gifts. They have helped us in so many ways. But there is a real phenomenon in our society and it's called screen addiction or some studies call it phone addiction because that's where it's particularly coming towards us. We don't really see people getting on the train or the bus and flipping open their laptop or walking along with their laptop. But we do see people connected, almost hooked, like a magnetism has got us to a phone. Now friends, here is something I want to say as we meet today. Hi. My name is Russ. And I have been a screen addict. It has been X number of days since I last was addicted to a screen. I get it. Like the person addicted to alcohol, we're amongst friends here. Why do I say that? I say that because my role as a pastor, my love as a pastor is not to be the finger pointer. I am a fellow pilgrim with you. I know the temptations of all the other things we could be addicted to, but particularly this one is more universal than the others, isn't it? Couple of weeks, the last couple of weeks, my eight-year-old Wesley said to me in a couple of times, in the last couple of weeks, I'm leaning over our breakfast bar at home, in a spare moment, I flip my phone out, you know, we do this, right? And he said to me, you're on your phone again, Dad. Whoa, wow, out of the mouths of eight-year-olds. I'm your fellow pilgrim. I know by human experience when it comes to screen addiction that it's dangerously true we become what we behold. And I don't need to tell you there are now countless studies that show phone addiction or screen addiction where the symptoms of, here's a few symptoms, needing to regularly check your phone for no reason. You just do it. You're sitting there, you might be sitting there even listening to someone and you just pull the phone out and just checking it. We're just so used to doing it. Another symptom, you're actually with other people and you're doing that, but also you're with other people. You could be sitting next to someone and you just got your phone there and they've got their phone there. I mean, you've seen the memes and the pictures of the couple in the bed and they're not talking to each other. They're just on their phones. Another symptom, you can have the screen in front of oneself even at a table of a meal. I've seen this. Teenager, screen, at meal, wider family, earphones on, at best one off so that they can hear if they're being talked about whilst they're on the screen. Friends, these are symptoms of a larger problem. Studies have shown that kids and teenagers who are addicted to screens can suffer from, let me list them, these are studies, insomnia, back pain, fluctuating weight, vision problems, headaches, and here's the big one, anxiety. Now we all knew that, didn't we? We could all nod our head to that. But also, here's what the studies have also shown they suffer from, increasing dishonesty. hiding things from their parents or their friends. Feelings of guilt. Look, we've got enough guilt already to then load up children and teenagers with more of it from the world. Long-term effects of screen addiction can even lead to brain damage. Now, as a parent, as parents, we feel overwhelmed. Because no one wants to say, like as if we're some sort of cranky older person saying, hey, we should get rid of all our screens, we're gonna ban them. No one wants to do that. No one wants to be the bad guy. No one wants to take the screens off the kids, you know. Parents have enough guilt already. We do not, and I seek not to load parents up with more guilt. Guilt does nothing but kill our life. That's why we go to Christ. We'll get there soon. And parents also need grace because here's what parents also know. We can be addicted to screens too. Children, teenagers, adults, grown-ups are all exhibiting the signs of addicts. I saw one study where they had videos of children. Videos of children. Here's what really got me thinking about this and praying for our church. for our families, for our society. There's a study done, they have clips, multiple clips, there's videos of children who are sleeping, but instead of sleep talking, do you know what they're doing? They are sleep scrolling with their fingers, scrolling in their sleep. Studies showing videos where they take the screen off the child and the child has a meltdown that lasts nearly all day. Teenagers are not taught how to manage their emotions and how to manage their responses to things. In a world that is teaching them through the screen to consume at a moment's notice and get whatever they want at a moment's notice, to be responsible for self-control, which by the way fellow believers is the fruit of the spirit, they're just not able to tap into that ability. What's my point? after that long-er, long-er introduction. We become what we behold. We become what we behold. We human beings are shaped by so many things, yes genetics, I cannot help, that I grew up with and the kids at school poured it out to me regularly. You have a weird head and weird ears. I've said this probably a few years ago in a sermon, and everyone I've been warning to was like, let me just look at you. If you want, we can do that. Line up. I'll grab a coffee. Come and look. I have one ear that sticks out more than the other. Kids at school, they're always able to pick that stuff up pretty quick. What makes you different? And they become cruel with it. My mother, I come home to her and say, this is what they're saying. They're singing songs at me. Sail away, sail away, sail away. That was a song popular when I was a kid. They'd say, when the wind blows, do you spin only in one direction? Because I have one ear that sticks out more than the other. But she would say, you have by genetics, you've been given a gift, Russ. Because you have a daddy ear and a mummy ear. Because if you look at pictures of Grinters, we're all ears out, man. We're all ears out. Grinters over the centuries. Oh, there's something about those grinters, right? Yes, there's genetics. Genetics can mean maybe we are certainly hardwired in different ways, but it's also the human experience. We're not just shaped by our genes. We are shaped by discipleship. We're shaped by what's around us. We become what we behold. And that is Paul's point to the Corinthians in this section of his letter. Paul had to show Corinth church in 2nd Corinthians that we just read chapter 3 verse 7 to the end. Paul is showing Corinth church after all the context has been before. Firstly, he feels insufficient for this. His point is, it's not about me. It's not about him. That is not where the power of God is. It doesn't begin in me. Then he went on to say that even though the Corinthian church compares Paul to others, the so-called famous super apostles of the day, Paul says, who are just peddlers of God's word, it is not about comparing ourselves to others. for they are not where the power is. If I could just become like them or become like those people over there, that's not where the power is. It's rather radical to see the power for freedom and transformation and life for real change in life. You want real change in your life? The power is by beholding the glory of God in Christ. That's his point. What is glory though? If you are new to the Bible, many of us are. What is glory? We see throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament the way that glory is used. It's actually the same in many senses the way it's used today. Glory is a descriptor of something or someone's weight of importance. The heavy worth of that thing or person. It's why in the old days, and still today, you got King Chuck, King Charles III. When he was coronated, notice what they put on him? He didn't wear a business suit, polo shirt, t-shirt, or his favorite flannel. I wonder if he's got one, but suppose he does, everyone's got a favourite flannel, haven't we? Even flannel pyjamas. No, it was none of that. What did King Charles wear? It was the weight of clothing, the robe with its jewels, the crown with the heavy metals in it. And why? Because that weight showed his worth. He's the king. He's receiving glory. He has glory. Of course, we think of glory in other ways today. No one's sitting there on their television at night going home saying, I just want to watch what King Charles is up to today, a day in the life of King Charles. But we do it with our sporting heroes. They're the new kings and queens of our world, aren't they? The way that sporting people behave on the field and off the field has shaped many a family in our society. And we give them glory or think that they are glorious. Why? Because we think of them as important. They have a weight of worth, due respect. We also think of it of ourselves. We think, well, that person, I see that person amongst my friendship circles, or maybe even in a church. They get respect. They get interest. I would like to be like that. So if I become like that, I'll get some glory too. I'll feel important in my social circles. I'll get more likes or loves or whatever it is I'm after. I'll get glory. Glory is a weight of importance. It's like in that song we sang today, the first line, the splendor of a king loathed in majesty. And here the apostle Paul says this of this glory. There was a glory in the old Testament in the old covenant, and there's a glory in the new Testament in the new covenant. And Paul is saying. They can be compared and the new one is more glorious. when Paul says this when he writes of this he has in his mind when he's thinking glory he's thinking of his his mind where do we see that kind of glory in the old covenant that is different than the new and he thinks what we read early in our cross reference passage exodus 32 through to 34 i really wanted to read from 32 to 34 it was a big section go and read it later but we read 34 the big heavy weighty worth conclusion of glory in those events after the exodus from Egypt where God had saved his people from slavery. Now when he does that, we expect to see, when you see people saved by grace, what do you expect to see their response to be? Wow, we've been saved by grace. Now let's go and live gracious lives. That's what you expect, isn't it? You know the story of Israel? They are saved and a slave of Egypt. You expect them to live gracious lives. You know what they live? Grumbling lives. Moses never good enough. Aaron's never good enough. We hate this. We want to go back to Egypt. Read it. Go and read it. Who would want the ministry of Moses? He didn't want it. He tried to get out of it several times when God first commissioned him, ordained him for it. He said, I'm not very good at this. I'm not a leader. Friends, if you're looking for leadership, I want to look for a leader who doesn't want the job. I'm looking for a leader who doesn't want to be the leader because then I can know you actually want to do it because you love people, not because you want the title, not because you want the position or the prominence or the glory. I want to look for people like Moses who says, I don't want the job. It's not for nothing, but I didn't, I didn't want this job. I didn't want to be a farmer. As you may well know, pastor, leader. Who would want the ministry of Moses? He didn't want it, but he gets it. And for Moses, he leads a people who rather who live in beautiful obedience, there are people where things get ugly fast. And in Exodus 32, things got ugly fast. Moses goes up the mountain to receive the law of God. They receive the 10 commandments. The people have heard the 10 commandments in Exodus 20. But Moses goes up because we often get it wrong. We forget. Now, what was that second commandment? Oh, goodness. Was it, you know, and so what happens? God inscribes himself by his finger, the commandments on two tablets of stone. Moses is up the mountain. He's there for over a month. Not long over a month, 40 odd days. But the people start getting impatient. Down at the bottom of the mountain, here is the evil irony. They can see the smoke. We came in this morning to this building and there was a smoke in here. I was quite worried about it. I think the neighbors have burnt some rubbish or something. We cleared it, but you might still smell it. Someone said, it's like the aroma from last week's sermon. Yeah, let's go with that. They can smell the smoke. They can see Mount Sinai. It is covered, not only in a cloud of smoke, there is thunder, there is lightning. They are fearful to go near it. They beg, you go Moses. They're there, they can see it. And they're like, you know what? He's not coming back. We need a new plan. They come up with the idea. They said to Aaron, second in command, hey, why don't you make some gods for us that we can worship? Here's the terrible irony, they think they're godless, and they become truly godless. And so they carve out a golden car, and the whole scene is one of cascading shame. We were looking at this in our home group on last Wednesday, because our groups at the moment are reading the passage so we can engage with it before Sunday morning. And as we were reading in our home group, we saw how off the Richter scale ridiculous this situation is. For when Moses comes down the mountain to see what's going on, Aaron doesn't just make an idol, Aaron makes up the worst excuse in the world. Do you know this excuse? It's famous. He says, oh, the people, they just gave me the goal, I put it in the fire, and out popped an idol. You know, believe me, I'm going to read it word for word. Exodus 32 verse 23. For they said to me, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So I said to them, let any of you have gold, take it off. So they gave it to me and I threw it in the fire and out came this calf. Wow. Next time your kids try and pull that excuse off. Remember, A grown-up man, a leader, made up something worse. And upon seeing what happened in this event, we see what is happening deeper in the heart of the people of God. Instead of looking to see the glory of God, they look to see for glory in a dumb idol, and they become dumb themselves. Instead of looking for the mind of God at his word, they worship a mindless, inanimate, dumb idol and they become mindless themselves. They forget the God who brought them out of slavery. Nay, they neglect the God that brought them out of slavery and have become addicted to actually what will enslave them. They become what they behold. They become the idol. That is idolatry in a nutshell, isn't it? You become what you live for, you become what you worship. Yet in that whole episode, there is something else to behold. We read this. Fast forward to Exodus 34, and in Exodus 34, Moses, who had broken the tablets, you know what it's like, you drop your iPad. Well, he didn't just drop it, he threw those tablets. Boom, hit the ground, they shatter. A God, by his grace, has new tablets made. And Moses comes down from that moment, Exodus 34 verse 29, And after meeting with God, the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. And Aaron and the people of Israel saw Moses. Behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he had to put a veil over his face. This is the context that Paul writes about in 2nd Corinthians. Paul's point in verses 7 to 11, and you'll see this on page 4 of the service sheet, is that there is greater glory in the ministry of the Spirit. Look at verse 7. From verse 7 to verse 9, this is a compare and contrast there's a ministry of death halved on letters of stone those commandments had glory Israelites could not gaze at Moses face now has been brought to an end will not the ministry of the Spirit have greater glory so I want you to notice something here reforming Paul is not saying he's not comparing good with bad He's not comparing good with bad. He's comparing that glory with this now glory. Something that existed as glorious is now greater in glory. Look at the contrast in verses 7 to 9. It's between glorious and more glorious. And see how Paul does this. He describes the law of God given at Sinai, carved in letters of stone, as the ministry of death. It's the ministry of condemnation. That's the purpose of the law. Now why would Paul go and do that? Why would Paul say, oh, the law is ministry of death, ministry of condemnation. Is Paul saying the law is bad? No. In fact, Paul says, this is the law in 1 Timothy 1, verse 8. Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. The law is good. It's given to us by God. Paul teaches that. We know this summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith. You're looking for a good summary of the law. It summarizes what we see in the law in the Old Testament in a three-part way. For there is the ceremonial law. There is the civil law and the moral law. So Westminster Confession of Faith regarding the civil law, it expired with the Old Testament nation of Israel. I know there's all sorts of young punks these days thinking, ah, we should get the civil law back in our society. It's actually unbiblical. The civil law expired with the nation of Israel. And that law had all sorts of things about how a nation acts in that nation of God's people. The ceremonial law. All the things about priests and Levites. how to cut your hair, what not to eat, what to eat, that also expired with that nation. But more than that, has been fulfilled by Christ. We don't have priests today. We don't have a temple today. We have reforming a house that's effectively and functionally a weathershed. We don't have a sanctuary anymore. We don't call it a sanctuary. It's not a sanctuary. At best, we call it the round because the chairs are in a round so we can sing and encourage one another. The sanctuary is Christ. He is a great high priest. He has fulfilled the ceremonial law, and then the moral law of the Ten Commandments. What about that law? That's the third one. Written on two tablets, well that law is still for the people of God. The first four commandments are given for our duty towards God, and the last six commandments are our duty towards others. As for the Confession States, But here's something powerful to see what Jesus does, which the Confession also speaks about in the New Testament. You know what Jesus does with the Ten Commandments? He's asked the question in Matthew 22, for example, teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the law. There's 10 of them. Which one's the greatest? And Jesus picks up the moral or the 10 commandments and says to him, he's the greatest. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments. Hear this. Depend all the law and the prophets. Jesus gets all the moral law, the commandments of God in the Old Testament and say, this is how we do them. Which makes sense, isn't it? It's all about love. To love God and love others. That actually makes sense. The law is love, friends. You want to summarize the law, it's love. You are commanded to love God and love others. Because it's pretty unloving to murder someone, don't you think? That's a truism, isn't it? You could nod to that. If you're trying to love your neighbor, killing them is not very loving, taking their lie. If you're trying to love your neighbor, stealing from them is not loving, is it? The commandment is to love. In the Old Testament there were 613 laws, who's counting? People do. 613 laws. All of them can be summarized in love God and love others. The law is about love, the law is good, but that law still leads to a ministry of death. Why? Because Paul shows us here what he shows in many other letters and teaching about the good law of God, the law of love, you can't be saved by following it. We are to follow it, but it will not save you. It will not give you a right relationship with God. Why? Because we can't heap it perfectly. We don't keep it perfectly. The problem we face when we face up to the law, if you actually look into the law of love, is that here, and what we confess often at our Lord's Supper services, we confess this, that I, you, we, don't love God as we ought to, regularly. That I, you, we, don't love others as I could have. On any given day, you look into my life, I am not perfect at loving even my wife, my kids, my fellow members of our church, least of all God, last of all Him. The law, God's law, is a ministry of condemnation and death. It can't give us righteousness for life. It shows us our sin. Look at our sin, the Lord says. Look at your sin. Look at where you don't love. You are to love, but you will not keep it perfectly. Of course that's a ministry of death. And yes, it is glorious, because it's from God. Isn't that a glorious thing to command people to love? We live in a world with so many world religions. so many things that every single world religion has the same functional message with all the differences and that is this you've got to do better but here's what's different about christianity and you can't make this stuff up humans don't because this is not how we operate god has said it's not what you do it's what he's done for you he's commanded to love but his love shows us that we can't do it so he's got to do something about it And that's where he sends good news for sinners and sufferers. Bible calls it gospel. It's got a name, Jesus, a person. He sends Jesus. It's like on a night when you're gazing at the moon. Usually, look, think full moons are usually middle of the month. I'm looking for some scientific help. thinks the case. In the middle of the month, cloudless sky. Sometimes there's that moon that comes over Bendigo, usually for some reason I'm pointing in this direction, comes up. It's massive. It's like it's hurtling towards us. Beautiful. And it's bright. You could almost turn your car lights off and drive around town. Not recommended. If this sermon ever goes out and you are pulled up by the police at night on a full moon because your car lights are off and you say, my preacher, my pastor told me that I could turn my car lights off. I'm not coming for you. Okay. I'm not hooking you out of jail on that one. It's an illustrative purpose of this. You could do that. On private property in a paddock, not on public road. But what happens at roundabout 5am, 6am, 7am, 9am, the sun comes out and it's brighter. It's more glorious. The moon is still glorious, but you can't even hardly see it anymore because the new glory has come that eclipses the light and the glory of what was once before. has the gospel, has Christ. He has come. And so Paul says the ministry of the Spirit has even more glory. We have the words that were once written on tablets of stone, now written on human hearts. The moral law was not bad, it was not done away with, but now it's not abolished, but fulfilled in Christ. We are still commanded in that great command of love to love God and love others from the lips of Jesus himself, mind you. But because we don't live that way every day in every way, the law needs to go where it'll actually work. It needs to be on our hearts. If it remains on the stone, it just kills us. But if Jesus comes and fulfills it, he's the one that saves us. and by his spirit now we can be so bold right now today to be transformed verses 12 to 18 you look at verses 12 onwards Moses put a veil on his face so the Israelites would not gaze at it so they would not focus on the outcome of what was being brought to an end But some people today try. They want to focus on the Old Testament. If we just got back to the Old Testament, if we just had those laws, if we just read the Old Testament, forget the Jesus bit. Let's just be on the Old Testament. If we did that, then our society would change. And you know what? People do that today. What does Paul write? What does he say? To this day, verse 15, whenever Moses is read, A veil lies over their hearts. But, verse 16, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. People often say, ah, look, the book of Leviticus and the Old Testament has some strange things in it. Things we should do, things we shouldn't do. Should we do that? Here's the easy answer. If you read the book of Leviticus or any Old Testament book, Without reading that through the lens of Christ, to apply it to today, you have not understood the book of Leviticus at all. In fact, Paul would say, you have something over your sight you can't see. You need Christ. The only way to see is verse 16. When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Friends, you need to turn to the Lord Jesus. And when you turn to the Lord Jesus, you will see the glory and the gravity and the reality of Christ. Verse 17, now the Lord is a spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Notice this Trinitarian statement. The Lord Jesus, one of three persons of a holy God, the Lord Jesus, the one who is Son of God, the Father, who is working by the Spirit of Christ, even now in this room, he's working, he's doing something. As you hear his word, the Spirit of Christ is taking that and renewing your mind and moving in your heart so that when you say, you know what, I believe this, that wasn't you. That was the spirit doing something that I could not do. I could not compel you, convince you, persuade you, yell at you. Dramatize, be cool and calm. Make it into a skit or a play or a song, heaven forbid. I could not do any one of those things to make you a Christian. All I am is the postman delivering the message. It is the Spirit of God that does something none of us could do. And he brings freedom because your veil is removed. This is the testimony of every single Christian in the room, isn't it? That's how you became a Christian. What about you? Do you need your veil removed? Has it not yet been removed? Today, have you started to see the greater glory of Jesus? Have you seen that we are all by default trying to live our good life? Often we make up our own standards for our life. So here's my standard. Here's my rule for my life. Often that means we look at others and say, you need to meet my standard or you can't be my friend. And so if they don't meet your standard, then they're out. But here's the terrible irony. We often place our own standards here, and then when we don't meet them, because we will or fail at some stage, what do we do? Well, I don't meet my own standard. I'll need to lower that a little bit so I can get over it. That's how we often live our lives. But can you see now? There is freedom from that. There is a freedom for such a life. But you, you get right with God because He came to do it for you. That freedom comes when you turn to Christ. Can you see? Friends, I am praying. Our session of elders are praying regularly. Our church is praying that the Spirit of the Lord is bringing that freedom for you right now. That, verse 18, this would be true of all of us now. Verse 18, the last verse. We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. You want change in your life? We can all try different things. Yes, we can go to the gym. Yes, we could make rules for ourselves about screen time. Yes, we could get help from friends, all sorts of things that are helpful, but real change only starts in the heart. The place of our affections. What do you love most? Your own opinion or God's opinion. I find it interesting when people, the churches are full of disagreements, right? And sometimes it's very difficult disagreements that people have that people can't get over. And yes, of course, we all love our own opinions. But my question is, in the midst of disagreement, is, is God allowed to disagree with you? Do you let God disagree with you? That's the real test, isn't it? Does his word rule your heart? Because he's the only one that can transform our heart. Yes, it's by degrees. The word transform here is the same word we get the English word from metamorphosis. Caterpillars can't fly. Maybe you played that game and you tried. Fly caterpillar! What happens to the caterpillar? Well, if it's a tough kind of caterpillar, it'll survive that flight. It is not that tough. It's not pretty. Poor little caterpillar. Again, let's not go and do this when we go home. This is not to try at home, friends. Let's just leave the caterpillars alone unless they're doing bad things and then find a humane way of making them go away. A caterpillar to fly needs to actually change. Metamorphosis. A deep change. A change in person, in character. Jesus brings this change where the blood of the old covenant which was of not of Jesus blood What was the bloodshed of the old covenant? Bulls and goats Hebrews 4 10 could not take away sin You want to be an Old Testament follower you want to follow the law your sins will not be taken away But 1 Corinthians 11 verse 25, the new covenant in Jesus' blood, which we say every Lord's Supper day, that new covenant, that new testimony to God's grace and forgiveness is in Jesus' blood shed for you, for me, on the cross, for us. It saves us and reshapes us. We become like him in his image. And so we behold the glory of the Lord and we are being transformed. What did Moses see? What did the Israelites see in the law? When they looked at the law, what did they see? They saw the goodness of God, the holiness of God. But what didn't they see? The face of God, the person of God. In Exodus 33, Moses says, please show me your glory. And God says, I will make my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. I will be gracious to whom I am gracious, and I'll show mercy unto whom I'll show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. It was in that moment that God put Moses in the cleft of a rock and passed by in all his glory, but Moses did not see his face. Friends, when you meet Jesus in the Bible, and I hope you've had a Bible in front of you right now this morning, but when you meet him in the Bible, you meet the man with a face. You meet the character of God in a person, in Christ. You want to know what God is like? You look at Jesus. And you can see God in all his glory in Christ. And how do you see the glory of Christ? Well, when the Israelites saw the glory of the law, where did they see the glory of the law? Ultimately, when Israelites are looking for glory in the law, where is it ultimately? It's in the sacrifices, isn't it? We can't keep the law, we need the sacrifices. Where do we see the glory of Christ? At the cross. For it's at the cross, we see God in all his glory dies for the sin of the world, dies for sinners. who could not meet God on their own merit and survive. He dies in our place, shed blood for our sin. The cross of Christ shows the goodness of God. The righteousness of God is revealed and the grace and mercy of God pass before us. We can see it. God shows his glory to us by forgiving us sinners. and we get to glorify God by how? Enjoying Him! Enjoying Christ! not enjoying ticking boxes of law that we can keep, or comparing ourselves to others. The way to glorify God now is to find your joy in Jesus, no matter what is happening around you. Because you could be suffering, you could be in the depths of an addiction, or sin that has so gripped you and enslaved you, and you think there's no way out, and friends have tried. But if you look to Jesus, you will have joy. Because the gospel message is not, this is not good news. It is not good news. Here is some law for you to live up to. And by the way, death to you when you can't. That's not good news. But here is good news. Jesus has come to fulfill that for you. So you can now love others and love God. And you will fail. But he has shed blood for all your failures. You can't legislate the human heart. People try. Oh, if we just changed our politics to have God's law, then everyone would be good people. It never works. You can't legislate the human heart. You can't have law and the human heart and a human society would all of a sudden change. That is a fantasy. It's a figment. And people still try to peddle it, call themselves Christian preachers. It is not Christ. because the law cannot change the heart. It can give guidance, it can show you what love is, but it'll show you what your sin is, but it will not internally change you. It'll reflect to you like a mirror what you are really like. James writes this in his letter, but it'll also show you this, the sin in my life, you know what it does to me? My sin, your sin dehumanizes us. It changes, it distorts the image of God in us and we become less like we were meant to be. But Jesus comes to restore that. Looking to Christ means you are more like Him. When you behold him in the Bible, you become more like him. It's not for nothing that if we consume a certain media constantly and compare ourselves on that media, we become more anxious and become more like that thing we're consuming. We're becoming what we're beholding. But if you put that media aside, I'm not saying ban it from your life, put it aside and don't make that the thing that beholds you and changes you. If you keep in spare moments flipping your Bible open, If it's on your phone, and there's other distractions, got a recommendation, there's this new technology Presbyterians have had for about 400 years, it's called paper, and you can have a paper Bible, a little one, flick it open, take it with you, open up, see what God says about Jesus to you, behold him here, and he will change you. Listen to his word. Listen to his voice. Yes, there are helpful books. I love books. I own a lot of books. I want more books. Maybe I'm an addict. But as someone has said, those books might give me insight, but it's only God's word in the Bible that gives me sight. Because that's where he speaks to me. When you behold him, you will grow to resemble him. Why? Because you become what you worship. Yes, it'll be gradual and by degrees. You might not be noticing it, but here's what happens. Look at verse 18. Beholding is a continuous tense. You become more like him in character. As you look at Jesus, you think, what does Jesus live for? What does Jesus do in his spare moments? How does Jesus' character shape? And you'll see that in yourself, changing attitudes, how you love others. Now, friends, we're gonna pray in one moment, but I have one more small thing to say. We're gonna pray in a moment, but here's one more thing. I thank God for you, and here's why. Over the last few weeks, over the last few months, I've had several pastoral conversations with you. Be that over morning tea at church, I hang out at the welcome desk, that's where I pastor people there face to face and pray for them. I've had a few one-to-ones in coffee shops, or in our home? I know women are meeting with women and having these discussions of Bible Open and here's what we are seeing. We are seeing people here being transformed from one degree of glory to another. And I want to say, and this is not hyperbole or an exaggeration, it's not preacher talk, but I can tell you now, and we've been praying for it, we didn't design it this way, but it's happening. And it's not by us. It's wonderful. The Spirit of God is doing something in people's lives. Yes, we're not perfect yet. Yes, you're not perfect yet. Of course you're not. Welcome to this life until Christ returns. But, but you can see it. Something is happening here and we thank God for it. Real lives are being changed. It's really happening. And I want to say that's the last thing I wanted to say. Can we keep praying for this reforming? And all glory be to Christ. Can we keep praying that dead people are saved, weak people are transformed, and that we become what we behold, what we were meant to be? Let's pray now. Let's ask God for this. Our Father in heaven, since we have such a hope in Jesus, we are now very bold. Thank you that through Christ we can now have unveiled faces, unveiled hearts, and can come to behold the glory of God in Christ in the Bible, to be transformed, to behold Jesus, to believe in Jesus, to become like Jesus. And so we pray now, give us all this grace from you Lord, by your Spirit, in Jesus' name, Amen.