We can open our Bibles to Exodus chapter 34, or again, they will be on the screen as well. We'll be in Exodus 34, verses 29-35 this morning. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, I'm thankful for this passage. I'm thankful to You, Lord, for guiding me in my preparations, for helping me And yet I pray now that You would help me now. Help me to speak clearly as I ought to speak. Help me to sit under Your Word, under its authority, even now. And I pray that for all of Your people here. Give us a hunger. Give us a thirst. I pray, O Lord, that by your Spirit, as we sang this morning, you would give your Word success. I ask it in the Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, just let the Word of God speak for itself here. So much I'd like to say in prep, but we'll just dive in. Four weeks ago, four weeks now, we were in Exodus last. And we came to the wonderful grand conclusion of the golden calf episode where we had been for a while. And we saw that in spite of Israel's rebellion, God was still going to dwell with them. In spite of all their sin with worshipping an idol, God was still going to take them to be his people. And we know now, we know now that's not something we should take for granted. We must not do that. So as the ultimate sign and assurance of this promise, which Moses needed, God made all of his glorious goodness pass before Moses. Now it's important to remember this background. The evil and the wickedness of the golden calf, when everything was almost lost, is followed directly by a display of God's glory that was unparalleled to that time, to that day. It was unparalleled. After the depravity and the depths of evil of the calf, we move to the mountain peaks and heights of a display of God's glorious goodness never before seen by mortal men. And so the covenant that was broken has been remade. It's been put together again. The people that were cast off have been taken again to be God's very own. And yet, even though the Golden Calf episode has come to its conclusion, okay? I like to say today, we're not on the Golden Calf anymore. It's done, but That story was still part of a much bigger story. The whole story. And the implications of that golden calf for the future of God's people are massive. This morning in our text we're going to see just how massive they are. So we come first of all to verse 29 of chapter 34. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, As he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. All right, this is the second time Moses came down from the mountain. You remember the last time he came down from the mountain? Remember that? Back in chapter 32, we read almost the same words. So we can go to the next slide. Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain. Same words, what we see happening now, happened before. And he went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. So you can see the parallel wording again with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Now what happened last time Moses came down with two tablets of the testimony in his hand? What did he do with them? He threw them out of his hand and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. In that case, Moses came down only to announce a broken Covenant in your handout this time This time Moses comes down from the mountain with two brand new tablets in his hand. Yes Announcing that the broken covenant has been fully Remade here Moses comes again with two new tablets in his hand In chapter 32, Moses came down from the mountain with the worst possible news that the people could have ever expected to hear. Now, Moses comes down again with the best possible news God's people could ever hope to hear. Let's go back, let's go to the next slide now. The God who has just now, let's put it into perspective. This is what we need to see. The God who has just now caused all of His glorious goodness to pass before Moses' face, the God who is free to be merciful to sinners like us, who is free to show grace to whom He will show grace, has chosen to be gracious and merciful to Israel by renewing and remaking the covenant that was broken. And it is in keeping with that good news, that good news, and this unprecedented vision of God's glory, it's in keeping with all that, that Moses' face shines. Okay, the last time Moses came down from the mountain, the only change in Moses' face, if I were to use, I think, a sanctified imagination, was that it was perhaps contorted with anger. This time, Moses' face betrays a man who has just seen God, as no one has ever, ever seen him before, ever. at least not since the fall, and really not even before. Moses is just seen in your handout. All the glorious goodness of a merciful and gracious God passed before him on the mountain, and now the very skin of his face shines with the reflection of that glory, the glory of the God who takes Israel again to be his very own. Now, only Moses was there with God on the mountain at the time. Only Moses saw that glory. But now, in this shining skin of Moses' face, all the people get to see that glory, that same glory, as it were, but reflected now on his face. So let me ask you now, you put it together, what does Moses' shining face mean? I mean, when you see someone come down from the mountain and their face is shining, you're wondering, what does that mean? Well, on the one hand, it's a sign of God's mercy and grace. He's remaking the covenant. He's taking us again. I think of number six where it says, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And through this shining face of Moses, we see the grace and the mercy and the peace of God to his people. That's what we see. After all that just happened with the golden calf, the shining face of Moses is really, really, really good news. Quite a difference from the last time. On the other hand, the shining face of Moses also points the people to the reality of what he holds in his hands. The requirements of the covenant that the people just broke are still the requirements of the covenant. It's the same covenant that God remakes with the people. And these commandments are all holy and righteous and good. So to sum up in your handout, that glory that you see on Moses' face, it is the glory of God. But not just of God, not just God, it's the glory of God as their very own covenant Lord, Yahweh. This is the glory of God revealed in the covenant that he graciously makes with his people. So I'll ask you the question before we read verse 30, and this is important to set us up. Can you see now how this glory, the shining face of Moses, is such a wonderful and beautiful and good thing? Only then we go on to read in verse 30. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him." And I'm kind of like, oh man, that's not how I wanted this to turn out. If the shining face of Moses is such a good thing, then why are the people afraid? Why won't they come near to Moses? What's their problem? And once again, the language in that verse reminds us of something that happened earlier, back in chapter 20. After the Lord spoke the Ten Commandments and the people heard the voice of the Lord with their own ears, we read in verse 18, Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off. Okay, now one thing we see, now we have to wrestle here. There's a godly fear and a holy trembling. And I really, I don't know, I really, I think we have to be careful about that word reverence. It's easy to think, well, what it means is reverence. Well, if by reverence, you mean something that makes you tremble and shake, then okay. But reverence is not usually what we use when we're thinking of trembling. So I think we just need to use the word fear as much as we, then we need to work to get over what kind of fear we're talking about. So here we go. There is a godly fear and there is a trembling that should always characterize any kind of encounter with the one true and living God. Not only are we sinful, brothers and sisters, not only are we sinful, we are finite creatures Who's God? He's the infinite creator, the holy. So whenever we hear God's, whenever we read God's word, okay, whenever we read God's word, whenever we hear God's word preached to us as we're hearing it preached now, there should be a fear and trembling. Whenever we come into God's presence to pray or to worship, there should be a holy fear and trembling. But, in the end, it is not God's desire that we be overcome by the paranoia and the terror that makes us want to run away from Him and hide. Okay, that's the fear. The fear that makes you tremble is good. The fear that makes you want to turn tail and run and hide is not good. At least you shouldn't run and hide, because there's no place to go to run and hide. We must learn and know the difference between the fear and trembling that actually casts out terror. See, when you have learned true fear and trembling, the real kind, it casts out all the bad fear and trembling, all the terror and paranoia and running and hiding. It casts it out. It's ironic. It's a paradox. We must learn the difference between the true fear that casts out terror and produces peace and the fear and trembling that actually makes us want to run. This explains then what Moses says to the people when they're afraid and they tremble and they stand far off, right? They ran and hid, right? So Moses said to the people, do not fear. In other words, don't run and hide. Don't live in terrified paranoia, because God has come to test you that the right and good fear of Him, that good trembling may be before you, that you may not sin. So we ask, how are the people to fear? And we're coming back to our text here, setting it up. How are the people to fear and yet not fear? You say, don't fear, fear. Don't fear, fear. Well, how do we do that? How are the people to fear with the good fear? Remember what the people said to Moses when they were afraid and they trembled and they stood far off. This is what they said. Deuteronomy 5. The people said to Moses, you go near and you hear all that the Lord our God will say and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you and we will hear and do it. And the Lord said to me, I have heard the words of this people. They are right. and all that they have spoken, go and say to them, you return to your tents. But Moses, you stand here by me and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them. So what's the solution to the problem of people's terror in the presence of God? What's the solution? Moses will speak for God to the people as the mediator of the covenant. That's the solution to their terror. The solution to the people running away and standing far off is that Moses is gonna stand in between. Now, now the people can be freed from their terror while still fearing the Lord with trembling. It's against that backdrop, okay, that we have to try to understand what we're reading this morning. And we can move to the next slide again if we haven't already. This time, Think about it. It's not the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking that the people see. What do the people see this time? This time, it's the shining face of Moses. Of their very own Moses. The covenant mediator. The one who speaks to them for God so they don't have to be afraid. Last time they saw like everything, the smoking and the trembling and the trumpet and they heard the voice and they ran. This time they see the face of their mediator, the one that God put in between so they wouldn't have to be living in terror and running and hiding. And yet, and yet we read, Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses and behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him. It would seem that something is not right here. But then again, they didn't hear what Moses heard on the mountain, so maybe they're wondering. They did just experience God's wrath, so maybe we can give them a little benefit of the doubt here. Maybe we can understand their fright. We go on to read in verses 31 to 32. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him. And Moses talked with them. Afterward, all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. It's pretty easy to imagine the scene. You can imagine it very, very vividly. Moses comes down from the mountain into the camp. The skin of his face is shining, and the people are all backing away, like maybe we would have done, if not flat out running away. Maybe some were just running. Moses calls to the people, stop, stop. It's all right. And so they all stop, but don't come back. They turn around, not sure about this. Only Aaron and the leaders are bold enough to return to Moses when he calls. And then Moses talked with them. And you can guess what he said to them, right? No doubt he says, it's all right. He tells them the vision of God's glory he just saw on the mountain. He tells them that the covenant has been remade and there is people again. He tells them that God is free to be merciful, to whom He'll be merciful and gracious, to whom He'll be gracious. He passes on all that good news to them. And so then I can imagine that Aaron and the leaders, they all go back to the people because Moses, he doesn't go closer because they'll just keep backing away. So the leaders, they go back and they relay to the people what Moses just told them. They say to the people, Hey, there's no need to run. There's no need to hide. The face of Moses shining, you know what that means? It just means that the glory of the covenant and of our covenant Lord, He has taken us again to be His very own. That's what that shining face means. Afterward, this is hopeful, all the people of Israel came near, and Moses commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And so we say to ourselves, no more running now, right? No more hiding. Now they can bask in the light of Moses' face, knowing what it means. Well, if so, if the light of Moses' face is such a beautiful sign of God's goodness, how do we understand what happens next? Verse 33, And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Now, is there not something deep inside you that says, that is just all wrong? Why? Why should the glory of the covenant reflected on Moses' face be covered up? If there was ever an appropriate place for the word stupid, and it is used in Proverbs, so I use it here. It seems stupid to cover up the glory of the covenant with a veil. Why should the glory of Israel's covenant Lord only reflected on the face of their very own mediator be hidden? Alright, why? The problem here is not that Moses' face was physically too bright to look at. It wasn't too bright for them to look at. The problem is, apparently, that the people are simply still afraid. of any display of the glory of God. Apparently the people still feel the need to hide. You know what the people see in the shining face of Moses? They look at his shining face and you know what they see? All they see is threat and danger. And don't you just want to take hold of them? I did this past week. I certainly did. I wanted to grab them by the shoulders and shake them hard and tell them to wake up. Wake up and see. Apparently it wouldn't have done any good. Because we go on to read in verses 34 to 35. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, He would always remove the veil. until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining, and Moses would always put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him. Something is terribly wrong with this picture. Why aren't they in your handout loving that glory and basking in it? Why can't they see in Moses' face what we all see here so clearly, I pray that we do, the mercy and the grace of their covenant Lord? Why don't they see that? Why are they still afraid? It's because their hearts are still hard and their eyes are still blind. This is the key in your handout, and this is fundamental. If you want to understand the Bible, this is one of those things that if you get this, you can understand great portions of the whole Bible. They actually think, the Israelites do, that this law-based covenant is God's final word to them. They actually think that it is his permanent, ultimate word. Now, if anyone should have known better, it was the Israelites. They're the ones who just broke the covenant. They just broke it. If they couldn't see it before, and they should have been able to, but okay, if they couldn't see it before, they should be able to see now. That even when God remakes the covenant, This covenant word that he speaks to them, the word that he speaks in the covenant can't be his last word. It can't be. Not if the promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are to be fulfilled like he said they would be. It's obvious, anyone who's got eyes, anyone who has eyes to see can see that. They should have seen. That even at the moment the covenant was remade, even at the very moment it was remade, that covenant already contained within itself the seed of its own extinction. They should have seen it. Oh, they should have. But they didn't see. Because their hearts were hardened. and their eyes were blinded. And so in your handout, this is a long, but every word is, I think, important. They couldn't see that the true glory of the covenant. Okay, what's the glory of this covenant? They couldn't see that it's true glory. The glory reflected to them now on Moses' face. was its proclamation to them of a future day when the grace of God revealed in the Old Covenant." Hey, when God makes the Old Covenant with His people, is He being gracious? Yes, He is. Making that covenant at Mount Sinai was an expression of God's grace. But do you know that that grace of God revealed in the Old Covenant Proclaimed to them that it would one day be fulfilled and replaced by the infinitely more Glorious display of that same grace, okay The grace God's showing them in that covenant and that they see reflected in the glory on Moses face Would be replaced and fulfilled in a display of glory infinitely greater one day and that's what this covenant pointed to and they should have seen it and And whatever that something new, whatever that something better would be, that was going to be God's last word to them, His final word, His ultimate word to His people. The true glory of the covenant is very paradoxical, okay? You don't think that the glory of something is that it's going to come to an end. But that was the glory of this covenant, that it was going to come to an end and be replaced by its fulfillment. So the true glory of the covenant was only to be seen in that it was temporary. In that it actually contained inside itself the seed of its own abolishment. And so by default, from day one when Moses came down from the mountain, its true glory was that it pointed all along to something better. But Israel's sin and hardened hearts meant that they were blinded to that glory. They couldn't see that glory. Because they could only see in the covenant God's final word, what do you have to believe now? If that covenant is God's final word, which God never said it was, they have to believe that they can somehow be justified and forgiven based on their own keeping of the law. Revealed in the covenant. Because that's God's final word. If that's his final word, then... But God never said it was his final word. To the contrary. The covenant itself contradicted that. The covenant said, I'm not the final word. I have in myself the seed of my own embellishment. Their own recent experience with the golden calf contradicted that. The unconditional promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob contradicted that whole idea. Most importantly of all, God himself contradicted this when he caused all his goodness to pass before Moses and when he said to Moses, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and show mercy on whom I will show mercy. It will not be because they keep this law, covenant. It was obvious all along. And so in your handout, just make sure we have this clear. The true glory of the covenant, what is it? It is in the grace and mercy that it reveals. and for which it prepares the way. The true glory of the covenant is in the grace and mercy it reveals and, ironically, which will one day bring about its own end. Read that again if you have time sometime today. Can you see? I ask you, can you see? Because the Israelites couldn't. We know from our passage this morning that while they were willing to listen to the word that Moses received from God, they still needed Moses' shining face to be covered up. In other words, in your handout, The people were willing to hear the commands of the covenant, but they were not able to perceive the true glory of the covenant. Do you see that? They said, bring on the commands, but don't let me see its true glory. Because where was the true glory? It was in the grace and mercy it revealed and which would one day bring that covenant to be obsolete. They said, Let's hear the commands, we'll do them, we'll do good enough. But they never could see the true glory of that covenant. And so because of their hardened, sinful hearts, that shining face of Moses, which should have been such a joy, could only be for Israel something fearful, something terrifying. I just want to say to us here today, and whenever I get to passages like this, I write in my Bible, I write in the margin, oh God, may this not be me. Hardened hearts and blinded eyes are a terrible, terrible thing. And you know what makes them especially terrible? is that those with blinded eyes are most often precisely the ones who are absolutely convinced, absolutely convinced they can see. The glory that Israel saw on Moses' face was the glory of the covenant of their covenant king revealed in goodness and mercy and grace, but Israel was blinded to that glory and so that veil over Moses' face, you can picture it very vividly, can't you? That veil over his face would forever be a sign of the veil over their own hearts. That veil over Moses' face would forever be a sign that they were unable to see, to perceive. I mean, they thought they could see, but they couldn't. The true glory of that covenant, that God had just graciously and mercifully remade with them. And so because of this blindness, the covenant that should have brought life to them, You say, how is the old covenant supposed to bring life? Well, like this, as it pointed forward to its own abolishment and replacement, it was supposed to bring them life in a sense, in a roundabout way, as it pointed them all forward to the day when it would be abolished and replaced. But because they could not see that glory, the covenant instead brought only death to the people. condemnation instead. Why does Moses cover his shining face? Because the hard hearts of the people demanded it. And so also because the hard hearts of the people, do you know what the next word is? Deserved it. And don't you just want to reach out if you could and grab that veil off Moses' face and shred it to pieces. Don't you just want to take hold of those people and shake them hard and tell them, wake up. Open your eyes and see. Does it make your heart groan? But then the question, of course, that all this so clearly raises is this, and please let us not ask this tritely, or as though, oh, oh yeah, I know, I'm good. The question we ask ourselves is this, do we live with a veil over our own eyes? Or have we come to see with unveiled eyes, the true glory of the covenant at Mount Sinai. Think about this. We come to 2 Corinthians 3 now. And all of this time has been setting us up for 2 Corinthians 3. If the ministry of death carved in letters on stone, it was a ministry of death only because of their hardened hearts. If that came with such glory that the hardened Israelites, and I've added words here to explain it because you have to in order to know what this is meaning. People add different words. They were not even able to gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, a glory which was already in principle being abolished, not fading away. It's not fading away, as it might say, as some think. It's just being abolished. Will not the ministry of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, the ministry of the Spirit, What is that? It's the ministry of righteousness by which we are enabled to live righteously because we have had the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. That ministry of the Spirit. Will not that ministry have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being abolished came with glory, much more will what is permanent have Glory. Now let me ask you a question and watch out here. If the hardened Israelites, think about this, if the hardened Israelites weren't even able to gaze at the glory of the old covenant, the old covenant, mind you, reflected on the face of Moses, how much, what? Less. It's the first time I've been in how much less, but that's the key here. How much less? Will they ever be able to perceive the far, far greater glory of the new covenant reflected in the face of Jesus Christ? See what happened? The people saw Moses, they said, Moses, put a veil over your face. I don't want to see that glory. How much more than when Jesus comes and reflects the glory of the new, will the people look and say, no, I can't see, I can't comprehend, I can't understand that glory. Being blinded to what it truly was. And yet, here's the thing, it is only when we turn to Christ that that veil finally comes off. Yes, get it off! It's only when we turn to Christ and the veil is taken away from our eyes, And we see, finally, what we were never able to see before. I think of the blind man in John chapter 9, I think it is, or 8. You know, 40 years blind, and then his eyes are opened and he sees. You think, that was awesome. What about what we have known? to see the glory of the new covenant in the face of jesus christ is here's the key it is to see the true glory of the old covenant when you see the glory in the face of jesus you know what you are seeing you are seeing the true glory of the old covenant that was reflected on the face of moses only now You are seeing it in infinitely greater detail, in infinitely more exquisite beauty, with a revelation of glory and of grace, infinitely brighter and more radiant than ever before. So listen to the Apostle John. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory. Did He veil it? Was there a veil over our hearts? No, not if we've seen His glory. See, this is a glory that you only see if your hearts have been uncovered. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. For from His fullness, brothers and sisters, we have all received Grace, it is not upon grace. It says in many translations, and this is not, I don't expect you to just take my word for it, but the preposition does not mean upon. It's just that theology made us say other things. Grace in place of grace. In other words, John goes on to explain, for the law, The first manifestation of God's glory and grace, that's the first grace, was given through Moses. Grace and truth, the final, ultimate manifestation of God's glory and grace came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known. I want to say something to you that should knock you off your rocker forever and ever and ever. Okay, listen to this. What we see in the face of Jesus by faith is a glory infinitely greater Then even what the Israelites saw reflected on the face of Moses. You think that was awesome to see Moses' face shining? What you see in the face of Jesus by faith is infinitely greater. More than that. More than that. What we see in the face of Jesus Christ by faith is a glory. And I want to give testimony to the fact that by God's grace I have seen this glory. May you give testimony in the same way this morning. It is a glory, even, you're not gonna believe this, infinitely greater than what Moses himself saw when he was with the Lord on the mountain. I ask you this morning, has the veil truly been taken off your eyes? Are you seeing, even now, with unveiled eyes, the true glory of the Lord? Because if you are, if you are, and if I am, then it will quite literally be impossible to remain unaffected and unchanged. Was Moses unaffected when he saw that ultimate vision of God's glory on the mountain? Oh no. When he came down, having been exposed to that glory, his own face was shining with the glory that he had seen. How much, now we come to a how much more. When you, my brothers and sisters, when I, when we are beholding The infinitely greater revelation of God's glory in the face of our new covenant mediator. That's not just a bunch of fancy talk. Oh, every word. Oh, how lovely. In the face of Jesus Christ. How much more will we necessarily reflect that greater glory to all around us? You know what? It's that awesome reality of a people. Think about that. A people all beholding the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament you had a people all beholding a veiled glory and not understanding it. In the New, we have a people all beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces in the face of Jesus Christ. And it was that reality. that gave Paul such confidence and such boldness as a minister of the New Covenant. Moses was like, I gotta cover my face, and if I'm Moses, that's discouraging. Paul says, I don't have to cover my face, because I know who I'm talking to. And that encouraged him. And honestly, you know what the truth is? That my boldness and my confidence, any that I could possibly ever have in preaching the word, is that I privilege the New Covenant privilege of preaching to a people. who are all beholding with unveiled faces the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In fact, this reality gave Paul so much boldness that he even dared to compare himself and the other apostles to Moses. We read in chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians, Since we apostles, now he's not talking about all of us, he's talking about apostles. Since we apostles have such a hope, and what is their hope? It's the assurance of the effectiveness and the permanency, the final word of the new covenant, and the spirit which brings life. That was their hope. Since we have this hope, we are very bold toward you, toward the people of the new covenant. Not like Moses, with the old covenant people of Israel whose hearts were hardened, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the end. The word there has the meaning of the goal, the true glory. They could not gaze at the true glory of what was being abolished, the law covenant. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But this is not so with you. I just want to say here, we can't say, well, I know Jesus. I know Jesus' name and I believe all the stuff about Him as I have practically since I was born, it feels like. And think that we have no veil over our face. Because seeing is not just about seeing, it's about perceiving. It's about seeing with the eyes of faith. And so now, after he's compared himself to Moses, Paul is even more bold and he does something remarkable. He compares every single one of us here in this room who put our faith in Christ with Moses. Verses 16 to 18, when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. And he compares that to Moses, just like Moses when he would go in before the Lord, what would he do? Remove the veil from his face and behold his glory. Paul says that's a picture of all of us. Now the Lord in the Old Testament story is the spirit in the New Testament story of the New Covenant. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And 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. Just like Moses, only better. only more glorious. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So like what one person says so simply under the New Covenant, every Christian has become a Moses. Only we are beholding a glory greater than anything Moses ever saw. I want to ask you this question, do you believe this? Because that's what it all comes down to in the end. Do you believe this? This is why all who know Christ as Savior reflect His glory even more wonderfully than Moses did, by reason of living the transforming life of the Spirit. Let's put it this way, the longer we live, And this isn't a means for boasting if I'm older than you or someone's older than me or who's ever older. No, far from it. But it's just the reality that the longer we live... and the longer we gaze at God's glory in the face of Christ, the longer you spend doing that in your life. The longer you gaze at His glory in the message of the gospel, the more thorough and the more complete is your transformation into that same image, from one degree of glory to another. It's a gradual process, yes, of lifelong change. See, your life is about change. until the day that we gaze on Jesus' face. Can you imagine that? That is when our transformation will be complete. And to use the language of Jesus from Matthew chapter 13, we here will all shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father, bearing His image and perfectly reflecting His likeness. The Apostle John writes in 1 John chapter 3, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him. because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him, what does it mean to hope in Him here? It means to gaze and to look intently upon Him even now by faith. Everyone who does this, purifies Himself as He is pure. Moses could not stand on the mountain and behold the glory of the Lord and not be unchanged in the shining of His face. He couldn't do it. Neither can you when you behold and look intently at the glory of God in the face of Jesus. You cannot do that and not find yourself changing from day to day. My brothers and my sisters, we were all blind. but now we see. The veil has been taken away from our eyes and our hearts, and we all, with unveiled faces, are beholding the glory of the Lord, being transformed in that same image from one degree of glory to another. I like to say, as others do, that's the indicative. The indicative is a mood that simply means that's the way things are. That's the reality for those in Christ. But in the Bible, the way things are is never meant for us to say, oh good, that's the way things are, everything's good. No, the way things are, the indicative is always in your handout, the grounds, the basis for the subjunctive, the let us then, the imperative, the now you go, So then, let us therefore look intently upon the face of Christ through faith. And let us, therefore, more and more reflect his likeness and glory in all of our thinking seriously. in all of our speaking, in all of our acting, in all that we are. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you that we were blind and now we see. Though we look at the veil over Moses' face, and the veil over the people's hearts, and their inability to see, and we want to shake them and tell them to wake up and see, and even in the process of wanting to do that, we remember that we were blind. And perhaps, perhaps, there might be some here who know all about Jesus and have known about Him since they were born. who know every single truth of the gospel, who can recite all the doctrines and theologies and everything. But perhaps we haven't yet perceived. Maybe we haven't yet seen the true glory. O Lord, I pray that even now you would take, remove that veil and cause them to turn to Christ truly. And Lord, in a sense we know that all of us, because of the stubbornness that remains We still need you to be, in a sense, removing that veil, though it has been removed, and helping us to see more and more clearly, to understand in our hearts, to perceive, to look intently at the face of Jesus, and see in that your glory, and then to be changed. Lord, help us as we sing this song. Help us to come and behold the glory of Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.