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244 That bright and blessed mourn is near.
We have learned to love Glad Sample.
Is raised.
I'm waiting for our singer here.
Quickly.
Come back again.
Oh, may our hearts look.
Let's read a few verses in Psalm 27.
Absalom of David.
The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I feel?
The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
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Verse 4.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
And verse 8.
When thou didst, When thou said or did say.
Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee. Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
I suggest we take up Second Corinthians chapters 3:00 and 4:00.
2nd Corinthians chapters 3 and four present the gospel to us as the gospel of the glory.
And the Gospel of the glory is that gospel which takes us right out of the world into that place of stability and permanence in the presence of the glory of God. We live in a world this afternoon as it was brought before us in the beginning of these meetings.
Which is very unstable and we are thankful for the liberties we have in this country at the present moment, but we don't know that they'll be here that long for us as they are not in other countries. But by contrast, God sits in the glory on a throne.
In perfect peace and perfect stability. And nothing that's happening in the world this day changes the rest and peace.
Of his throne, and he wants to associate our hearts with the Lord Jesus who's there in that place of stability. And if you will take our hearts right out of this world completely. We have that in Second Corinthians 3:00 and 4:00.
Just first chapter I suppose today.
Let's move Second Corinthians chapter 3 beginning at verse one.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of accommodation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our Epistle, written in our heart, known and read of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with.
But with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust halfway through Christ to God Word. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also have made us able ministers of the New Testament.
Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the administration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away.
How shall not administration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the administration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of glory that excel if, for if that which is done away was glorious.
Much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded, for until this day remain of the same veil.
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And taken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we are with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Chapter Contrast Two things.
Really, Judaism and what it was in Christianity and what it is.
Moses was given of God to introduce the laws of what we call Judaism, the first covenant with man.
And it was a perfect set of commandments.
And an agreement between God and man for how man was to live on the earth.
In relationship to God.
It was perfect and what God required of us as man to live on this earth.
But while the commandment was perfect and it was from God, it was really God showing to us that there's absolutely no capacity in sinful man.
To live in relationship with God by his own power, He can't do it.
We had that this morning in the address. The reasons why man doesn't and can't live properly with God.
But Christianity introduces something completely new, as it introduces right in the beginning in verse three, the Spirit of the living God.
Is introduced to us in that which God has established something completely new, something completely different and wonderful for us. It's no longer connected with the earth either.
It's connected with the glory of God and heaven.
And there's new power introduced that there, it's not what man can do anymore in relationship to God, but it's a day of God's grace in which God is saying, this is what I can do for you.
And when I do for you, I do it. If I could put it this way, first class.
And in fact, it's my desire that what I do for you is connected with where I live, which is heaven. And so it's the gospel connected with the display of God as he is in his glory, as the next chapter refers to it as the gospel of glory. That was a message of the apostle Paul.
Paul is a pattern heavenly man for us. He's a patterned St. of God in this dispensation. And God took a man who was of the 1St order. All the best of the Jewish order of things.
He was the best of men and he was the worst of men. But in that regard he said I'm going to take him and I'm going to make him a man of heaven and then I'm going to put him. I'll take him right up there to see, but I'm also going to place him on earth with him a ministry, a message.
A job to tell the rest of you God's message for you, which is that message in contrast to the message of Moses.
And what Moses introduced to us. And so we have something that gives us our destiny here, gives us where we can find stability for our hearts in an unchanging, very constantly changing world into a place that is stable and permanent and forever. What Moses had is gone. The present, what's introduced to us will last forever.
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Verse 3.
I don't think we need to take up the chapter verse by verse, in the beginning of it at least, but there's a very interesting statement that to me connects with what was given by the Spirit of God to us this morning in verse three. It refers to the living God.
We don't, we say God's always alive, isn't he?
He's never been dead, so why does God refer to himself here as the living God?
Seems to me a little unusual to think of that expression, but I believe it's connected with the very first verses that were read this morning in John chapter 5 where man is presented before God as dead.
And.
He's dead because life has to do with relationship that can be shared and enjoyed. That's what brings sorrow in death. Bob laid out a person multiple times on figuratively speaking on the floor here and said you can't talk to them, they're dead and that's what death brings separation. The soul without the spirit is dead is James definition of death itself and so man.
In his sins.
Has no relationship with God. He's dead, but God isn't.
God is living and under the law man couldn't have because of what man is truly a living relationship with a living God. Man was dead, but in contrast God was living. And so as it was this morning, the Spirit of God in John 5 that was referenced quickened or brought to life dead souls and gave them eternal life.
The very life that the Lord Jesus has had from all eternity we've been brought to share in that life and now we're alive. So there's living people with a living God in that which has been given to us in. By contrast, under what man used to have, he was there was a living God, but there was a dead man and no relationship but by the Spirit.
Of the living God we now have true life and life with God.
Sometimes I find it helpful to look at the division of the chapter to understand it as our brother already mentioned how this is really the contrast of the old and the new covenant that was there. So this chapter have only 18 verses. It's basically divided into 4 sections and if we look at the four sections then it I I believe it's easier to understand the 1St 3 verses we already talked a little bit about.
Is about how it is in concerning to the Epistle of Christ and that's why there is mentioned that we are his epistle. So the first section 123 is about the Epistle of Christ Verse 4-5 and six it talked about sufficiency and it actually tell us what the true sufficiency is. And then from verse seven to eleven there we find the old and the new ministry being contrast.
So we find the differences like letter versus the Spirit, the law versus the gospel, the ministry of death versus the ministry of spiritual life and so on. And then the last section will be verse 12 to 18. There is speaks about glory, glory in the face of Moses and glory in the face of Christ.
I find it helpful to see and Mr. Darby's translation the.
Verse seven through verse 16 are a parenthesis.
And it goes along with what you said, Brother David, but it is the contrast between the ministration that Moses was given of the law, which was glorious in itself, to the administration or the ministry that we have now in the Spirit. And so in verse seven, it calls it the ministration of death. And in verse 9.
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It says it's the ministration of condemnation, so the administration of death and condemnation.
We're glorious, but it's in contrast with what it gives us here in verse 8. The administration of the Spirit in verse nine is the administration of righteousness. So that's what we have now. And then when you go on to the next chapter, which Lord willing will perhaps get to, it says, therefore, seeing we have this ministry, it's the ministration of the Spirit that we have today.
Kind of an overview that helps to get the picture here. And it is a wonderful thing like Don was bringing out in verse three, that the Spirit of God is writing the epistle of Christ not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart.
He is manifesting His glory, and it's a glory that is beyond anything we have here.
It's the glory of our God. It's heavenly glory. The Lord help us to understand it.
When I was a kid.
On the Main Street, there was a real estate office, Clintonville Realty.
But the tagline or the line that was directly below the name of the company, Clintonville Realty, said these words, which I've never forgotten them, your home.
Is where your heart is.
Those are true words.
Your home is where your heart is. And these two chapters.
Are to help us properly lay hold of home.
And have our heart there.
Is your heart in the world?
Where's your heart and glory where your Lord is?
That's.
Very significant in this way.
We don't live.
By what's in our mind.
We live according to what's in our hearts.
And our minds, we think we make all the choices that well, it's easy to think anyways, that the choices that were made in life are governed by what's in our minds.
Scripture doesn't present that to us. That's some thought of man, but that's not of the truth of God. And so the truth of God is the understanding. What does it say of the mind? No, the understanding of the heart.
The truth of God resides in its proper home in the heart and there can be many things that we can sit here this weekend and get in our mind and enjoy in our mind and go home and be just the same as we came.
And not really affect our lives at all, but if the truth of God.
Migrates, if you will, from the mind, by the way of the conscience generally into the heart.
Then our lives will be different and we'll go home a different way. And so the wonderful work of God. They had tables of stone.
They could look at him, they could absorb what they mean. Undoubtedly the children learned all 10 commandments and could recite them if they were asked to, and the adults as well. It wasn't very long. It wasn't very difficult, but it only sadly condemned them when they lived.
Because having them, knowing them.
Didn't change the heart and so in fact the disobedience to them condemned them and brought death into their lives. But by wonderful contrast, God says I know what you are and so I'm going to act by my spirit to write.
Christ on your heart.
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And when you have Christ written on your heart, then your heart has what it needs, and it will attach you to where He is.
In His present place in glory. And may the Spirit of God be at liberty with each one of us this weekend to write Christ on her heart and we not resist.
That work of God for our blessing.
I appreciated the comment that was made one time that the gospel gospel can be looked at in two ways. We have the gospel of the grace of God and we have the gospel of the glory of God. And it was stated that the gospel of the grace of God is what saved us. For by grace are you saved through faith. And the gospel of the glory of God separates us and it separates us from this world. And as you said, brother Don, it attaches us to our Savior, the Lord Jesus and glory and.
Those that were seeking to undermine the apostle even in the beginning of this this chapter that we took up. And I think it's sad, isn't it if we get away from the gospel of the grace of God was particularly committed to to Paul as the instrument to bring that or the gospel of the glory of God to bring that forth. And if we get away from Paul's doctrine, we're going to we're going to get away from this thought of being separated.
And so I think it's, I think this is so helpful that we're taking this up because I believe that we hear a lot about the gospel of the grace of God, but we don't hear as much about the gospel of the glory of God. And perhaps others can, can expand on why that is, but I, I know that there's something about being separated that we don't like.
Why don't we like it?
Maybe because we're too occupied with things down here.
I think also too man is man is too much in the focus. This chapter began with Paul having to correct a very common problem that the Corinthians were guilty of and that is not seeing past not seeing beyond the 1St man they were questioning.
His his authority and.
And His usefulness as a servant of the Lord, they were actually occupied with Him. Their occupation was with Him. But we we have Him telling them that.
They are beyond that, that the Gospel has brought them beyond the 1St man completely brought them into association with the Lord Jesus, and now they are living epistles of him.
The first man having completely been set aside, and the identification that has changed from Adam to Christ, and they were manifestly.
Living Epistles of Christ, and yet in.
In their appreciation of that, it was not really so. They didn't really realize what the work of Christ had done in a practical sense and identifying them with Christ.
They still and if we if we look through the the the instruction given to the Corinthians, it seems as though Paul was always dealing with this flaw that.
They were they were occupied with with man, and the Apostle Paul's ministry was to take them beyond that occupation, to see the end of that connection and to unite them.
In in.
In the new position that the cross had brought them into and that's the reason why the the 1St.
The the the administration that was first given in the law was was no longer sufficient because that first administration or the first covenant that was given to man was given to the first man and that had been completely set aside because God had set the 1St man aside.
And the new relationship now is identification with Christ.
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And that identification with Christ brings us into a completely new realm in which the Spirit of God has.
Has his working in and through us. And so he was trying to encourage them to be to come into the realization that they had this this new administration.
This new identification and what a difference that would make.
I think it might be helpful.
In talking about this chapter, go back to Exodus to what happened that is referred to in this chapter in the giving of the law.
Quite a long story and be something to read in our own time perhaps, but just to go over it and breathe the end of Exodus.
31 it says, verse 18 He gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communion with him upon Mount Sinai. 2 Tables of testimony tables.
Of stone written with the finger of God that's directly referred to in our chapter.
But then when you come to Chapter 32, the people.
Not seeing Moses and wondering if he was gone for good.
Ask Aaron to make them a God to go before them and they fall into idolatry.
Terrible sin. And so when Moses comes back down from the mount with the tables of stone, if he would have brought those tables of stone into the camp of Israel when they were going on with idolatry, it would have meant immediate death for all of them. So he takes the tables of stone and throws them down and breaks them.
And then it's interesting in chapter 34, the Lord tells him to hew 2 tables of stone like unto the 1St, and I will write upon these tables the words which were in the first tables which thou breakest. And he goes back up to the mountain, and notice as he is there verse five it says this is chapter 34, verse five. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him.
Therein proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed the Lord.
The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear. The guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's children, and to the third and the 4th generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
And then notice toward the end of that chapter.
Verse 29.
3429 And it came to pass when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai.
With the two tables of testimony in Moses's hand when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come night to him. And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him.
And Moses talked with them, and afterwards all the children of Israel came nigh.
And he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai, until Moses had done speaking with him. He put a veil on his face. And when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses face shone.
And Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
So when he was speaking to the people, he had to put a veil on his face. And that's what's it helps us to understand our chapter if we focus on that a bit. It was tremendously glorious. But man could not stand before God on the basis of pure law. And that's why when he goes up the second time, the Lord proclaims the name of the Lord to Moses, the Lord merciful and gracious.
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Our brethren, we could never stand before God on the basis of pure law, and those people could not survive on the basis of pure law.
But it was because God is gracious, and so He gives them a means of sacrifice by which they could be in His presence in the camp of Israel. They were encamped around about the Tabernacle. The presence of the Lord was there, but what Moses saw at that time made his face shine. So that's the contrast now, the what the Spirit of God is writing on the fleshly tables of our hearts, brother.
Far supersedes that glory that Moses saw. We have a man, the very Son of God, who came down into this world, who accomplished redemption, and as a man, a risen, glorified man, has gone back into the glory of God.
But a tremendous.
Truth to lay hold of brethren, there is one of the human race at the pinnacle of glory in heaven now.
It's to him we are united.
You know, brethren, to lay hold of it better. It will transform us if we get a hold of it.
In our souls.
We use the word glory.
All the time. And since we use it all the time, it's almost as soon we know what it means.
But.
Glory is the display of excellence.
It's the majesty of something that is excellent.
God dwells in a state.
Of majesty and excellence.
That no man has ever seen or ever will see. First Timothy chapter 6 tells us that dwelling in light which no man has seen, or can see, or ever will see.
God in his essential greatness.
Is beyond the creature to enter in.
To it in its fullness.
But in the Old Testament.
Uniformly.
Man was so afraid of God displaying Himself in any measure in that excellent glory of holiness and light.
That if you ask him, would you like to see God today, he'd say no thank you.
I would not. I don't want to die.
There was a fear connected with it that I believe modern man has lost that sense of the majesty of God in his soul. He's blinded to it by Satan, lest he see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, as the next chapter tells us.
So man is he doesn't see the glory of God because he's blind, blinded by Satan. But in the Old Testament people.
We're afraid.
Of God in that way, to display himself that way and so.
They didn't want to, and in fact, it sets Moses apart.
It was if you say an incredibly unusual person who had actually talked with God face to face.
He didn't get to see all the glory of God. He got to see his backside, if you will, but he did get to talk with God face to face and in the top of the mount alone with God. Some of that glory was displayed to Moses in a way that when he came down off the mountain.
The people couldn't stand in his presence just because his face gave some reflection of where he had been and who he had been with, and they were afraid. And so when Moses was among the people, he had to put a veil over his face to hide that reflected display of what he had seen.
We in Christianity.
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God has chosen to display that glory.
In the person and through the person of a man that we can see.
This essential glory no man has seen nor can see, but the Son of God, and becoming a man becomes the vessel of God to display himself in his glory.
In a way that we can see, we can enter into, and we can enjoy, and part of the teaching of this chapter for us to see it is the people of old under the covenant of the law.
They couldn't even look at the glory of Moses without wanting him to put a veil over his face to cover the glory.
But the contrast to us is.
The ministry of this wonderful message of the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's the essence of the ministry, the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the essence of the gospel of glory.
We can see it.
Without avail.
Because of the work of what's been done for us and brethren, we're going to see that glory face to face forever.
And the absolutely odd and thrilled of eternal worship when we see it. But God saying to us, and what's in these chapters, you don't need to wait.
You don't need to wait. By faith, you can be totally enraptured with that person and see him presently. By faith we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. That's some of his official glory. But here it says.
Verse 18 We all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed.
Incredible that to be occupied with that person in His glory changes us to be like Him.
If you see them, if I see them this weekend.
You'll leave this place more like him than when you came.
Like to look at.
Of what went before the portion that our brother Bob brought before us.
In the book of Exodus.
In Exodus.
Exodus 24.
In in Exodus 24 at the end of the chapter in the 18th verse, it says Moses went up into them midst of the cloud and got him up into the mouth, and Moses was in the mount 40 days and 40 nights. So Bob brings us to his portion several chapters later when Moses comes down.
The thing that's incredible to me is Moses went up with a message.
He had a message from the people and this is the message. This is this is the hearts of the people. This is what they struggled with. This is what the Corinthians struggled with, and it's what we struggle with. So earlier in the chapter in Exodus 24, in verse 3, Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments and all the people answered with one voice and said all the words of the Lord has said. We will do really, really.
So let's go down now. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and wrote up early in the morning, and built out an altar under the hill and so on. We get down to the 7th verse. And he took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people, and they said all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. Are you kidding me? That's what they said, and that's what they struggled with. And this is what the message was that Moses took up with him. So is it any wonder when he comes down from the mountains?
That they're not at all fitted.
To be able to behold Moses glory. But you know, it was number different with the Corinthians. It was absolutely no different with the Corinthians. The the apostle, he he struggled with the Corinthians. He desired to to give them a little bit of meat, but he couldn't. He said I've got to give you some milk. That's all, all you can take. And if they're going to be in the same spirit as the people of God in Exodus who said, yeah, sure. It just whatever you say, we're going to do it. That's just fine with us.
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You know, that's what you're bringing before us earlier Dawn, the concept of the mind it it couldn't say and do wonderful things that the body really can't follow. And it has to do with, you know, it's interesting.
Listening to this discourse here this morning, the very first address I heard our brother Bob take, I was in my teens, I'm in Montreal. It was a hot day in the summer. And it was before you were married, Bob.
And.
The message was down in the basement of the meeting room in Montreal, if you can remember. But you stood up there and you said, you know, I want to take up a subject that affects us all. I want to take up the concept of heart trouble.
You know, really, it was years and years ago, but it really spoke to me and it was really what the people of God were struggling with.
In Exodus, before Moses went up in the mountain, because they could say sure, whatever whatever Lord says.
We're up to, we're up to it and we think, you know, that's preposterous and we think, think the same with the Corinthians. But you know, it's, it's no different with us either. And we, we can the apostles trying to relate to the Corinthians that, you know, basically the same thing is what our brother Bob bought before in the address, that there are things that are really life that you can enjoy now. And he wanted the Corinthians to do that. And yet their heart wasn't affected. They couldn't enjoy one bit of it whatsoever.
Don has been mentioned in verse 18 of the Beholding. Really it is with unveiled face. There is no veil now between US and the glory of the Lord. There's nothing to hinder our enjoyment of all that our God is for us. And so in the verses in that parentheses that I mentioned from verse 7 to verse 16.
Inclusive.
It contrasts, as we were talking about before, the two covenants.
The covenant of the law and then what we have.
In grace, the ministration of the Spirit and the ministration of righteousness. That's mentioned in verse 8:00 and 9:00.
And it says in verse 10, even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth. In other words, he's talking about the glory of that Moses got a glimpse of Don was mentioning. And it's in that same portion we were looking at in Exodus that Moses asked to see God's glory. And God said, you cannot see my face and live.
But I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will pass by and.
I will take my hand off and you will see my back parts. And what he saw was so glorious.
That's what he made his face shine when he came off that mountain.
But now, what is that glory in comparison with the glory that excelleth verse ten of our chapter?
It has no glory in contrast with the glory that excelleth. Brethren, why is it that we get so easily distracted by things down here?
Man and what he does and what he boasts of his own glory. Is there something that compares with this? Isn't it time we took to?
Isn't it, isn't it proper that we take time to be occupied with the glory?
That excelleth the glory that is visible now in the unveiled face of the Lord Jesus there at God's right hand. That's what's going to transform us. And so that's what's referred to in verse 10, verse 11. If that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
The covenant of law was done away. Now we have what remains and will remain forever the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's what is our privilege to enjoy, to be occupied with. That's what will transform us, brethren. It's not looking at each other under the microscope and criticizing. We all have defects. No problem.
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That's admitted, but what's going to transform us is to be occupied with the glory of the person of God's beloved Son.
I was thinking how Moses could have no, he had his face shining, perhaps someone called him, perhaps he looked on the surface of the water. And I think we we could make a parallel between the Corinthians and other examples in the Bible. The Corinthians were they were occupied.
About shining Christ's glory in them, but doing that they were looking to themselves.
And trying to be something that would be according to God's will. So they were looking to their gifts. They were looking all the their work and all everything they had. But then we have other other kind of people in the Bible. We have, for instance, Mary, who was not looking to Martin or even to herself, but to Jesus. And that called attention, Lord's attention. And the Lord called the martyrs attention.
About what Maria was doing, Mary was doing, and then we have those in Acts 4. We can go there.
** 4/13.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearning them, ignorant ma'am, they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. So this is something other Will Will notes, not myself. Because if I I know it's myself, I will think I have something that others don't have. And I will, I will.
Take my eyes from Jesus to look to myself to all the things I have done, all my, my obedience, all my spirit, all ways of doing things. But I think we being occupied with the Lord, we, we will not be occupied, occupied with our own glory or with the, the glory of the Lord shining upon us. We will be occupied with him and we, we even will not know about that.
We won't see the shining on our faces because we were not looking. Is there any mirror here? I can see if there is glory shining in my face, We will not be occupied with that. Perhaps another example of that is that woman from First Peter.
That is preaching to her husband without words. First picture, first Peter 3, three. Yeah, she's preaching, but she's not occupied preaching. She's just leaving her life in Christ.
And her husband can see that.
That's why Brother Mario, not to jump over the other verses, but in verse 18 where it says as in a glass that really should be not be there because Paul is not asking them to look in a glass to be changed. He's telling them to look to the Lord, to behold the Lord and that's going to change them. Just a point of what you said. That's right.
So it says in verse 17 where the spirit of the Lord is.
There's liberty.
There's liberty.
You want *******? Think about yourself.
Think about yourself and you'll be brought into *******.
The Spirit of God.
Delights to occupy the mind, the heart, the life with something worthwhile. So he doesn't occupy us with ourselves, He occupies us with the Lord Jesus in his glory. And that is an object of the heart, the mind that is perfectly, completely satisfying to the new man.
God is so happy.
00:55:01
To be thinking about His Son, the Lord Jesus, that he wants us to share the same happiness He has.
He's delighted to think about his son and be occupied with his son. And so his heart, his desire for you and I, is to have the same joy to be occupied with his son.
And the Spirit of God.
Works in us to that objective.
To occupy us with the Lord Jesus Christ unless we're disobedient or wayward and so on. And then the Spirit of God will occupy us with ourselves to judge that which hinders the enjoyment that He wants for us. And so when the Spirit of God is introduced here, it's to bring us by his work into that place.
Where the heart finds its liberty.
In contrast to self, as Bob had this morning in his address, and is the remarks just made by Mario, The more you start thinking about yourself and whether you're doing it right or messed it up or whatever it is, it doesn't really matter. It leads to misery and conflict.
And struggle and the flesh all mix themselves in with it. And so the Spirit of God says, well, no, we don't want that, let's. And so his delight, his work is to take our thoughts off ourselves. I appreciate a comment along this line happened to be made by Mr. Darby, but the comment was humility.
Is not.
I'm not sure I can quote exactly, but the thought is.
Humility is neither having high thoughts of yourself or low thoughts of yourself. It's not thinking about yourself at all.
The person who starts to think about, oh, I'm very humble has just lost any sense of humility.
True humility doesn't think of self at all because it has something we're thinking about, which is the Lord Jesus.
We have another example of a person that was filled with the Spirit of God in the book of the Acts and Stephen.
In the 6th chapter of the Acts it says it multiple times. He was full of the spirit and wisdom.
And at the end, the power of his testimony was such.
That they could not controvert it and they sought for false witnesses to negate his testimony. But notice what it says at the end of chapter 6. All that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel. I don't know that Steven was aware of that, but it was the Spirit of God that occupies with Christ.
So in the next chapter, it's interesting, he's charged with some very serious charges, but it's beautiful to see, brethren, that he doesn't take any time to answer those charges against him. He starts in by ministering to those people the truth of the Word of God from the Old Testament. And it's a beautiful resume that he gives. And then at the end of the chapter.
Seven. He looks up verse 55, being full of the Holy Ghost.
Person full of the Holy Ghost is not talking about himself. He's not talking about the Spirit of God either.
He's talking about Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
And so they kill him, they stone him to death, but that is a testimony of the person.
Of a person that's so fully occupied with the Lord Jesus and it's what is referred to in our chapter verse 17.
Where the Lord is now, the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Spirit of the Lord is to occupy us with Him. The more we're occupied with Him, the more it transforms us. We are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's the work of the Spirit of God in each one of us Writing.
01:00:18
Based on these hearts of flesh.
A practical example, some of us, in fact I'm sure all of us have been on a nice beach and a nice hot summer day. And you know that you don't need to tell anybody you on the beach for the day because when you come back your face will show that if you were on the beach. So when we're full of priced, we don't need to tell. There will be evidence from our actions that others can become a testimony to the world and to our brethren.
Just want to share a real familiar verse in Galatians 2 to I believe it goes along with what we've been saying, saying here about occupation with Christ and the Spirit of God that will be his his work. I don't know if it's necessary to read the first part of this Galatians 220, but the last part bears this out and it says in the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith.
Of the Son of God.
Who loved me and gave himself for me. There is subjective truth in the beginning of this verse, which we're not talking about in this meeting, but the the last part of the verse. I've enjoyed it this way. Anyway, the last part of the verse is objective truth. The Spirit of God doesn't leave us with the subjective truth. He leaves us with the objective truth and that is the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus who loved me and gave himself for me. I think as we've been speaking.
We we do need to distinguish that God has given us some subjective truth, truth that we need to learn about the work of Christ, which has changed our standing of position before God. But he doesn't leave us occupied with ourselves. He gives us that understanding, but then he directs our focus to where our hearts can be absorbed.
With the love of the Lord Jesus, so it says, I live by the by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
296.
Joyful and my full salvation.
For young Lord and more.
Today.
Change from God.
Turn glory to hungry, take our place and to worship.
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And my glory.
Lasted wonder.
Love.
Just one word about this little him.
Joy of Heaven.
To earth come down.
God and his Son Jesus had a perfect, wonderful, happy relationship in the glory from the beginning of time.
But that had to be interrupted.
Because man sin. But I was just thinking all heaven.
Rejoiced and admired this one. The angels, everyone.
In perfect harmony with this man.