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[0:00] This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. It's a joy for me to be here with you this morning. As Jeff said earlier, our pastor is away preaching this morning.

[0:16] So it's an immense privilege for me to open God's Word with you. And so if you would take out your Bibles and open with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Our title this morning is Beholding the Glory of the Lord.

[0:40] And we'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 12 through chapter 4 verse 6. Maybe you remember your time as a teenager and thinking your parents were so restrictive of you.

[0:58] Your parents may have been concerned about who you were spending time with, what you were looking at, what you were doing, what you were listening to, how late you were out, where you were going, who you were going there with.

[1:10] It's the great frustration of teenagers of every generation. Why won't my parents let me make my own decisions? Why won't my parents trust me? Why won't my parents just give me some freedom? Why won't my parents trust me?

[1:50] That by being exposed to a negative example for a prolonged period of time would drag us in a negative direction. Our parents also knew that spending time with a positive example would push us toward the positive.

[2:05] They recognized this about us as human beings and this is especially true of us spiritually. the problem with us is we are sinners we're sinners by nature of who we are in adam we're sinners because of what we choose to do as well we are born in sin and we're heading for death and so we don't just need a good example spiritually that's not powerful enough to fix us what we need is a savior who can conquer our sin and overcome the death that we are owed and the good news of the gospel is that jesus is both of these things he is our salvation he is our death conqueror and he is also our example he is our salvation and he is our contemplation he is the one who saves us and he is the one whom we meditate upon and we see here in this passage this morning that salvation is by christ so that we can behold christ salvation is by christ so that we can behold christ and paul is writing to the corinthians he spent a lot of time in corinth we have two of his recorded letters first and second corinthians in the new testament and based on what we know about this church it was constantly in trouble they were usually disagreeing about something they're having bad theology they're being influenced by false teachers they're misusing the spiritual gifts they were being tolerant towards sexual immorality they were just constantly in trouble and so if you had a choice you wouldn't want to be a member of the church in corinth but paul is writing in love to correct them and the occasion for him writing this second letter to the corinthians is because his ministry has come into question false teachers have crept in and have begun to turn this church against the apostle paul they've come in preaching a false gospel and claiming that paul himself is not a true minister of christ and so paul is writing second corinthians primarily to defend his apostolic ministry now paul is not concerned about chasing down every negative word that's been said about him this isn't personal but he recognizes if they reject him they're rejecting the gospel and so he writes to defend his ministry not to defend himself but to defend his ministry in order to defend the gospel against what these false teachers are proclaiming in corinth and so with that let's read our passage this morning second corinthians chapter 3 beginning with verse 12 since we have such a hope we are very bold not like moses who had put a veil over his face so that the israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end 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 when one turns to the lord the veil is removed now the lord is the spirit 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 for this comes from the lord who is the spirit therefore having this ministry by the mercy of god we do not lose heart or we literally we do not get discouraged but we've renounced disgraceful underhanded ways we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with god's word but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's

[6:05] conscience in the sight of god and even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing in their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of christ who is the image of god for what we proclaim is not ourselves but jesus christ as lord with ourselves as your servants for jesus's sake for god who said let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ pray with me our father i pray as we turn now to your word that you would help us in our weakness you would help us at the limits of our understanding you are too deep and too profound for us to wrap our minds around but i pray that we would rightly understand the grace you've given us to behold the face of your son jesus christ i pray we'd understand your word that your word is not an end in itself but it points us to your word made flesh your son the risen lord and it's in his name we pray amen we'll see four things from this passage this morning first one is veiled hearts veiled hearts we see this in verses 12 through 15 paul begins this section by saying since we have such a hope and throughout this chapter so far paul has been talking about the glory of the new covenant over against the fading glory of the old covenant the new covenant is infinitely more glorious than the old covenant it's not written on tablets of stone by moses it's written on human hearts by the holy spirit it's not fading away in its significance it is permanent and because of that permanence because of the superiority of this covenant that's come to us through christ we are very bold paul is explaining his practice of ministry here in how he preaches he and the other apostles and his ministry associates hold nothing back from their hearers they proclaim the truth they do not adjust their message to the audience they do not hold back truths they may think some would find offensive in their audience they veil nothing they hold nothing back they do not hide anything they do not conceal any part of the truth and paul actually contrasts himself with moses we're very bold we are very open we don't conceal anything verse 13 not like moses who would put a veil over his face paul's referring to what jeff read earlier from exodus 34 moses really freaked the israelites out with his glowing face and maybe rightly so that's a strange sight but moses had been up on the mountain with the lord for 40 days and 40 nights receiving the law and he came back down and israel was too scared even to look at him the reason moses went up as opposed to the rest of the israelites is the israelites were already scared they said no we can't hear directly from god you just tell us what he says and now moses comes down reflecting his glory and they can't even look at him this isn't moses's glory this is just glory he is reflecting from the lord and they're still too scared to look at him we don't know exactly what this shining was like but it is right to associate it with light so moses wasn't just shining he wasn't just smiling really big his face was actually shining and we

[10:06] don't know how bright it was but it was bright enough to unsettle the entire nation it said aaron and all the israelites were afraid of him and so moses's solution was to hide the afterglow of glory from them by veiling his face now he would remove the veil when he went in to speak to the lord and he would keep the veil off as he relayed the message to the people but unless he was speaking to god or speaking for god the veil remained over his face and his purpose was so that the israelites might not gaze at the outcome or the result of what was being brought to an end paul was very bold he held nothing back from his listeners but moses hid his face and paul's reasoning here is because it seems that moses recognizes that this covenant had an expiration date not only did the shine of his face have an end point but the covenant itself would come to an end and paul says he did this so they wouldn't ponder they wouldn't gaze at what was being brought to an end and the thing that was being brought to an end was the old covenant this is the very covenant that moses was bringing down the mountain to inaugurate and so paul is saying that from his perspective this covenant was already on the countdown before it even fully began the time that this covenant would be operative was already counting down as moses was leaving the presence of the lord to relay the law to the people of israel and it's really like having a child in your home i remember it dawned on me after our firstborn came home she was three or four days old and it hit me that that there's already three days less of her childhood at home than there were three days ago and so as soon as you bring a newborn baby home their childhood is just slipping through your fingers all the time and that's how paul describes this old covenant moses himself understood that this would not last forever this was slipping away especially considering to whom it was given the israelites would not be able to keep this covenant moses receives this law and it's he's just like there's no chance we're keeping this god is too perfect his standard is too high and so he knows that this covenant will not be operative forever and paul explains why from the get-go their minds were hardened they were stubborn their minds were like rocks they couldn't absorb what god was showing them through moses and it seems like this is the reason why they were scared to look at him in the first place that they weren't absorbing what god was revealing to them they didn't even want to look at moses because their minds were hardened and what was veiled from them physically moses face became veiled from them spiritually they couldn't see the glory on moses face because of the veil and eventually that veil was placed over their minds that veil was placed over their hearts and then paul makes a leap from that generation in the wilderness to the unbelieving jews of his own day so what was veiled to that generation in the wilderness became veiled to the entire nation of israel in paul's day and you see that in verse 14 and 15 he says for to this day when they read the old covenant that same veil remains unlifted because only through christ is it taken away and so paul's kind of making a metaphor out of this veil now that this veil the veiled moses face from them is now metaphorically over the hearts and minds of unbelieving jews in paul's day

[14:08] it has the same effect it prevents them from seeing the glory of what god is revealing to them what moses was doing by hiding his face by hiding god's glory has now happened to the entire group of unbelieving jews they're unable to see god's glory and why is this still in place even in our own day the jews reject their messiah by and large paul says because only through christ is it taken away or only through christ is it brought to an end and so just like moses would unveil himself when he's in the presence of the lord paul says in the same way when someone comes to christ that's when the veil is removed and so the reason the veil remains today is because they refuse to come to christ christ is the revelation of the father's glory but it's christ that they're veiled from seeing they're veiled from seeing christ and yet they must see christ in order for the veil to be removed but they won't see him unless the veil is removed and so what paul is explaining here is an impossible situation they're prevented from seeing god's glory and the only way they could see god's glory is if that veil is removed but they can't remove the veil unless they can see christ and so they have no hope in themselves these unbelieving jews would read the law but they did not see christ they did not see the outcome what this law was pointing towards and this was christ's critique of the pharisees in john 5 39 he said you search the scriptures because it you think that in them you have eternal life and it is these that bear witness about me yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life the jews were not wrong for reading the old covenant they were wrong for not believing christ to whom the old covenant pointed the problem is not with the old covenant the problem is not with moses the problem is with the condition of their hearts paul says in verse 15 yes to this day whenever moses is read a veil lies over their hearts there's a spiritual blockage in their hearts so when they read the old covenant when they read moses their minds are hardened their heart is veiled the goal of the old covenant was never to bring salvation it can't do that the goal of the old covenant was to expose sin to show israel and the world how sinful we are and the old covenant has done that perfectly it did not fail in its function the problem is our own sinful hearts the goal of the law was to expose sin and to point to one who's coming who's not able to only not only able to fulfill the law but also to atone for the sins of his people who have transgressed that law and paul had experienced this firsthand he had experienced this as someone whose heart was veiled whose mind was hardened and he continues to experience this every sabbath day in the synagogues he would hear the old covenant read and watch them reject their messiah and this comes down even to our day as well as the majority of jews do not believe in the majority of jews do not believe in christ so we see veiled hearts secondly we see unveiled sight unveiled sight unveiled sight paul says but when one turns to the lord the veil is removed now paul's kind of recycling this thought from earlier but there's something important i want you to notice is that in verse 14 he says it's

[18:12] through christ that the veil is taken away in verse 16 he says when one turns to the lord the veil is removed and so what paul is doing here in this passage is he is equating the term lord with the term christ and this is paul's standard practice in the new testament his title for christ unless otherwise he's specified is he's referring to christ when he says lord and so turning to christ is how this veil is removed it's through conversion it's through turning from sin or repentance and faith and just like moses unveiled himself in god's presence so now the veil is removed by turning to christ through coming to christ but i also want you to notice that the way this veil is removed is described in the passive voice both times says through christ it is taken away at the end of verse 16 the veil is removed who is doing this taking away who is doing this removing moses removed his own veil who can remove this one this is something done by christ so that we can see christ christ removes the veil so that we can behold christ in all of his glory the person does not remove the veil from their own heart the person does not soften their own mind the veil is removed by christ so that we can see christ in verse 17 he says now the lord is the spirit this is a profound and even mystifying theological statement i've struggled with this phrase all week even through this morning this is probably the most challenging phrase i have studied in all of scripture let's look at why well i've just explained who's paul referring to when he says lord unless he specifies otherwise the lord is a reference to christ and lord in this passage very clearly refers to christ every time he's already equated it in verses 14 and 16 it's through christ and through turning to the lord who is the christ and if you look at verse 18 we behold the glory of the lord and are transformed into the same image who's the image of god it's christ and so in every instance usually in paul and in every instance in this passage the lord is a reference to christ but here in verse 17 he says now the lord is the spirit and so if my attention to the text is correct we could essentially translate this as saying jesus is the spirit and grammatically that's straightforward theologically that can be puzzling that can be mystifying and as i read commentaries and called friends this week there are two main views and i want to show you what those views are and i think explain where they fall short some people would interpret the lord in verses 16 and 17 as the spirit the holy spirit and i think in verse 17 it would make sense that the lord is the spirit is paul's key to understanding this passage of saying anytime you see lord it's a reference to the spirit the problem is he's already declared himself as referring to christ when he says lord in verse 14 and verse 16 he ties those two together and then in verse 18 he goes right back to referring to christ by the term lord and then in chapter 4 he says we declare jesus christ as lord and so there'd be an unexplainable shift in his use of terminology that i don't think is justified in interpreting it that way

[22:15] another major view would be translating the first phrase of verse 17 as the lord is spirit or the lord is a spirit theologically this wouldn't be problematic in john 4 24 it says god is spirit in first corinthians 15 paul refers to christ as the life-giving spirit the problem in this phrase when compared to those texts is john 4 24 says god is spirit in first corinthians 15 the lord jesus christ is a life-giving spirit there's no the there's not a definite article in those passages here paul says the lord is the spirit so how do we understand this i was wrestling with this this week some of my favorite commentators and favorite preachers either wouldn't deal with it at length or would say they were mystified by it and kind of move on i was talking to one friend this week and he said you know i i used to work for a new testament scholar and this is one of the premier new testament scholars of our day at a very prominent seminary in the southern baptist convention and he said let me reach out to him and i was thrilled i was like yes please do i want to hear his thoughts so i was waiting anxiously for hours for for me to hear back from him and this is the reply that we got i haven't spent a lot of time on that verse so i'm not really sure what i think great great and my friend goes when are you preaching this and i said sunday and he's like oh so it was strangely comforting to know that he is struggling theologically with it as well so grammatically for the reasons i've shown you i think it's best to understand paul is saying jesus is the spirit now we would not say that paul is confusing the persons here and saying that oh there's really only two people in the trinity it's just a benity you know the father and then son slash spirit paul's we know paul's not saying that so what is paul saying jesus and the holy spirit are so closely identified with one another that their work and their presence can be equated i think this is the best way to understand this phrase and this isn't unparalleled on the pages of scripture jesus himself when speaking of the holy spirit sometimes speaks in the first person he says in the great commission behold i am with you always to the end of the age but who is it that will be indwelling them it's the spirit and yet christ says i will be with you in john 14 as jesus is about to depart from the disciples and tell them you won't see me anymore i'm going back to the father he says i will not leave you as orphans i will come to you and he goes on to explain the ministry of the holy spirit with them and so i think the best way to understand this is as the esv translates that the lord or jesus is the spirit and to understand the unity of the trinity and the deity of the spirit as being so closely aligned with the deity of the son that they can be spoken of synonymously and other trinitarian statements would jive with this jesus says in john 14 9 whoever has seen me has seen the father not erasing the distinctions of the persons but jesus is the revelation of who his father is and if you disagree with my take on that that's fine you can send me an email at michael at fbcmustang.org i will reply to you at some point but paul says and where the spirit of the lord is

[26:15] there is freedom freedom as opposed to being veiled freedom is this unveiling freedom is freedom from condemnation and death this is freedom from sin and this freedom isn't a license to do whatever we want this freedom is the ability to see christ this veil is removed by god we're united to christ by faith through the ministry of the holy spirit he is the one who does this uniting he is the one who sets us free he's the one who regenerates us verse 18 says 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 we all not just paul not just the apostles not just the pastors every member of this new covenant has an unveiled face there is no priesthood in the new covenant church there is no distinction between the laity and the clergy in the new covenant church all of us have open access all of us can be ushered into the presence of god through christ all of us with unveiled faces this means we've turned to the lord this means the lord has removed the veil he's opened our eyes and this unveiling allows us to see the glory of the lord and whose image is this that we see it's christ he is the revelation of the father's glory he is the revelation of god to us and where is it that we behold him we see him on the pages of scripture he is the word made flesh and we behold him through the words written on the page this isn't a mystical reference by paul this also isn't calling you to physically see christ or to see him in a vision we behold christ and see him as we read and understand his word and this is why our church has an unrelenting grip on scripture throughout all of our ministries it's because through the word that's how we see christ that's how we come to know christ and as we see him we are being transformed this is where we get our word metamorphosis from this is a powerful word describes a transformation of nature and so our transformation is not just cosmetic or superficial this is a continual change of who we are it's a change of our heart

[28:58] Moses face was changed but it was only skin deep in Exodus 34 three times it refers to the skin of his face but this transformation is deep this transformation is at the heart level at the level of the soul and these renovations that god is making in us as we look to christ are eternal and this word for transformation is the same word used to describe the transfiguration of jesus in matthew 17 and in mark 9 and what happened there christ was transformed before them his glory was cracked open and they were able to see for just a moment what christ actually is and we're being transformed into that same image the image of christ as human beings we are made in the image of god but we've become marred and broken by sin and it's in christ that this image is fully restored we see the glory of the lord and we become like the glory of the lord we become like what we behold we become like what we behold and i see this all the time in student ministry you looked just like your dad when you said that you sounded just like your mom when you said that because that's who they spend time being with that's who they spend time looking at and so that's what shapes their character and so we see glory and we become glorious and this process is step by step from one degree of glory to another this progressive sanctification and incremental increase in holiness this process won't be fully over until we see christ because it's then that we'll fully behold him it's then that we'll see him as he is and so we will be fully like him and so christian you've been set free to behold christ how are you using that freedom what do you spend your time beholding what do you contemplate what do you gaze at do you take time to behold christ or is most of your gazing time spent on netflix or social media where do you look what do you spend your time gazing upon this is an incremental increase in holiness what we would call sanctification he says this comes from the lord who is the spirit this process is made effective in our lives by the spirit and the result is that we are made like christ day after day after day in this glorious gospel truth that we all as members of this covenant have full access to the presence of god through christ this not only impacted paul personally but this also affected his practice of ministry and his perspective of ministry and so we see number three paul's practice in ministry and we see this in verses one and two of chapter four paul says therefore having this ministry by the mercy of god we do not lose heart or we do not get discouraged paul mentions this specifically because ministry can be very discouraging and i don't just mean pastoral ministry i mean the ministry that all of us as members of the new covenant are engaged in all of us have unveiled faces all of us should be engaged in ministry and if you are you have experienced some discouraging things you've shared the gospel with people who have not believed it you've trained up your kids to believe the gospel

[32:59] and sometimes they reject it you pray for someone and your prayers seem to go unanswered you serve someone and they complain about you ministry is full of potentially discouraging things and paul was certainly not a stranger of those remember he's writing this letter because these people whom he shared the gospel with are now turning on him and how did paul fight for joy how did he maintain courage by gazing at the face of christ your weapon against discouragement is beholding christ look to him read his word remember that it's a mercy that we've even been saved we deserve hell but god in his mercy has given us christ and so that affects paul's practice of ministry he's not discouraged he also doesn't tamper with the word he says we've renounced these disgraceful underhanded ways we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with god's word paul will not alter the message even if at times it doesn't seem to be working even if at times it doesn't seem to be having its effect in people's hearts and one of the critiques these false teachers were making is they're saying if paul's the mighty apostle if christ appeared to him where are all of his converts why is he getting kicked out of every synagogue he goes to why do most people reject his message if he's the lord's man and so they would alter the message these false teachers would change the message to suit the sensibilities and itching ears of their hearers but paul says by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of god paul does not hold back the truth and for those seeking the truth this actually verifies his ministry for those who hate the truth it hardens their hearts and so paul's saying my practice is just to deliver what i've received from the lord jesus christ i don't change it i don't tamper with it i don't deceive people i don't manipulate people i preach the truth and that leads us fourthly to paul's perspective of ministry how did he respond to unbelief how did he respond to belief how did he respond to this large-scale rejection of christ by his own kinsmen according to the flesh and on top of that these false teachers were attacking paul you're an apostle and most people reject you and so what these false teachers were is really they were church growth strategists they believed that if you package the truth just right people would line up to get saved anyone and everyone would come to christ as long as the message was presented in a clever way and paul shows us there's more going on than we can ever actually see with our eyes there's more going on that we need to consider in order to keep a proper perspective in ministry what's the difference between someone who believes the gospel and someone who rejects it to their dying day how do we explain that difference between two people paul shows us that salvation is not a result of human persuasion it's a sovereign act of our loving god he says in verse 3 even if our gospel is veiled even if our gospel does not work even if our gospel does not save the people we're speaking to the ones it's veiled to are the ones who are perishing the fault is within the listener

[37:02] not the message the fault is within the heart of the hearer rather than the messenger and paul says in their case that's in the case of those who are perishing the god of this world that's satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers paul calls him the god of this world in ephesians 2 he calls him the prince of the power of the air jesus calls him the ruler of this world in john 12 in john 5 first john 5 john says that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one so it's not to say that god is not sovereign even over satan but satan is influential in hardening the minds of the unbelievers this isn't just an israelite problem this darkness is universal and satanic and no human cleverness can penetrate a satanically darkened mind and satan does this to keep them to prevent them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of christ who is the image of god they're prevented from seeing the only thing that can help them see they can't see christ but they need to be able to see christ in order to be saved in order to be liberated from this darkness again this is an impossible situation but paul says unbelief isn't a reflection of my sharing of the gospel if a blind person cannot see the sun shining that does not lessen the strength of the sun or its effectiveness that's only a statement of their inability to see it and paul says in verse 5 for what we proclaim is not ourselves but jesus christ as lord with ourselves as your servants for jesus's sake paul says i'm not preaching myself if i was preaching myself then i would feel like they're rejecting me but i'm proclaiming christ as lord their rejection is not of me their rejection is of christ i don't care what they think of me i'm preaching christ and that's the one they're rejecting and there are some churches and pastors today who talk so much about what they're doing what their church is doing how their ideas worked how their ideas are unique or what made them successful or what made them cool or relevant and you have to wonder what is the content of your message what are you preaching because they seem to just want to talk about themselves these are the guys that paul was combating he says we preach christ and if we talk about ourselves it's only in reference to us being your servants for the sake of christ we proclaim christ and you might think what hope is there if they're veiled from seeing the only thing that can see them if they're blinded in darkness by a satanic power that's far stronger than any human being what hope is there for them well what hope was there for paul what hope was there for us what happened to us christ opened our eyes christ saved us christ revealed himself to paul on the road to damascus and paul says in verse 6 for god who said let light shine out of darkness that's an allusion to genesis 1 3 has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of christ the glory of god in the face of jesus christ god who created physical light through his word creates spiritual light also through his word the light shines into hearts as the gospel is preached this is what happened to us this is what christ did to paul this is the only hope anyone has of being saved and so if you say what hope do lost people have

[41:02] this is their hope a sovereign god who loves to save sinners who has done it to you who has done it to me who has done it to the apostle paul he has brought them out of darkness into his marvelous light this is the only hope of salvation not in our ability to manipulate someone or craft our delivery of the message just right it's through christ that this veil is removed and blind eyes are opened and this is why we exist as christians this is why we exist as a church it's because god has done this to us and because he has sent us out to be the means of proclaiming this light to others this is why we preach the gospel this is why we share the gospel with those who are in the darkness this is why we support those who preach the gospel in dark places missionaries because god through his word turns on the light i was listening to a story from a missionary by the name of brooks buser he was a missionary for about a decade in papa new guinea close to where the prince family was serving as missionaries for all those years and he talked about these people he went to serve they did not have an alphabet they did not have a written language they spoke to each other but they didn't have a written language and so his goal in going there was to give them a written language give them an alphabet so they could learn to read and learn to write and then he could translate the bible into their language so they could see christ and he begins translating he teaches them to read he begins translating the first few chapters of genesis and teaching it to them and teaching there's only one true god who's created all of us and these people weren't even used to sitting and listening to anyone talk and they're very vocal and very verbal and very violent and so they're interrupting him saying this is bad this is bad stop talking and he goes through genesis takes them to specific old testament passages along the way saying there's one coming who will take away sin there's one coming who will fulfill the law and he said that when we got to the life of christ and we didn't go to the birth narrative we went to john 1 and as i'm reading john 1 and teaching john 1 john the baptist says behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world and men were standing up and interrupting him and saying is this the one is this the one and he was able to tell them yes this is the one this is the one who takes away our sin this is the one who penetrates the darkness this is the one who opens blind eyes and so many of us take christ for granted and don't read scripture like that how do you use your freedom do you behold christ do you see him on the pages of scripture by his mercy god has opened your eyes he's shined light into your heart are you a christian consider what's happened to you and worship him looking to christ begins the christian life it continues the christian life and it will be our occupation for all eternity in heaven can you wait it'll be here sooner than you think but let us make sure that when that time comes we're as holy as we can be when we meet the lord let's make sure we're beholding him in his word so that we are as much like christ as we can be when we meet him and let's strive together to help each other behold the glory of the lord so we can continually become more like him let's pray our father we thank you for the mercy you've given us in christ it's a mercy

[45:04] we deserved hell our minds were hardened our hearts were veiled we hated the truth we hated you and in your love you shined light into the darkness just like you did at the beginning of time when you said let let there be light and there was light so you spoke into our hearts and pushed back the darkness and recreated us father i pray we would not take that for granted i pray we would live in accordance with the privilege you've given us of having full access to your son jesus christ moses could not look upon your glory the israelites couldn't look upon moses who was just reflecting your glory but we see christ with an unveiled face help us to walk in that freedom lord and help us look forward to meeting your son who has saved us it's in his name we pray amen love you guys thank you for being here this morning i encourage you to come back this evening on behalf of first baptist church of mustang we want to thank you for joining us this morning for our live stream broadcast we are so thankful for the gift of technology and that we are able to reach so many people not only across the state and in our nation but around the world and what a truly indescribable gift that is i do want to encourage you if at all possible if you are able to be here in person there is no substitute for gathering with the people of god in person so we encourage you to be here in person at any one of our services but once again if we can help you in any way please feel free to contact us and we would love to serve you in any way possible have a great day you you you you you

[47:19] Thank you.