Well, we are thankful that we can gather again this year, thankful that the waters did not hinder us from getting here, and thankful for those that came before and made the way for us.
I would like for us to turn this evening to our theme verses in 2 Corinthians 3. I will be reading verses 17 and 18 from the New American Standard.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Reading them again:
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Let us pray.
Lord, we do rejoice to be together in Thy presence tonight. We are thankful for how Thou hast made the way. Lord, Thou art actually the One who has gone before and made the way for us to be here.
Lord, we are thankful that by faith we can step into the fullness of the provision Thou hast for us—speaking, translating, hearing. Lord, we are here tonight, and it is really not about us; it is about Thee.
We do desire that Thy glory would be manifest among us tonight. Lord, as we touch on Thy glory this weekend, we want to truly see it in a fresh way. We want the ears and eyes of our hearts opened to behold Thee in such a way that we would leave here truly allowing Thee to transform us in a greater way from glory to glory.
Lord, we are thankful that it is with purpose. Thou hast an end in view, and we want to be those who are following in Thy train and really allowing Thee to lead us where Thou desirest for us to go.
As we said, it is not about us. It is not about where we want to go. Lord, it is about Thee. We want to be those who are following and knowing Thee in a greater way, and being the testimony that Thou hast called us to be.
We are thankful that we gather tonight with the testimony that Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord, in that testimony, it speaks volumes. We are thankful that we have that Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord is among us tonight; may that Spirit have great freedom and great liberty to work within each heart and within each life.
In Thy name we pray. Amen.
As you are aware, the theme for this conference is Christ Our Glory. It is really following up on what we have been considering these last few years. Last year was Christ, Our Life. The year before was Who Am I in Christ? Before that, it was Seeing Him, Knowing Him, Following Him.
I very much appreciate the brothers behind this conference because there has been recognition of the hour and the days in which we are living. They are bringing us back to that one thing that is necessary: our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are many things out there that we can focus upon. But we need to see, in a greater way in the hour in which we are living, that there is one thing necessary—or really, one Person necessary. It is our Lord Jesus Christ having His rightful and full place in each and every one of our lives.
Not only individually, but in our families, in our homes, and in our houses, may there be that light shining in our dwellings which would be to the glory of God. Also within our assemblies, may He have that rightful place, so that when His ones come in—whether we are an assembly of five or ten people or whether we are hundreds—the presence of the Lord would be there in such a way that people would testify, “The Lord is here.”
When the brothers sent out an email about this conference, they summarized their burden, and I am just going to read that to you:
The burden is still centered on the life of Christ expressed through us. We acknowledged in our meeting that only the Holy Spirit can reveal that which seems abstract to us. But we pray that the transforming that comes as we behold Him would fill all to His glory.
As we are here, even as we just sang in that psalm, that last little verse said His life in the glory would be lived out in us. That is why we are here this weekend.
There is this beautiful phrase in this verse: it talks about beholding Him. The more that we behold Him, the less we are distracted. The more we behold Him, the more that great transforming work is done. The more we behold Him, the more we fall in love with Him in a fuller and greater measure.
That is why we are here, because our Lord is jealous. He is anxious to return, and He is jealous for the life of His Son to be expressed through each and every one of those for whom He gave His life.
He gave His life for us with a purpose, and that purpose is that His Son’s life would be expressed through us. It is not just about knowing about Him or talking about Him. It is wonderful, the fellowship we can have. But beyond the talking, beyond even the knowing and the studying of His Word, there is a touching of life.
There is a battle of life in these days, and it is about the life of His Son being expressed in His people. It was the Father’s good pleasure to reveal Christ in us. You always have to be careful about this, but in a way, too, it is the Father’s pleasure when the life of His Son is revealed through us.
When the life of Christ is seen in His people, there is a glory that comes to the Father’s heart. There is a treasure that is there.
You know, when I first saw this theme, Christ Our Glory, my first thought was, “How do you ever share enough on Christ?” Then I thought, “What is glory?” It is easy for you guys to sit in a planning meeting and come up with these nice little themes: Christ Our Glory. Okay, what is glory? What does it really mean? What is the glory of Christ?
All of a sudden, we find one of these words in Scripture that you cannot define. It is beyond definition, but we can see it described.
I remember one time we were taking a couple of brothers back to Richmond after the Harvey Cedars conference. Fall had come a little early that year. We were driving back, and this younger brother said, “Oh, the colors on the trees are glorious.”
The older brother just kind of looked over at him and said, “Yes, the trees are beautiful. Only the Lord is glorious.” There was a pause—a kind of quiet in the car for a few minutes—but we got the point.
We have actually downgraded the word. We say, “This is glorious. This is glorious.” But there is a glory that belongs only to our Lord, because it is His life manifested.
Some describe it as the presence of the Lord manifested. When the presence of the Lord is manifested in a real way, there is a glory there. You do not know what it is, but you know it.
Another described it as when God is satisfied. When He sees the life of His Son manifested, God is satisfied, and it brings a warming to His heart.
When we think about the glory of the Lord expressed throughout Scripture, I think back to the tabernacle and the temple. When they were completed, the glory of the Lord came down and filled them. Why was that?
In many simple ways, the glory of the Lord came down because the people did exactly what He told them to do. He gave them a pattern, and they followed it. Then the glory came down.
Is that not the Christian life? He tells us what to do. He says, “Follow Me.” When we simply follow Him, when we are coming after Him, listening, obeying, and trusting Him, then His glory comes forth. It is not about us. It is about that Father’s heart being satisfied.
Whenever we think about the glory of the Lord, we go to the Mount of Transfiguration. It talks about when our Lord was transfigured: they beheld His glory. What was it? What were they beholding? Were they just beholding a bright light? Were they beholding this shining thing before them?
They were beholding a life manifested before them—something they had never experienced before. There was a life that came forth and expressed itself, and there was such a fullness within them.
I remember, like in John 1, John testifies of our Lord:
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
It was a glory that showed forth that He was the only begotten One.
These conferences have a goal of bringing us back to Christ. There are many things in this hour and in the days in which we are living that are trying to distract us from the simplicity and purity of following Him.
The glory of the Lord is not a complex glory. There is a simplicity to it: it is the life of Christ manifested. When that is manifested, we see that it is not an abstract thing. It is a life. It is the manifestation of His life.
When we think of glory, sometimes we think of future glory. There is a future glory, and I am not going to touch on that tonight. But when you think of that future glory, the thing that so blesses me is that you see the fulfillment—the corporate expression, that corporate glory, that testimony: the bride has made herself ready.
You are not seeing individuals; you are seeing a corporate expression of His life, because that is His heart and purpose.
But what Paul is sharing here in this letter is that present glory: His life being manifest in us today, in the very lives we are living. Regardless of the circumstances, He is jealous for that life to be made manifest.
We are thankful, as we have had these previous conferences, that when we are saved, we have Christ in us. We have the very life of Christ in us. Brothers and sisters, we are not going to get any more of that. We have His life in us. We have Christ dwelling in us.
But as we go along, as we experience Him, we experience more and more of that life that was there. The life was already there, but as He leads us, as we respond to His grace, as we respond to His call, we see more and more.
In many ways, we think we are growing in Christ, but really we are experiencing more of His life, and more of His life is becoming reality to us.
This is the challenge we have before us as we are here this weekend. We have to go before the Lord in our quiet times with an honest heart, saying, “Lord, is the fullness of that life which is within me being expressed in me? How am I hindering it? Or daily, am I entering into all that Thou hast for me?”
Boy, this is so vital in these days, because as the days intensify, there are more and more pressures—the stress of life. You do not even have to talk about it these days because everybody understands. Everybody knows about all the pressures and stress of life, and the multifaceted ways it comes upon you.
You make it through one aspect and something else comes at you. It is a never-ending battle. Praise God, in many ways we need to rejoice in the Lord when these pressures come upon us, because it means we are on the right road.
You get on the wrong road, where there is no pressure, and the enemy says, “Okay, I have got him. I am taking him out. Just let him cruise on along.” But praise God, when we are on that right road, there are conflicts within, fears without, and all sorts of things. We see what Paul went through.
This is the normal Christian life in these last days. There is that great battle for life. If we do not have this personal relationship with Him—this daily, personal relationship of knowing Him—that is what keeps us.
We cannot hide ourselves in a corporate environment. We are thankful for the corporate environment; we are thankful for our assemblies. But we cannot hide in there. The essential thing that gets us through in these days is our own personal relationship with Him, day by day, moment by moment, as we sang—knowing Him in the fullness of all that He has for us.
If not, we will be those who are fainting. The Lord talks about how, in these days, as pressures and various things come upon people, they will faint. We see it occurring right before our eyes, even with so-called prominent believers.
We see a worship leader with a very popular worship team all of a sudden questioning and denying his faith. We see a pastor of a megachurch, like in Baltimore, who had been used by the Lord in a mighty way, all of a sudden questioning and denying the faith.
We have a youth pastor, a dear brother, who was ministering to those battling depression, and yet he ended up committing suicide. There is a real battle for life out there.
If we do not have that relationship with Him, we can faint also. When we see people falling around us, that should wake us up, because we need to make sure our confidence is not in a man.
Even the Lord said that if He did not shorten the time, even the elect would faint. But praise God, we have that life within us that can carry us through.
That is why I appreciate this verse. We ask the question: “How can I keep from fainting? How can I go on? How can I make it in these days?” To me, this verse shows the simplicity of how we can go on: the simplicity of beholding Him and allowing Him to do that work within us.
I am not going to go into the depths of this verse, because the other brothers who are sharing would crucify me, and I will already get accused of stealing something. I am just going to skirt around this verse and look at it in a superficial way tonight, leaving some of the depth of the verse to the other brothers who are sharing.
One of the things that encouraged me about this verse is the very first part of 2 Corinthians 3:18. Who is this verse for? It is for all of us—or, as we would say down South, it is for all y’all.
It starts off by saying, “But we all.” All y’all. This is not for some elect group of people or some special servants. When God really calls out to someone, the call of God goes to everybody. It is not limited to just a few.
Think about when the Lord says, “Whoever desires to come after Me.” He makes that call in Luke 9. In Romans 12, when He speaks of consecration, He says, “I urge you therefore, brethren”—every one of you, all the brethren.
The Lord’s call to His people goes out to each and every one of us. We love to limit things in such a way, but there is a privilege that each of us individually has: to allow Him to do this work of conforming us to His image.
He wants to conform each and every one of us to His image, even if we think we are unworthy. We say, “Lord, I am so unworthy to be conformed to Thy image. I am so ill-equipped. I am so bad.” Well, get over it. He knows that already.
The problem is when you think you are worthy. We are unworthy. Accept it. Face up to it. We are the unworthy ones. We are the scum of the earth. Do not think that we are some great saint whom God has chosen.
But when we behold His glory, our response is, “We are unworthy.” Okay, let us get over it. We are the unworthy ones. That does not disqualify us. He knew that before He saved us. That is why He went to Calvary.
He says, “For each and every one of you, you are the ones that I want.” Will you accept that? We face up to it.
I am sorry for being so blunt because, you know, in the snowflake days in which we live, you are not supposed to be blunt. But I am thankful we can leave all the political correctness outside. We need to face up to the fact that we are not worthy, but He is the worthy One. We give ourselves to Him and go on, letting Him do that great work which He wants to do.
I love how Paul speaks here of our condition. He talks about how we have that unveiled face. It is simply that wonderful testimony: “I was blind, and now I see.”
Praise God, when we are born again, we once were blind, but now we see. We are without excuse. He has taken away the blinders. We can see Him. We can behold Him.
He has opened the way for us to come into His presence. We who used to have to stand afar off, we who could not dare come into His presence, because of His great love—His steadfast love that never ceases—we can come into His presence and allow Him to do this great transforming work with unveiled face.
I do not know how many of you have read this theme verse before, but as you begin to read it, you find that it is translated many different ways. There are many different interpretations of what the verse means.
There is one Greek word about beholding or looking in this verse which is the only time it is used in the whole New Testament. Some translations say beholding, some looking, some contemplating, some seeing. Sometimes the word mirror is used; sometimes glass is used; sometimes neither is used.
But let us not get distracted by the words. Let us look at the spirit of what is being said. Maybe one of our other brothers will go into more detail about the words, but the spirit and essence of what is being said is that He is calling us to behold the glory of the Lord.
That is the core issue, and that is what we are here for this weekend: to behold Him and to behold His glory. The essence is beholding Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to do this great work that He wants to do within each and every one of us.
I read verse 17 also because I think these two verses are very related to one another. Both verses speak of the work of the Spirit of the Lord.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Two times there, “the Spirit of the Lord” is used. I have noticed over the years that this is actually a misunderstood verse, and it gets misapplied when it comes to this matter of freedom and liberty.
We can misuse this verse because we see “the Spirit of the Lord” and think, “We are free.” Then, all of a sudden, because we are such self-centered people, we think we are free to do whatever we want to do. We are free to serve where we want to serve, worship where we want to worship, go to whatever meeting we want to attend, and do whatever we want to do.
But brothers and sisters, the freedom we have in Christ is not about us. It is about being free to serve Him.
If you look at the words freedom and liberty in the Greek New Testament, the verses are very consistent. There is always something you have been set free from, and something you have been set free to do.
Romans 6:18 says:
Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Praise God, we are free from sin. But we have also been made slaves of righteousness—to serve Him and to be about His purpose.
Galatians 5:13 says:
You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
We have not been set free to serve our own flesh, but through love to serve one another.
1 Peter 2:16 speaks of acting as free men:
Do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond-servants of God.
You start to see the pattern here. We are not going to read all the verses, but consider one other verse, 1 Corinthians 8:9, because it shows our relationship within the body of Christ. When we really love one another, the freedom we have means that we actually deny ourselves for the sake of others.
But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
Praise God, in our individual lives the Lord may give us freedom to do this or that. But if it becomes a stumbling block, that is another matter. That was what was going on in Corinth. They were eating food sacrificed to idols, and some who were weak did not understand it.
What this shows is that we are in the body of Christ, and we need to be considerate. We need to be conscious of the fact that what we do impacts others. Are we conscious of that? Can I, with a clear conscience, do this, realizing I am not going to have a negative influence on others?
There is a consciousness beyond ourselves. The Lord has set us free from sin, the world, and the enemy himself. But He has set us free to be bond-servants of God, slaves of righteousness, servants of one another—able in love to serve and care for one another.
We are not free to do our own thing. We are free to do His thing. We are free to do the will of God. This is the greatest freedom we have of all time: we are free to behold His glory, and we are free to be transformed into His image.
Praise God, brothers and sisters, this glorious liberty of the sons of God is a marvelous freedom and liberty that we have. But we do not want to abuse it for our own self-interest. We are set free for His sake and for His glory.
One brother said of these verses, “These verses bring out the glory of the new covenant and the true character of Christian liberty.” We see the glory of the new covenant, which is His life, and the true character of Christian liberty: a life laid down.
Tragically, today, so many misunderstand this. Sadly, throughout much contemporary teaching, the fallacy of being set free to do your own thing goes on and on. But it is a freedom to behold. It is freedom for Him to work in our lives.
That freedom allows us to come into the presence of the Lord and behold the glory of the Lord.
I love that it does not say, “We will behold,” or, “We did behold,” but it is beholding. It is in the present tense, and it is continuous. We are there, beholding Him—not in some quick little glance, but focusing and considering Him in a wonderful way.
The enemy is always trying to distract us, to get our eyes off just a little bit here and a little bit there.
My son and I drove up here, basically by Interstate 95 and other routes. Google Drive routed us around. Sometimes you are going places you have never gone before and have no idea where you are, but it gets you there.
It is interesting how those of you up here in the Northeast are used to driving in this traffic. Us guys who come up from the South think y’all are not very polite drivers up here. You do not let people come in. You just cut people off.
When we are driving up here, we find that you have to focus all the time. You have to be looking and watching all the time. One time I looked over at some beautiful scenery off Interstate 95—which is rare—and all of a sudden somebody cut right in at that moment.
Or that little beep goes off on your cell phone, and you know good and well you should not look at it. But you have such self-confidence in your ability that you can take your eyes off the road for just one second to check whether the Yankees are still winning.
We have such self-confidence, and we glance away. These things can be catastrophes before our eyes.
Sometimes we are not even distracted by bad things. Think of the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James, and John were there, and the Lord came forth on that mount. As He was transfigured, Peter got distracted by Moses and Elijah.
The Father had to say, “No, it is about My Son.” There is nothing wrong with admiring Moses, admiring Elijah, or admiring great men of God. But keep the main thing the main thing, as Brother Fromke used to say.
It is all about Him. That is what we are brought into.
I was really thinking about that Mount of Transfiguration. They went up to that mountain with no idea what was going to happen. They did not see the preview. Then they got up there, and all of a sudden He was transfigured in this glorious way.
The Scriptures speak of it as being such a bright light. I was thinking about the brightness that we are actually losing in this day and time. Nowadays, when you turn on one of these modern energy-efficient light bulbs, it is kind of dull, then it gets brighter and brighter.
But remember the old days? You had one of those good, inefficient bulbs. It ate up all the energy, but boy, you flipped that light on—bam! That light came on, and you were blinded by it.
That is what was happening at the Mount of Transfiguration. When those men were up there with our Lord, it was not just a little light coming forth, then a little more light. No, bam! He burst forth in glory.
They could not describe it. One of the Gospels says it was whiter than any launderer could make garments. It was whiter than any garment they could produce. There was a bursting forth of a life, and it stunned them.
That is the glory of God. That is what He wants us to see. We may not have that exact experience, but there is a coming forth of His life.
The words transfigure and transform are the same Greek word. The issue is that they were beholding Him, and then this burst of life came forth in a glorious way. They were stunned. They were terrified.
But it impacted their lives. You see John writing about it later. You see Peter speaking of it later in his epistles. It burned within their spirits, and it captured them.
When we see the glory of the Lord, when that life is manifested, it is indelible. I am not an English guy, but you are marked for life. It is there, and you never forget.
We sing so many songs casually about glory. Brothers and sisters, we are here this weekend. May the Lord, in a fresh way, speak to our hearts about this, that we would truly know Christ as our glory.
I was thinking about the Book of Acts. There was a dear young man named Stephen. He was before the Sanhedrin because he had been proclaiming the gospel and doing great and wonderful works. He was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin.
When the Sanhedrin looked at him, what was the testimony concerning Stephen at the end of Acts 6?
As they fixed their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.
There was a face there belonging to someone of another kingdom. They had not seen that before.
We know how Stephen, in his wonderful way, shared that marvelous history of God’s work and purpose. It angered them so much because it struck at their tradition that they stoned him to death.
At the very end, as Stephen was being stoned to death, his testimony was this:
But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
This was in the midst of being stoned. He gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
What held him? It was not Stephen’s own ability to withstand martyrdom. The glory of God held him. The life of Christ held him through that.
As he was stoned, you see the very same heart and attitude—the life of Christ—coming forth from Stephen when he prayed, “Do not hold this sin against them.” Just like our Lord when He was on the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them.”
We see the Spirit of Christ coming forth in Stephen. This is one who was beholding the Lord and allowing the Lord’s life to come in and through him. This is God’s desire for each and every one of us.
Brothers and sisters, as we go through this life, there are so many things that can occupy us—persons, events, careers, and religious things that are important to us. But there is Someone else who wants to become more valuable to us.
Our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to have a new value system—our whole system changed, our whole perspective changed, our desires and goals changed.
As I said, He has been there all along. His life has been there all along. But He wants us in a new way to see Him and experience Him in a way we never have before.
One of my favorite verses in the Psalms is, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” I love the part, “Taste and see.” I like tasting things.
This is a simple illustration and does not compare at all with the glory of which we are speaking, but as you taste and see the Lord, you begin to experience Him in ways you never have before.
In Brazil, they have this wonderful food called cheese bread, pão de queijo. If you go down to Brazil for the first time, nobody tells you about it. You look at these things, and they are just little balls of cooked dough. They do not look like much.
Some food jumps right out at you when you walk into a shop. You say, “I have got to have that one.” But these are just little balls of cooked dough. If you do not know anything, you do not eat them.
But then somebody encourages you to taste and see. They share with you the good news about pão de queijo. They tell you about this cheese bread, and you try it. They are great.
All of a sudden, your whole perspective changes. You have a completely different perspective on cheese bread, and you cannot stop eating it.
When we fly to Brazil, after we get off the plane in São Paulo and go through customs and immigration, what is the first thing we do? We go to the little café and get one coffee and two cheese breads. That is where we are. You cannot get enough of them.
That is the way the Holy Spirit works within us as we simply behold Him. He says, “Taste and see that He is good.” You taste an aspect of Him, and you see that He is good. Then you cannot get enough of Him. You want more and more.
It starts changing and transforming us. It changes our perspective. The more we see of Him, it begins to change the things in our lives that were so important to us.
All of a sudden, we had this career path—this glorious career path set before us. But then we have seen an aspect of Christ, and we see Him calling us. That career path which was so wonderful begins to lose some of its luster.
Maybe I do not need to devote all eighty hours a week to that. We begin to have a changed perspective.
Maybe it is in our education. We are set on a great education, which is wonderful. But as we see the Lord, maybe we realize that we do not need to go all that way, or this way, or that way.
We start seeing the things—the sports, the entertainment, and the ways we occupy our time—that were so important to us. They start to lose their luster.
You know that little hymn which says, “The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”? That is what is happening. The more we see of Him and behold His glory, these other things start to lose their luster.
The things we were driven toward in the past no longer have that attraction. We find ourselves spending more time with Him.
We also notice there is a desire within our hearts to be with brothers and sisters more. We begin to see, “Wow, I need to go to the prayer meeting.” We have this desire to go to the prayer meeting, the Bible study, the Lord’s table, and whatever else is taking place. We want to help brothers and sisters in need.
Our perspective changes because we are captured by Him. That glory is His work of changing us from glory to glory into the image He is working within us.
As Paul speaks of this phrase, “from glory to glory,” it speaks of the progressive nature of the Christian life—really going from one degree of the Lord to another degree, seeing more and more of Him.
As we go through different experiences with our Lord, His life has always been there. But sometimes we go through an experience—maybe physical, traumatic, or the death of someone in the family. You can lose your job. The list is endless.
As we go through that and the Lord brings us through it, we have a whole different perspective of Him. After we have been through something like that, at times we ask ourselves, “Did I even know Him before? Was I even saved before?”
Yes, you were saved before. But the light is now so much brighter that what we had before has grown. There is a new experience. We are seeing more and more of the vastness, the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth of His love that has captured us.
This is what He is after. As we behold His glory, He is doing this wonderful transformation. His image, His very character, and His life are now living in us. He is increasing, and we are decreasing.
As we look at this verse in 2 Corinthians, it is good to remember that 2 Corinthians speaks of spiritual life, while 1 Corinthians generally speaks of carnal life. Paul is addressing those who are on this pathway of spiritual life.
Throughout Paul’s writings, there are two tools that the Holy Spirit uses to do this marvelous work of transformation, this marvelous work of allowing us to see more and more of Him. They are two of our favorite words: the cross and suffering.
Oh, glorious words. Everybody knew they would come out sooner or later this weekend.
Look at the chapter that follows, 2 Corinthians 4. We see both of these things. We see how the cross is working. Consider 2 Corinthians 4:11-12:
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So death works in us, but life in you.
That is it. There is a death that works in us, but through the cross there is a life that comes out. Praise God for that.
Then later in the chapter, beginning in verse 16 and particularly verse 17, we see the matter of sufferings. I will admit that when you are going through suffering, it does not seem this way.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen;
for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Brothers and sisters, the sufferings of this life that we are going through are working within us that eternal weight of glory. There is a greatness occurring as we go through these things and allow the cross daily to work within us. He must increase, and we must decrease. More of His life is formed within us.
As the Lord uses these tools of the cross and suffering, one of the environments in which this is worked out the most—though it is an individual work—is in the body of Christ, in the house of God.
In the house of God, as brothers and sisters are built together, you see this great transforming work, where people are changed from glory to glory.
I thank the Lord that as we have been gathering here these many years, by faith we can say that most of us are not the same as we were many years ago. We may not be where we should be, but thank the Lord for the work He has done.
That work is done within the body of Christ. Those dear brothers and sisters who cause you the biggest headaches—Brother Spurgeon used to call them his treasure—are working the glory of Christ in us. May we come to appreciate our brothers and sisters. He has put us in these places.
We sang that hymn at the beginning, There Is a Man in the Glory. I do not know whether you noticed, but in the very last phrase of each chorus there is progression.
The first one says, “There’s a Man in the glory; His life in the glory, my life must be.” That is when we are first captured by the Lord. “My life—it must be like that.” There is that desire.
Then it goes on. The third verse says, “His life in the glory, my life may be.” There is hope there. Not only must it be, but now, as I am moving along, it may be. There is a living hope.
Praise God, it concludes: “His life in the glory lives out in me.” That is the reality. That is what He is after. That is what He is jealous for in these days: His life in the glory lived out in me.
I want to touch a little bit on a dear brother whose life the Lord was able to capture. We see much of the Lord’s life lived out through this brother. His name was Robert Chapman.
He was in the early Brethren movement. He lived to ninety-nine years old, just short of one hundred. We see the Lord’s life in him. He was a faithful servant of the Lord.
If you ever have the opportunity to read a book about Robert Chapman, I would encourage it. Robert Chapman was known as the Apostle of Love. He was captured in such a way by the love of Christ that it governed his life.
There is a famous story about a person from Australia who did not know his address. This was back in the 1800s, and he mailed a letter addressed simply:
Robert Chapman
Apostle of Love
United Kingdom
He sent it through the mail, and his reputation was so strong that, in those old days, the letter got to him. Would that we had a reputation like that.
Let me share a couple of quotes about him, because I very much appreciate his own perspective. A brother asked him, “What is your desire? What is your desire in life?”
He was a famous preacher, although some told him that he could never preach and that he was not a very good preacher. Some even told him to give it up. He was never one of the more eloquent men, but what he had was life, and he shared life.
There were others who could speak in a more grandiose way than he could, but what he shared was reality. He had Christ, and he shared Christ.
His answer was:
There are many who preach Christ. I want to live Christ.
Many can preach Christ. I want to live Christ. That was his desire.
He also said:
We do not glorify God so much by what we do as by who we are.
We do not glorify God as much by what we do as by who we are.
Sometimes it is good to hear what other people say about you, maybe even somebody who does not agree with you. There was another famous brother named J. N. Darby.
Tragically, in the Brethren movement there were splits and different sides. Chapman and Darby ended up on different sides on various occasions.
At times, followers of Darby would make disparaging comments about Chapman, and Darby would always stop them. He had great respect for Chapman, even though he disagreed with him.
Darby said:
We talk about the heavenlies. Robert Chapman lives in them. He lives what I preach.
We talk about the heavenlies; Chapman lived there. He lived what Darby preached. That is a powerful testimony.
That is what we are talking about when we speak of not just knowing the words, vocabulary, and teachings. It is a life lived out.
I wanted to share some things about Chapman. Once you start looking at his life and trying to select a few things, you end up leaving out a lot more than you mention.
Chapman was raised in a very wealthy family in England. He was well educated and a very successful lawyer. You see, there can be good lawyers who follow the Lord, in spite of what most people think.
He gave that up and moved to a little town called Barnstaple. A group of Particular Baptists invited him to come and be their pastor. He agreed to come, although he did not agree with all the Particular Baptist doctrines and teachings.
He came under one condition. He said, “I will agree to come if you grant me the freedom to preach the Scriptures as I see them.” They granted him that freedom.
Now, let me back up a second. For us sitting here in 2019, the thought of somebody becoming a Particular Baptist pastor may sound strange. But we should not judge history based on modern-day circumstances.
This was back in the 1830s, before much of the Brethren movement and before many so-called non-denominational free assemblies like ours. This was the very beginning of that time. So do not write Chapman off just because he became a Particular Baptist pastor then.
When he went there, he loved the Word of God. He would sit around for hours and just read the Word of God. There were two things he loved: the Word of God and walking every day.
He would walk all around the town, sharing the Lord, while loving and studying the Word of God.
He knew there were differences within the assembly to which he came—various beliefs and practices. But he was struck by the Scripture about being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
He saw that there was a unity of the Spirit there, and he wanted to preserve that.
This group held one particular belief: only those who were saved and baptized could take communion and be members in the church. Chapman did not agree with that.
But as he was among them, he simply shared Christ and taught the Scriptures. He did not come in immediately saying, “You need to change this, and you need to change that.” He was very patient.
Over a period of years, he continued to preach Christ and the Word of God. More and more, their hearts were changed.
He had to endure misunderstanding from brothers who did not meet with him. They would ask, “Why are you meeting with people who do not believe this or believe that?” He would say, “Our fellowship is in life.”
“I have light here, and they have different beliefs. But our fellowship is not in our beliefs; it is in life. It is the life of Christ that we share together, and we are maintaining this unity.”
As he continued to share, praise God, more and more came around. After a period of time, without pushing, coercing, or having an agenda other than to bring Christ in, there was unity and change.
People began to accept the thought that the Lord’s Table is open to all believers. Yet there were still some in the group who held to the old Particular Baptist beliefs.
Tragically, even in spite of Chapman’s best efforts, a small group left. The others maintained their fellowship, kept going on, and the Lord blessed. There was great growth and a real oneness of unity there.
After a few years, the little group that left needed another meeting place. They remembered that the place where Chapman and the others were meeting had started as a Particular Baptist assembly.
They came back and challenged Chapman, saying, “You are no longer following the Particular Baptist order. You have violated the covenant of this meeting place. Therefore, you have no right to meet here. Only those who follow the Particular Baptist covenant have a right to meet in this place.”
Chapman was a lawyer, so he looked at all the documents. There was nothing in them supporting the claim these people made. Before men, before the legal system, and before the world, he was right. He and the assembly had a right to stand up.
But he remembered what the Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount: when someone comes to you and wants your shirt, let him have your coat also.
So even though they had the legal right on earth to keep that building, they said, “Okay, you want it; you can have it.” They walked away. They gave it up.
It was a powerful testimony. The other group came in and took the place over, and Chapman’s assembly began meeting elsewhere.
Soon after that, a year or so later, a piece of land came up for sale. They put in a bid and made a deposit on the land.
Then the Anglican rector came to Chapman and said, “We have always wanted to buy this land. We were planning to do it, but you got your offer in first.”
Chapman said, “Wait a minute. Let us pray about it.” He went back to the assembly, and they prayed.
They said, “Even though we have the legal right to this land, even though we have the contract, we relinquish it. We will let you have it.” They gave it up.
The verse that came to them was Philippians 4:
Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
They cherished the unity of the Spirit among all believers far more than fighting one another over a piece of property or land.
It is interesting to note that the Anglican church which grew there in Barnstaple for many years had a unique evangelical ministry—one of the most powerful gospel ministries in that area.
Many think it was because the seed of Chapman and those brothers fell into the ground and died that the Lord was able to use those other brethren for the gospel’s sake.
He did not hold on to his rights for his own sake; he freely gave them up. Sometimes we can be right on this earth, but we have to see beyond.
Think of our Lord—the One most misunderstood, falsely accused, and wronged, the One who had the greatest rights in one way. Yet He gave them all up. He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He let it go.
That is the glory of God. That is where you see Christ in someone like Chapman.
There is another story in Chapman’s life. As I said, he loved to walk around the town, sharing the gospel with everybody. He had a great relationship with most of the believers in town. There were not these huge denominational walls between them.
He was focused on Christ, and Christ breaks down all those barriers as we focus on Him. That is the oneness we have.
Many people loved and respected Chapman. But it does not matter how godly you are; there will always be people who hate you. The flesh is always against the Spirit.
There was a merchant in town who despised Chapman. Whenever he had a chance to speak badly about Chapman, he put him down. He would always badmouth him, give him a hard time, and go on and on. He was a thorn in the flesh for Chapman.
One time, one of Chapman’s relatives, who was fairly wealthy, came and stayed with him. Chapman lived in a simple part of town, and the house he built was open as a guest house.
Anybody could come and stay whenever they wanted. There was no fee charged. If people wanted to leave gifts, they could handle that privately. But it was open, particularly to servants of the Lord who needed to come and rest.
One question he never asked anybody was, “When are you leaving?” How many people come and stay at our house, and we say, “It is great to have you here. When are you leaving?” But he never asked. You were welcome to stay as long as you liked.
He never made his needs known. At times, people were staying with him, and he would look in the cupboard and see it was bare. He did not know how he was going to provide dinner for them. It was a lot like the George Müller stories: they would pray, and God would provide.
This relative came and noticed that Chapman’s cupboards were bare. There were not many supplies. He said, “I would really like to help you. I would like to buy some groceries and supplies for you. Is there a store in town you would recommend?”
Chapman told him which store to go to. You can imagine which one it was: it was the merchant who hated Chapman.
The wealthy man walked in with a long list. “I want forty-two of this, and this, and this.” That merchant’s eyes were popping out. This was the sale of the year. He thought, “I will not have to work the rest of this year.”
The man was buying all this food and supplies, and the merchant had a huge smile on his face. He was so happy.
At the end, the merchant asked, “Where can I send these?” Chapman’s relative gave him the address. The merchant looked at it and said, “Oh no, this must be wrong. It cannot be this address, because Robert Chapman lives there.”
The man said, “No, he is my relative, and he sent me here.” The merchant asked, “He sent you here?” The man said, “Yes, he specifically told me to come to this store to buy everything and have it delivered to his house.”
When the merchant saw that, he broke down. The kindness of God leads to repentance. The love of Christ captured him, and he was captured for the rest of his life.
Chapman would always encourage people to bless those who curse them and pray for those who mistreat them, because it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance.
Brothers and sisters, in the days we are living in, we do not see a lot of kindness. Do we see the kindness of Christ truly coming forth, even from believers? That is the testimony of His life.
This was what transformed that little town of Barnstaple. Before, it had hardly any Christian heritage. After Chapman left, it was a vibrant testimony there, through one who allowed the life of Christ to be lived out through him.
We share that as we are here this weekend because we have an opportunity to consider Christ in a fresh way. We may not do all the deeds that Chapman did, but the beauty of Christ captured him.
There was a point in time when Chapman had the whole world before him—his law career, his wealthy family, and all of that. But he was captured.
By beholding the Lord, he was transformed from glory to glory. More and more of Christ was seen and lived out through him.
When you stayed at Chapman’s house, one of his customs was that you had to put your shoes outside the door. In those days, there were muddy streets, and he would clean everybody’s shoes.
He said, “In this day and time, we do not wash people’s feet, so I clean their shoes.”
That was the testimony of a life laid down. He never considered himself higher than others. He was a servant of all.
That is the life of Christ. That is what we are after, brothers and sisters.
When we speak of Christ as our glory, we are not talking about some high, ethereal thing. We are talking about the life of Christ being lived out among us as His people in the days in which we are living—to be the testimony He has called us to be.
It is that life which satisfies the Father’s heart. May that life be lived out in us.
As we are here this weekend, may we really take the time and give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to show us the areas in our lives to which we are still clinging. Maybe we have not allowed the light of His life to shine there.
May we allow that. May we give the Spirit freedom.
In the times of fellowship that we have, may we really encourage one another. In meal times, fellowship groups, with roommates, and through the sharing of life, may life come forth.
Even this weekend, may we know a little more of moving from glory to glory—moving forward, always progressing.
We are thankful for the glory of the Lord that we have seen, but we want to see more. There is a little more that we want to see. We want to be those who continue to move from glory to glory, allowing Him to capture us and draw us unto Himself.
Let us pray.
Lord, we do thank Thee for Thy great love. We are thankful for this so great a salvation that we see at Calvary. We are thankful, Lord, for the privilege that we have of being able to behold Thee.
When we think of Whom we are beholding, we are beholding the King of kings, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God, the Sovereign One, the Lord Almighty. We can go on and on with all Thy titles, on and on trying to describe Thee.
But Lord, we want to be those who have our eyes in the right way, beholding Thee and allowing these other things to pass away. Lord, we recognize these perilous days.
We count ourselves so privileged to be able to be here, to hear Thy Word, and to allow Thee to work in us. Lord, we pray for our other brothers who are sharing this weekend. We pray that Thou wouldst strengthen, anoint, and enable them to share words of life.
May there be words of life among the young people and in the children’s classes. Lord, minister life in so many ways.
May there truly be this weekend a beholding of Thee, a beholding of Thy glory in a fresh way.
In Thy name we pray. Amen.