In this sermon, the preacher focuses on four key points from the passage of scripture in 2 Corinthians 3:18. The first point is that as believers, we have the privilege of beholding the glory of the Lord. This is not a burden or a set of rules, but a wonderful gift from God. The second point is that the purpose of this ministry is to bring about transformation in our lives, as we are changed into the image of Christ by the Spirit of the Lord. The third point highlights the fundamental difference between a saved sinner and a lost sinner, which is the ability to see and recognize the glory of God. Lastly, the preacher emphasizes the importance of keeping our focus on the glory of the Lord, as it is through continually beholding His glory that we are transformed and become more like Him.

I've never looked down on people that weren't born in Alabama. You just couldn't help it. I was. And that's something that I'm proud of. But I don't look down on you people. You just didn't have that privilege. Neither do I look down on people who were not born in August. August, everybody I know now is a hill of beans. Either was born in Alabama or was born in August. The pastor's wife was born in August, and the pastor suffers from that mule that kicks him on the head when he's three years old. We have had a delightful time. I tried to have 2 Corinthians, that's chapter 3. I want to begin reading tonight with the 18th verse of the 3rd chapter and read down through the 7th verse that we have to face as given in these 8 verses. The last verse of the 3rd chapter reads like this. I've never looked down on people that weren't born in Alabama. You just couldn't help it. I was. And that's something that I'm proud of. But I don't look down on you people. You just didn't have that privilege. Neither do I look down on people who were not born in August. August, everybody I know now is a hill of beans. He was born in Alabama or was born in August. The pastor's wife was born in August, and the pastor suffers from that mule that kicks him on the head when he's three years old. We have had a delightful time. I've tried to help him. He's awful stubborn. He's stubborn as a mule. It's been good to be here. Now let me open God's word to 2 Corinthians 3. I want to begin reading tonight with the 18th verse of the 3rd chapter and read down through the 7th verse of the 4th chapter. And tonight I'm not going to try to expound that whole passage of scripture, but I do wish to pick out four things that we learn or that we have to face as given in these eight verses. The last verse of the 3rd chapter reads like this, But we all with open faith beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord. Something happens to us as we spend our time beholding the glory of the Lord. We are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore seeing we have this ministry not as a burden laid upon us, not as some rules we have to observe, but as a wonderful, wonderful boon from a God of all mercy. He has given us a ministry. It is interesting to note that in the book of Ephesians we are told of the fivefold ministry, the gifts of the ascended Lord, and therefore the purpose of making good deacons, for the word translated perfect in the saints, for the work of the ministry. That word ministry is our connection. We are all to be good servants, good ministers, good deacons, all the members of God's church. And seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, what a blessed privilege it has been in my life that the Lord interfered and I was being trained to become a lawyer, and the Lord interfered and made me a Christian and helped me to share by folding my little end of the blanket entering into this ministry. Wasn't he nice to me, to be so sweet to me, to change from being some fool lawyer, probably make a million dollars a year, and graduate me to wear as one of his children and had a part with all of God's children in this blessed ministry. Of course the ministry is about the glory of the Lord as compared to the glory under the law. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, and we have it, oh are you glad of it, I get along, folks, measuring up to the job the Lord has given us to do. Seeing therefore we have this ministry as we have received mercy, and I like Mr. Moffat's translation of the next three words, King James we faint not, Mr. Moffat said we never lose hope, never lose hope, never lose hope, we never lose hope. I don't think it's pessimism to see facts, I think it's silliness to make out like everything's all right. But there's a difference between trying to face facts and pride to God to show us the way and lead us and give us the key and pour out his spirit upon us and break our hearts. There's a difference between doing that and just throwing up your hands and quitting. And the child of God, if this ministry of the Lord has given you and me to share together and you're two-two into the blanket and I'm two-nine and together we get paralyzed people into the presence of the son of the living God who alone can fix us up, if that's a challenge to you, it's so wonderful that results are no results, we never lose hope, we never lose hope. But we have, facing the fact that the ministry we are in is God-given and a gift of his mercy, we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty and not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God to people. Isn't that a tremendous statement? Surely none of us as God's people were deliberately going about trying to handle the word of God deceitfully. We'd want to do our dead level best to handle it rightfully, but instead of being dishonest and walking in craftiness and trying to handle the word of God deceitfully, on the other hand we are handling it by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this age hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, and I'm not quoting that as it is in the King James, because you lose the blessing of it. It's the gospel, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, should shine, whose image of God should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, thou shalt your bonds please for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We've been praying, Lord, if it could please you, do what this verse says, do something in this community. The people couldn't brag about it and say, we did it. Couldn't lay it on the pastors, the evangelists, or the church. Nobody would get the glory if he'd say, God did that. God did that, that'd be a revival, but we shut up to that. He's not seen fit to answer that. I'm going to keep on praying the next place I go. I hope you'll keep on praying. Oh, let's never quit until he does, until he does, until he does. Let me briefly just pick out of this glorious passage of Scripture four blessed truths that I seem to have laid on my heart since coming to the building. I came with one message and the Lord took it away. I hope that the devil didn't shoot me a curve. It's difficult to know what to preach. I've got hundreds and hundreds of sermons. I've got some that are crackerjacks, you know, and they ain't worth a dime unless they're the message for the hour, you know. But tonight I just want to talk actually a little while on four high spots in these eight verses. First, the 18th verse of the third chapter introduces us to one aspect of what a Christian is. It says in that verse of Scripture that a Christian is a solid fellow that spends his time, at least in his subconscious, which is so much more real than our conscious. He spends his time, whether he's washing dishes or drawing plans for the government or preaching the sermon or buying groceries or this and the neighbor or doing personal work, down deep in his heart, he's looking. He's looking at somebody. He's looking as in a glass. He's looking at the glory of the Lord. And as he spends his time, for this is the occupation of a child of God, it is so deep that people are not always conscious of it, but it goes awfully deep. What is a Christian? He's a man or woman, boy or girl, that spends his time in this wilderness, journeying on the way to the celestial land with his eyes on the glory of the Lord. And as he does it, something's happening to him. He's being changed into the same image as that one he spends his time looking at, from glory to glory. A Christian's somebody who has to always be a first time, and gain a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not with these eyes, but with eyes that see so much better than these. We're told, for instance, in the gospel of John, he that seeth, or one that seeth the Son. It's a kind of a sight. After all, salvation begins not by what you do, but by what you look at. Looking real is still the testimony of the word of God. As Moses lifted up the serpent on the wilderness and told the people, look, I'm lifting up my Son on a cross. You look! There's life in a look! And it goes deeper than anything these eyes can see. Salvation comes to a crisis when we're confronted face to face with the person of Christ and the truth of him. The sea is low. Salvation continues by continuing to look at him. And as you look at him, you're being changed into his image from glory to glory. That's what being Christian is. And then salvation comes in the process. We're going through it now. We're being saved how? By being daily changed to look more like him. And one day it will come to a fulfillment in Christ. And the Scriptures say, Behold what manner of love the Father bestowed upon us, which is the call that comes. But it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, watch it, we shall be like him. Why shall we be like him when he appears? For we shall see him as he is. Right now with open faith we're looking, but we have to have a magnifying glass. Our eyes don't see so good. See? But one day with undimmed view, we shall see him, not through a glass, but see him as he is. And since we got saved to start with by seeing him, and since we stay saved to continue by looking to him, and since we're going to be plumb saved by seeing him as he is, praise God. We're going to be plumb saved when we're seeing him with undimmed view. We shall be like every man that has this hope of one day being made like the Lord Jesus Christ in all its completeness. For that man sits on his hands and rolls up his sleeves and purifies himself. And this architect's plan, the master plan that he uses for instruction and the goal he's working towards, he purifies himself even as he is pure. That's the story of a Christian. How's it stop? You see the sun. How's it continue? You behold his glory. How does it plumb it? You see him with undimmed view. In fact, look. You shall be like him, having seen him as he is. No wonder the Lord said, My yoke sees in my burdened flesh. I'll see nothing but terrible about getting a glimpse by faith of the Lord's glory. That's salvation. Walking the days of our pilgrimage journey. It's all of everything else with our eyes on the glory of the Lord. Bless God that don't flicker out and burn out some hell of hot water. Walking towards the time when with undimmed view we shall see him. That transforming look will delight him. And that's salvation. That's salvation. It's the second truth that I wanted to wound our hearts afresh as we face the facts again. In verse 3 and verse 4, that a terrible tragedy has happened to mankind. What's the biggest thing wrong with men and women? What is the biggest obstacle in the way of trying to get men to the Lord Jesus Christ? I've always loved history. My pleasure last summer, some friends took me 30 miles from where I was preaching, and we went for the third time in my experience to the battlefield at Gettysburg. I've always been interested in the Civil War, the most bloody war in human history. Most destructive. And I looked at the battlefield map. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. And I spent a couple of hours, and I'm just in hog heaven when I'm in something like that. And I fought the Battle of Gettysburg again. And I went to that hill where Pickett made his charge and where they died like fleas. And where the Southern Army was almost wrecked and the war was won, where the general, he directed that a certain hill, the center, be taken. And if it had been taken, the South would have whipped the Yankees, but they lost and went back to Caesar. And I studied the battle plan. It's like playing a game of checkers or a game of chess. And there was a center, there was a strategic point, and whoever won or captured or retained that point won the battle. That's how battles are fought. And I'm interested in the place where Satan has got his guns all centered. And I'm going down the country saying that we must not be like the man, I think I've said this before, but be like the man who came rushing out of his house and jumped on his horse and ran off in every direction. And I keep trying to bring my mind back and my mind back. I'm a speculist, not a pastor. I can't bring the whole Bible in a week. I don't try to, but I do try to come and I say over and over again from one place or another, Oh, Church of the Living God, let's start a-touchin' the devil at his strongest point where he's entrenched and where he's got this woe wrapped in the hollow of his hand and where we must face the fact that as long as we ignore it and think that we're working with a matter of getting men and women to believe some nice little things would not be good, but what we're actually facing is we're trying to preach the gospel that just as John came to talk to the glory of a person, to a bunch of people who are blind as a bat and can't see the glory, and the reason they're blind is a back to the glory of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because it's had an operation performed on them. Satan has blinded their mind and he's done it for one reason, not so they can't live fairly good moral lives, not so a thousand things, but just one thing, so lest he blinded their mind. If our gospel be heard, and it is heard, to them that are lost, he said, I won't tell you why it is heard, they are the folks in whom the God of this age has performed an operation on their minds, and that's not simply here, that's the whole man, the thing that makes men tick, and he's performed that kind of operation just to perform one service. He wants to fix it and keep it so men and women cannot see the light of the glory of the gospel. He just keeps people from seeing the glory in the gospel, the glory of Christ. I do not know how to enter in, but I know that I'm right now, that we'll never, never, never begin to measure up to the day we're living now until we learn how to make an assault on faith. He's got this world in his hands, and I believe with all of my heart, that in order to see a man saved, the power of the devil in his life must be broken. He's blinded, he can't see, the gospel doesn't mean a thing on God's earth. No, of course he's blind. Of course he's blind. I wait just a minute. He's blinded them, not so they couldn't understand the facts of the gospel. Two and two makes four. Many lost people can argue what's called a plan of salvation, whatever that is, as plainly as you can. And he hadn't blinded folks so they won't believe in the virgin birth of Christ. Hell's only full of people believing the virgin birth of Christ. I never could get much interested in that, because if Jesus Christ is sitting on the throne now, I'd have to take care of the rest of it, you know. And so no use to worry much. But you know, he's just blinded people, not so they wouldn't believe the gospel. Everybody in this town is a great believer in the gospel, because they interpret it. Everybody. They tell you so. Think I'm a heathen white preacher, I believe the Bible. But he's blinded them so that one thing they can't see, so they cannot experience the light of the glory of Christ, as the gospel comes their way. If he can just keep it to two and two makes four, and men never see the glory of Christ, of course he's got them. They're bound. They're bound. We wrestle not with flesh and blood. We wrestle with a generation that's blinded, so they cannot see the glory of the gospel. If you're a child of God, that's the most wonderful thing. He punishes the gospel. Usually I can't see behind them, but I'd be so dumb and blind that they wouldn't just say, I'll lose you if I hadn't heard it. I'd be blind. I'd see a bit of glory. A bit of glory. There's a third truth that I was sworn to mention tonight, and that is, according to this passage of Scripture, salvation takes place in a man's experience, but God works in a mirror. I come back to this over and over again. Salvation is the experience of men and women who've been blessed by God working a miracle in them and for them. One day there was a fellow named Saul of Tarsus. He was 100% devoted. He was all out. Man, he was more zealous than anybody around. He just made 110. He was the head of the pack. He was more zealous than anybody around. He said, I'll tell you what's that. I'm going to rid the face of the earth of these blasphemers going around here claiming that that fellow Jesus is still alive. I'm going to fix him. I'm just not going to put up with it, I'll tell you right now, that's blasphemy. And old Paul thought it was. Paul thought it was. And he got some letters empowering him to go. And you look at the map. It was quite a distance then when they didn't have the jet airplanes. It was a little ways from Jerusalem down up to Damascus. And he set out to a town called Damascus to lay hold and rest and bring to death for some of them and prisoner for others some people going right over the country with that blasphemous lying thing about that fellow Jesus being raised from the dead. And he's going down the main freeway toward Damascus and the cars are whizzing by and he's got noontime and a lifetime. And he said it was above the brightness of the noonday sun and these visible eyes were strict and blind but some other eyes were open and it wasn't long before he he started out on that road believing that Jesus Christ was the illegitimate son of a bad woman it wasn't long before by the hearing of the air and the seeing of his spiritual eyes he found out that Jesus was the Lord of Glory and the Savior of sinners. And he fell at his feet a broken man and from then on out just one thing made him sick Lord what wilt thou have me to do? What happened to him? He fell to the mercy of God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness with thy son the creation born and the life shined out of darkness for God the Savior who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath sent him out to give the glory of the glory of God there in the face of Jesus that's how people get saved out of darkness now there's light how light was blind but now I see salvation still happens when God turns the light on and darkness goes away and women are given sight of the glory of God where? in the face where's the face? in the gospel of the Lord Jesus I was down in Texas in August I had the privilege of preaching five days, a couple of hundred young pastors that just met I preached the gospel of God's grace till the morning and I and after the service had come to close the dean of one of the big Baptist schools in Texas came up to me and said brother preacher would it be possible somehow or another in the old Southland to set up a conference and maybe let me set up into lots of them and have maybe just churches come together and sit there and get a Bible vocabulary once again if you followed me up and down America Mexico and Canada only I've never been out of the country my trip this next week will be the first time I've preached in the west of Mexico and Canada in this country and hear us people talk us people talk you'd never dream that it took a miracle to save a man you'd never dream the salvation of the Lord you'd never dream that God's always the giver man always the receiver it's the sight of earth how our language magnifies us never says much about the Lord but I tell you one thing brother salvation comes to man and God Almighty turns the light on for there's just one thing that'll drive darkness away in that light and all the power that can dispel the darkness that a man bears when his eyes are blind to the glory of the gospel oh once in that situation in the victory of the Almighty old Paul said something happened to me said the light was turned on the light was turned on let God be the glory let God be the glory as the last thing that I dwell on a minute implied in this passage of scripture the only difference or the fundamental difference the difference that brings all the other differences the one thing that separates the same sinner from a lost sinner both of them chances are believe the same thing both of them that's in America where we used to have a lot of gospel and where the influence of the gospel still reaches far and wide we have no trouble finding lost people that believe all the doctrines you believe in they believe in the virgin birth of Christ they believe in the body of the resurrection of Christ they believe the bible is the word of God they believe Jesus died on the cross they believe he was raised from the dead they believe he ascended on the right hand of God but they see no glory they see no glory there the one thing that separates the same person from a lost person is the same person looks yonder at that one hanging on a cross and he sees glory there and he can bathe his soul in that precious blood and sing what can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of Christ he can look yonder with eyes the same that him exalted on a throne and he sees glory there and he's glad he's there when the Lord Jesus was there in the days of his flesh the bible tells us of some people who were able to experience and write down their experience one of them wrote these words and the words became flesh and dwelt among us and we the hell tears flow as of the only begotten of the father full of grace he came he was in the world and the world in the heaven he lived and died and the world as such never knew him the world knew him not he came unto his own his own nation and his own his own household received him not but to his many as received him for them gave he the right to become children of God who were born not of some things but of God and in that atmosphere John says he was in the world where they didn't know him came to his own Jewish nation they didn't see him came to his own household but we did our time we beheld his glory we beheld his glory they said we know who he is we know who his brothers and sisters are we know where he is brought up we know nothing good can come out of Nazareth that's what they said but John said we beheld his glory that's what that's it in the long run that's it ladies and gentlemen if it's just a matter of believing some truth I don't know but it's a matter of seeing glory in the son of God brother ain't nothing can do away with that and that'll do to ride the river with I've seen hundreds and thousands of people made wonderful professions and played out and mighty decisions and played out and awful orthodoxies and played out but a man who can say my name is Jesus is Lord rain or hail or sleet or sun or hail or nothing can wipe out that that makes its impact on your soul if you see the Lord the difference between a saved person and a lost person not so much in what they believe to receive what they see when they see him for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts what for this is the sweetest verse in Zion that I think in all the world is done for to shine therefore to give the knowledge firsthand information brother of the glory of God in the faith of Jesus Amen let's stand together let's sing together down at the cross where my Savior died down where for cleansing from sin I cried there to my heart was the blood of Christ there to my heart was the blood of Christ glory to his name was and was not we might be permitted nothing but the blood of Christ was and was not all of it nothing but the blood of Christ hope that is the hope that makes me white as snow no other found by you nothing but the blood of has he dropped the light in your soul come on now did you just figure it out two and two made four did you let somebody tell you that you're the Christian have you seen the glory of the Lord I knew that's it there I know that nobody ever go down that Damascus road but God bless you heart that's the way God saves people he turns the light on amen and God does that to him be the glory glory to his name world without end praise the Lord I've been trying to walk with the Lord nearly forty years been you as often a lot of the next day there's just one thing that's there whether it's raining or whether it's sunshine glory that's the thing that keeps the soul going amen praise his holiness for our benediction with his bow let's sing I hear the Savior beside strength indeed it's more child of weakness watch and pray find in me one glory Jesus all to him I'll have left the crimson stain he was good was and I won't keep you longer than that God bless you don't get away without finding out there's somebody here you need to ask them about their soul I tell you what is the fact for four years I cursed God I swore I did not believe there was a God I dared him to do something about it and I'm telling you I'm so glad that God turned the light on in my soul I ain't fixing to get over it good night