Gospel Glory

, good morning. Good morning. Wonderful hearing from Juanita. I know you guys feel the same way.

If she needs a place to stay when she retires, she can come out to Riverside. We'll be more than happy to have her here at Cornerstone. But wonderful time of worshiping the Lord, and I don't know if you experienced this, but when When we start, worshiping the Lord, we're in one place and then 25 minutes later, we've been transported, to a different place and we're a little further in our journey, from brokenness to, to wholeness and that time of worship through song. It's so valuable for me and for my soul, and I know that many of you would say, the same as well.

for a time of study in the word this morning, we're gonna be looking at a number of passages of scripture and, we, today represents the last installment of a five-week series on our purpose, statement as a church. Our purpose is to help people. To journey from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there are 5 critical points in this journey from brokenness to wholeness, and we've been looking at each of those 5 points, and today we come to the 5th and the final point in the journey from brokenness to wholeness, and that is glory.

Gospel glory. We'll be looking at this, today. Let me start with this, as I've been studying, this topic this week, I have found all week long an incident from my past coming to mind because I think it illustrates well what it is that we're going to be talking about today. Donna and I, Donna is my wife.

We've been married, over 27 years, and, we began dating when we were in high school. I'm not suggesting that as a model for anyone to follow. we both have many regrets, but, it is what it is and it's a part of our story. We began dating when we were in high school.

And one of the first dates that I took her on proved to be a humbling experience for me. I didn't have a driver's license, at the time that I took her on this date, so she had to come and pick me up and, she had her license, I didn't have mine. And so that night, I took her, or rather, she took me, to the Red Lobster. because being the smooth operator that I was, I wanted to show her a good time at the Red Lobster.

The problem was that I had never been to the Red Lobster, before. I had never eaten there. I didn't know how expensive the restaurant was. And I went there literally with $8 in my pocket.

Thinking that that would be enough, but when we were seated at our table and given the, the menu, I began going through the menu and immediately knew that I was in deep trouble. I had no credit cards, I just had $8 cash with me. And my heart sank. I ended up, I thought initially, well, maybe I'll just get something real cheap and then Donna can get whatever she wants and, but I looked through the menu, there was nothing.

$8 was not enough for even just one of us to have, a meal. So I swallowed hard and I said to Donna, Donna, I have only $8 with me. There's no way we're gonna be able to eat here tonight. And I still remember the look on her face.

There was like no expression. there, I couldn't detect an ounce of anger nor sympathy, from her, and she said, it's OK, I'll pay for the meal. I offered to apply my $8 towards the meal and she's like, that's OK. I'll pay for the meal.

I could have played the man card and said, no, I'm the man and I'm paying for our dinner tonight, so let's get in your car and I want you to take me to McDonald's. So that I can pay for the whole meal tonight, but I swallowed my pride and let her pay for the meal that night. We had a wonderful meal together and then she drove me home and dropped me off at my parents' house. It clearly was not one of my more manly, evenings.

but that incident has come to my mind a number of times this week because, it illustrates A very important dynamic of the gospel that we're gonna be looking at today. In Romans chapter 3, verse 23, Paul makes a statement that is descriptive of all of us. He says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory. of God.

That's our fundamental problem, the loss of glory. And that word falls short, don't think that like you're striving for something and you fell short of it, you tripped and you fell. That's not the meaning of this. This word that is translated falls short, means to suffer the loss of, or to experience the lack of something.

It means to come up short and to lack something valuable that is needed. Paul uses this word in Philippians 4:12, to represent the opposite of abundance. So what Paul is saying is all of us have sinned, and we suffer the lack of the glory of God, we have come up short. And the reason for this is because of sin.

To get into heaven, we must be clothed with the glory of God. But we lost that glory because of sin. Only the glory of God can give us any purchase on our salvation. And yet we have lost that glory.

And so we stand before God in the same situation that I was in many years ago at the Red Lobster. We need the glory of God to be saved and to get into heaven. But because of our sin, we completely lack that glory that we need. But the gospel is all about restoring this glory to us that we are lacking.

Paul states this in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 14, when he says that God has called you, he says to the Thessalonians, God has called you through our gospel so that you may gain the glory. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Literally, this passage reads, he called you through our gospel into the gaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That preposition into denotes movement.

The purpose of the gospel is to move you into the experience of gaining the glory of Jesus Christ. And Adam, this glory was lost, because we have sinned, this glory has been lost. But in Christ through the gospel, we are ushered into the experience of glory and even greater glory than anything that Adam and Eve knew even before the fall. So this is why gospel glory.

Represents one of the critical points in the journey from brokenness to wholeness. In fact, it's the final point, it represents the destination. In fact, it actually serves as the definition of what we mean by wholeness. When we say that we want to help people to journey from brokenness to wholeness, what we're really saying is we want to help them to journey from the brokenness of sin to glory, to regaining the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that we lost as a result of our sin as a race.

So here's what I want to do with the time that we have this morning. The sermon is going to be made up of two parts and you should have the notes in your bulletin. First of all, I want to take some extra time to look at what this glory is, to define it and to explain it. We'll take the first half of the sermon to do that, and then in the second half of the message, we'll Just look at 4 ways that gospel glory figured so prominently and helpfully and transformatively into the apostle Paul's thinking, OK?

So look at your notes, that you have in your bulletin and you should be able to track with us, this morning. In the past, I've just read a definition of each of these points in the journey. but today we're gonna, look at the definition and spend time trying to understand it. So first of all, what gospel glory is.

We want to understand this so that we understand what we mean as we speak of this point of the journey. There are 3 ways of defining Gospel glory. First of all, letter A, it is the ongoing transformation of our character into the likeness of Jesus Christ. So whatever definition we give for what glorification is, It needs to be inclusive of this idea of our ongoing transformation.

In the present time of our character into the likeness of Christ. Paul speaks of this in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, when he says, 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, the word that is translated, transformed is the Greek word we get our English word metamorphosis from. This is not merely behavior modification.

But it is a deep seated and a radical change in our actual character that ends up impacting our behavior. It is a transformation from one thing into something altogether different, like a caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly. And Paul is saying, this is happening to me now. But look at how it was happening.

He doesn't just say we are undergoing this transformation. He says, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are experiencing this transformation. What's interesting about this transformation is that apparently, It is routed through the eyes. Through the eyes of one's heart.

What one is gazing at serves as the catalyst for this transformation. As John Piper has often said, beholding is a way of becoming. Beholding is a way of becoming. And Paul is saying as we are beholding the glory of the Lord, we're undergoing a metamorphosis into the very image of what it is that we are beholding from day to day.

Apparently the sight of the beauty and the glory of Jesus Christ is so powerful that it changes those who stare at it. As we gaze upon his glory, Actual deposits of his very glory travel through the eyes of our heart and start attaching themselves to our persons and we are transformed by those deposits of glory that attach themselves to us. Let me just say this real quick, this, this helps us to understand what sanctification is. Classically defined, there are 3 categories that represent The timeline of our salvation.

There's justification, which is instantaneous at the moment of our conversion, and then classically defined, there's sanctification, which is our ongoing growth and holiness. And then the third category is glorification, which most people, and for good reason, associate with glory, like after we have died and we are in glory. But a more accurate way, of looking at these three aspects of our salvation is that actually there are, let's say it this way, only 2 categories. justification.

And then glorification. And sanctification is merely a subset, an early subset of our glorification. Sanctification is merely the early stages of our glorification. Every change in you, no matter how small, is an early ray of a coming dawn, in which you will be completely glorified and transformed to be like Jesus Christ.

Another way of saying it is that our future glorification is so great that it cannot be contained in the age to come. It seeps out from that future age into the present. And we, you and I who know the Lord and who are gazing at the glory of Jesus, are experiencing the beginnings of this glorification even now, and we call the beginnings of that glorification sanctification. So guys, don't wait for your glorification to begin.

Don't wait, we know according to First John chapter 3 that we're gonna be transformed to be like Christ in heaven and the catalyst that's going to cause that transformation to happen is that we will see Him as he is. But the good news of 2 Corinthians 3:18 is that we can start staring now at Jesus. That's what Paul was doing. And he gives testimony here saying as we are continuously beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are undergoing a transformation into the same image from glory to glory.

Imagine that. Christ is so beautiful. That simply gazing at him. Changes us.

There are a lot of beautiful things we look at in the world around us, but we stare at the beauty of a sunset, for example, and we don't become more sunset-like, do we? But Christ is so powerfully beautiful, that if we make it our ambition in life to simply stare at him. That beauty will change us. To become more and more like him.

CS Lewis says it well in his sermon, the weight of glory, he says, we do not want merely to see beauty, though God knows even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words, to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, and to become a part of it. And Paul is saying here, that's what's happening in my life, as we're beholding the glory of the Lord, we're becoming united with that glory, we're passing into it, we're receiving it into ourselves, we're bathing in it, and we're becoming a part of it, and it is changing us.

You primarily, guys, stare at Jesus through the mirror of his word.

So read your Bibles, behold your Lord and your Savior in God's word, admire him and meditate upon him, and let the beauty of his person capture your heart and transform you. And if you do that, you will experience the early stages of glorification, OK? normally it's not polite to stare, right? But Jesus doesn't mind.

He's never gonna say, what are you staring at? he would say, stare at me, look at me, all that you want. Drink in the beauty of my person and my love for you, and let it change you. There's a second aspect of the definition of gospel glory and And that is this, we can say it this way, that it entails loving relationship with God in the present and in greater fullness for all of eternity in heaven.

There's really, guys, no way of understanding gospel glory without understanding that it is actually a profoundly relational thing. The essence of gospel glory is relationship. It's fellowship, it is communion, it is union with God. And so whatever you think glorification is, like being changed or hey, I'm gonna glow when I'm in heaven.

Listen, whatever you think of glory being You need to make sure that a central aspect of your understanding of that glory is relationship with God. Let me show you this in John 17:5. Jesus is praying to the Father and he says, Now Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. Let me give you a paraphrase of what he is saying here.

He's saying to his father, glorify me, you, Father, in relationship with yourself, with the glory I had before the world was in relationship with you. Jesus is not merely asking for a restoration of an individual glory, but of a relational glory. I want to be in relationship, close to you, the way that I once was. Before the foundations of the earth were laid, that is the glory that Jesus wants of close proximity to His Father.

We see the relational aspect of Christ's glory indicated again in John 1:14. John says in the word, speaking of Christ became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory. What's the glory?

Glory as of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth. What is the glory that John is speaking about, that he beheld? Part of the glory is that Jesus was full of grace and truth, but first and foremost, John says that Christ's glory was his unique relationship with the Father. He came from the Father and stood in unique relation to the Father as his only begotten Son, and John is saying we could see that relationship on display all the time.

And that's what made Jesus so glorious to us. In 2 Peter 3, Peter is speaking about Christ on the mountain of transfiguration when his appearance changed. And it was an amazing experience for Peter and James and John and decades later, Peter is speaking about that very moment that is recorded in the Gospels. But look at how he describes this.

He says, when Christ received honor and glory from the Father, so he's saying in that moment on the mountain, Christ received glory from the Father. What was the essence of that glory? Such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved Son.

With whom I am well pleased. Notice what Peter is saying, Jesus received glory from the Father, and that glory came in the form of the Father's exclamation. This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Peter is not really talking here about the fact that Christ, physically, his appearance changed and he was glowing in this moment, even though we know that was true.

But Peter is riveted by the relationship. The glory of the relationship, and how that the Father spoke over Christ the way he did in that moment, that was the glory. Is it coincidental? That Jesus In his moment of greatest glowing.

The Father was right there speaking to him, expressing his love for him, celebrating the fact that he was his own son and expressing his pleasure in his Son. I don't think so. I think the glowing. And this relationship, and the celebration of the Father over him go hand in hand.

Think about it. If you came to Jesus and said, Jesus, what is your greatest glory? What is the most glorious thing about you? He wouldn't say, check this out, I'm glowing.

Aren't you impressed? No, that's not his greatest glory. He would say my greatest glory is my relationship with my father. My greatest glory is the affection that my Father has for me, and that he takes pleasure in me and that I stand in relationship to Him uniquely as his Son.

My greatest glory even now in my ascended state is that I am in the bosom of my Father in his embrace at his right hand. This is my greatest glory. Does that make sense? We need to understand that this glory has everything to do with relationship and this is so instructive for us.

If being in close loving relationship with God is a part of what gospel glory entails, then that explains everything we need to know about the gospel. God sent His Son into the world to die on the cross so that he would shed his blood. And purchase our salvation so that we could have the forgiveness of our sins and be made righteous before God. All of that gets the sin stuff, the sin problem out of the way, so that we can then be brought into relationship with God.

He saved us, not as an end in itself. But to render us fit to be brought into relationship with Himself, being his sons and daughters and loved by Him and accepted in His presence forever, this relationship is our greatest glory. It's our greatest glory. In Romans 5, Paul is celebrating this, he says, therefore, having been justified by faith, he didn't just stop there and say, I'm just celebrating the fact that I've been justified by faith.

No, as great as his justification is, it's merely a means to a greater end. A relational end, having been justified by faith, we have peace with or literally toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God has forgiven us, God has justified us. And now we have a relationship with God that is characterized by towardness.

John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was literally toward God. And guess what? You and I have had our sins forgiven. If we believed in Jesus, we've been made righteous so that we can be brought into God's presence.

And be toward him and have a relationship with him that is characterized by the same towardness, face to face relationship with God. We have a relationship with God, Paul says, that is characterized by peace, which is not just the absence of hostility, but it speaks of the luxurious presence of all that is needful for a rich and vital relationship with God. The privilege of intimacy. And relationship and fellowship with God is our greatest glory.

This truth both exalts our spirits, and it's a crushing weight that's almost impossible to bear. It shows us that sin is unbearably evil. As a believer, this is what has been hitting me this week. Whenever I walk away from God in any given moment and live apart from Him or make decisions apart from Him, or choose anyone or anything in the place of Him, I am walking away from my greatest glory.

That should be unthinkable to us. I'm walking away from the very glory that I was saved into. This relationship with God that you and I can enjoy as believers is a key element of the glory that the gospel ushers us into. Let us savor this and make it our greatest glory that we have this relationship with God.

There's a third aspect of the definition of gospel glory, and this is the one that more traditionally is thought of when we think about glorification. And that is this, that it speaks of the instantaneous transformation of our whole selves, including our bodies, into full conformity. To Christ, or, and we would say to the resurrected, Christ. In Romans 7, Paul is talking about how sin indwells his physicality seeking to hinder him at every turn.

And he longs to be free. From the presence of indwelling sin in his earthly body. And at the end of the chapter, he cries out saying, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He's like, man, this, there's sin and dwelling my physical body and I long to be free from this body in its present state, who will set me free? In 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about his own body and how it is decaying. That's in 2 Corinthians 4:16. and because of the presence of sin, and the presence of death and decay that is at work in our physicality, in Philippians 3:21, Paul refers to our bodies at the present time as the body of our humble state.

The body you have now. It's a lowly body. All right, I can walk up to any of you this morning and look at you and say, you have a lowly body. And you could say the same to me because of the presence of indwelling sin in our physicality and because we're all dying, right?

and yet, look what Paul says in Philippians 3:21. He says, He, God will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. By the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to Himself. So Christ is going to transform your physical body one day into the likeness of his very own resurrection body, his glorified body, and you will live in a physical embodied existence forever.

Christ is not just going to give us brand new bodies, he actually will take our present bodies and transform them. Your body right now, he will take that and transform that into a glorified body that will be like his own resurrected body. You might say, man, that's just so hard to believe, so hard to believe. what, Read 1 Corinthians 15, Paul addresses that.

And part of what he says, this is a paraphrase, he's like, I don't know why you find this difficult to believe. You see this miracle millions of times a day across the world. You have this ugly seed that is thrown into the ground, and it undergoes a death, and then what springs forth? A mighty tree, or a plant.

God is doing this miracle of resurrection and transformation of bodies in the natural world all the time. It's not a stretch, Paul says that he would take your body, which is buried in the earth, and take that very body and transform it into the likeness of Christ's glorified body. And so I could say to you all this morning, do you want a perfect body? Do you want a body that will never age?

A body that will live in full vitality for trillions of millennia? Believe in Jesus. You want a perfect body? Believe in Jesus.

It's the single best thing you can do for your body and for your soul. Living a physical embodied existence for all of eternity in heaven, just imagine that. With the physical body where there's no sin, no death, no decay, there will be no receding hairlines in heaven. Amen.

There will be no wrinkled skin in heaven. There will be no need for glasses in heaven. There will be no ADA accessible ramps or wheelchairs in heaven. Brian Q will be doing cartwheels in heaven and we'll never want to stop.

Amen. and this sudden, this full, this instantaneous glorification will happen on the day of resurrection when our bodies are raised from the earth and clothed with immortality and glory. Lucinda, I'm just gonna read what Paul says here with very little comment. Let me just read what he says in 1 Corinthians 15.

Behold, I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, the sleep of physical death, but we will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed physically, he's speaking about. He goes on to say this, for this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

And now Paul gets sassy and Tart starts.

Tarts. He gets sassy and starts talking smack and taunting death. Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What a day that is going to be, when we are glorified in all the ways that we have just defined, when we're fully like Christ inside and out, being with him, relating to him and the Father and the Spirit and unhindered fullness, and having bodies that are utterly free from the presence of indwelling sin. And from the presence of all death and decay, 1 trillion millennia from now, we're gonna be in heaven, and we're gonna be talking to each other and saying, what, it's been 1 trillion millennia since I experienced my last temptation.

My last urge to sin, we will be totally free of sin and its presence and of death that emanates from sin.

This is where we're headed. We're on a journey from brokenness to wholeness, and we already know what we're gonna look like. At the end of that journey. This should impact us.

And what I want to do at this point is just to quickly look at 4 ways that this impacted Paul, 4 ways that this, especially with the focus on the 3rd part of the definition, the 2nd and 3rd, just the way that Paul's future glorification shaped his thinking. How it figured so helpfully into his thinking from day to day. Paul would say, hey, don't, don't just look at your glorification and say, all right, I know that'll be there when I get there and, but I got to live in the nitty gritty here and now.

Paul would say, no, you need to be staring at that reality and be thinking about it all the time and letting it, it's designed to actually make a difference in your life today.

Let me just look at 4 ways. Number 1, Paul continuously rejoiced in the certainty of his future glorification. He continuously rejoiced in the certainty of his future glorification. He says in Romans 5:1 and 2, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we literally are continuously exulting in hope.

of the glory of God. That word hope is not the way we use the English word hope. This is a confident expectation. Paul's like, I know this is going to happen and I'm already exulting and rejoicing and celebrating over it.

Paul is saying as a justified one, I have been brought into a relationship with God that is characterized by peace. And this is all of grace, unmerited favor, which means I can never lose it at some future point, because I fail to be deserving of it. That's really good news, guys, the fact that you're standing with God is totally of grace. It's not only have you failed to earn it, but it's the opposite of what you have earned.

And to hear that it's all of grace sets us free because we know that if I already have this, and it's the opposite of what I have deserved, then it's not something that I can lose. Because I failed to prove myself deserving of it. And because it's all of grace, Paul says, I know I'm gonna get glorified. And I'm already rejoicing over that.

It hasn't happened yet, but I know it's coming and I'm celebrating now. In the world of sports. many would say that it's, it's bad to celebrate prematurely. But Paul would disagree when it comes to our glorification.

If you're saved and you're justified by God, that in and of itself is a guarantee that you are destined for glorification. God never ever justifies anyone whom he does not fully intend to glorify. So Paul would say, let the celebration begin. Let it begin Let the celebration of your future glory begin now.

In Romans 8, Paul states this categorically. In the chain of salvation, just the links that are there, and he gets to the final link. Look what he says, for those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren, and these whom he predestined, he also called, and these whom he called, he also justified, and these whom he justified, he also glorified. Your justification, if you're justified one having believed in Jesus, contained inside that justification is the promise, the guarantee of your future glorification.

So start celebrating now. In fact, I think if we lock our gaze onto this glorification and rejoice in it now, there's a sense where doing that releases the fragrance of our future glorification into our present life today. People should be able to smell the aroma. Of your future glorification, through your joy that you have and express in this guaranteed reality that awaits you.

There's a second way that Paul's future glorification figured into his Thinking so helpfully, and that is he viewed his and our glorification as always near. This is a You have to put your thinking caps on for this. in, in Romans 8:18, he says, I reckon that the sufferings of the present time. are not worthy to be compared with the glory, and then literally, in the Greek text, Not every English translation brings this out.

Not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be. revealed in us. First of all, this is not simply a glory that will be revealed to us, but literally it's a glory that will be revealed into us. That's what the text says, literally, in other words, this is a glory that will not just be something that's revealed in front of us, before our eyes, or surround us, but it will actually pierce into us and then be revealed or unveiled in us.

So we're gonna see this amazing glory and then before we know it, the glory will be in us and unveiled in our persons. As we are glorified. And as I just mentioned, Paul isn't just saying that this glory will be revealed into us, but that it's about to be. It's about to be revealed into us.

That expression about to be speaks of imminence, immediacy. And nearness, close proximity. You say, well, Paul said that 2000 years ago. And yet he's saying this is about to happen.

Well, we need to think about this in the right way. in his commentary on this very passage, Matthew Henry speaks of the glory that is coming to us as something that is very precious, very sweet. Behind the curtain This glory may be 50 or 100 or 2000 years away, but it's always near, it's always just behind the curtain. A very thin curtain separates you from this glory, even right now at this very moment.

This language from Paul and it's found elsewhere in the New Testament teaches us not to view like our future glorification as sitting merely at the end of the timeline of our existence. And we're far away, but we're getting closer to it every day. That's not actually the New Testament picture. But think of you walking on the timeline of your life, and every step you take, the glory is right next to you behind the curtain.

It's always so close to you, ready to break in at any moment. And then the day comes when that glory breaks in upon you and into you and it's unveiled in you. And when that moment comes, You will know how close that glory was to you all along. Throughout your walk with the Lord.

It had always been just behind the curtain. Back in 2011. Sergeant Terron Johnson returned from southern Iraq and surprised his nine year old daughter, Skylar. Y'all, you all have seen videos of people coming home from The war and just the reunions.

I'm a real sucker for those videos. they're, they're so incredible, so moving, and And he wanted to surprise his nine year old daughter, so her school was in on it, and they set up a spelling bee. As the setting for the surprise and, and it was Skylar's turn to spell a word and they gave her the word sergeant. And fortunately, she spelled it correctly.

And then they asked her, is there a sergeant in your life who is special to you? And she said, yes, my dad. And at that point, the curtains behind her opened. And she turned and there stood her dad, and she ran to him and they had a tearful reunion.

The next day, Sergeant Terron Johnson was on a morning news show. And they were interviewing him and his daughter about this amazing reunion. And Sergeant Johnson was explaining what it was like for him to be just behind the curtain, so close to his daughter, and listen to what he said, and this is the heart of Christ towards us even right now. Listen to what he said.

I couldn't wait. I was behind the curtain and I kept telling the lady operating the curtain, open the curtain. I'm ready. My daughter was only 3 ft in front of me.

We were that close, but the curtain separated us and she didn't even know. That's the way it is. With our glorification. There's a strong sense in which the glorification that lies in your future is actually right next to you, behind the curtain, a thin curtain separates you from this explosion of glory into your whole being.

And at your glorification may lie 1000 years down the road in the future, but when it comes, you'll realize how close it was all along, just behind the curtain. That's why in 1 Peter 1:5, Peter speaks of our future salvation as ready to be revealed. It's ready. Jesus, as it were, is behind the curtain, and he's so close to us.

And we don't even know it, and he's saying to his father, open the curtain, Father, open the curtain. That's how close you are right now. To this glory that we're talking about. So it's not a distant reality, it's a very close reality that's ready to explode upon you in any moment.

There's a third way that The doctrine of our future glorification figured into Paul's thinking, and that is that Paul viewed his present sufferings against the backdrop of his future glorification. Look what he says in Romans 8:18, he says, I consider, here's the way I think, I'm thinking about this stuff. And my thinking is that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed into us. See, the reality of future glory did not cause Paul to turn a blind eye to his suffering and the suffering of other people.

It actually is what gave him the courage to suffer. To look squarely at his own suffering and the suffering of other people with unflinching honesty. Because he could see that suffering against the backdrop of future glory. Paul knew that his sufferings, no matter how painful or heavy, or how long and their duration, absolutely cannot compare to the glory that is going to be revealed into us as believers.

You can take all of your suffering that you are experiencing in your life right now, put it together, With all of the suffering that you have ever known on every level, and let's say all of that weighs 1000 pounds, that's heavy. None of us would want 1000 pounds on top of us. You put that 1000 pounds on one side of the scales, and then on the other side, you put 1 trillion tons. Paul says that's, that's what it's like, comparing The weight of your suffering to the weight of the glory that awaits you.

It's not, not even worthy of comparison to try to compare the two is actually a joke, Paul is saying. And keep in mind this is coming from a man who suffered a lot for a long period of time. Paul, from the moment of his conversion, To the end of his life when he died the death of a martyr, probably beheaded. Paul knew almost nothing but suffering.

Christ even said, when he confronted Paul on the road to Damascus, when Christ spoke to Ananias, I believe it was, he said, I'm going to show him how great things he will suffer for my name. And Paul did suffer much for a long period of time. Just a sampling of this. 2 Corinthians 11, Paul says, I have been beaten times without number, often in danger of death.

5 times I received from the Jews 39. Ashes, 3 times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, 3 times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights and hunger and thirst, often without food, and cold, and exposure.

And apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. This is not some guy sitting in an ivory tower saying, hey, the glory is gonna be so much better than our suffering. This is a man in the trenches of awful suffering over a long period of time, and he says, I'm telling you, there's no comparison. The suffering we know now compared to the glory that awaits us, you can't even compare the two.

In fact, look at how this mindset informed how he viewed his suffering. This guy who suffered for, for decades of his life in a nonstop way. Look how he speaks of his suffering. 2 Corinthians 4:17, for our 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, the things that are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul looks at his decades of suffering and he says it's momentary. How can he do that?

why? Cause he's staring at the length of the glory that awaits him. He looks at his suffering as heavy as it was, and he says it's light. How can he do that?

Because he was staring at the weightiness of the of the glory that awaited him in heaven. In fact, he even says that this affliction that we know now is actually, it's connected to the glory to come. It's actually producing an even greater weight of glory. Just imagine A seesaw.

Do you guys know what a seesaw is? imagine a seesaw and And what separates one side of the seesaw from the other. is eternity. So, this side of the seesaw is our life now in the present, and then the other side is, is in the age to come.

And however low your suffering takes you now, you can just know that the lower your suffering is taking you, that the seesaw is going up in glory. Your suffering now is producing for you. A weight of glory that is far beyond all comparison. Paul, a man who knew suffering.

had his eye on this glorification and it gave him perspective in the midst of his suffering. There's a 4th and final thing that we'll look at, a 4th way that The reality of Paul's future glorification and our future glorification. shaped Paul's thinking, and that is that he viewed his fellow Christians in light of their future glorification. He viewed his fellow Christians in light of their future glorification.

When Paul looked at his brothers and sisters, he didn't just see them as they were in the present, he saw them as they would be in glory, even the messed up Corinthians. Paul was able to look at them and then speak of chapter 1, verse 7 and 8, the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, there's a day coming when you will be blameless. You're not right now.

That's why I'm writing this letter, but you will be, and I want you to know, think about how this would have encouraged them. Paul is saying to them, when I look at you, I don't just see you as you are now, I see you as you will be in glory. Paul was able to look at the Philippians who were not perfect Christians and Yodia and Syeche, two women in the church were at odds with one another, and Paul is able to say to them and everyone else in the Philippian church, I am confident of this very thing.

That he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

I know that all of you Philippians are going to be perfected in the presence of the Lord Jesus one day. And when I look at you now, I don't just see you as you are now, but as you will be in glory. The Thessalonians, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2, who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus?

That is coming for you are our glory and joy. Paul, it's like, I'm already anticipating being in glory with you and celebrating over all that you have become. In the presence of Christ. Paul would teach us by his example that when we look at one another in the here and now, we should not just see our brothers and sisters for what they are right now, we should see them for what they will be also in glory.

And that'll transform the way that we treat. One another. The day is gonna come. When you We'll look at your brothers and sisters who are in this building, you're gonna see them in glory and you're gonna be utterly dazzled by the glory emanating from them.

And when that moment comes, how will you wish that you had treated them now? How would you wish that you had treated them now? CS Lewis, I love this. He says it may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter, but it's hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about The glory of his neighbor.

The load or weight or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid daily on my back. It is a serious thing to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may 1 day be a creature which if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. And for our purposes today, What Paul would say is your brothers and sisters will one day be an everlasting splendor. If you could see them right now as they will be in that future day, you would be sorely tempted to bow down and worship them. Your eyes have never seen anything so amazing as they will be in that future day.

And Paul would say, hey, When you look at your brothers and sisters in the here and now and you see their imperfections and immaturities, Can you not just see them as they are now, but as they will be in glory, and then deal with them and treat them and love them accordingly. That's what Paul was able to do and it didn't cause him to turn a blind eye to the imperfections of his brothers and sisters, it's what gave him the courage and the hope he needed to dive right in and write the letters he wrote, and to deal with those imperfections because he knew What they were going to become.

Paul had his eyes on future glory that awaited him and his brothers and sisters in the Lord. Paul reached the end of his life, and he says to Timothy, the time of my departure is at hand.

I fought the fight, I finished the course, I've kept the faith, and in the future, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, and he says, and I am so ready. I am so ready for this. Over the last 5 weeks, we followed Saul of Tarsus, who later became the apostle Paul. In his journey from the brokenness of sin all the way to glory, he was a sinner who experienced gospel conversion, lived a life of gospel immersion, lived a life of gospel community, gospel mission, and he entered gospel glory where he is right now, and the only thing he's waiting for right now in the presence of the Lord is the resurrection of his body.

That will happen on the day of resurrection. To use his own words in 2 Thessalonians 2:14, Through the gospel. Paul gained the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the journey we're on.

It's a journey we're taking, and it's a journey worth inviting others into all who believe in Jesus. Will not come short. Of the glory of God. Let's pray together.

Lord, if there's any here today who have never Run to Jesus. I pray that you would open their eyes to see that there's a glory that is missing. From their lives that you provide for them in the richest of ways, not only in this life but in the life to come. I pray, Lord, that You would draw them to The Savior that they would come to Jesus this morning and even right now where they're seated, cry out to Him for salvation.

That they would believe in Jesus. And begin their journey into this glory that has been lost as a result of sin. Help us as a congregation. As brothers and sisters to be a help to one another in this journey from brokenness to glory.

As we interact with those who do not know you. As of yet, Lord, may our hearts bleed for them. May we love them enough. To invite them into this journey.

That we are on that the day might come that we are all gathered around your throne, celebrating you, Lord, for your amazing salvation that is far grander than anything we could have ever imagined. You're a great savior and a great God, and today we say to you that we love you and we trust you. We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds, do much with what is given for the spread of this gospel and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.