Where the Spirit of the Lord is There is Freedom

2 Corinthians 3, verse 17. Let's pray, and we'll

2 Corinthians 3:17

get started. God, we thank you for these good

words, and I pray that you would help us to find

some encouragement in them tonight. It is a good

reminder for us, dear Lord, that we are free

in Jesus Christ. And so I pray. that we would

rest in that freedom and find peace in that freedom.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would free us of

the worries and the distractions and the things

of this world, dear Lord. I pray that you would

help our minds and our ears and our hearts to

listen to you tonight, dear Lord. I pray that

you would hide me behind the cross, that I would

preach and teach in a way that brings glory to

you, and I pray that you would let your word

speak to us tonight. In Jesus' name I ask it.

Amen. Paul had talked about in the verses before

that we looked at last week that God had given

the law in the Old Testament, and the law was

good. It served a purpose. And when Moses was

communicating with God on the mountain, and Moses

wanted to see the glory of God, and God said,

Look, Moses, you cannot see me in all my glory

and live. But he allowed Moses to see his back

as he walked by, just a little bit of God. And

this experience affected Moses physically because

when he came down from the mountain, his face

was glowing and it was evident before all who

saw him that he had been in the presence of God

and the glory of God was radiating from Moses'

face. Moses wore a veil when he came off the

mountain when he communicated with the other

Israelites so that they wouldn't see the glory

of the Lord fading. It says that the people were

afraid of Moses when he came down, and I'm sure

that probably was kind of a crazy thing. However,

because of what it was, you would think there's

really nothing to fear with the glory of the

Lord. Nonetheless, Paul uses this story to make

an illustration. He says, look. In the Old Testament,

we saw God's glory a little bit. We saw a little

bit of the glory of God in the way he interacted

with his people, in the giving of the law, in

the commandments, and all of the things in the

Old Testament showed us just a little bit of

the glory of God. But Paul is really making the

point that in Jesus Christ, we have seen God

in all of his glory. We have seen the love of

God in Jesus Christ who came to this earth and

gave his life on a cross so that we could be

forgiven. We have seen the fullness of who God

is. God came in the flesh, so to speak, and so

we know God. Now, we haven't seen God in the

way that we're going to see him one day when

we are with him for eternity, but we have seen

enough in Jesus Christ that it does not get any

more beautiful. What is more beautiful than a

man laying down his life? Than God sending his

only begotten son to give his life so that our

sins could be forgiven. Now the problem with

many of the people of Israel in Paul's day and

still today in our world is that they still seek

to live by the law. So Paul uses this story with

Moses and he says, look, the way it is now is...

The people of Israel are still trying to live

by the old ways, and it's as if a veil is covering

their face. They're not seeing the glory of God.

They didn't see it with Moses because Moses'

face was veiled. And he says the Israelites are

still missing the glory of God. Why? Because

they are missing Jesus Christ. And so he says,

look, it's still as though their faces are veiled

even to this day, Paul says. Fast forward to

2025, it's still true. The Jewish people still

do not trust in Jesus Christ. They still seek

the law. That veil is still there. They still

have not experienced the glory of God. And so

that's kind of a recap of what we talked about

last week. But with that in mind, we continue

to verse 17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and

where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in

a mirror at the glory of the Lord, and are being

transformed into the same image from glory to

glory. This is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Now, what a beautiful verse we have there in

verse 17. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the

Spirit of the Lord is, there is... Freedom. Now,

in the context of the audience he's talking to

here, he's certainly talking about, in some level,

I think, freedom from the law, that we are not

under the law of Jesus Christ, that we are not

under the wages of sin that is death, but there

is freedom for those who are in Christ. We are

not seeking to live by the letter of the law,

but we have found redemption in Jesus Christ.

Now, when you flip over to Galatians and read

it, that's kind of the... One of the main themes

in the book of Galatians is freedom in Jesus

Christ, that we are free, that we are freed from

our sin, that we are freed from the law. And

what do we do with that freedom? Paul says, look,

don't use your freedom for yourself, but use

that freedom that you have received in Christ

and use it to serve other people. The love that

you've experienced in Jesus, you need to use

that to love other people. Now, where the Spirit

of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now, you may

remember at the first part of chapter 3, he had

spent some time talking about the ministry of

death. That is the letter of the law, a letter

that was chiseled in stone. We are familiar with

the Ten Commandments. And there were, of course,

plenty of other laws. But when he talks about

these laws chiseled in stone, he's talking about

the law, the Ten Commandments. He's making a

point at the beginning of the book. He says,

look, we're looking for something better than

letters chiseled in stone. We are living letters,

he said, by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ.

There's something unique. There's something beautiful.

There's something about us that is more beautiful

than the old system. And so he says, look, we

don't live by... the stone laws that are going

to lead to death, but we live by Jesus Christ

who brings with him the Holy Spirit once we accept

Jesus Christ. And so once we have accepted Jesus

and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, there is freedom.

Now that's good news for us because in the law

we are doomed. If we lived under the law still

today, we'd be doomed because our sins would

be ever before us. We would be a slave to our

sin. Even things that we may have quit doing

that we don't do anymore, we would still have

to answer for those sins. There would be no sacrifice

that would be sufficient for those sins. And

that is no freedom. There's no freedom in that.

And so Paul says, look, why would you want to

be a slave to the law? Go read Galatians again

if you want some homework this week, short book.

But that's the point he's making. Don't be a

slave to the law. Don't be a slave to the letter

of the law, but experience freedom in Jesus Christ.

There's no peace if you know your sin is ever

before you. There's no peace if you know that

there's no power to overcome your sin. But there

is great peace. When we have put our faith and

trust in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit indwells

in us, there is a freedom and a peace there.

That when we come up against the sin, that we

don't have to give in to it. Now maybe we do.

Maybe we do more times than we want. But we don't

have to. We have freedom over that in Jesus Christ.

Those past sins that maybe even still the devil

wants to bring up to us, we're free from those

things in Christ. When we have asked Jesus Christ

to forgive us and become our Lord and Savior,

he has forgiven our sins, and they are cast as

far as the east is to the west. And so there's

great freedom, and there's great peace, and that

only comes in Jesus Christ. And so Paul says

where the Spirit of the Lord is, if you're following

Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is within you,

and you need to live in the freedom that you've

experienced. Freedom from the law and freedom

from our sin doesn't mean that we just have a

license to sin and go and do what we want to

do. That totally misses the point, if that's

our attitude. Oh, wait, Jesus died for me, my

sins are forgiven, I can do what I want to do.

Well, we haven't appreciated the love of Jesus

Christ. Jesus didn't die so we could do what

we wanted to do. He died so we could have freedom,

so that we could say no to sin, so that we could

have the strength to stand up to sin. And that

strength comes through Him. So where the Spirit

of the Lord is, there is freedom not to sin,

but freedom to serve. Freedom to serve the Lord.

Freedom to choose Jesus Christ. Yeah, we could

choose to sin, but we don't have to. We're free

from that. And that's a beautiful verse for us

to remember. Verse 18, we all with unveiled faces

are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the

Lord and are being transformed into the same

image from glory to glory. Now, this is an interesting,

interesting verse. You may remember in 1 Corinthians,

I believe it's chapter 13. Where he talks about

that now, in the current world, we look in a

mirror as though we're looking dimly. Like we

can kind of make out what the glory of God is

and how God works, but we can't see it clearly.

Now, we have to go back in time to understand

what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians. Now, when

we look in a mirror, you see a perfect replica

of what you are. I mean, it's as clear and as

pretty as it can be. But in those days, they

didn't have mirrors like we do. It would have

been a piece of metal that would have been just

polished to perfection. And while you could have

seen your reflection pretty good, it probably

wasn't quite as clear as what we would see in

our mirrors today. So in 1 Corinthians, Paul

talks about kind of seeing in that mirror dimly.

We don't see God fully. We don't see everything.

We just kind of see a part of God's glory. I

don't know that he's using that same idea here.

I think he's using, when he uses the term mirror

here, he may be using it differently. Now, he

may be using it the same way. I suppose it's

possible that he's saying, even still, we see

God's glory, and even in Jesus Christ, but even

still, we haven't seen God in all of his glory.

And that certainly could be what he's saying.

But I think that he's making a contrast with

the veil. That is, those who wear a veil, they

can't see God's glory at all. And so for those

who are in Christ, we're not looking at a veil,

we're looking at a mirror. We see in Jesus Christ

the glory of God. When we see Jesus, we see the

glory of God. It's reflecting back on us. We

see the works of Jesus and the words of Jesus

and the sacrifice of Jesus and the resurrection

of Jesus. And we see that, and that's reflecting

on us and should reflect from us onto other people.

And so he says here, we all with unveiled faces,

that is, we don't have a veil on our face anymore.

The veil has been removed through Jesus. We are

seeing clearly. We are seeing so clearly. We

are seeing exactly what the glory of God is in

Jesus Christ. And he says, we are looking as

in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are

being transformed in the same image from glory

to glory. Now what does that mean? Well, it means

that we've seen the glory of God in some way,

I think. but we haven't experienced it in its

fullness. That we've come to Jesus Christ and

we've seen the love of Jesus Christ, and when

we accept Him and follow Him as our Savior and

put our faith in Him, then we experience the

glory of God, but it's a process. It's not an

instantaneous thing, but it's a process from

glory to glory, to the glory that we've experienced

now, to the glory that we will one day experience

in its fullness. once we spend an eternity with

God. And so we're in this process of going from

glory to glory. So maybe this is a good test

for us, is to look at our life now, and look

at our life six months ago, a year ago, two years

ago, ever how long it's been since you came to

Jesus Christ, and you should look more like Jesus

today than you did a few years ago. Now, if we

accept Jesus and 10 years go by and there's not

been much change in our life, I'm not saying

you're not a Christian. Your sins may very well

be forgiven. You may very well have faith in

Jesus Christ, but there needs to be some growth

in this process of going from glory to glory,

that once we experience the love and the forgiveness

through Jesus Christ and experience the glory

of God, there should be some growth in our life.

And so the question that we have to answer is,

is there any growth? Am I walking closer to the

Lord than I was then? Do I love people more than

I used to? Do I serve the Lord more than I used

to? Do I serve others more than I used to? Those

things that used to be a struggle for me, the

language that I used, do I still use that language?

My attitude, do I still have a bad attitude?

Do I still treat people poorly? Do I still gossip?

I mean, there's lots of areas in our life. We

all struggle in different ways. I don't know

what your struggle is. We all got them, though.

And there's some things you struggle with that

I don't, things that I struggle with and you

don't. But there should be some measure throughout

our life in which we can say, you know, this

area of my life is getting better. And maybe

there are some that are getting better and some

that you still need to work on. Praise the Lord

God is patient. Praise the Lord, God doesn't

say the day that we follow Jesus Christ. And

now you must do everything perfect. If God revealed

everything to us the day that we came to Christ

and said, Okay, here's all the things that are

wrong with you. You better change them right

now. Boy, we'd be in big trouble. Because we

could not change all those things. But that's

why it's important for us to come to meetings

like this. To read our Bible. To pray. Because

as we walk with the Lord, We grow in the Lord.

And there are things that God reveals to us maybe

15, 20 years into our walk with the Lord that

maybe we weren't ready for. We weren't spiritually

mature enough to take those things on to grow

in that way. And so God knows that it's a process.

Some grow faster than others. But there needs

to be some level of growth. If you have a child

that's in kindergarten, and then they go to first

grade, and then they go to second grade, and

every year they're... They take every test, and

they're still doing the same things they were

doing in kindergarten, and then there's a failure

in the system somewhere. If there's a failure

in the system, it's not with God. It might be

us. It might just need to be that we need to

look at our life and say, okay, God, maybe I

need to take some more things more serious than

I am. God, maybe there's some areas that I don't

know of. God, help me to see those areas that

I'm not growing. Help me to continue to grow

in those areas that I am growing. But there needs

to be some sign of progress in our life as we

are growing from glory to glory. And so Paul

says to his people here, he says, look, don't

get caught up in the things of the world. Don't

get caught up in the law and the old system and

all those things. Don't be a slave to sin. Now,

we might not be caught up with the law of Moses.

We're probably not struggling too much with that.

But maybe there are things in our life that we

have become a slave to. That we have become a

slave to this, or we've become a slave to that.

And these words that Paul speaks are true for

us today. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there

is freedom. We don't have to be a slave to our

sin. It might not be easy to overcome those temptations,

and there still may even be times that we fail.

But we have to realize that there is freedom.

That if we would seek Jesus, if we would call

on Him, that He would give us the strength. that

he would give us the power to overcome those

temptations, to overcome our attitudes, to overcome

opening our mouth when we shouldn't. Whatever

it is, he can give us the ability to conquer

those things. And it's not easy. But once we

trust in Jesus and seek him, and once we begin

to overcome one thing and two things, boy, the

weight of that sin and that struggle that we've

been battling against, it just lifts itself.

And we begin to experience that. Freedom. And

where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And we want to live in that freedom through Jesus

Christ tonight. Let's pray. God, we come to you.

We thank you for these good words, and I pray

that we would take them to heart. Dear Lord,

I pray that if there are any areas that we need

to grow, that you help us to see those areas.

And maybe there's some you've been working on

us, dear Lord, and sometimes it's a slow go,

but we appreciate your patience, God, and we

thank you for giving us the grace and mercy.

So help us to continue to improve and seek you

on the areas of the things that we know we need

to grow in. And I pray that you help us to be

aware maybe of some things that we are not aware

of. Maybe some areas that have slipped up on

us. There's some new things in our life that

have reared their ugly head, dear Lord. And I

pray that you just give us freedom over those

things. So help us, dear Lord. You know where

we are. You know what our struggles are. You

know what our sins are, our temptations are.

I pray that you free us from those temptations,

but when they come, I pray that you give us freedom

in them. That through Jesus Christ, dear Lord,

through the Holy Spirit that dwells within us,

that you would strengthen us and guide us and

help us to find freedom tonight in Jesus Christ.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.