Be Concerned - The Word is a Mirror

Among the many gifts that God has given to His church is the Bible, the Word of God. It is the Word of God, the inspired Word of God, the inerrant Word of God. In His high priestly prayer, our Lord Jesus said, "I have given them the words that You have given to Me."

The psalmist said that the Word of God was a heritage, and it is indeed. When you stop and think of the preciousness of the Word of God. Oh, don't ever take your Bible for granted. Just think of what it cost Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David and the other writers to give us the Word of God, the apostles. Just think of what it cost our Lord Jesus for us to have a Bible.

And Jesus Christ is the living Word, and the Bible is the written Word, and the written Word reveals the living Word, and the written Word of God enables us to meet God and fellowship with Him.

If you and I were to meet someday, we'd sit and talk. Because in our words, we communicate our hearts, our minds. Well, when God wants to talk to us, we open the Bible. God speaks to us through the Word. And when we speak to Him in prayer, we use what He promises in the Word of God. I hope you treasure your Bible.

Now, one way to learn to appreciate the Word of God is to find out what it really is. James 1:22. "But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, and he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

Notice, please, we are not blessed by reading the Word, we're not even blessed by memorizing the Word, although those are good things to do. We're blessed by doing the Word. Literally, the Greek says in the doing of it. Of what? Of what he saw in the Word of God.

James is comparing the Word of God to a mirror. And he contrasts two kinds of readers. You see, the Word of God is a mirror for examination. How do we know what we look like physically? Well, we look into the mirror.

Some vain people could not live without a mirror, but all of us want to look good. There's nothing sanctified about looking sloppy. And so before we go out during the day, we comb our hair, we look in the mirror and see if our hair is straight, to make sure that our face is clean, make sure that the tie is tied correctly. There's nothing wrong with the proper use of a mirror. A mirror for examination.

Now, here's a man who looks into the mirror and considers attentively what he sees, but he forgets what he sees. Here's another man who looks into the mirror and has a long gaze at himself. He sees and he remembers.

Now, the contrast here is not between someone who doesn't look into the mirror and someone who does. The contrast is between someone who looks and remembers what he sees in contrast to someone who looks and forgets. You see, the person who looks into the Word of God and sees himself and then forgets what God told him, becomes a disobedient hearer of the Word of God.

So the contrast is between seeing and forgetting, seeing and remembering, seeing and obeying, seeing and disobeying, seeing and getting a blessing, seeing and not getting a blessing.

Now, it's so easy for us to read the Word of God and apply it to somebody else. So often we read the Word of God and say, "Oh yes, that applies to my landlady. Oh yes, that applies to my uncle. That's right, that applies to that deacon." But we rarely say that applies to me.

You remember when Nathan, David's chaplain, came to talk to David about his sin with Bathsheba. And he told that story about a poor man who had one little ewe lamb. It was like a pet in the household. And there was a rich man nearby who had flocks and herds. And a traveler, a stranger, came by to visit the rich man, and the rich man wanted to have dinner for him. But instead of taking from his own flocks and herds, he went down and stole that little ewe lamb from the poor man and killed that lamb to feed his visitor.

Remember how angry David became? Oh, how easy it is to get angry at other people's sins. He got angry and said, "That man shall repay fourfold." You see, here was the mirror, and David was looking at somebody else. He wasn't looking at himself. And then Nathan said, "Thou art the man. You're the man. You stole your neighbor's wife, and then you killed your neighbor, and you are the man."

Oh, it's so easy to look into the mirror of the Word of God for examination and not really see ourselves. And if we do see ourselves, forget what we are really like.

Now, the Word of God is a mirror not only for examination, but it is a mirror for restoration. Now, you and I cannot wash our faces in the mirror. The mirror shows us how dirty we are, but you don't wash in the mirror. And yet the Word of God is a mirror for restoration.

Turn to Exodus 38:8. Speaking about Moses in Exodus 38:8. "He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of meeting." Now, these bronze mirrors were very precious to these women. Women need their mirrors, they do want to look beautiful, and we husbands want our wives to look beautiful, don't we?

Here Moses takes the bronze mirrors, melts them down and makes the laver. Now this laver was a great big brazen bowl. And there was water in it. And the priests and the Levites, as they served in the Tabernacle, became dirty, they became defiled. You're handling animals and blood and all kinds of things, and there was no floor in the Tabernacle, so their feet became dirty. And God made it very clear that they had to keep clean. In fact, it was a matter of life and death.

Now, here's an interesting thing. They didn't get dirty by running around and sinning. We commonly think of defilement coming from sin. They were defiled by serving. Here they were serving the Lord and serving the people in the Tabernacle. People came with their sacrifices and offerings. And the priests and Levites would end up with soiled hands and soiled feet. But you cannot serve God with soiled hands and soiled feet, because it's a matter of life or death. "Be clean, who bear the vessels of the Lord." That's what God says.

Therefore, they had to wash. Did you ever stop to realize that even while we are serving the Lord, we can become defiled? While we're preaching, teaching, singing, leading a Sunday school class, witnessing, it's possible even while we're serving the Lord to be defiled. That's why it's important regularly that we come to the laver of the Word of God for cleansing.

Now, God has several ways of cleansing His people. Sometimes He uses blood. Sometimes He uses fire. Certain objects were put through the fire, other objects were sprinkled with blood, and that removed the defilement. In this case, it's water.

Now, in the Bible, water for drinking is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Water for washing is a picture of the Word of God. Our Lord said to His disciples, "Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. "The washing of water by the Word," says Paul in Ephesians 5:26. And so the Word of God is compared to water for cleansing.

Now I can't explain this. It's the work of the Holy Spirit of God. All I know is this: when I read my Bible and let it penetrate my mind and my heart, when I meditate on it and live in it, the Holy Spirit of God cleanses my heart and my mind. There's the renewing of the mind. Romans 12:2.

Now I can't explain this. All I know is that there is power in the Word of God. And the Word of God comes through my mind and my heart like water, and there is a cleansing that goes on. The Word of God is a mirror for examination.

Let's look into it and then when we see what needs to be done, let's do it. Let's not be just hearers of the Word, let's be doers of the Word, because the blessing comes not from the hearing, but from the doing. And the Word of God is a mirror for restoration. Oh, let's use the Word of God for cleansing our own hearts and minds.

Now today, let's not just be hearers. Don't look at your outline you've written down and say, "Well, I have a new outline today." Oh no. Ask God, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" That's what Paul asked. "What do You want me to do?" Because if you want the blessing from the Word, go out and do it.

Now, throughout 2 Corinthians 3, you have a series of six contrasts. He's contrasting the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. For example, 2 Corinthians 3:1-3. The Old Covenant was written on stones. The New Covenant is written on human hearts.

How do you get the Word of God into the heart? Well, the Word of God, like a mirror, brings the truth to our being. We see ourselves in the mirror, that's examination, and then we get restoration through the mirror, which is the laver. The laver, you'll recall, was made out of the mirrors of the women. But in 2 Corinthians 3, he says there is transformation. God writes His Word on our hearts. And it is an internal thing, not an external thing.

Then we have a contrast between death and life in 2 Corinthians 3:4-6. "And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God."

Someone looks at God's law and says, "Oh, I can keep that." Oh, can you? We can't serve God, we can't obey God in our own strength. "Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter." Now the word "letter" means the Old Covenant. The letter is written on stone. "Not of the letter, but of the Spirit." Now there's the Holy Spirit writing on tablets of the heart. "For the letter," the Old Covenant law, "kills, but the Spirit gives life."

Now this verse has been grossly misinterpreted by people who want to make the Bible mean what they want it to mean. They say, "Oh, don't go by the letter of the Word of God, go by the Spirit." Now wait a minute, every word in the Bible is inspired. Everything in the Bible is inerrant. We have to go by the Word of God. He's not contrasting two ways to read the Bible, taking it literally or taking it spiritually. No. He's contrasting two covenants.

The Old Covenant is the letter, and it kills. The law killed. The law did not give life, the law killed. The law was given to reveal sin and to judge sin. Ah, but the Holy Spirit under the New Covenant writes the Word of God in our hearts. What a beautiful experience that is! To look into the mirror of God's Word and the Spirit of God writes the Word of God in our hearts.

Contrast number three, beginning at 2 Corinthians 3:6 and through 2 Corinthians 3:11, there's a contrast between the fading glory and the growing glory. In 2 Corinthians 3:6, he says, "Now the the letter kills, the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death," that's the Old Covenant, "written and engraved on stones, was glorious," and it was, "so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away."

Now if the Old Covenant law was glorious and it was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious because it is not passing away? "For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness," that's the New Covenant, "exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious," that's the Old Covenant law, "what remains is much more glorious."

The path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day. You and I as believers in Jesus Christ are a part of a New Covenant. That New Covenant is not written on stones, it's written on our hearts. It does not bring death, it brings life. It doesn't bring condemnation, it brings righteousness. And that Old Covenant glory is fading away.

Where is it today? Where's the temple today? Where is the priesthood today? Where is the Shekinah glory that dwelt in the Tabernacle and in the temple? Well, that glory dwells in the church. We are the habitation of God through the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God.

Now in 2 Corinthians 3:12 through 2 Corinthians 3:16, he contrasts the veiled face of Moses and the unveiled face of the believer. 2 Corinthians 3:12. "Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away."

He didn't wear the veil because they were frightened. Initially they were, but that didn't stay. He wore the veil that they might not see the glory was fading away. Who wants to follow a leader whose glory is fading away? He would go in and see God, and God would give him more glory, the glory would fade away.

By the way, many Christians live that way. Come to church on Sunday and pick up a little glory from the preacher or from the Sunday school teacher, but by Tuesday it's all faded away and they come staggering in a week later, instead of day after day after day living in the presence of God and getting the glory of God that does not fade away.

Moses veiled his face. "But their minds were hardened," says 2 Corinthians 3:14. "For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament. Because the veil is taken away in Christ." Now we understand why our Jewish friends don't see Jesus in the Old Testament. There is a veil over their hearts.

Now, 2 Corinthians 3:17, there's a contrast between bondage and freedom. "Now, the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." That's another verse that's been grossly and greatly abused. People say we can do anything we want to in our church, because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Remember he's talking about the Word of God. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to set us free.

Now, this brings us to the key verse of the chapter, 2 Corinthians 3:18. There's a contrast here between Moses and all believers. I can't go up on Mount Sinai and meet God. I can't walk into the tent and meet God the way Moses did, but I have something really that's better. "But we all," not just a few people, "we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror," now that's the Word of God, "the glory of the Lord."

Where do you see God's glory today? In a building? No, no, in the Word. "Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, our being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

When the child of God looks into the Word of God, that's the mirror, and sees the Son of God, he is transformed by the Spirit of God into the image of God for the glory of God. Now, there are some truths in 2 Corinthians 3:18 we need to understand.

He compares the Word of God to a mirror, a glorious mirror. When we look into the Word of God as a mirror for examination, we see ourselves. For restoration, we see the grace of God. For transformation, we see the Son of God. The goal of ministry is likeness to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit of God wants to make us like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the law can bring us to Christ. Galatians 3:24 tells us that, "The law is a schoolmaster that brings us to Christ." But the law can't make us like Christ. Oh, you make all kind of resolutions and rules and regulations, "I won't do this, I won't do that, I won't go here, I won't go there." That'll never make you like Jesus. Spend time looking into the Word of God. The goal of ministry is likeness to Christ. The means of ministry is the Holy Spirit using the Word. Not scolding, not threatening, not bribing.

The Spirit of God takes the Word of God, the mirror, and reveals the Son of God, and as we see Jesus in the Word of God, the Spirit of God transforms our minds, transforms our lives. I can't explain it, but oh, I thank God for it. A miracle takes place.

Romans 12:2 calls it the renewing of your mind, transformation, transfiguration. That's the word here. 2 Corinthians 3:18, transformed is the word transfigured. Just as our Lord up on the mountain was transfigured and the glory radiated from within, so you and I, the glory of God radiates from within. We may not see it, but it doesn't fade away. It gets brighter and brighter and brighter to the glory of God.

When the child of God looks into the Word of God and sees the Son of God, he is transformed by the Spirit of God into the image of God for the glory of God. God's Word is a mirror for examination. Spend time daily in the Word and see yourself. God's Word is a mirror for restoration. There's a cleansing in the Word of God, the washing of water by the Word. But most of all, God's Word is a mirror for transformation, and you can become more like the Lord Jesus Christ.