Okay, let's, Matthew 17, a saving
view of God's glory. This is the account of what is
commonly called the Mount of Transfiguration, where the Lord
brought three disciples, Peter, James, and John, with him upon
a mount. He didn't specify which mount
it is. But he was transfigured. It's the word that we get metamorphosis
from, the change. And it was a vision of his glory,
the glory of his person as God manifest in the flesh. You know,
his deity was virtually hidden from the view of the natural
man because of his humanity. And you know, as the scripture
speaks of it, in passages like Isaiah 53, it said, as you viewed
Him, it says, He had no form nor comeliness that we should
be drawn to Him. In other words, you know, a lot
of times you'll see these movies about Jesus or these pictures,
and you'll have some kind of glow about Him or something,
something extraordinary. And that's not the case at all.
In fact, just to give you an idea of what that says in Isaiah
53, and I know you're familiar with it, most of you are, where
it says this, it says, he'll grow up before him as a tender
plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. That's his humanity. So it wasn't like that when Christ
walked into a crowd you could just look at him and pick him
out or anything like that. But he is, he was and is God
manifest in the flesh. That's who he is. And the word
made flesh dwelling among us. God manifested, God with us. And that was hidden from the
view of the natural man. But John said, by the power of
the Spirit, we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father. And so we see that the gospel
is saturated with the glory of the person of Christ. You know,
when we talk about the gospel, the good news, what are we talking
about? We're talking about who Jesus Christ is. According to
the scripture not what you think him to be not how he looked physically
and nobody knows what he looked like physically There are no
photographs or anything like that these paintings you see
and they say that's a picture of Jesus. No, it's not But nobody
knows what he looked like physically, but that's not the case we know
him by the doctrine of Christ and what God's word says about
him. And here's what it says. Here's
the glory of this person. This is gospel truth. He is God
manifest in the flesh. And then the gospel concerns
what he would accomplish in his obedience unto death as the surety,
the substitute, the redeemer, the life giver, the preserver
of his people unto glory. Those two doctrines, you cannot
vary on those and believe the gospel. Who he is and what he
accomplished on the cross to save his people from their sins.
Now this episode in the life of Christ is also recorded in
the book of Mark and the book of Luke. And so I'm gonna refer
to especially Luke because there's something really significant
there. But the Holy Spirit inspired all three writers of the narrative
of the gospel to record this event. Now, you remember in the
history as we go through Matthew, Christ had told his disciples
of the necessity of his sufferings, his death and his resurrection. You remember back in Matthew
16. And right after Peter made that great confession, thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. And then Christ told him,
now I've got to go to Jerusalem, I've got to suffer and be killed
and be resurrected. And you remember what happened
when Peter, he spoke up, he said, oh, God forbid, you know, that
you should do this, you know, save yourself. Christ looked
at him and said, get thee behind me, Satan. And that just tells
you now, Satan, though he cannot destroy the people of God, as
Christ said, the gates of hell will not prevail against his
church. Satan cannot destroy us, but
boy, he can afflict us. And we read that in the book
of Revelation when we talk about, for example, Revelation 12, when
Satan is loosed to torture and bother the church, and he does. But we're safe because the prince
of this world is being cast out by the death of the son of God.
And Satan, though he will accuse us constantly, the accusations
cannot stick. Why? Because who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. God
has justified his people. That means He's forgiven us of
all of our sins on a just ground. And what is that just ground?
It's not anything we do. The just ground of all forgiveness
is the blood of Jesus Christ, period. Nothing added. Our faith does not bring about
forgiveness. Our repentance does not bring
about forgiveness. It's the blood of Christ, and
because of what he accomplished, that God brings us to faith and
repentance. Faith and repentance are necessary,
but not as the ground of forgiveness and salvation. They're the fruit,
the result, and all of that. So Satan is alive and well at
this point in time, but he has a short time, and it's coming. This, when we talk about this,
the redemptive work of Christ as our surety and substitute
and redeemer, it's for his covenant people, God's elect, and look
at verse one of chapter 17. It says, and after six days,
these six days, Matthew and Mark, you might look
at their account, and you'll see they have a div, they say
eight days. And you know how people are. They'll jump in and
say, oh, there's a contradiction, blah, blah, blah. You know how
they do. Well, there's no contradiction. And I've got in your lesson here
that Matthew and Mark's account present no conflict with Luke's,
who said eight days. Luke included the days of the
events of Matthew 16, 13 through 28. as well as the actual day Christ
was transfigured. So Luke just added other days
there, not in conflict with what Matthew and Mark say. But he
just added those two days. And Matthew and Mark calculated
only the six days in between. So don't get hung up on things
like that by those who try to detract from the inerrancy of
scripture and say that there's some kind of a contradiction. But what happens is that after
six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother.
I don't know why he picked these three disciples particularly,
because the Bible doesn't tell us. But a lot of commentators
spend a lot of hot air, and that's what I call trying to figure
out why these three. Well, it doesn't matter. He picked
these three, and he bringeth them into a high mountain apart. He separated them out. We don't
know what the mountain was. And verse two says, and he was
transfigured before them. That word transfigured, as I
said, it means metamorphosis. It was a change, it was a vision. They saw this in a vision that
he was actually giving them on this mountain. And one writer
said, the Lord pulled back the cover of his human appearance,
and revealed his radiant glory as God manifest in the flesh,
look at it, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment
was white as the light, his face. What does his face mean? You
know, we talk about in 2 Corinthians 4, the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Well, when you see somebody's
face, you know who they are. You recognize if it's somebody
you know. You know them by their face. And his face is what identified
and distinguished him as the Messiah. So the radiance of his
glory in his face, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
who is he again? God manifest in the flesh. And
then his white raiment, white as the light. Well, that refers
to his redemptive work in obeying the law unto the death of the
cross to bring about a perfection of righteousness that enables
God to be both a just God and a Savior. So we have everything
here that applies to the gospel. Identify him distinctly. This is the anointed one. This is the Savior. This is the
one person. who can save me from my sins.
That's what that's all about. And how does he do it? By working
a perfect righteousness by which God is just to save me and to
forgive me and to accept me and from which he gives life from
the dead. It's his righteousness imputed
to us. That's what this represents.
And look at verse three. And it says, and behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elias, or Elijah, talking with
him. Two more figures. Somebody said,
well, he resurrected Moses and Elijah from the dead. No, he
didn't. Moses and Elijah were with the Lord in spirit, and
he brought them back in spirit. And they appeared there in this
vision with him. And why Moses and Elijah particularly? Well, here's the reason. Moses
represents the law. And what did Christ come to do?
He came to fulfill the law for his people given to him before
the foundation of the world. You remember he said in John
chapter five, Moses wrote of me. The law was given to Israel
to expose their sinfulness, their depravity, the impossibility
of salvation by their works, and to drive them to Christ,
who was pictured in all the ceremonies and sacrifices and priesthood,
the tabernacle, the temple, to show them their need of a righteousness
they couldn't produce. And you remember their great
failure. And it's all of our great failure if left to ourselves.
Israel sought after righteousness, but not by faith. That is, not
by looking to Christ. and resting in Him for all righteousness,
but they sought it by the law, by works of the law, and they
didn't make it. And that's the same with us.
If we seek salvation, forgiveness, or righteousness by our works,
or even our decisions, we'll fail. If God, the Holy Spirit,
gives us spiritual life in the new birth, we will make a decision
because his convincing power is infallible. Now my convincing
power is not infallible. I mean, I can talk to you till
you're blue in the face and not convince you of anything. But
when the Holy Spirit comes in his regenerative power, he'll
convince us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, and as I say,
the three things, we cannot deny it, we cannot ignore it, and
we cannot leave it. He brings us into agreement,
and we do make a decision, but our salvation is not based on
our decision. The salvation is based upon the
grace, the goodness, and the power of God in Christ, and that's
what brings us to this decision. He convinces us. So Moses represents
the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now why Elias
or Elijah, that's who that is. Well, because Elijah in the Bible
represents the tradition, the school, and the message of all
the prophets of God who prophesied of the Messiah and salvation
by God's grace through him. So here in this vision, you see
Christ, the central figure, the sovereign savior, You see Moses
representing the law, pointing to Christ, and you see Elijah
representing all prophecy, which is fulfilled in Christ, and the
salvation that he accomplished for his people by his obedience
unto death. Now, Luke adds something that
is very significant in his account. And why this is not in all accounts,
I don't know, but that's okay. We have the word of God, but
it's in Luke 9.31. Luke tells us not only did he
talk with Moses and Elijah, but it tells us what he talked about.
And in Luke 9.31, I've got it recorded here, Luke tells us
that the subject of their conversation with the Savior was this. They
spoke of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
His decease, his death. They spoke of his death. You
know, if you were there and you saw this vision and you saw them
speaking, the Lord speaking with Moses and Elijah, wouldn't you
be interested in looking at, hearing what they had to say? And you know, I think about all
the things that false religion is taken up with and concerned
with and spends their time with. And it's nothing. But here he
is speaking with these two men in this vision, and what are
they talking about? They're talking about his decease.
Not just his decease, not just the fact that he's gonna die,
but his decease, as Luke puts it, which he should accomplish. His decease is an accomplishment. You know, man by nature doesn't
think of death as an accomplishment, does he? Somebody gets a dreaded
disease and they succumb to it and they die, and we weep and
we cry and we wail. Oh, the doctors fail, blah, blah,
blah. Or some people even say, well,
God didn't work in it. We don't think of it as an accomplishment,
but boy, the death of Christ is an accomplishment. He didn't
die to make you savable. He didn't die upon condition
of you meeting certain things like believing and all of that. Yes, you will believe if He died
for you. Why? Because of His accomplishment. And I've got in your lesson that
that word deceased is the Greek word for exodus. Remember the
exodus? Genesis and Exodus, the book
of Exodus. Moses leading the children, the
Hebrew children, out of the bondage of Egypt. Well, this is what
Christ does in his death. He leads his sheep out of the
bondage of sin, the bondage of Satan, and the bondage of death,
and into the promised land of heavenly glory. His death was
an exodus for His people. So the Bible says that God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And it says, and because you
are sons, children of God, He sends forth His Spirit to give
you life and faith and repentance. That's a beautiful thing, isn't
it? There he is, speaking of his decease. Well, look at verse
four of Matthew 17. Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord,
it's good for us to be here. Now that's a good statement.
It's good to be anywhere where you see the glory of God, isn't
it? That's why we meet together in worship services. Because
if the gospel is preached, the word of God is preached, and
we believe it by the power of God, the God-given faith that
he gives us, we're seeing the glory of God. Just like we're
sitting there at the foot of that mountain looking at Christ
speaking with Moses and Elijah. We're not seeing it literally,
but we're seeing it in the truth preached. That's what we're here
for, to glorify God. Don't you want to be there? Yeah,
I wanna be where God is glorified. But Peter went on and opened
his big mouth like he normally does, and like I normally do,
or some of you may normally do. He says, Lord, if thou will,
verse four, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee,
one for Moses, one for Elijah. Oh, my soul. Think about it. Think about it. It's almost like
Peter was putting Moses and Elijah on the same level as the Lord
Jesus Christ, to worship him. Mark added this about Peter. He said, he wist not what to
say. He didn't know what to say. Well,
you know what I have found in life that's best for me? If I
don't know what to say, it's better to keep my mouth shut. Peter did not even know what
he was saying. He didn't realize what he was
saying. He spoke rashly as he often did. But there came a swift
response. And you know where it came from?
It came from heaven. Look at verse five. While he yet spake,
while he was still flapping his big mouth, and again, I'm not
just putting down Peter. I do this too. Behold, a bright
cloud overshadowed them. Now the bright cloud always represents
God's presence. Remember the pillar of cloud
and the pillar of fire that surrounded the Hebrew children or followed
them? And it says, behold a voice out of the cloud which said,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. This voice from heaven pointed
to one person, not Moses, not Elijah, but Christ. Look unto Christ. One God and
one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Don't
look to yourself. Don't look to another saint,
such as Moses or Elijah or Paul or Peter. Look to Christ. Look to him for salvation. Look
to him for forgiveness. Look to him for righteousness.
Look to him for life. All of it. He's our all in all. And there's nobody else. Nobody
else deserves any glory. Certainly no one else deserves
to be worshiped. You remember a lot of times the
disciples would go into a town and they would heal somebody
and people wanted to worship them. And they'd say, oh no,
don't worship me. Don't look to me. We're here
as ambassadors for Christ. And you look to him. So this voice said, this is my
beloved son. This is the Father speaking from
heaven, in whom I am well pleased. There's no pleasing God outside
of Christ. The Bible says without faith,
it's impossible to please him. Well, what is faith? A lot of
people just look at faith as an act of believing, but it's
more than that. When it says without faith it's
impossible to please God, you could say it this way. Without
Christ, it's impossible to please God. Because all true faith is
in Christ. Points to Christ. Pleads the
blood and righteousness of Christ. And nothing else. Faith does
not even plead itself. You see that? A lot of people
tell you they're saved because they believed. That's not right. If you truly believe, you'll
say you're saved because of the grace of God in Christ. And I'm
not just splitting hairs there. That's what faith believes. A
lot of people have faith in their faith, their decision, their
baptism, their profession. Well, that's a wrong faith. I'll never forget, I was preaching
out in Oregon one time, and I made the statement that it's not our
faith that saves us, it's Christ. And a young man got upset. So I preached a message here
after that that says, Christ, not faith, is our savior. Well,
preacher, why do you want to put down faith? I don't want
to put down faith. Why do you want to act as if
faith is unnecessary? I'm not acting as if faith is
unnecessary. Faith is necessary. Faith is
as necessary to salvation as a baby breathing is necessary
for it to live. But that baby is not living because
it started breathing. The spark of life was already
there given by God's physical life. and the baby's breathing
is evidence that it's alive. Isn't that right? Same way with
faith. Faith is a gift from God that
comes to us by virtue of life given to us by Christ based upon
his death, burial, and resurrection, his righteousness imputed. We'll
go back to verse five. God the Father said, hear ye
him. Listen, Peter, don't talk. Shut your mouth and hear him.
And look at verse six, and when the disciples heard it, they
fell on their face and were sore afraid. The position of worship. You don't have to fall on the
ground to get there. It's in the heart. Lord, shut
my, let God be true and every man a liar. Shut my mouth and
let me listen to your word. Everybody in false religion is
so ready to talk, so ready to speak, but they're not ready
to hear. Christ said to the disciples,
blessed are your ears for they hear, your eyes for they see. And look at the remedy for being
afraid. Now they were afraid. I suspect
that they were afraid of the unknown. They heard this voice. So what's the remedy for that
kind of fear? Look at verse seven. Jesus came
and he touched them. And he spoke, he said, arise
and be not afraid. His touch, his voice, there's
the remedy. When he sends the spirit to touch
us virtually and bring us under the gospel where he by the spirit
through a preacher or whatever, He speaks to us. And He speaks
peace to His people where there is peace, not where there is
none. I'm going to be talking about
that in the 11 o'clock message on the vengeance of God. Whenever
we talk about God's vengeance, always remember that the reason
that God is not vengeful towards us It's not because we don't
deserve it or haven't earned it, it's because of Christ. And
he says, be not afraid. In verse eight he says, and when
they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. There's the key. When you're looking to alleviate
your fear, when you're looking for peace and assurance, What
does the Bible say? He is at perfect peace whose
mind is fixed on thee. Look to Christ. Look to the glory
of his person. My Savior is God in the flesh. Look to the power of his finished
work. My Savior died on that cross for his people and He provided
a perfect, sure salvation for every one of them, and it's evidenced
by the Spirit bringing them to look to Him and see Him alone.
That's the simplicity, the singularity that's in Christ. In verse nine
it says, and as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged
them saying, tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man
be risen again from the dead. Don't go out and make this public
yet, it's not time. You remember how the masses wanted
to take him to Jerusalem, put him on a throne? Well, he didn't
come for that throne. And then the Pharisees, they
wanted to kill him. His timing, everything is according
to God's timing, you see. God determined this before the
foundation of the world, and nothing's gonna happen a second
sooner or second later than what God had provided and purposed
for that time. There's a time for his people
to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Okay, we'll
stop there.