I was reading over the Transfiguration
this week. I actually heard it brought up
in a sermon that I had been listening to. And I was like, you know,
I hadn't looked at the Transfiguration in quite a while. And so I went
and started looking at it. Of course, the Transfiguration
is found in three of the Gospels. And if you want to count it,
as such, also in 2 Peter, you see part of the account of the
transfiguration there. I think I'll read, I mean, there's
just little nuances between the three gospels that we see if
you read that, and that's one of the reasons why I like having
the four gospels that we have, is sometimes you can pick up,
you know, one of the apostles will write something a little
different from a different vantage point or add a little more things
to it. One glaring thing here and just
I guess I'm gonna get off on a side note before we get started.
But I want to kind of make this clear. We believe that the Bible
does not have errors and contradictions in there. God doesn't contradict
himself. And they use there's a lot of people that that use
the transfiguration, the account of the transfiguration to try
to prove the Bible. Because in Matthew, it begins
after six days, Jesus does this transfiguration. And then I can't
remember, I think it's in, I can't remember if it's in Mark or Luke.
In Mark it says after six days. And then in Luke though, let's
see, it's Luke nine. In Luke 9, it says, and it came
to pass, about an eight days after these sayings. And they
say, well, there you go. The Bible contradicts itself
because Matthew and Mark say six days after six days, and
Luke says after eight days. Well, brother, there ain't no
contradiction in that. He didn't say six days later, and he didn't
say eight days later. He said after six days and after
eight days. Eight days is after six days.
So whatever day it was is not a contradiction. One's just remembering
it and bringing it forth as six days. The other one after six
days, the other one is saying after eight days. So that isn't
a contradiction. And I just kind of wanted to
start with that because I know I remember in times past back
whenever I was into apologetics. That used to be one of the arguments
is the Bible is incorrect. It contradicts itself because
this account says that. Now, there's other things that
they use as well, but that was one of them. But I just wanted
to point that out, especially if you go to compare the Gospels
and you see that two of them says after six days and one of
them says after eight days. Well, which was it, six days
or eight days? Well, whatever it was, they don't contradict
each other because if it was eight days, that's after six
days. Six days have passed. After eight days is after six
days. So it isn't a contradiction. But anyway, we're looking at
the Transfiguration. And we always talk about the
Transfiguration and think about the Transfiguration as we see
this really amazing time when the apostles got to see and look
upon Jesus Christ in his glorified state, and this was before his
crucifixion, by the way, got to see Christ in his glorified
state and with his glorified body. And so the transfiguration
wasn't seen by everybody. Not all of his apostles got to
see this. He only brought with him Peter, James, and John, and
those three went up with him. And he brought those guys in. They were kind of like his closest
confidants. within the apostles and everything. And Jesus allowed them to see
him transfigured, and that word transfigured there, whenever
we talk about the transfiguration, we're just talking about Jesus'
body being, the word is used in here is transfigured, but
I believe in one of the other passages, let me see which one
it was, I think it's, Yeah, in Luke, he doesn't use
the word transfiguration. He just says, and as he prayed,
the fashion of his countenance was altered. So that's basically
what the word transfiguration means is to be his countenance
was altered. So he was transfigured or altered
into this glorious state. Of course, we know when Christ
came, he took on flesh and blood. And whenever he came, he took
on the appearance of His brethren. He took on the likeness of His
brethren. Although He was not sinful in
any way. He was not made of sinful flesh.
But He was made of flesh and bone after the likeness of His
brethren. And in that, the glory of Christ
and that glorious body that He has had for all eternity has
been veiled. Okay? So the coming of Christ
in the incarnation as we know it in his birth from Mary has
been in a body that has been covered in flesh and blood. But
in this transfiguration, he let them see his glorified body,
what this body that he has had from all eternity, and that he,
I put forth that he's had as all eternity because I believe
that Christ his manhood has been from everlasting to everlasting.
I believe that he was in his manhood before the foundation
of the world. And he stood and was brought
forth before the mountains were laid, the Old Testament tells
us. But Christ showed them this glorified
body and we see that Peter and James and John, how how privileged they was to get
to see that. I mean, I couldn't imagine. And if you look at the end of
the account of the transfiguration, Jesus says, what's happened here,
keep it to yourselves. Don't tell nobody about it. Now,
can you imagine having witnessed that and then the Lord tell you,
don't tell anybody about this thing until after I've risen
from the dead? Now, that's like, keeping the
secret of secrets. We got to see Jesus in his glorified
state and they can't tell nobody. You know, but let's read the
account here. But there's a few things that
that kind of impressed me about this as I read through this account
again and again, there's nothing going to be here profound today,
brethren. I'm not a profound person anyway, but There's nothing
going to be profound here. Nothing new under the sun. Just
some things that I'd like to maybe point out in this account
and some thoughts of other scriptures that may tie into this. It says
in Matthew 17, verse 1, and that's the account that I'll read. You
can read the other accounts later. It says, and after six days,
Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth
them up into a high mountain apart. and was transfigured before
them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was
white as the light." Of course, we see this visage of Christ
in His glorified state in other places in Scripture. In the Old
Testament, we see Him whenever it describes Christ, and it describes
Him in this vesture like that of light, and His face is of
sun. We see it in the Revelation.
We see it in other places of Scripture. that talks about the
radiance of Christ. And so this isn't anything new
here. He's actually showing them what
had been seen by other brethren of the Old Testament and eventually
John in Revelation. It says in verse 3, And behold,
there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, or Elijah, talking
with him. Then answered Peter and said
unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. And I imagine
that would be everyone's thoughts, you know, hey man, this is awesome
for us to be here, you know, to get to see this. We're seeing
not only you in your glorified state, but there's Moses and
Elijah. I have their posters on my wall
at my house, you know. It'd be kind of like that kind
of a thing, you know. They're the rock stars of the Old Testament.
They're the, you know, famous guys. Peter said, if thou wilt,
let us make here three tabernacles. One for thee, one for Moses,
and one for Elias. So basically, you know, Peter
was saying, hey, let's sit here, chill out for a while and bask
in this. Let's build some tabernacles.
One for you, a tabernacle for you, a tabernacle for Moses,
a tabernacle for Elijah. And while he had spake, This kind of hit me whenever
I heard this. While he get spake, God interrupted Peter in the
middle of his... Of course, we all know Peter's,
you know, his attitude, his character. Peter's the brash one. Peter's
the jump out in front. I'm going to take charge of everything.
He's the go-getter. He's the one that speaks without
thinking a lot of times, you know. Well, here Peter is. He's
going to jump out and he's going to build a tabernacle for Moses,
a tabernacle for Elijah. He doesn't even know the purpose
for why Jesus brought them up here. He brought them up here
for a purpose. I mean, Jesus didn't go up onto
this mount just to radiate himself and get a little energy let out
and re-clothe himself, have a little chit-chat with Moses and Elijah.
He took Peter and James and John with him. Now there's some significance,
I think, in why he chose those three men. And I'm not prepared
to preach on that or to discuss that in depth, and definitely
not to discuss it and be dogmatic about it. But there is a reason
why Jesus always had Peter, James, and John as his confidants closer
than the other apostles out of the 12. But he took them up here
on a mount, and it says that he brought them up there into
a high mount apart from everybody else. And we see at the end of
this thing that he tells them not to tell anybody else. So
this is something for Peter to see, for John to see, and for
James to see, something that was for their eyes and their
eyes only, and for a certain purpose that he did this. We know he just didn't do this
willy-nilly, right? And so he says, Peter jumps out
without even knowing the purpose of why Jesus is bringing them
up here, without knowing. What all's going on? Just in
the excitement of seeing Moses and Elijah and Jesus in a glorified
state, he says, whoa, hey, let me build a tabernacle for Moses,
a tabernacle for Elijah, and a tabernacle for you. Now, if
you think about it, brethren, the Jews put Moses and the prophets
on high pedestals, those who were practicing, who were actually
following God. Now, the Pharisees and the religious
leaders of the time, they spoke of those men, but they really
hated the things that was being taught by Moses and by the prophets,
because we see throughout all of scripture, and especially
in the New Testament, it tells us that those religious leaders
and the Jews of that time that had come out of that Babylonian
captivity, that had come out of all those captivities where
they had taken on for themselves other gods. Whenever they came
out of that, they came out with a religion that was not the religion
that God gave, Moses. They came out with a religion
that was Jewry and not what God had given down for them to participate
in. And they, Jesus and many of the
places in the scripture tells us that these men killed the
prophets. That all the blood of the prophets
was on the hands of those Jews upon that generation of people,
upon, well, not necessarily that generation, but upon that brand
of what we would call Judaism, that is what was killing the
prophets. That was what was killing all of the prophets of old. That
was what was gonna kill John the Baptist. That was what was
gonna kill Jesus. So we see here that there is
a form of God's people that Jesus said was a brood of vipers. That
was a synagogue of Satan. And those people killed the prophets. And that was their lot. And they
were going to be judged for that. And so Moses and the prophets
were highly regarded, though, by all those who still held on
to the teachings that God had given them through Moses and
through the prophets and who was looking for Messiah to come.
That was something that was highly regarded. So Moses and the prophets
was very highly regarded. And so I can imagine when Peter
saw this, that was the first thing he thought, hey, we need
to give some credence to Moses and credence to Elijah, and of
course, credence to Christ, because he's, you know, our Messiah. Matter of fact, if I'm not mistaken,
brethren, as when he asked who did men
say that I am? Maybe it's in one of the other accounts.
I might be, I might be mistaken on that. But anyway, so Jesus
is revealing himself and he's brought Moses and Elijah into
picture and they're up there talking on the mountain. He says,
that, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking
with him. Then answered Peter and said
unto Jesus, it is good for us to be here. If thou will, let
us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses,
and one for Elias. While he yet spake, so as Peter
was saying these things, God cut him off and interrupted him,
stopped him in his tracks, and said, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud which
said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear
ye Him." Now Moses was still there, Elijah was still there,
Christ was still there, but the cloud overshadowed what Peter
was about to suggest, or was suggesting, is, hey, let's give
some worship to Moses, let's give some worship to the prophets,
and let's give some worship to Jesus. We all know that those believing
Jews still had an affection for Moses because they went into
Judaizing not long after Christ's ascension. Peter had a problem
still looking back to Moses, even after that time, and Paul
had to confront him face to face because he was being hypocritical
among the Gentiles. When he was among the Gentiles
by themselves, he had all the freedom in the world to act with
outside and apart from the law. But yet whenever those Jews would
come around, those religious leaders or those Jews would come
around, Peter would start acting more like a Jew again and start
following after and trying to act like he was keeping the law.
And that was offending both parties. That would offend both parties.
And so he was being a compromiser. And so he was trying to keep
both parties happy. And Paul confronted him to his
face and said, you're being hypocritical. So even Peter still held on to
this affinity for the law. He still held on to this affinity
to the prophets. And even all of what the law
and the prophets were preaching and teaching, while those men
had heard that and heard that and heard that their whole entire
life, now Jesus had come, John the Baptist had come on the scene
and begun to preach the kingdom of God. Now Christ had come,
was preaching the kingdom of God, and now they were beginning
to hear something what they thought was different, but yet Christ
and John and of course the apostles eventually themselves began to
preach and declare the kingdom of God and declare what the Old
Testament was teaching them all along about the work of the Messiah.
And so whenever Peter seeing this, he's like, oh awesome,
there's Moses and there's Elijah, let's get them a place to be
worshipped and to commune with and one for Christ. And so he
was basically saying, let's put these men, the law and the prophets,
on equal footing with Jesus Christ. And that's at the point where
God cut him off and he said, this is my beloved son. Not Moses,
not Elijah, okay? This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased." Hear Him. Listen to Him. He is telling
you and explaining to you and bringing forth to you everything
that Moses and the prophets were telling you about. Granted, they
were telling you and we read back on those things in types
and foreshadows. We look back on those and we
see those things as they were given in prophecy. But yet, Jesus is here. He is
telling you the truth. He is telling you plainly. He
is telling you clearly. And you need to listen to Him.
Jesus said that He came. As a matter of fact, the Scriptures
tell us that Jesus Christ came and that He is the one who manifested
or showed the disciples and the apostles who God was. He was the manifestation of God
in the flesh. He was the manifestation of the
Father. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So he was bringing
those men that God had given him to see the glory of the Father
and the relationship. I don't know if any of y'all
have had a chance to listen to, Dan O'Dell's been preaching some
Messages on this of Christ being the one who is revealing the
Father and His relationship to His people on the, whenever He's
been going out each month to Wellstrap to preach. Very good
messages. And if you listen to those, start
from the beginning and work your way down, because they're definitely
a progression in what He's preaching. Very, very good messages. But
He's preaching on the same thing that I'm saying right here. Jesus
came to manifest or to show forth the glory of God in the face
of Himself. And He did that to fulfill everything
that the Old Testament had said about Him. So He come and He's
fulfilling everything that the Old Testament is saying about
Him. And so that is why whenever Peter begins to start putting
Moses and putting the prophets up on equal standing building
a tabernacle unto Christ, God said, wait a minute, this is
my beloved son, hear ye him. And so whenever I was reading
through this, for some reason it just kind of caught my mind,
and maybe I've thought about this in the past, maybe I haven't,
I can't really remember if I have or not, and this may be, you
know, simple stuff to everybody else, and it may be common stuff
to everybody else, but to me, it just hit me this week. This
right here is a perfectly beautiful picture of Jesus Christ foreshadowing
and telling the end and the severance of the Old Covenant. This is
Him ahead of time, a few years ahead of time, but ahead of showing
forth the end of the Old Covenant and the bringing on of the New
Covenant. You see in the picture of this transfiguration that
Jesus is there and He's speaking with Moses and Elijah. And so you see that there is
communion between Moses and Elijah or the Law and the Prophets.
I take that to represent why he picked Moses and why he picked
Elijah. Elijah was the most prominent
prophet of the Old Testament. So Elijah and Moses representing
the Law and the Prophets. And so Jesus is here conversing
with them. We see the communion between
the Law and the Prophets and Christ Jesus. We see that there
is harmony between the law and the prophets and Christ Jesus.
There isn't a competition here. The law and the prophets, as
we see in this account, let's go ahead and read through this.
He said, And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their
face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them
and said, Arise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. So Moses And Elijah was
there conversing and communing with Christ, but yet when he
was being transfigured before them, the glory of his presence
shining through, these men seeing that, they fell down and was
afraid whenever they heard the voice out of heaven saying, this
is my son, hear ye him. And whenever they lifted up their
eyes, the only one left there was Jesus. Moses and Elijah had
faded away, had gone away, had disappeared, had went back to
heaven, had whatever, however they went, whether they went
up, whether they just faded away, whether they did the, you know,
Thanos snap and blew off in the wind. I don't know how they did
it. They weren't there. When they looked up, they were
gone. And all that stood was Christ. And we see a beautiful
picture here that Moses and Elijah perfectly communes with the great
Messiah because the purpose of the Law and the Prophets was
to tell forth and to show forth and to give testimony to the
Messiah. All the Law and the Prophets
was to bring forth and to show forth the coming Messiah and
that was the Gospel being preached to all the Old Testament. And
so these men who being under that Old Testament teaching,
under that Old Testament preaching, in the lineage of all those Hebrews
that had come before them and being taught. And again, their
teaching back then isn't like the teaching that we have now,
brethren. Their teaching back there was a very vociferous teaching. I mean, it was, they taught their
children, they taught their children, they taught their children, and
everything was a vocal, verbal thing. They just didn't have
books like we have laying around that you can just read all the
time. No, it was an oral tradition. And they told these things. And
they had all of these feasts and ordinances in the Old Testament
that they had to keep. And the reason they kept that
is to teach every generation what that festival or what that
feast or what those things meant that they were keeping. You know,
the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the
Passover, all those things had a type, and they were preaching
something about Christ. And so as they passed this tradition
along, and as they'd done all these things, they would orally
teach their children. This right here is the showing.
Yes, God delivered us out of Egypt, kill the lamb and put
the blood on the door post and the dead angel come through and
didn't kill us and everything. But that's picturing and that
is talking about our coming Messiah who at some time will come and
take away all of our sins and that he will be the sacrifice
for all of us. That was the gospel being preached.
And so Moses and the prophets all the prophets and all their
prophecies that was given. Those prophecies were given to
talk about the day that Christ would come and do what He was
coming to do to save His people from their sin. Those visions
and those prophecies and dreams and all those things that they
were having was showing forth the day that Christ would come
and sever that relationship with Old Covenant and bring in the
New Covenant and manifest unto all the world the salvation of
Jehovah. And that's what that was purposed
here. And so here we see, whenever Jesus is standing there, Moses
and the prophets, we vividly see the fading away, and matter
of fact, even in Hebrews, the Bible even says, I think it's
Hebrews, it says that this covenant, it was already beginning to fade
away. Okay? Now the culmination or the very
cutting off point that ended the whole entire old covenant
system was the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. But Christ's
death on the cross was the fulfillment of all those things that the
law and the prophet had told. And so whenever we see Moses
and Elijah fade away and Christ alone standing, we see not only
the prominence of the new covenant in Christ Jesus, But we see that
everything the Law and the Prophets had been there to testify of
was standing in front of them. He says, And Jesus came, touched
them and said, Arise and be not afraid. But when they had lifted
up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. 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. So they had to keep that to themselves
until after the resurrection. And the reason why is because
the resurrection was a very important thing. The resurrection was to
point to some things, was to validate some things, and was
to bring forth all of what God had done in the Old Testament
talking about this salvation of Jehovah that Messiah was going
to do. That would be the culmination of that work and then the severing
of the beginning of the severing of Israel as a nation and the
old covenant people and the old covenant itself, that God is
destroying that, it's going away, the new covenant is now coming
in, being manifested, and it's being taken to every tribe, language,
and nation. So, I wanted just to look a few
verses that talk kind of about what we're seeing here. If you
would, while you're in Matthew, look at Matthew chapter 11. And
the reason why I think this is a picture of this Old Covenant
going away and that in that Moses and Elijah picture that we've
seen and the fading away that we saw, the Bible clearly speaks
to that end. That there would be a time where
everything that is Moses and the prophets would fade away
to give way to what Jesus is saying. And how Jesus is portraying
everything. And how Jesus is the central
figure of all of this. And if you look at Matthew chapter
11, and if you would, down at verse 13. Or let's start at verse 12. It says, well,
I'm sorry, it's actually in verse 7. And as they departed, Jesus began
to say unto the multitudes concerning John, and this is talking about
John the Baptist, what went ye out into the wilderness to see,
a reed shaken with the wind? And what went ye out for to see,
a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing
are in kings' houses. And what went ye out for to see,
a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more
than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, Behold,
I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy
way before thee." Now, to us, that doesn't sound so prominent.
To those Jews that he was talking to, that was a very prominent
prophecy that was being fulfilled right in front of their eyes
in the coming of John the Baptist. He was the forerunner that would
come before Messiah, who would make straight his paths and make
ready a people for Christ whenever he would come. And so John is
being likened unto Elijah. John is being likened unto that
messenger who would come and prepare the way for Messiah.
So to those Jewish people who had heard this all their life
and from generation to generation to generation to generation was
looking forward to this time, whenever he started talking about
this, I'm sure the hairs on the back of their neck probably raised
up and their ears perked up. They started listening, getting
on the edge of their seat. Now wait a minute, what's he
talking about here? And Jesus said in verse 11, Verily I say
unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not
risen a greater than John the Baptist. A lot of people wanna
dump on John the Baptist, but listen, Jesus himself said, there's
not been a prophet greater than John the Baptist. And that includes
Elijah. Elijah showed up with Jesus. He was the most prominent of
the Old Testament saints, but he said, there's not a prophet
There's not a man greater that is born of woman have not risen
greater than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Now there's a lot I
could talk about about what that means, but let's go on. Verse
12. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence
and the violent take it by force. So this tells me at this point,
the kingdom of heaven is already there. Because it says here,
and from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom
of heaven suffered violence and the violent take it by force.
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. But at John, something changed. And I begin to believe that this
is the beginning of things that is looking towards the new covenant,
that is looking towards the kingdom of God, The manifesting of the
kingdom of God. Now we know the kingdom of God
is an everlasting kingdom. We're told that the kingdom of
Christ, or the kingdom of God, is an everlasting kingdom. So the kingdom of Christ existed
before John the Baptist, but it hadn't been made manifested. Now John and Jesus is coming,
preaching the kingdom of God, manifesting the kingdom of God.
in mystery in the Old Testament is now being revealed under the
New Covenant. And so we see where the Bible
says that it was beginning to fade away, we see that Moses'
face, the glory began to fade away, right? So we begin to see
some of these things are beginning to fade away and Jesus is taking
the prominence, Jesus and his kingdom is starting to take the
prominence. And John, it says, all the prophets
and the law prophesied until John. So that meant at John,
there was a changing in direction of God in how he began to minister
the gospel. The gospel in the old, under
the old covenant, was in types and foreshadows and prophecies,
and those things were by the law and the prophets. by Moses
and Elijah, by Moses and all the other prophets. Those things
were given and they were hidden and they were in a mystery. But
now they are beginning to be preached and being revealed.
And they are being revealed in the face of Jesus Christ who
has come and He is showing forth the glory of the relationship
of the Father to His people through His work on their behalf. God's
love for His people is going to be shown in the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His glorification and ascension
back into heaven. That is going to show forth God's
love for His people, and it's going to show forth the whole
work of the salvation of Jehovah. So what's fixing to happen with
Jesus here in about three and a half years is something that
is going to be a changer in everything that they've seen before and
everything that they'll know going forward. It's going to
be a radical change in everything. It's going to be the manifestation
of what the eternal decree had been for all along. God's eternal
decree before the foundation of the world that God had already
wrote down and sealed up, that is only going to be revealed
by Jesus Christ. He is the one who reveals and
brings forth the declaration of God. And so we see this transitional
period as Jesus begins this three and a half year ministry, this
three and a half year period of time that He is teaching them
and laying the foundation and laying down the doctrines and
bringing them forth in their understanding and bringing them
to the point where everything that Moses prophets were talking
about is about to be fulfilled. He even told them that. Matter
of fact, look with me if you would at Luke's account of the transfiguration. It's in Luke chapter 9. We actually kind of get a peek
here at actually what Moses and Elijah and Jesus were talking
about. Okay? Look in Luke chapter 9
and starting in verse 28, it said, And it came to pass, about
eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James
and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion
of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and
glistening. And behold, there talked with
him two men which were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory
and spake of his decease." Whose decease? Not Moses' and not Elijah's,
okay? Spoke of Christ's decease, which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem. So what Moses and the prophets
are talking with to Jesus is his death. and what is going
to be accomplished at Jerusalem. That's the conversation that
was going on on the mount at the transfiguration. So see,
it has to do, this transfiguration is tied to and is anchored in
the work of Christ on the cross. That's the purpose. He took these
men up to that mountain and allowed them to see His glory His full
glory and allowed them to see Moses and Elijah speaking of
His death and everything that was to be accomplished in that
death and then Moses and the prophet fading away and Christ
alone being declared to be the Son of God who in Him there is
only pleasure. Now, I think that that's not
coincidence. I don't think that that there
is no such thing as coincidence, by the way, but I don't think
that that's just happenstance, coincidence. I think Jesus did
this as a forerun, foreshadow of showing them what the glory
of Christ, whenever they saw that brightness, whenever they
seen that majesty, they knew, because all they had seen is
the lowly carpenter's son. All they've seen is the man in
flesh and bone, who the Bible says is a man of sorrows, who
in his visage, in his outward appearance, looks like nothing.
The Bible says he looked like nobody. I mean, nobody even looked
upon him and thought that he was anything. I mean, he was
a calmly man. He didn't look like, he didn't
dress like other royalty. He didn't act like royalty. He
made himself of no reputation, the Bible says. And this is the
man that all these men have been following, the carpenter's son
from Galilee. What kind of prophet comes out
of Galilee? Here they are following a prophet
out of Galilee. And this man is just the most
common person that you ever met. doing things, saying things that
is upturning the whole entire religious system and making the
religious leaders mad. You can imagine these disciples
are probably saying, Jesus, would you just calm it down a little
bit on how you're talking to these? These are our religious
leaders and you're making them mad. They're wanting to kill
you. See, this is the man that they've been seeing. This is
the man somewhere in the back of their mind is thinking this
is the Messiah that is supposed to deliver us Yet look at what
all he's doing. And so Jesus takes his three
most trusted apostles and he takes them up on the mountain
and lets them see. Yes, I am meek and lowly. Yes,
I am a man of sorrows. Yes, I am calmly. Yes, I am that
carpenter's son in this flesh and bone legally, not actually. But this is who I really am.
and He shows forth His glory to them for them to see that
there is something beyond this veil. There is something beyond
who I am and this flesh and bone I took on for the purpose in
which God sent me in this flesh and blood. This flesh and blood
came so that it might lay itself down and be, as we see here,
deceased. for accomplishing something.
We see here that he should accomplish. See, that tells me that Jesus'
trip to the cross was not only planned, but it was to actually
fulfill and to accomplish something that had to do with Moses and
Elijah. Because they were discussing what Jesus was going to accomplish
in his decease. So that begs to say there's a
plan, And there's the accomplishment of that plan. And Jesus here
is showing these three men that this glory that you are seeing
here, do you not think that it's going to accomplish everything?
You might look on the outward appearance and see me in this
meek and lowly, but here, let me show you the true me and all
the doubts that you have that this can be accomplished. And
guess what? They went down from that mountain
and while they kept that secret to themselves, they forgot the
whole entire thing. They forgot the whole entire
thing. What happened whenever they come to arrest Jesus? What
did Peter do? Drew out the sword, cut off the
ear of Malchus. You're not going to take him.
Whenever Jesus said that I must go up and be crucified, Peter
said, it's not going to happen. I'm not going to let it happen.
Jesus had to chase him and said, get thee behind me, Satan. Every one of them. And you look
after the fact, even after he died, and even after he was said
to have resurrected by the women saying, we've seen him. He's
resurrected. They didn't believe it. Even
though Jesus had specifically, right before his arrest, had
told them, I must be delivered up to the religious leaders and
they're going to crucify me, but in three days I'm going to
rise again. They still didn't believe him.
After it was all over and He had resurrected from the dead,
are you now going to establish your kingdom? They still thought
Jesus was coming to do something that Jesus had not said He was
going to do. Or at least they understood Him
to do something, they were going to understand Him to do something
different than what He actually came to do. Because we're told
here that in His decease, He actually accomplished what God
had sent Him to do. and what all of the prophets
and Moses was talking about. And so here we see that these
men forgot that and that's how we are, brethren, in the human
flesh. We easily forget the things of
God. We easily center in on the man-centered
things and we forget the spiritual things that God is teaching us.
How often, like I said, this transfiguration, how many times
have I read this and read this and read this and read this And
to me it's just been, Jesus showed himself fully and went on about
my business. Never thinking about the tie
to his crucifixion. Never thinking about how it was
showing the vanishing away or the fading away of that old covenant
or the foretelling of that break in the old covenant system and
the bringing in of the new covenant that was soon to take place. There was a lot more there than
I thought was there. And what a beautiful picture
it is. But we see that up until John, that had been veiled. It
had been hidden. And so now we see that is being
told and talked about in all the prophets and the law that
was prophesied until John began to be revealed and it was being
revealed that all the prophets and the law were speaking of
Christ and His work when He came. Look at Luke 16, verse 16. This is just a parallel account
of what we've just seen in Matthew, but it adds a little bit of something
to it. It says, the Law and the Prophets were until John. Since
that time, the Kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth
into it. So from the coming of John, now
the Kingdom of God is being preached. We're not talking about an Old
Testament Kingdom, a theocratic kingdom. And if you think about
it, brethren, God give Israel that theocratic kingdom because
they didn't want God, by faith, trusting God. They didn't want
to trust God to lead them and guide them and to be their God.
They wanted to be like every other nation. They wanted to
have a king with a palace and a throne with a rod of iron that
ruled over them. They wanted to be ruled like
all the other nations. They wanted to be ruled in a
physical way. They wanted to be ruled in a way like all the
heathens. They didn't want to live by faith. Trusting their God to provide
for them. Even though they seen Him bring
them out of Egypt. Although they seen Him keep them
through the wilderness. Although they saw Him come into
Canaan and bring them into the land. And to destroy all their
enemies in front of their face. And to give them everything that
He had promised to Abraham. They came in, received it all.
It all became theirs. They gave it all to Him. They
seen Him. After they sinned against Him,
God sent them into captivity. And then God promised to bring
them back out of captivity. And He did. And He brought them
out of captivity. Then they sinned again. God sent
them into captivity. They came out again because God
promised to take them out of captivity. But then God said,
if they sin again, that I'm going to destroy you. And I'm going
to remove myself from you. And he never promised that ever
again, to bring them back. And that he did. And so we see
here that until John, all of this spoke about the, in the
old covenant and under that theocratic kingdom, it foreshadowed a coming
of something that was a greater fulfillment of that. And that
was what Christ had come to accomplish. He'd come to accomplish His kingdom
being manifested. And this is the kingdom that
we don't see. Because the Bible says that this
kingdom is not of this world. The Bible says that this kingdom
is not a kingdom that is a physical kingdom but a spiritual kingdom.
And Christ comes to establish that kingdom and to manifest
what was already there. What Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter
6 of Christ on His throne. Ruling in His kingdom. Even at
that time. His kingdom was there, but it
had been not made manifest because it was seen in visions. And it was seen in prophecies.
It was told in mystery. And now we're beginning to see
the fulfillment of all these things. And it says, the Law
and Prophets were unto John since that time. The kingdom of God
is preached. And so now we're beginning to
preach about this kingdom. And Jesus is teaching and giving
us New Testament language to this kingdom. Look if you would
at Luke chapter 24 and verse 44. This is after Jesus' resurrection
and right before His ascension, whenever He's eating some fish. with the guys, said in verse
440, it said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms concerning me. So now we see that not only
is all of the law of Moses and the prophets speaking of Jesus
and what He would fulfill at His death, but all the Psalms
that concerned Him. So all the Messianic prophecies
in the Psalms was to show forth what was to be fulfilled in Christ's
coming and His decease or His accomplishment of God's purpose
and why He was here. He said, then opened He their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. And boy, how that
cuts to my heart whenever I read that every time. Because brethren,
if any of us has a truth that is in accordance with God's word,
it's because God has opened up our understanding that we might
understand the scriptures. I can't just read this thing.
You can't just read this thing. We can't give this thing out
to this book out to the heathen and the heathen read these things
and come to their understanding of what's being taught in here.
Like I was saying last week, you can preach all the day long
you want to somebody about something, and unless God gives them that
understanding, they're not going to be able to understand that.
Because it's spiritually discerned. Here is men who Jesus specifically
said, I'm going to die, I'm going to rise on the third day, and
those men still didn't understand it. And Jesus here is saying,
These are the things that the Law and the Prophet told you,
but they have to go away. They have to vanish because the
fulfillment has come. And now that the fulfillment
is here and has accomplished everything, now these men still
don't understand. So what had to happen? Jesus
had to give them understanding. He had to open up their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. And so I think for
Peter and James and John, Jesus give him that glimpse of glory
so that they might, as the three pillars of the believing Jews,
would be able to give credence and give hope. And we've seen all three of those,
all three of those men did that after Christ's ascension. Peter
gave record of that in 2 Peter 1.6. He talked about this. Let
me jump over there. I didn't mean to. I wasn't going
to jump over there, but let's go ahead and jump over there.
2 Peter 1.16 is the account. Peter giving confidence and assurance
to these persecuted Jews who in the time of harsh persecution that they were
going through before the destruction of Jerusalem, were wanting to
know where is the return? Where is His coming? And Peter
is giving them reassurance here that Jesus didn't lie to you. But look what he says here in
verse 16. He says, For we have not followed cunningly devised
fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of His majesty."
See, they saw His majesty. They've seen what it's going
to look like whenever He comes. It says, "...for He received
from God the Father, honoring glory, when there came such a
voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son,
and whom I am well pleased. And this voice, which came from
heaven, we heard when we were with Him in the holy mount. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well,
that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place
until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart. Knowing
this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private
interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God's faith, as they were moved by
the Holy Spirit." So Peter here is even saying That, you know,
there was an impact that we've seen whenever we've seen Him
coming in His glory. Listen, we know this man, this
lowly man of Galilee, that we all thought was just a carpenter's
son for so long, this man that we didn't think was the coming
Messiah, this man that we had our doubts about, we've seen
Him in that full glory and we know that if He's that glorious,
there is nothing that's going to stop Him from accomplishing
because He has accomplished everything that has been told about in the
Old Testament. Don't you think He's going to
accomplish everything that He's going to say that He's going
to do going forward? And so we have a more sure word
of prophecy in the face of Jesus Christ. Look, if you would, at
John chapter 1. In John chapter 1. John chapter 1, and if you look
at the calling of Philip and Nathaniel, verse 42. And he brought him to Jesus,
and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son
of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas,
which is by interpretation of stone. I know that wasn't where
I wanted to start. Verse 43. The day following, Jesus would go
forth into Galilee and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow
me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
and the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law
and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So here we have the declaration
even by Philip that Everything that Moses and the prophets talked
about was talking about Jesus of Nazareth. We can go to Acts,
chapter 24. Again, for all of us, this is
kind of common stuff for us. We've heard this. We believe
this stuff. We hold to this stuff. This is stuff that we feed upon,
right? But, believe it or not, brethren,
there are many people that are out there, that are in these
modern churches, that are hearing these false gospels, that hear
that what the Old Testament is the Old Testament, and the New
Testament is the New Testament, never the two shall marry. Never
the two shall cross. You know, there's a difference
between the Old Testament and it's gone away, which we believe
that the Old Covenant and the Old Covenant people have gone
away, but brethren, The Old Covenant was there for a purpose. It was
to teach us and to show us and to bring us to Christ and to
show us Him. But there are a lot of people
that don't understand these things. They don't see that Jesus is
in the Old Testament. That the Gospel has been preached.
I mean, matter of fact, just recently, as in a couple of months
ago, I've seen somebody online write a whole entire diatribe
of the fact that the Gospel never was preached in the Old Testament.
when there's clearly New Testament explicit verses that say the
Gospel was preached unto Abraham. And whenever confronted with
that, this man continued to hold on to the tradition that he had
been grown up in, saying that Jesus was never preached in the
Old Testament. The Gospel was never preached
in the Old Testament. So, that's one of the reasons
why these sermons are needed, is because there are a lot of
people that may have that understanding. And they need to see what the
Scriptures teach on these things. But look at Acts chapter 24 and
verse 14. It says, And they came to the
chief priests and the elders and said, We have bound ourselves
under a great curse that we will eat nothing until we have slain
Paul. Now, therefore, ye with the council
signify... I'm in the wrong verse. 24, Acts chapter 24. I'm in chapter 23. Acts 24 and verse 14. But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way which they call heresy, now this is when
Paul, if you remember Paul was brought before Felix and was
being tried. And they were talking about that
they were part of the, they would call them the way, the Christians
were called those who are of the way. And they were calling it heresy.
And he said, I confess unto thee, that after the way, which they
call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing
all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets,
and have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that
there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and the unjust." So here Paul is saying, I believe everything. You guys are saying that we're
a different sect or we're some cultic group that's coming out
here preaching something different. But he said, I believe everything
that the Law and the Prophets were preaching. And all the Law
and the Prophets were preaching and teaching about hope towards
God. The Law and the Prophets allow
hope towards God in this way. that there's going to be a resurrection
of the dead, both the just and the unjust. There's going to
be a resurrection of the dead. Now, granted, brethren, the Law
and the Prophets talked about a resurrection of Christ and
it talked about a resurrection of the just and the unjust at
the end. And Paul here is saying, listen,
whether you think we're a cult or not, we're just preaching
everything that is coming from the Old Testament from the Law
and the Prophets. And all that is testifying of
what we're saying. But you can't see it, you can't
read it, you can't understand it, because it's not been given
to you to understand. Jesus said that. It's not been
given for them to know the things of the kingdom, but it's been
given unto you. It's been taken from them, and it's been given
unto babies. It's been taken from them who
have done foolishness with it, and it's been given unto the
servants of God. The kingdom has been taken from them and
has been given unto you. See, those men who were supposed
to be pointing people to Christ were pointing people to Moses
and Elijah. Moses had the law for their righteousness
and the prophets for a coming physical kingdom that the Jews
were going to rule over all the nations of the world. So the
law and the prophets all were pointing to Jesus and His accomplishment
and fulfillment of everything that they were talking about.
And Paul is saying that's what we're preaching. And that gives
us hope towards God because in Christ Jesus, we see that there
is resurrection. Now was it the Sanhedrin that
didn't believe in the resurrection? I always get it mixed up whether
it was Nehemiah or Pharisee. One of them is, I think it was
a Sanhedrin though, the Sadducees. Sorry, the Sadducees. The Sadducees
didn't believe in the resurrection. So there was even Jewish leaders
among them called the Sadducees that didn't believe in the resurrection.
And here Paul was saying, hey listen, there is a resurrection. The Sadducees are wrong. And
all of you who have believed in a resurrection, there truly
is a resurrection. But the proof of that resurrection
isn't in what is going to happen at the end. What's happening
at the end, we have hope in that because of what happened with
the man that you slayed, the man that you crucified, that
you killed. And so the resurrection, that's
why it's important, is for one, it shows forth the accomplishment
of what Jesus came to do. And it shows forth the hope of
what is going to happen at the end. Whenever He comes again
and we are resurrected, And there will be the resurrection of the
just and the unjust. The just unto everlasting life
and the unjust unto everlasting condemnation. Look, if you will,
down at chapter 28 of Acts. It says, When they had appointed
him a day, there came many to him, into his lodging, to whom
he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them
concerning Jesus. both out of the law of Moses
and out of the prophets from morning till evening. And some
believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not among
themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one word.
Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah, the prophet, unto our
fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall
hear, and shall not understand and see, ye shall see and not
perceive. For the heart of this people
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto
you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and
that they will hear it. And when he said these words,
the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves. And
Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received
all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence,
no man forbidding him. So here we see again, Paul, even
after all these years and at Rome, at the end of his days,
now remember, at the end of the day, who was the one that killed
Paul? Who was the one that seemed to,
that Paul and Peter both were killed? It was the Romans. It was during the time of Nero.
He was the one that was doing it. So this is during the persecution.
This is during all of this time period, that the Jews that Peter
was writing to and saying, here, our hope is in this resurrection.
Our hope is in this man that was transfigured before our eyes
and we've seen the glory. He is the one who is going to
be not only our sin deliverer, but he's going to be the one
who's going to physically deliver us from all of this stuff and
bring us into His glory with Him. The just will be resurrected
and be made like unto Him There will be a day when all of this
is going to be judged, and it will be done away with, and there
will be a resurrection at the end. And Jesus, who we have seen
in the mount, and we have seen His glory, can accomplish everything
that has been said is going to be accomplished by Him. And Paul
is saying no different. Right in the crux of all the
turmoil, and the heat, And the stuff that was going on to the
Jews during this time period was giving the believers in Christ
Jesus. And we see some of them believed.
Some of them had been given hope by Christ. Some of them had been
given faith by Christ, and they believed Him. But what did He
do? He preached to them from Moses and the prophets everything
concerning what Christ had accomplished. And they believed it. But some
of them didn't. because some of them weren't
given to believe it. And some of them still misunderstood it.
Now some of them may eventually came, I don't know. Just like
the days of Jesus, whenever they were all enlisted and some of
them went away, the Bible tells us that there was a lot of people
that did begin to follow Jesus. We're told that the day of Pentecost,
3,000 people was brought to faith in Christ Jesus. And then after
that, there was a couple of thousand more that came to Christ Jesus,
not long after that. So, I mean, here we're seeing
about 5,000 people that came to Jesus. These may have been
the ones that went away, not believing, but the Lord had finally
given them faith and they came back believing. I don't know.
The rich young ruler, he went away because he had much riches
and didn't like what Jesus had told him he had to do for eternal
life. But yet, when he went away, the Bible says that Christ loved
him. Well, if Christ loved him, then
that tells me that that was one of his sheep. And that at some
point, that religious leader probably came back to him. He
didn't at that time, so we don't know, brethren. We don't know.
But we see that it's given to them. But the Law and the Prophets
testified of the same thing that they saw on the mountain, and
it made an impact upon them. Now, Paul, he's seen Christ in
a different way. He saw Him in His glory on the
road to Damascus. Peter, James, and John, they
seen Him on the mount and bore witness of what Paul is bearing
witness of. Paul is bearing witness of what
Peter, James, and John bear witness of. Of that glorified Messiah
accomplishing all that God had decreed. And that's what we see
and how they give hope to those Christians who were under such
great persecution at that time and have what gives hope to us
today that this life isn't all that's left of us. for us. We have a life after this. We have hope in the resurrection. We have hope in the glorified
Son of God. Let's go back to Luke 24 again. I've got a few more I want to
read here. Luke 24. Verse 27. Again, we see this. This is what just astonished
me this morning as I was looking at this and then yesterday as
I was looking at this. It's just the overwhelming nature
of Moses and the prophets testifying of that glorified Jesus. And the tie of the transfiguration
to that mystery of old and the tie of the transfiguration to
the soon fulfillment of all things in Christ Jesus, and the tie
of that transfiguration to the final resurrection of all God's
people. And I don't know, I may have
not even been making clear what's even in my mind this morning.
I hope the Lord has caused me to be able to make it clear.
I pray the Holy Spirit makes it clear to you. If not, just
count it off as me babbling this morning. and make it no sense
at all. But Luke 24, look with me again, just more testimony
of what we've been seeing already. 27, verse 27. It says, sorry, 25. And then he said unto them, O
fools, and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets
had spoken. This is Christ, just a quick backdrop again, this
is Christ after his resurrection, He's on the road to Emmaus. You
remember the two disciples? We know one was Cleophas, and
I can't remember the other one's name, or if it is. I forget the
name. But there was two disciples that were walking on the road
to Emmaus. Christ came alongside them, asked them, hey, what are
y'all talking about? And they said, well, where have you been? Have you
heard? Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, and we thought He
was the one who was going to come and save us from everything.
And it says, oh, and Jesus responded to them. O fools and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken of." So the
very thing that they thought Jesus was coming to do, Jesus
is now saying, O you fools and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets had said. He said, the prophets said exactly
what has happened, but you were slow to believe it. Now, the
reason they were slow to believe is because they hadn't been given
to believe again. We'll see that. It said, Ought not Christ, who
hath suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? He's saying, isn't this exactly
what was said that was going to be accomplished? That Christ
would die, and then He would be resurrected, and that He would
ascend back to the Father and take the throne? Now, Peter's going to actually
preach this message in just a few pages over, Jesus said, isn't
this what should have happened? If you've listened to the prophets,
they were telling you this. And He said, and beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, all the prophets, that meant He went
into every one of those prophetic books in the Old Testament and
showed Jesus being crucified and resurrected and ascended
into glory, coming in His kingdom in every one of those prophets. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning Himself. And they drew nigh unto the village,
whether they went, and He made as though He would have gone
further. But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us, for
it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went
in to tarry with them, and it came to pass, as He sat at meat
with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and
gave to them, and their eyes were opened, and they knew Him,
and He vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another,
Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by
the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? And they
arose at the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven
gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord
is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were
done in the way and how He was known of them in breaking of
the bread. And at that point, Jesus appeared
unto them while they were even talking about that to all the
rest of them. And so here we see, once again, that Moses and
the prophets was bearing record of everything that Jesus was
come to fulfill and to accomplish. Now, if you remember in our account
that we started with in Transfiguration, God from heaven spoke down and
He said, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And it says, Hear ye Him. Now if we look in Hebrews chapter
1 and verse 1, we learn this. God
who at sundry times and in divers manners or many different ways
spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, So how
did God speak in times past in many different ways? As a matter
of fact, we find that He speaks to them in visions and dreams
and dark speeches, that He speaks to them in types and foreshadows. He spoke to them through the
law, through all of the ceremonial aspects
and rituals that He had given to them, He spoke to them in
divers manners by the prophets." But look what it says in verse
2. "...hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom
He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made
the world, who being the brightness of His glory..." There's that
picture that we've seen at the Transfiguration. the brightness
of His glory, and the express image of His person, meaning
God being shown in the flesh. Now, at the transfiguration,
He wasn't seen in flesh and bone, but He's seen in that spiritual
body. Whatever kind of flesh that was,
whatever kind of body that that was, that was what He was being
seen in. That's God's glory being seen
in the face of Jesus Christ. God being manifested in Christ
Jesus bodily, but here being revealed in His glory. Who being
the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,
and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had
by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty of High, being made so much better than the angels,
as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art
my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to
him a father, and he shall be to me a son." And so we see here
that all of the prophets spoke of Jesus Christ, but in the last
days, God has spoken not through those things, but through Christ. And Christ has made known the
work. Made known God and His work. Made known the Father and everything that He has declared.
Of course, that verse 8 speaks of
His... Did I read verse 8? Turn away from it. It says, But unto the Son, He
said, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. If His throne is forever
and ever, then His kingdom is forever and ever. That's His
everlasting kingdom. It says, A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of Thy kingdom. That word scepter there is also
where we find in other places of Scripture, His rod. his rod,
so when he got on his throne, he had his rod. And that rod
is his rod of righteousness. The scepter of his kingdom. So
the scepter that he rules his kingdom by is righteousness.
And so, that leads me to, you can keep your finger in Hebrews.
We're going to come right back to Hebrews here in a minute.
Hebrews chapter 10. But I want us to first look at
Psalms chapter 40. 5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened, burnt
offering and sin offerings hast Thou not required." Now this
was back when burnt offerings and sin offerings was commanded
of God to be brought to Him. And this is the psalmist. We
learned earlier that the law and the prophets and the psalms
all were speaking of Jesus. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation." So he's ruling his kingdom and the
servants in his kingdom. with righteousness. He's preaching
unto them righteousness. What is the central message of
the Gospel? The righteousness of Jesus Christ
in the work of Christ Jesus. The righteous work of Christ
on behalf of His people. The imputation of righteousness.
The justification of God's people by God. The just and the justifier. Justifying the sinners who are
His people of their sin and imputing unto them righteousness. Righteousness
is what is the scepter of His kingdom. That's what He rules
over His people with is His righteousness. And He preaches unto them His
righteousness. That's the center point of most
of our preaching and teaching, brethren, in the Gospel. I have
preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have
not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid
Thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy loving
kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold
not Thou Thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let Thy loving kindness
and Thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have
passed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
on me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the
hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faith with
me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me Oh Lord, make haste to help
me now. Brethren, I believe that this
is the prayer of Jesus in the garden. He didn't sin himself. Those
sins that he's talking about are the sins of his people. Let
them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul
to destroy it. Let them be driven backward and
put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward
of their shame that they say unto me, Aha! Aha! Let all those
that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love
thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. But I
am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my
help and my deliverer. Make no tearing, O my God. So
here's a prophetic, messianic, prophetic psalm of Christ Jesus
coming and being the sacrifice for sin for His people and that
God is not interested in the old covenant and the old system
way, that that's not what He's pleased in, that lo, I come in
the volume of the book. Everything that's being told
is about me and what I will accomplish in my decease, in my dying. And He even says here, Let them
be ashamed and confound together that seek after my soul to destroy
it." Those who killed the prophets despised everything that Moses
and the prophets were telling them, who claimed to be children
of Abraham, but yet did not believe Christ, believe on Christ as
Abraham did. He said, let them be driven back
and be put to shame, and let them be desolate for a reward
for their shame. that's saying to me, aha, aha,
remember at the cross? They come up to Him laughing
and jeering and saying, you saved others? You can't even save yourself. You can save others. Come down
from that cross if you can save yourself. They mocked at Him
and ridiculed Him. Behold the King of the Jews. Jesus was the fulfillment of
all this messianic prophecy. But look what he says there.
He says, all those that seek Thee, rejoice and be glad in
Thee. Let such as love Thy salvation, say continually, The Lord be
magnified. Now in Hebrews 10, we see that
same thing reiterated in verse 5. Chapter 10 and verse 5. It
says, Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice
and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God."
Again, Christ came to manifest, to bring forth, and to accomplish
everything that God had purposed from before the foundation of
the world concerning the salvation of Jehovah. and to make it manifest
and to make it known. Everything that was sealed up
in mystery, everything that was sealed up in types and foreshadows,
everything that was veiled, Christ unveiled. He revealed. He made known. And He did that
and He spoke to them in the last days by Himself, not by the prophets,
but by Himself. You say, well, what about John?
Well, John got that Word directly from Jesus Christ who told him
what to write down and send to those churches. Peter got that
Word exactly from Jesus Christ who He told him of the things
that was to come. Paul received from the lips of Jesus Christ
everything that comes. The Words came from Jesus Christ.
He has spoken and revealed what was hidden in the past is now
revealed in the mouth and the witness and the testimony of
Jesus Christ is now being unveiled. What has been veiled is being
unveiled and is being explained through the mouth of Jesus Christ
and through the apostles whom He laid as the foundation of
the church to bring forth everything that Jesus had told them to do.
And it says, above, when He said, Sacrifice and offering, and burn
offering, and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hast
thou pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then
He said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Here it is. he taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second." So he taketh away
that first covenant and he established the second in his deceased, in
the body that was prepared for him when he said, Lo, I come,
not in the sacrifices of bulls and goats and all these other
things that was typified and foreshadowed and prophesied about,
but in the actual death of my body. My body was given for sin. It was broken and it was bled
out for my people. And he said that that right there
was the taking away of the first and establishing of the second. So here again we see the transfiguration
is the picture of that. Whenever he was discussing his
decease and the glory that was to come from that decease in
the accomplishing of everything and what it would accomplish
was the law and the prophets to be fading away because the
fulfillment had come. Everything had been fulfilled
that was talked about and prophesied in the Old Testament was being
fulfilled in Christ Jesus. And then that there in His resurrection
and His ascending back to the Father to receive, if you remember,
in John 17, that He would go back to the Father and He would
be restored to the glory that He had before the Father, which
is the glory that He showed Peter, James, and John in that transfiguration. Restored to that glory, we have
hope in the resurrection that we, at the end of all things,
when Christ comes again, that we will be raised and go into
eternal life. And that these bodies that we
have been given here will die and will go away, but yet we
will be raised with new bodies, imperishable bodies, and that
we will be like Him. And so this right here is Jesus
speaking of these things and telling of these things here
in Hebrews of what was talked about in the Psalms. Now, brother,
there are a lot of other things. I don't have time to go. I've
already been a long time. But they go through and talk
about Jesus being the fulfillment of all these things. And what
a blessedness it is that we can look and see. And again, just
to think about what Peter, James, and John have seen. But thankfully,
Jesus showed that to Peter, James, and John. Thankfully, He let
them write that down after His resurrection. Because in these
things, we have been given to read and to see for ourselves
and by the Holy Spirit in us, bearing witness with our spirit
that we are His children, we have the promise of this hope.
We have the promise of this very resurrection. The very promise
that everything that Christ has done has been accomplished and
that all of His enemies will be destroyed and we will receive
a new body and we will be with the Lord forever. We have that
confidence, brother. We don't have to guess. We don't
have to believe the guys on History Channel that get the biblical
stuff wrong all the time. We don't have to listen to all
those cults that's out there that says one thing or another.
Listen, brethren, we have a hope, and that is in Christ Jesus.
Anyway, anybody got anything you'd like to add or subtract
or corrections or reviews? Anything? I hope that wasn't
as jumbled as it felt like it was in my mind during my delivery. If anything, I've been given
a greater appreciation for that account of the transfiguration.
As I said, you know, until the book kind of opened that different
view of that to me, it was just It's good for Peter, James, and
John. They got to see Jesus. Good for them. But what a beautiful intermediate
picture that we see of the vanishing away of the old and coming in
of the new. The establishment of this kingdom
and its manifestation and revealing. And what a beautiful time that
it's going to be when we personally Now, the Bible says that we're
seated with Him in the heavenlies, and how that happens, I don't
know, and how it's being done, I don't know, and is there something
being experienced? I don't know, because I don't
know. But all I know is there's going to be a day, brethren,
whenever we actually are going to be face-to-face with Him,
that Moses spoke to Him face-to-face. We're going to be with Him face-to-face,
Peter, James, and John, and those apostles, And all those disciples
that was there, whenever he ascended back into heaven, we're gonna
be speaking to him face to face just like that. I'm thankful
for it. Can't wait till it happens. All right, anybody else got anything
to say? Come here. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the day and we thank you for your grace. We thank you
for the hope that we have in Christ Jesus. We thank you for
these glimpses that you give us of our Savior throughout the
Scripture, whether it be in the Old Testament now being opened
up and revealed to us, or whether it's the New Testament that explicitly
gives us the things of God through the mouth of Christ Jesus. We're
so grateful for what you've given us, this Bible, and the things
that are in it that we learn that is for our salvation and
for our eventual future. Lord, I just thank you so much
for the way that you have provided everything that we have need
of, that everything in salvation has been accomplished for us.
And Father, we're just so grateful that you have chosen us, undeserving
people, full of sin, full of doubt, full of misunderstanding,
lacking in faith, but you have given us your son and you have
given us your spirit. You've given us your word that
has given us hope that we can read and we can get to know you
more. Lord, we're so grateful for it.
And so we pray that you continue to minister to our hearts, continue
to encourage us in the faith, to encourage us, Father, in the
hope that lies ahead in whatever future that we have in front
of us. Lord, I just are so grateful for all these brethren that you've
given and has brought together and how we can fellowship together
through all the things in this life as we discuss the hurts
and the heartaches and the situations that you bring us through and
how that we gain strength and comfort from each other seeing
that we all are on the same wilderness path, waiting your coming, and
that you have been faithful in all these years. What a blessing
it is to know that, Lord. Even though sometimes this fleshly
man doesn't see it and doesn't find comfort in it, but Father,
you have been faithful. Never once have you been unfaithful
to your children, even through all the chastisements that you
bring us through. You are still faithful to us
and we are grateful for it. You've given us everything that
we need and everything that we could ever hope for. And everything
is in Christ Jesus and we give Him honor and glory for it. So
it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.