Well, it's good to see everybody
made it this morning. Lenore, it was so kind of you
and Cyril to have us yesterday, and that was very fun. I enjoyed it so much. Wish I could have stayed and
watched the kiddos on the hayride, but I'm glad everybody's here. Let's go to our Bibles in Luke
chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. Verse 28 says, 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. Our Lord, speaking of our Lord,
the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was
white and glistering. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory. You notice they appeared in glory,
glorified, even as Christ appeared, glorified. And they spake of
his decease, that word means exodus, which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were
with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were awake, they
saw his glory and the two men that stood with him. Christ,
Moses, and Elias appeared glorified. And it came to pass as they departed
from him, as Moses and Elias departed, Peter said unto Jesus,
Master, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three
tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias,
not knowing what he said. And while he thus spake, there
came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they
entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of
the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. And when
the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it
close and told no man in those days any of those things which
they had seen. Now here is the Lord Jesus, the
God-man, and here He is in this mount glorified. He's glorified. He goes into this mount. He's
transfigured in His glory. And Moses and Elias appear with
Him in glory. They're glorified. Moses and
Elias. And they speak of His decease,
the exodus which He should or would accomplish at Jerusalem. Now much can be said about Christ's
glory. There's a lot that can be said.
It includes everything God is which is manifest in Christ.
The triune God is manifest in the Lord Jesus. because we will
spend eternity learning of His glory. But this exodus that Christ
accomplished on the cross for His people, that is His glory.
That is His glory. That's what they spoke about.
This decease that He should accomplish, this exodus that He would accomplish.
By His death, all His people being in a hymn, dying under
justice, He accomplished the exodus. He took His people from
under the curse and condemnation of the law. He delivered us,
just like Moses delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt. Christ delivered us when He died. And then when He arose, He accomplished
the exodus. When He ascended to the Father,
we were in Him. We arose together in Him, we
sat down together in Him, He accomplished the exodus of all
His people out of this world into glory. He brought us from
under the death of condemnation, He brought us out of the death
of the grave, He brought us out of this world, and we sat down
with Him in glory. That's what He accomplished at
Calvary. So the glory of Christ that's
witnessed here, they're witnessing, they're talking about it, And it's witnessed by the Law
and the Prophets all through the Scriptures. The Old Testament,
the Law and the Prophets are bearing witness of Christ's glory.
And it's the glory by which He glorified the Law and the Prophets.
There's Moses and Elias glorified. Christ is the glory of the Law
and the Prophets. And they were bearing witness
of Christ's glory. The Law and the Prophets bear
witness of this glory of Christ. Moses represents the Law, Elias
represents the Prophets, and they're bearing witness of this
glory, and it's the very glory Christ gave to the Law and the
Prophets. And that glory is Christ's righteousness. It's His righteousness. Righteousness
by His obedience by which He made all His people righteous.
Now I want to show you this. It was just a blessing to me.
I wrote a brief article about this last week in the bulletin
and I spoke very briefly, just sort of came to me when I got
up in Indiana the other Sunday. But I just want you to see this.
Go with me to Romans 3. Christ is the righteous fulfillment
of the Law and the Prophets. We see Moses here representing
the Law. We see Elias here representing
the Prophets. And they are glorified in this
mount together with Christ. He is glorified and they are
glorified. But all the glory came from Christ. He gave them
the glory. But they are bearing witness
of His glory. Right here in Romans 3, Romans chapter 3, it says, verse 20 says, or verse 19 says,
we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that's the only ones the law speaks
to, that every mouth may be stopped, that all the world may become
guilty before God. And therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified made righteous in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now
the righteousness of God, this is the glory we're talking about,
the righteousness of God. Now the righteousness of God
without the law, that is without our trying to come to God by
the law. Without the law, it's manifested. But I watch this, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. That's the picture as Moses and
Elias are standing there glorified and they're bearing witness,
they're speaking with Christ of the exodus that He would accomplish
at Jerusalem on the cross. That's what they're bearing witness
of. Moses and Elias are speaking of Christ's righteousness, of
Him accomplishing, bringing in righteousness by His obedience
unto death on the cross. Now what does all three of them
appearing there glorified, what does that teach us? What's the
glory of Christ for which He glorified the Law and the Prophets?
And what is the glory the Law and the Prophets bear witness
of concerning Christ? What does all these Old Testament
Scriptures, what is the message of the whole Word of God? All
the Law and the Prophets, what are they declaring? They're declaring
the righteousness of God. Now the righteousness of God
is manifested without His people doing anything according to the
Law. It is witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets, witnessing the righteousness of God. That is
what the whole Old Testament speaks of. Look at verse, read
it again, Romans 3.21. Now the righteousness of God
without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ. The Law and the Prophets were
glorified by Christ fulfilling them. He said, I didn't come
to destroy the Law and the Prophets, I came to fulfill them. And He
fulfilled everything that's written. He glorified the Law, He honored
it, He magnified it, He fulfilled it in every way. He gave it perfect
obedience. And we're talking about obedience
by, I was speaking with somebody this week and they were saying,
you know, well the Lord didn't have to It wasn't like He was
striving to give obedience to the law and keep the law. It
was just natural to Him because He is righteousness. But when
He fulfilled the laws, when He went to the cross and in that
righteous love that the law requires, perfect righteous love, with
perfect faith to the Father, He went to the cross and bore
the sin of His people and satisfied God's justice for God and justified
all God's people. for His brethren. That's the
love we're talking about. That's righteousness. That's
what's required for one to say, I'm righteous. I've done righteousness. That's what's required. That's
what the law requires. That's what God requires. He
accomplished that, the Lord did. He accomplished the forgiveness
of sins for His people by giving Himself to justice to satisfy
that for God. And so he brought peace in and
reconciled his people to God. Now Christ's glory is he is the
righteousness of his people. This is why it's so dishonoring
when men start talking about some righteousness that they've,
how they've contributed to their righteousness because Christ
is, it's his glory. This is his glory. It's his glory
that he gave to the law and the prophets and it's the glory he
gives to his people. He gives to us freely. He gives
us His righteousness freely. Look at it again, Romans 3.21. Now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ, by His faithfulness, is unto all and upon all them
that believe. It's unto all that believe and
upon all them that believe. Why must Christ get this glory?
Why is it Christ's glory to give us His righteousness? For there's
no difference, not any difference in any of us. Nobody God saves,
there's nothing different in us, period. The law shuts our
mouth, says we're sinners. There's no difference in us.
Four, all have sinned and come short of what? the glory of God. We've come short of the righteousness
God requires. We've come short of the glory
of God. Christ must give us His righteousness. He must give us His righteousness
because we have all sinned and come short of that righteousness
God requires. Now each and every elect child
who God gives faith We have to have Christ. We've been taught
this. We know we have to have Christ
because we have sinned. We've come short of this glory. We've come short of this righteousness
of God. We've come short of the glory
that we behold in Christ. We see He's our righteousness.
When you look to Christ and you see what He did, You see what
He accomplished on the cross and what it took to accomplish
that and how He never wavered in His faith toward God and His
love toward God and His people. You see righteousness. You see
the righteousness that God requires for anybody to say, I've kept
the law. That's the righteousness He requires.
And this is God the Father's eternal purpose, that Christ
be the glory, that He be the righteousness of those He saves.
Look at verse 24. He gives this to us because we've
come short of that glory. But we're justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Redemption. He delivered us. He exited us
out from under the curse. whom God set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. That means Christ is the sin
atoning mercy seat where a sinner can come and God will meet with
him. God will commune with us and
receive us one place, that's through faith in His blood, through
faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. Now if there's any sinner who
And this is so from beginning to end. This is what God is teaching
us over and over and over from the first time He reveals Christ's
glory to you all the way to the end. In every sin, repentance. Repentance is this, it's being
totally changed in our mind about ourselves. The first hour he
calls you, he changes you about what you are. You know in Psalm
51, David began to repent and he began to justify God and say,
against thee and thee only have I sinned. But he didn't stop
there. He said, I was conceived in sin. I came from my mother's
womb speaking, I'm nothing but sin. That's what's involved in
repentance. Not just what you've done, what
you are. And every single time we repent
and we repent and we repent, you repent seven times in a day
sometimes. You see, and the more God grows
you, the more you will. And the more you see your sin
in ways you didn't even see your sin before. And repentance is
God in the Spirit making you see yourself and go to God again
and say, Lord, I've sinned and not only have I sinned, and just
whatever thought that wasn't right, I've sinned and not only
have I sinned, I am sinned. It's a radical change of what
you are. And God, don't ever stop granting
that to His people. And we cast ourselves on His
mercy. There's the mercy seat. And God
says, I'll meet with you right there. I'll meet with you right
there in Christ. Why is Christ the glory? Why is it His righteousness alone?
He came, verse 25, Romans 3.25. He came to declare God's righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. That's what's required right
there to be saved. The law's got to be honored,
God's got to be judged, you've got to die. If He's going to
save us, we've got to die. And here's what else is required.
God must get all the glory. He must be the justifier. He
must be the one who made us righteous. Now, don't be like men who say,
well, I know Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,
but now I'm talking about sanctification. God grants you repentance if
that's what anybody thinks. We've got to be made to see.
And that's what true sanctification involves, is God, when He works
in the heart and makes you see, I'm not only sin, I am sin. I have to have Christ my righteousness.
Sanctification is to keep you separated from you and from everything
you would do apart from Christ to try to make yourself accepted
with God to make you come to God in nothing but his righteousness. God chose to save in Christ alone
to declare His glory, to give Christ all the glory, to show
God's righteousness. Christ is that righteousness.
That man, Christ Jesus, is the righteousness of God, that God's
provided for His people. That's who He is. And He did
it this way so that His people won't have any room to glory.
And this is how He saves all His people, all His people. Romans
3.27, where's boasting then? We haven't seen anything in here
for us to boast in, have we? Where's boasting then? It is
excluded. There is going to be no boasting.
At no point will a believer be able to say, I contributed. By what law? Of works? No, that's
just full of boasting. It's excluded by the law of faith.
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. And this is so of all his people.
Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also. But all gods elect, Jew or Gentile,
are made righteous by this same glory, by Christ's righteousness
alone. Look, see, and it's one God which shall justify the circumcision
by faith and uncircumcision through faith. The difference here is
not in by faith or through faith. That's not the contrast here.
He's saying he's justifying the Jew by faith the same as he's
justifying the Gentile by faith. One way. That excludes all boasting
in us. He even has to give us the faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, it
is the only way we establish the law, is believing on Christ.
There's only one who established it, that's Christ. By one man's
obedience, many are made righteous. There's only one who established
it, that's Christ. And it's only by believing him
that we establish the law. We don't actually establish it
ourselves. He did it, and that's what faith
believes. I've established the law in Christ alone. Look down
at verse 13, this was so of Abraham too, and I want you to see why
this is so important that it's not by the law. For the promise
that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham
or to any of his seed, his spiritual children, through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith. God said we believe unto
righteousness. When you believe Christ, you're
believing unto righteousness. Just think about what righteousness
means. That means perfection. That means completion. That means
perfect in Christ alone. We believe unto righteousness
through the righteousness of faith. For, here's why, if they
which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise,
the covenant is made of no effect. Because the law worketh wrath.
For where no law is, there's no transgression. Where there
law is, there is transgression. That's all you see is your transgression
if you know the law, if you hear the law. Therefore, it is of
faith that it might be by grace, free grace. Now watch this. and to the end the promise, this
covenant promise of salvation might be sure to all the seed,
to all the elect, not to that only which is of the law, not
to only God's elect Jews, but to that also which is of the
faith of Abraham. Abraham was a Gentile. He was the father of us all.
See, if it was by the law, God never gave the law to Gentiles.
And if this thing was of the law and our keeping the law,
we'd be left out. Because he didn't give it to
us. But Abraham didn't have it either. And God saved him. How
was he made righteous? He established the law, believing
on Christ, through faith in Christ. Chapter 5, Romans 5, verse 1.
Therefore being justified, By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and watch, and we rejoice
in the hope of the glory of God. What is that? What is this hope
of the glory of God that we're waiting on? Go to Galatians 5.5. Galatians 5.5, we through the
Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. We've been made righteous
in Christ, He has imputed His righteousness to us through faith,
and we're waiting for that day when He's going to raise us perfectly
conformed to His image in body and spirit, and we will be the
righteousness of God through and through. You see what I'm
saying? I'm trying to show you this glory that they saw in that
mount. And this glory of Christ is the
righteousness of God. He is the righteousness of God.
And we're hoping, we're waiting for Christ our righteousness
to return and bring us to glory with Him, conform to Him. That's
the hope of Christ Himself. That's what the Law and the Prophets,
everything this Old Testament Scripture reads. Now listen to
what that tells you and me. When you read this Old Testament
Word, Just like Paul in Romans 7 said, I love the law of God,
and God's people do. For one, when you're born of
God and He's put the love of God in your heart, you don't
want another God besides Him. You don't want an idol. You don't. And you don't want to offend
your neighbor. You don't want to steal from
them. But here's also why we love the
law. The law tells us We've never
been able to establish it by any of our deeds, not at all.
But that law, in the height of it, in the breadth of it, in
the depth of it, and just the magnitude of it, we see something
of the righteousness of our Redeemer and how perfect He is. and how
perfectly righteous He's made His people. And so when you read
this old covenant law and you read where David or one of the
old saints said, Oh Lord, I delight in your law. And they speak about
keeping it. They were saved the same way
we were. Exact same way we were. They're delighting it for the
same reason. It shows me what I am. And it shows me that Christ
is my righteousness. And I love it. I love it. I've established it. I've kept
it. How? Christ has obeyed it completely. Now, how then does a spiritually
dead sinner come to have his glory, his righteousness? Christ
gives it to us. He gives it to us. It's by grace.
It's through the preaching of Christ's glory, through the preaching
that declares He's our righteousness. He gives it through faith which
He gives. Now go with me to John 17, and let me show you this.
John 17. Christ said in verse 20, speaking
of those He had called out, He said, Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their
word. Now you that are sitting here
right now that believe, when Christ prayed that intercessory
prayer, this is the Lord's prayer right here, as our high priest,
when He prayed that prayer and said, I'm praying for them that
shall believe on Me through their word, He was interceding for
you. He was praying for you. Do you believe Him? The only
reason you do is He prayed for you to bless the Word. And as
that Gospel of Christ, our righteousness, is preached, He sends the Holy
Spirit. God gives us life. He gives us
an understanding to be able to hear and start seeing what we
are, see who Christ is. And we behold this glory of God.
We behold this righteousness of God in the face of Christ.
That's what Paul was talking about when he said, God commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. He that commanded the light to
shine out of the darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, the righteousness
of God. Where do you see it? In Christ,
in His faith. What did the Lord tell one person? He said, I said it to Martha. He said, I nod unto thee that
if thou shouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.
If you believe Christ, you see in Him the glory of God. You
see your righteousness in Him. Now what's the purpose of God
in saving by Christ's righteousness alone? Here it is, verse 21.
That they all may be one, Now how one does this glory, this
righteousness make us? As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world,
his elect, may believe that thou hast sent me. Now get this next
word. Here's how we come to have Christ's
righteousness. This is how we come to have his
glory. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them. I've given it to them. I've freely
given them my glory. I've given them my righteousness.
Why? That they may be one even as
we are one. I in them, thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one. That's what Paul meant when he
said, in Christ you are complete. You're complete. You're perfect.
but it's only one place, it's in Christ. All His people are
perfect in Christ, in His righteousness. And that the world, His elect
who you He's called, may know that the Father sent Me, He said,
and has loved them as thou hast loved Me. That's where you see
everything about God. That's where you see His love.
He sent Christ to be our righteousness for us. Now, let me say a few
things here in closing. Now, Moses and Elijah appeared
in glory alive. They appeared there in glory
alive. Both had been dead a long time, but they appeared in glory
alive. Those who die in faith, Moses
died in faith. We're going to look at Elijah.
He didn't. He left this world in faith. He didn't die. But
Moses died in faith in Christ. And everybody who dies in faith
in Christ are yet alive. They're yet alive. By the righteousness
of Christ alone. That is life. Christ's righteousness. That's why Christ said, I am
the life. He could have just as easily said, I am the righteousness.
And it would have meant the same thing. where there is no sin,
there is life, eternal life. And He is that life. He is that
righteousness. If Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin, but the Spirit's life because of righteousness. And when Christ returns, He's
going to quicken our dead bodies, even if they're in the grave,
and raise them alive in perfect righteousness with Him. Now,
Moses died and was buried, but Elisha didn't die. He was carried
up. to God, and there He is. We see Him there speaking with
Christ in the mount. There's going to be some who's
going to be alive when Christ returns. They're not going to
die. They'll be alive. And those that
are already dead, like Moses was, they'll be carried up first,
and then those that are alive will be carried up with Him.
Because Christ is our righteousness. Now, here's the second thing
to think about. Christ alone is the righteousness
we rest in, because He's our only righteousness. We don't
have any. And we're not looking for any
other righteousness, and we must not look for any other righteousness,
because if we start looking to ourselves, we're surely going
to die. We're just going to prove we're
dead if we do that. How can you prove that to me
from this text in Luke 9? Get this amazing thing. There
is Christ in all His glory. There is Moses and Elias in glory. And they are speaking about the
decease Christ would accomplish at Jerusalem. Peter, James and
John fell asleep. They just went to sleep. Isn't
that amazing? And when they were in this slumber
and they woke up, they weren't hearing what they had said. They
probably missed out on everything they were talking about that
Christ was going to accomplish. And so when they wake up, not knowing
what they said, Peter says, Lord, let us build three tabernacles
here. We will build three monuments. One to Moses, one to Elijah,
and one to the Lord Jesus. And God overshadowed them with
a cloud. Symbolical of the Spirit of God,
and He spoke in that cloud. You know what He said? This is my beloved Son, hear
ye Him. And when they looked back up,
there wasn't anybody but Christ alone. When we're slumbering,
and we're not beholding Christ and His righteousness, And we're
being enticed to turn from Christ to ourselves. Enticed to turn
from Christ to ourselves. We're slumbering. And the lust
of the flesh, our lust naturally, is to turn back to the law. That's
our lust. But our Lord Jesus Christ will
keep the Spirit. overshadowing His people, within
His people, and speaking into our heart, and God will say,
this is My Son. Worship Him. Don't let anybody,
don't let the devil, don't let any person bring you back into
the bondage of telling you, of trying to put a legal yoke on
you, that there's something you're going to have to do in addition
to Christ. Don't let it happen. And the Lord won't let it happen
for His people. He won't let His people do that to one another
and He won't let us stay in that yoke. If you haven't forgiven your
brethren, that's exactly what you're doing. That's exactly
what you're doing. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. When that cloud overshadows you
and God breaks your heart all over again, You come to Christ, to His throne
of grace, to find the mercy and the help that you need, and He
gives you that mercy and that grace. You come there crying,
Father, Father, because you know you're welcome there by Christ
your righteousness. And He receives you immediately. He doesn't require you to ask
forgiveness to give you forgiveness. He's already forgiven you or
he wouldn't have come and brought you the gospel and quickened
you by the spirit and drew you to himself to ask him forgiveness
if he hadn't already forgiven you. Don't wait for somebody
to ask you for forgiveness. You forgive them. And if you
get the opportunity to forgive them and they ask you, will you
have mercy on me, you let them know right then, I forgive you.
Because that's what God does to us. But He's going to keep
you out of that yoke of bondage. Now both these men, this is something
else to get, both these men were known in glory. They knew it
was Moses. They knew it was Elijah. They
were both known. Their names were given. People
will say, well, are we going to know each other in glory?
Yes. Yes, we will. And here's the thought. People
say, well, if we know each other in glory, then I'm going to know
there's loved ones that aren't there if I don't find my loved
one. But when you are in glory with
Christ and you behold Christ your righteousness, the joy is
going to be this. You are so perfectly one with
God by Christ's righteousness alone. There will be no sorrow
whatsoever. And you'll know this, the only
reason you are there is because God did this work for you beginning
to end and kept you by Christ alone. Made you righteous by
Christ alone. And you'll also know, anybody
who's not there, they're not there because it's righteous.
Because they were looking to themselves. They weren't trusting
Christ. So there won't be any sorrow
over that. We'll know that in perfection. and our joy will
be Christ our righteousness alone. All right, amen. Father, we thank you for this
word. We ask you that you'd be pleased to bless it to our hearts
to help us to rejoice in you. And Lord, don't let us look to
ourselves. Don't let us be enticed to return
to looking to something we've done
to make ourselves righteous. Lord, we ask you to sanctify
us and keep us sanctified unto your holiness. Trust in Christ
only. Continue to comfort us by your
word and keep us knowing that we've been made perfect in one.
That's the only way, Lord, that we'll be able to continue with
one another. That's the only way we'll be
able to rejoice and have our hearts broken over our own sin.
Thank you for these mercies, Lord. What abundant mercy. Don't
let us slumber. Don't let us sleep. Keep the
Spirit reviving us and keeping us looking only to Christ. Forgive
us, Lord, our sins. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.