I please God to bless us as we
meditate in his word for a little while this morning. Let us turn
to the Gospel of Luke chapter 9 and we'll read verse 35. This is the verse which refers
to that occasion when there was that wonderful transfiguration
of the Lord Jesus Christ upon that mountain. And this 31st
verse tells us and there came a voice out of the cloud saying,
this is my beloved son, hear him. We do not have very many occasions
in the Word of God when there was a very clear and very distinct
a statement of speech from Almighty God himself declaring his word
to mankind. And this occasion was one of
them. It was of course a very wonderful
and special occasion when Peter, James and John were taken up
into this mountain to pray And obviously when they commenced
that little journey up the mountain they wouldn't have been aware
of what was going to occur and they were quite amazed and of
course didn't understand the relevance of the situation really
at all. And yet we should be thankful
today that we have this record of this occasion because how
encouraging it is for us to know the power and glory of God. It's a mercy that God in his
providence has recorded these occasions so that we can have
a true belief that there is a God in heaven, that we're not just
worshipping the unknown God like the Athenians were, in Paul's
day but we are worshipping the true God and so to have such
an occasion like this set before us quite clearly in the words
of God is wonderful for us and we should indeed be thankful
for it. And so here we have at the conclusion
of this time when they were on this mountain a cloud came down
and overshadowed them and we read and they feared as they
entered into the cloud. They didn't know what was happening,
did they? And they feared. And we might fear in the same
way. But it was, of course, they were not able to therefore see
God, the Father, in this situation. The cloud enveloped them and
they feared as they entered into the cloud, but there was some
good news. And the glorious news was this.
They heard A voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my
beloved son, hear him. So if they needed any further
confirmation that the Lord Jesus Christ was the son of God, they'd
seen many miracles, they'd heard his words, but now here was. If we might consider it as the
crowning occasion, evidencing here for them this wonderful
truth that he was The Son of God. And then these words, so
important for them, so important for us today. Hear Him. Now, that's really what I want
to concentrate on this morning. Just these words. Hear Him. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke words of truth. And as he said in his The prayer
recorded in the 17th of John, he said when he was praying to
his father, thy word is truth. And so it is. And so we should
take these words to heart and be concerned that we do hear
him. That means hear the words of
the Lord Jesus. Hear the words which he speaks. Hear the words which are recorded
in the Word of God. We should not therefore turn
away from them. We should be concerned that because
these are the words of Almighty God, they are the words of Jesus,
we should not just ignore them. Because indeed if we do ignore
them, we ignore them at our peril. Now I'm sure we realise that
there is that continual difficulty as we live on the earth because
we have, as the Bible tells us, a great adversary, the adversary
of the devil who goes about seeking whom he may devour. He wants
to get rid of us from ever considering and ever believing in the words
of the Lord Jesus. So don't be surprised if when
you want to believe the truth of God, You may find it difficult. There was that occasion when
the question was put to a man, does thou believe in the word
of God? And he said, yes, I do. Help
thou mine unbelief. What he really meant was he wanted
to believe, and he didn't want to be left to unbelief. Well,
may that be our concern today, that we may truly believe the
word of God. Well, when Jesus was baptized,
Again, this was another wonderful occasion when God spoke to the
people from heaven. And again, he refers to his son. And these are the words we read
in the first chapter of Mark, in the 11th verse, there came
a voice from heaven saying, thou art my beloved son in whom I
am well pleased. He was pleased with his son and
that's what he had just done. being baptised. And now as we
follow the Lord Jesus, after that occasion he was tempted
of the devil, he was driven into the wilderness and spent 40 days
and nights there tempted of the devil. And when that was completed,
and we should be very thankful that the Lord, though he was
tempted by the devil, he did not obey the devil. and the things
that he was presented with were very tempting, naturally, and
be sure today the devil will present us with many things which
we may think, well, that's rather nice. The devil will place before
us things that we should not do but we would quite like to
do. So be very aware and very concerned
about the temptations of the devil. Now, when the Lord Jesus
began his ministry. It's significant what he began
his ministry with. It's recorded in the 15th verse
of this first chapter of Mark. The time is fulfilled and the
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. That's a very tremendous statement. It's a very simple statement.
It's not couched in complicated words that you and I can't understand. But it is a gracious and important
command by Almighty God. And it says, repent ye and believe
the Gospel. And of course there may be people
that say, well of course I'm a sinner, I haven't got any ability
to do that of myself. Well of course not. But what
we do know is that we should all be concerned to be found
with the Spirit's aid to be found, doing just this, because be assured
of this, no unrepentant sinner will ever enter into glory. So
don't think that you can just journey on aimlessly without
any concern about this great statement, because it is true
that all of us need that grace to have that faith to repent
and to believe the Gospel. Now, these words were spoken
by Jesus and of course the outworking of the Gospel at this time had
not actually been performed. because the outworking of the
Gospel was that this Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, was going
to be put to death, was going to suffer upon Calvary's cross
and die that sin-atoning death to take away our sins. And today, therefore, how needful
it is that you and I, given that grace to repent, that's to be
sorry for our sins, and to believe the Gospel, believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ did come into this sinful world to save sinners. And it's a wonderful blessing
if the Spirit of God has convinced us that we are a sinner. and
that we do need to be granted that gift of repentance and we
do need that faith to believe in the sinatonian death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so in such a few words and
yet so vitally important for all of us this morning to realize
the Lord said repent ye and believe the gospel and what are the words
that we heard? Hear him. You and I today are
to hear the words of Jesus. We're not to ignore them. We're
not to think, well, they are not too relevant to me. And we're
not to think, well, of course, I have no ability to do this,
which we know naturally we don't because we are born dead in trespasses
and in sins. But we do need to know that the
Spirit of God has made us alive so that we are no longer dead.
And the Lord does give us then that ability to repent. And you may say, well, what does
repent mean? Well, very simply, I think we
can describe it like this. It means turning around and going
in an opposite direction. And I suppose we can just simply
say that there's been that time when we were born, when we were
those who followed a way of sin. But then to be turned round by
the Spirit of God, to have a concern to follow the ways of the Lord
Jesus Christ and to not desire to follow sinful ways. We will
of course always have a battle within us. We should never be
perfect this side of the grave, we should always have a battle. But it would be good if the Spirit
of God gives us that desire to be found living more Christ-like. And you may say, well, what does
that mean? Well, you only have to look at
the glorious life of the Saviour. What was it? It was a holy life. It was a sinless life. It was
a righteous life. What a wonderful example, therefore,
we have before us. And so what it really tells us
is, he sets before us the words of life. Now, here is this statement,
this is my beloved son, hear him. And the Bible also gives
us some very striking words if we are amongst those who ignore
such a statement as this. And of course there are billions
of people who just ignore it and think it's totally irrelevant. Well the solemn reality is that
all of us possess a never-dying soul and we should all be found
in an eternal state out of time either in heaven or in hell.
So therefore we should not ignore the great truths of God and the
words of Jesus. And the Apostle Paul, when he
wrote to the Hebrews, and in the third chapter we read on
two occasions these statements. First is in the eighth verse,
and it tells us, harden not your hearts. That means not to turn
away from the truth of God's word. Not to turn away from the
words of Jesus. Harden not your hearts. And he
gives us a statement as in the provocation in the day of temptation
in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me
and saw my works 40 days. And he says, wherefore I was
grieved with that generation and said, they do always err
in their heart and they have not known my way. So I swear
in my wrath They shall not enter into my rest. Those who ignore
hearing the word of God, those who turn their back upon the
truth of God's word, we hear this solemn statement then, as
the Lord says, I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into
my rest. And then he comes on and says,
take heed, take heed brethren. That means we're not to just
pass over the Word of God, we're to look at it and we're to consider
it. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God. That means
turning our back upon God, turning our back upon the words of Jesus.
Hear Him and possessing that evil heart of unbelief. It's very clear, isn't it? We
don't need much to appreciate the truth of such words. And the Apostle says, but exhort
one another daily. While it is called today, lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, for
we are made partakers of Christ if we hold beginning of our confidence,
steadfast unto the end, while it is said today, if ye will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation."
Well, we have warnings, don't we? People have warnings, we
have warnings. It's very clear here, isn't it?
And the encouragement is, and we should not forget this, that
we should exhort one another daily. One another daily we should encourage
in the things of God. Encourage them to know and hear
the words of Jesus. Hear Him. Be alert to listen
for the words of Jesus. He speaks to our heart. Well, have we a heart ready to
receive the Word of God? Are we praying that we might
receive the words of Jesus? Or are we content to just brush
these great truths aside? You know, it's an amazing blessing
for us today to be able to come and to hear the Gospel preached. In this world today, there are
billions of people who will never hear the Gospel preached. And ours is an amazing blessing. And yet, you see, it is a solemn
responsibility. We must never ignore the truth
of God, because we will never be able to say on that great
day of judgment which will come at the end of the world, which
will occur, well, I was never told, well, I never read, well,
I never heard the word of Jesus. All of us will have heard the
words of Jesus. And therefore we shall not be
able to excuse ourselves. We shall not be able to say,
well, of course I wasn't told and of course I didn't have the
Bible to read, none of us will be in that position. And so our
position is very wonderful, but it's also very solemn. And therefore we have this statement
repeated twice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of the
provocation. We are not to harden our hearts
against the things of God. This is my beloved son, hear
him. Now, let's just realize that
here we have the words of God speaking of his son. And to think
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he is the
savior of sinners. And he is very God. Jesus was God. Jesus is God. Jesus ever will be God. And so today, we should be thankful
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is a wonderful blessing
for us today. As we pray, and as we pray to
God, realizing that God is holy, We are told we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, you young
people might think, well, what does that really mean? What is
an advocate? Well, we can very easily give
you the example we have today in our courts of law. When somebody
appears before a judge for some misdeed or perhaps they want
some clarification in their position, what the law says to be guided
rightly, they're not able to actually present the case themselves,
or at least not usually. And therefore they engage the
services of what we call a barrister. and that person presents their
case to the judge and usually the barrister is able to present
that case very ably because he grasps the principles of the
situation and he's able to use suitable words to inform the
judge of the exact details of the case so that everything is
clear And we do not have to therefore stand up ourselves and stumble
along and make mistakes. There are those people who are
engaged to represent people in that situation. Well, that's
what we have. We're the glorious Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He presents our case. He presents our prayers to his
Father in glory. He seated, we're told, on the
throne, on the Father's right hand in glory. When he died that
death upon the cross at Calvary, and then he was raised from the
dead, and spent those 40 days and 40 nights upon the earth,
and then he ascended up into glory, there to sit on his Father's
right hand, there to intercede for you and me today. Well, what
glorious words they are. think and how humbling it is
that every one of us can pray this great God and the Lord Jesus
takes our prayers and presents them to his Father and to our
Father. What a wonderful blessing that
is. And so here we have this statement.
Hear Him. Hear what Jesus says. And as
the Lord Jesus graciously comes and instructs us in all that
we should do and what we should say as we walk in this sinful
world. The Lord has spoken so many great
truths, hasn't he? And perhaps some of the most
wonderful words that he spoke were in that upper room on that
Passover night just before he was to be apprehended, arrested,
and taken to the judgment hall, and then eventually to be crucified. And that was that very special
occasion. In the upper room with his disciples,
he instituted what we now remember as the Lord's Supper. And of
course the Lord's Supper supersedes the Passover. The Passover, look
forward, to the death of Christ and we now with the Lord's Supper
look back to the death of Christ and of course on that occasion
he said do this in remembrance of me and what a blessing it
is for us today to be able to obey his gracious and glorious
commands to remember him as we sit at the table of remembrance
with those elements of that bread, broken bread representing his
broken body and the wine representing his shed blood. What a mercy
it is to be found then, remembering his dying love, while having
instituted that the Lord's Supper as we refer to it. And Judas
Iscariot had gone out to come to the high priest so that he
might then come and betray the Lord Jesus Christ. He then spoke,
the Lord Jesus spoke those wonderful words to those 11 disciples in
the upper room, and that commences of course on the 14th chapter
in the gospel of John but I don't intend to go through it all this
morning but just one or two words and in the 14th chapter and verse
23 we read this Jesus answered and said unto him if a man love
me he will keep my words this 35th verse says this is my beloved
son hear him So if we are amongst those who are blessed with this
love for the Lord Jesus Christ, we will keep his words. That means we will follow his
words. If a man loves me, he will keep
my words. The two statements go together. There's not a situation where
it says, well, if a man loves me, he may keep my words. It's very clear from this, he
says, if a man love me, he will keep my words. And just let me
say this, the love of Christ does something to us very special. And it's this, the love of Christ
constrains us. What does it do? It makes us
willing in a day of his power to follow him. To do His will. It's the love of Christ to us
which constrains us. And that's why we have this great
statement here. If a man loved me, he will keep
my words. And my Father will love him. And we will come unto him. You
see how clearly the Lord Jesus speaks here of His Father. the
great God of heaven. If a man love me he will keep
my words and my father and our father will love him and we will
come unto him and make our abode with him. And then the contrary
position. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings and the word which he hear is not mine. the Fathers
which sent me. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you." Now today, how thankful we should
be that such words are recorded for our instruction. How important it is that you
and I know the love of God, the love of Christ, the love of the
Saviour, as we contemplate The cost of our salvation. As we
consider Him, what He's done, and what He's said. Wonderful
words the Lord Jesus has left on record about His great work
of salvation. What a cost it was. A cost beyond
our natural understanding. To think that Jesus Christ, in
His human form, He was still God, but in His human form, He
took on our nature. He took on our nature. And therefore
he endured the cross just as we would have to. It wasn't a
null to say, well, the Savior won't have to suffer because
he's God. No, he took on our form. And he suffered as a man,
a great and glorious man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what suffering
it was. What he endured, it was that
which the Holy Father had ordained he should. And as I've said to
you often, the death of crucifixion was the most painful death that
anyone could undergo. So the Lord Jesus Christ was
not let off lightly. He suffered the very worst, the
very most painful death. in order that you and I might
be saved, that our sins might be taken away, that we might
be redeemed, that we might be ransomed. The price that was
on our head for deliverance, for freedom, the Lord Jesus Christ
paid. And what was the currency that
it was paid in? It wasn't a monetary consideration. the currency that was paid before
our redemption, the ransom price that upon our head was paid for
in that great and glorious currency which was the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was his death that was paid
so that you and I might receive the forgiveness of our sins.
Let us never therefore underestimate the cost of our salvation. And
you know, as we think of such great and glorious truths, does
it not add tremendous emphasis to these words? Hear Him. Hear Him. The words of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Just another reference to this
glorious sermon that the Saviour preached to his disciples in
the 15th chapter, which you may remember speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ as the vine. Well, we know what a vine is,
I'm sure, and how there are the fruits and the grapes in a vine. And he gives this wonderful example
a wonderful testimony and he says, abide in me. That's abiding in Christ. That's being found living in
Christ, not to ourselves but living to Christ. Abide in me
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself without Christ. There's no hope
without Christ. there's no life. Without Christ,
there's no sap. Abide in me and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except ye abide in
the vine. No more can ye, except ye abide
in me. And then he says, I am the vine. Ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, The same bringeth forth much fruit. Again, words sometimes
we don't seem to fully grasp. It doesn't say, well, you'll
just bring forth a little bit of fruit. It says here, remember
the words of Jesus, hear him. The same bringeth forth much
fruit, for without me ye can Do nothing. If a man abide not
in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather
them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If a man
abide in me and my words abide in you, hear him." Oh, this morning,
my friends, do the words of Jesus. Abide in our hearts. Are they
precious to us? Do we rejoice as we read the
Word of God, and we read the words of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we say, well, how wonderful they are, how suitable they are
to my situation, how I bless God for them? The words of Jesus. Hear Him. Hear Him. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast out. If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done
unto you. And he then says, Herein is my
Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my
disciples. The clear position is that if
there is no fruit, We are not a true disciple. There are many
people today who profess to be Christians, just in a very casual
and outward way. And I suppose in that condition,
it's an easy kind of religion and it doesn't cost them very
much. But you know, a true follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ will find that following the Saviour
will be a costly position. And therefore he says, Here is
my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my
disciples. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. So there is that true following
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you may have noticed that
in the chapter that we read together, part of it we read together,
there was a very significant statement about those who are,
who hear the Lord Jesus Christ, this is my beloved son, hear
him, and those that truly hear him, as the Apostle James says,
not hearers only, but doers of the word, and in this ninth chapter
of Luke, 23rd verse we read, The words of Jesus, hear him,
and he said unto them all, if any man will come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Again, clear words, aren't they? But very important words. Hear
him. Well, perhaps we've read these
words many times. And we've very quickly forgotten
them, conveniently forgotten them, so that we can avoid the
position that we find ourselves in if we are a true follower. Because there is that denying. We do have to deny ourselves. Deny ourselves doing things perhaps
that we would like to do. Yes, there's a line in the hymn
writer which says this, the flesh, that's our natural body, dislikes
the way but faith approves it well. And there is the answer
of a good conscience of doing those things which are God honouring
and which are indeed the words of Jesus and here is this great
instruction from almighty God which you and I should not try
and and pass round and get rounded. We are to hear Him, and that's
to hear Him with an honest heart and desire then to do what the
Saviour has said, if any man will come after me. Let him deny
himself and then take up his cross daily and follow me. And the words which follow, which
we read this morning, you may not have noticed, but let's speak
them now for whosoever will save his life. Why is a statement
like that made? Well, perhaps we might think,
well, I don't think I'm going to follow Jesus because it's
just too difficult a path. I just don't think I'm going
to. No, I'm going to ignore the word of Jesus. And yet, what are we doing? Well, we're saving ourselves,
we think. little bit of a cost True Christianity
is always costly never think it's not Because the cost the
Savior paid to redeem us what a cost that was What cost do
we have to pay very little by comparison and It is a wonderful
wonderful blessing As you and I may be given that grace to
take our cross daily and to follow the Saviour, to have the answer
of good conscience, peace in our heart, for whosoever will
save his life shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, the same shall save it. And then we have this wonderful
analogy. For what is a man's advantage? He gain the whole world and lose
his own soul. Yes, lose himself or be cast
away for whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him
shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own
glory and in all his fathers and of his holy angels." Well,
these are the words of Jesus. And the gracious command of God
is that you and I hear them. Hear him. What a favour then
today. The Lord gives us that hearing
ear to wonderfully hear the truth of God and to not turn away from
it. Now, you may think, well, that's
all right, you know, but how about those in the Old Testament? What was their position? Well,
it's very wonderfully declared to us in the Old Testament. And Moses, that man of God, was
able to record under the blessed influence of the Spirit of God
these truths as he wrote to Israel shortly before he was to be taken
from them. And in the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy
and verse 15 we're told here about the Lord Jesus in prophecy. I love the prophecies which speak
about the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament because how strengthening
is to our faith to know the word of God is true. In the 18th of
Deuteronomy, the 15th verse we read, the Lord thy God will raise
up unto thee a prophet. And the prophet is in capital
letter and it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. Unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee thy brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall
hearken. hear him according to all that
thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the
assembly saying let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my
God neither let me see this great fire anymore that I die not and
the Lord said unto me they have well spoken that they have that
they will that which they have spoken I will raise them up a
prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my
words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him. And so it came to pass. All of God's truths come to pass. And so that's come to pass. And
we today can rejoice in the fact that it did come to pass some
2,000 or so years ago. The Lord Jesus Christ graciously
came into this world and took upon him our form, human flesh,
in order that he might stand in our place as that great and
glorious substitute and die that sin atoning death so that we
might be saved from all our sins and by his grace one day be found
with him in glory. To sing then his praises forever
and forever. Well here then this morning is
this gracious exhortation to all of us here, and remember
the most blessed word it was spoken to those three disciples. You can turn to Peter, his epistle,
and you can note there that the apostle never forgot this wonderful
occasion. He refers to it It was an occasion
indelibly imprinted on their hearts. My friends, may it be
indelibly imprinted on our hearts to realize the great truth that
is spoken to us here as we read, and there came a voice out of
the clouds saying, this is my beloved son. Hear him. May we all do it. Amen.