Good morning again. I invite
your attention to Matthew chapter 17. Brother Gabe and your brethren in Kingsport,
Tennessee, send their love and greetings. Like I said before,
it's my honor and privilege to be here with you. I pray the
Lord might allow us to worship him together. Matthew chapter 17. Look with me at verse 1. 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. Our Lord
took three of his disciples up with him into this high mountain
where he was transfigured before them. This is the account of
the Mount of Transfiguration. And what was happening here is
our Lord took them up, just him and those three disciples, and
he showed them his glory. All right, that's what's taking
place here. He showed them his glory. He who had no form nor
comeliness that men should desire him, no earthly Beauty, we all
want earthly beauty. He made it so that he had none.
And yet he took his disciples up here and he stood before them
shining like the sun. I love just thinking about it. And I know what happened here
was they saw the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus
Christ, literally. They saw that, we see it by faith,
they saw it with their eyes. They physically saw this. He
who was despised and rejected of men, all men by nature, stood
there shining as white as the light. Rays of the glory of God
shined down on him, who alone is altogether lovely. Lovely
to God the Father and lovely to all his people. And look here,
verse three, it goes on to say, and behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elias, Elijah, talking with him. How wonderful
is this? Peter, James, and John, not only
did they see the Lord ascend in His glory, they saw Moses
and Elijah. They lived long ago. Moses had
died many years before. Elijah, you recall, he didn't
physically die, but the Lord carried him up into glory in
a chariot of fire. And here they are. They appeared
with the Lord in glory, and they saw them. Again, they saw them
with their own eyes. They saw them talking with the
Lord in glory. Now, there's a lot of things
we could say here. All I want to say is they were
alive and well. You know, we often fear death.
Even as believers, you know, we live and we die in faith,
trusting Christ that whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall
never die. We're going to be asleep, and yet we're going to
be awake, beholding Him in His glory. We don't understand these
things, but we believe them. And yet in this flesh, we still
fear that moment of death. We don't know what it's going
to be. We don't know how we're going to get there, but we're
anticipating being with Him. We're confidently expecting it.
But yet, we still fear at times, don't we? Well, know this. I'm
saying it, and it says it right here. Moses and Elijah appeared
with Him. They were fine. They were alive,
and they were better than they ever were before. You ever have
a good day? I know we probably think we have
more bad days than good days, don't we? It had never been better
for them than it was right here, all right? And what it is for
them right here is what it still is right now. They're with the
Lord in glory, all right? Now, understandably so, Peter
was just plum amazed. I try to put myself in his situation,
and I just can't. I like to try as hard as I can
to enter into, well, what if I were there? Well, it wasn't.
But listen, let's try to enter in here to Peter. Look what he
said here in verse four. Then answered Peter. Now note, nobody said
anything to Peter. Okay, we'll just go ahead and
establish that. But Peter always had something to say, didn't
he? Look here. Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord,
it is good for us to be here. It sure was. Again, I would have loved to
have been there. but to be in the presence of the Lord. You
know, there's a lot of places we would like to be. I'm thrilled
to be here with you right now. It truly is an honor and privilege,
and I pray a blessing to all of us to be together worshiping
Him. But to be there in the presence
of the Lord, and you have Moses and Elijah appearing here, can
you imagine how good it must have been, how wonderful and
overjoyed Peter must have felt? So what an obvious statement
for him to make, it's good for us to be here. But then he went
on and he made a suggestion that most of us probably know, look
at it with me. Peter said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us
to be here, if thou wilt. He started the question, well,
if you will, let us make here three tabernacles, three tents,
one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias. Again, there's a lot that we
could say here, but what I see here is Peter, first of all,
he knew it was good to be there, and he didn't want to go anywhere.
He wanted to stay right there, and do you blame him? Do you
blame him? And not only that, he wanted
the Lord, he wanted Moses, he wanted Elijah to have a tabernacle,
to have a tent. He didn't plan on leaving, so
he wanted them to have a place to lay their heads, all right?
I used to think he was wanting to build a statue. He was wanting
to build a place to sleep, all right? A place to dwell. Have
you ever noticed that he didn't say that he wanted to build a
tabernacle for himself? We always judge Peter when we
look at this. He didn't suggest building anything for himself.
He didn't suggest building anything for James or John either. Okay,
I just want to point that out. I don't fault Peter for feeling
the way he did. I don't fault him at all. I like
to think if I were there, I'd have done something far worse.
I'd have done something far more foolish. To me, Peter's suggestion
seems somewhat admirable. But not to God. Wasn't amiable
to God. Wasn't a good suggestion to the
Lord. It was not a good and pleasant
thing to God. You see, first of all, God doesn't
need us to build anything for Him. He didn't need a place to
lay His head. Our Lord purposed it so that when He walked this
earth, He had no place to lay His head. He who made the world.
He purposed it so that He walked the world and nobody wanted Him.
Hated Him. Crucified Him. That was God's
purpose. He made it that way. He purposed to be a root out
of a dry ground, tender plant, no beauty. Now, Peter, by his
suggestion, what he was doing was giving glory to the Lord,
which we ought to do, but he was also giving glory to Moses
and Elijah, who get no glory. Christ alone must get all the
glory, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, and
thy name alone be glory, all right? Now, Peter, I like to
think he maybe just shouldn't say anything. Maybe he should
have kept his mouth shut and just enjoyed the moment. But
yet it happened according to God's purpose. We just looked
at growing in grace. Peter wrote about growing in
grace. This was for Peter's growth. This was for his lying, and I
pray it will also be for ours. I look here at verse five. We're
gonna spend a lot of time here. Verse five, while he yet spake. And
I love that because the Lord didn't even let him keep talking.
He just cut him off. While he yet spake. 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. While Peter was speaking, God
the Father rebuked him from the clouds. This is serious, okay? There's
something we need to learn here. There's something we need to
really focus on and take away from this. Peter, he was a believer. He was one of God's elect, one
of God's children. He was an apostle, disciple.
God used him to record holy scriptures. And yet he was a sinful, foolish
man, just like you and me. That's exactly what he was. Though
he grew in grace, as God grew him, he was still a sinner, still
a sinful man. His acceptance was in Christ
and Christ alone. He was a sinful man who erred
often and often needed corrected, just like us. Let's not think
we're above it. If I'm still here being kept by the power
and grace of God in 50 years, declaring the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ, I'm gonna need Him just as much then
to correct me as I do right now. I promise, I know it to be so.
Now, for our message, my prayer is that God might enable us to
truly hear I pray we hear it with the ears, but I pray we
hear it with the heart, what the father had to say. I'm telling
you, when God speaks, I want to hear what he has to say. When
the father spoke from the cloud, they heard him. They could not
hear him. And I pray he might likewise
cause us to hear. Now, what did he say? This is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. If there's anything
we learned today, I pray it's this. The Father is well-pleased
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is well-pleased, he thinks
well of, he approves of, he takes pleasure in the Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. Turn with me, I wanna show
us some familiar scriptures, but they go well with the message
here. Isaiah 42, Isaiah 42. And I'll tell you this, what
the Father's well-pleased with is what I want to be well-pleased
with. Naturally, everything we are, everything we think, everything
we do, everything we desire is contrary to God. What God's well-pleased
in and with, we have no desire. I pray He would align our desires
with His. All right, now look here what the Father said in
Isaiah 42, verse 1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. Who do you think
he's talking about? none other than Christ our Savior.
Behold, my servant whom I uphold, mine elect and whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor
be discouraged. Till he have set judgment in
the earth and the isles shall wait for his law. The father
delighteth in the son. He delighteth in his son. That's his servant. That's his
servant. That's his elect. God's elect
are in the elect. The Lord Jesus Christ. God's
servants are in God's servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. The only
way God will ever delight in us is if we are in Him. We must be in Christ. He's well-pleased
in the Son, and He's well-pleased with all those in the Son. Gotta be in Him. Now, that makes
me wonder, how can a person be in Christ? If I must be in Him
to be accepted before God, because my time's coming and I'm gonna
need to be accepted when I stand before Him, How can I be in Him? It's a question I would like
an answer to. Well, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians
chapter 1. Verse 3. We're going to establish the fact that
salvation is of the Lord. We don't save ourselves. I'm
a sinner, and I need a Savior, and I need God to save me. And
I'll go ahead and tell you, Christ is that Savior who came and saved
His people from their sins. Look here, Ephesians 1 verse
3. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places, notice this, in Christ, verse 4, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Now look at this. According to
the good pleasure of his will, the father chose to save a people
and he chose to save them in Christ. Chose to save them in
Christ. We played no part in it. We sinned. That's all we did. That's all
we're capable of doing. He chose to save the people in
Christ, and He did it according to the good pleasure of His will.
Now why did He do it? Look at verse six. To the praise
of the glory of His grace. He's gonna get the glory for
it. If I stand before Him accepted in glory, robed in righteousness
that I didn't create, I didn't merit, it's gonna be to the praise
of the glory of His grace, and look at it, wherein He hath made
us, I love the way that's worded, accepted in the Beloved. God saved us for His glory. He's
going to get all the glory for it. We're going to be robed in
pure, spotless righteousness, just like they saw the Lord standing
there arrayed. He was so white, their eyes could
only take it because God let them see it. This flesh couldn't
see it. One of the writers wrote, it's
whiter than on earth. No man could whiten it, or worded
something like that. It reads kind of odd to me, but
it couldn't be any brighter. He could not shine any brighter. And that's what He's made us
to be in Him. We're not just barely accepted.
Well, I guess you can come on in. No, we're one with Him. As
righteous as He is, we are, because He made us to be the righteousness
of God in Him. We're one with Him. We're as accepted as He
is. And He's God. That's good news. And he did it all, excepted in
the beloved. I love the song. Maybe y'all
sing it sometimes. In the beloved, excepted am I,
risen, ascended, and seated on high. It's all for his glory.
He did it all. How can we be in Christ? God
must put us there. God must put us there. Well,
how can I know if I'm there? How can I know if I'm there?
Turn with me to John chapter three. John chapter three. John 3, verse 35. First, let me ask you this. Do
you desire to be in Christ? Do you desire for your acceptance
to be something completely outside of you? Or is the only way you're
going to approach God going to be based on something you did,
a decision you made, your determination? You know, we're proud of our
determination. I'm in a master's degree right now. I'm proud of
my ambition, but my ambition ain't nothing, especially when
it comes to spiritual things. I need him to do it all. I'm
not going to fool myself and think that I'm going to please
God by something I did. Foolish little worm me. No, sir. I need
my acceptance to be totally outside of myself. God's only beloved
son, all right? I look here at John 3, verse
35. It says, the father loveth the son, and hath given all things
into his hand. Who's he love? He loves his son. Who else? That's it. The Father
loved the Son. He's given all things into His
hand. Verse 36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
How can I know if I'm in Christ? Do I believe on the Son? God
said, He that believeth on the Son hath. We've always had, we
have right now, and we shall forever have. What does He say?
Everlasting life. You interested in life? This life's gonna end. I may
have a few years left, but it's coming to an end. In the last message, I mentioned
our babies that have recently been born. I sure don't wanna
think about this, but their life shall end. You say, well, it
just started. Yeah, but it's gonna end. Time to be born and time to die.
That's what God said. Are you interested in eternal
life? everlasting life, the evidence
that we have everlasting life, the evidence that we're in Christ
is faith. The substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen, it's the evidence. If we
believe on Him, that's the evidence that God has chosen us in Him.
That's the evidence that He came to redeem us. That's the evidence
that the Spirit has quickened us and given us faith in Him.
Do we believe that the Father loves the Son and only the Son?
There's no reason He should love me because of anything in me.
If anything, if it's because of me, well, surely He cannot
love me at all because He's holy. Everything the Son is, I'm not. Do I believe that God would be
right to cast me into hell? Because He has every right to.
The only way I'm going to stand accepted in glory is on the right
of another. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Do we believe that He came into this world to save His people,
sinners, that's who He said He came to save, from their sins,
that I'm the very chief of those sinners, I'm the worst of the
worst, and that what we just read in Isaiah 42, He shall not
fail nor be discouraged, we believe that? Or well, He died and now
I gotta do this, it's up to, brethren, I'm telling you, it's
finished. God said so. Do we believe that Christ is
all? That's what Paul said. Paul thought nothing of Christ
till Christ came to him. Who art thou, Lord? This is Jesus
whom thou persecutest. All right. What would you have
me to do? Lord taught him Christ is all.
Christ is all. Salvations of him and him alone.
I'm completing him. No other hope but him. If God
has given us this precious faith, and that's what God-given faith
is, it's precious. Men like to boast of their faith. There's
one faith, and that's the faith, that's the faith of God's elect,
that's the faith that God gives His people, imparts it in His
people. The faith that is of Him, the faith that's the gift
of God, it's not of works lest we should boast. He gets the
glory for it, He did it all. Precious faith. If God's given
us this precious faith to believe on Him, and I've got good news
for us, we're in Christ. We didn't do it. We didn't want
it. You know that? Peter didn't want it. He wasn't
looking for it. Paul didn't want it. He wasn't looking for it.
He was proud to be doing what was contrary to it until God
came to him and gave it to him. Once God gives you his gift,
first of all, there's no rejecting it. You accept it and you accept
it joyfully just like Zacchaeus. He climbed up in that tree. I
don't know why he wanted to see the Lord. But just in the blink
of an eye, the Lord was standing there right beneath him. And
he said, make haste and come down. And he came down and received
him joyfully. Why? Because that was the Lord's command.
That was the Lord's purpose, which shall always come to pass.
Now turn back to our text in Matthew 17. Look at verse five
again. Matthew 17, verse five. Middle of the verse, this is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. There's just one we need to hear. So many people, especially so
many preachers, think they need to be heard. You know the only
preacher you need to hear? One who comes with the message
Hear ye Him. Well, you need to hear me. You
need to hear what I have to say. Well, I'm not so sure, but I
know this, I need to hear Him. You know when the dead shall
live? When they hear the voice of the Son of God. We must hear
Him. Peter, it tells us that he heard
Moses and Elijah talking with the Lord. And I'm going to mention
to you in a minute what they were talking about. And I would
love to hear him talk with him. But there's only one we need
to hear. Do you understand that? We need to hear him. I would
love to hear Moses and Elijah talk. Sometimes we mention when
we're in glory, oh man, I'd just love to hear Abraham tell some
stories. I'd love to hear Abraham talk. I don't know what it's
going to be like, but I know we're going to see him as he
is and we're going to be like him and we're going to be with him and we're going
to be satisfied. Whatever we hear there is going to be pure
glory. No sin there. No sadness there, no tears. But
we need to hear Him right now and forever. It's Him we need
to hear. Now, mention Moses and Elijah. We know Moses represents
the law. God gave his law to his people
through Moses, okay? We also know that religion, false
religion, has men and women under the law, but we know why God
gave the law, don't we? That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. The law wasn't
sent to save us. The law was given to show us
we can't keep it. We're sinners. That's all we
are. That's all we can do in this flesh. They that are in
the flesh cannot please God. I know me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Law ain't gonna save me. You
know why Christ came? To fulfill the law. It says we
establish the law by faith in Him. And remember, God gives
us the faith. He did it all. Moses represents
the law. Law can't save us. I'm not gonna
put you under the yoke of the law. Christ said, come unto me
all ye that labor and are heavy laden. He said, take my yoke
upon you. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. I wanna be yoked
to Him, don't you? Elijah, he represents the prophets. You know what the prophets declared?
They declared, the Messiah's coming. There's someone who's
coming. That's what the prophets declared. Now I wanna show you this. Turn
to Acts chapter 26. Acts 26. Acts 26 verse 22. It says, Having therefore obtained
help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to
small and great, saying none other things than those which
the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should
suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from
the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. Moses and the prophets wrote
of Christ. Christ said on one occasion,
he's some men that were talking about Moses and the law. He said,
Moses wrote of me. It's what he told the disciples
on the road to Emmaus. He said, Moses and the Psalms
and the prophets, they all spoke concerning me. It's all about
him. Do you know what they were discussing?
When Moses and Elijah were there talking with the Lord, I think
it was Luke, tells us what they were talking about. It says,
they spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Now, I don't know about you,
but I normally don't think of death, that's what deceased means,
as an accomplishment. It ain't for us. But it was for
him. When my wife became pregnant
with both of our children, we were excited at the prospect
of life. We were looking forward to life. You know Christ didn't
come here He did come here to live, but his primary purpose
was to come here to die. Again, God's not like us. And
his death is our hope. And here's what I love thinking
about. Here were Moses and Elijah with the Lord in glory, and we
know that our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain. And yet, Moses died and Elijah
was carried up into glory long before Christ ever came. Long
before he ever shed his blood. How? Because it was finished.
As soon as God purposed it, it was finished. Again, because
he shall not fail. God willing it to come to pass,
it shall come to pass. There's no chance that it won't.
The blood had been shed before the foundation of the world,
and that was their hope, was in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which cleanses us from all iniquity, all sin. They had
the same hope we have, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's
the only hope there is, all right? And back in our text, Matthew
17, verse five, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,
hear ye Him. Verse six, and when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. Can you imagine how afraid they
must have been? Seriously. I told you, I would have loved
to been there. I don't know that I would have loved to been there
right now. Again, we know that in this flesh,
God would be right to smack us dead at any instance and cast
us away forever. That's probably how they felt
right then, all right? And I'll tell you this, if God intends
to get our attention, He clearly got their attention, didn't He?
If God intends to get your attention, He's gonna get your attention.
You know, you can stand up and speak to a crowd and say, all
right, I'd like your undivided attention. Well, doesn't work
too well for us. But what God wants, He has. He
doesn't want anything. His will comes to pass. God intended
for them to hear what He had to say, and He saw to it that
they heard exactly what He had to say. And if we ever hear Him
speak, we'll have the same reaction they had. We're going to fall
down on our face in the dust, sore afraid, knowing I'm a sinner,
and He's the Holy God Almighty, and He can do with me whatever
He wants to do. He's holy. I'm in His hands. He's not in
mine. His hands aren't. The only hands He has aren't
my hands. No, not at all, but my hands are in His hands. My
life is in His hands. I mentioned Peter. After the Lord came to him and
had him cast the net over here and caught the fish, Peter had
said something foolish before that, but now, after learning
who he was, all he could say was, Depart from me, I'm a sinful
man, O Lord. And that will be our response
if we ever hear God speak. We can hear preachers speak all
we want and we'll believe that we're great and wonderful people
and God's gonna accept us because we worked the works of God and
we were good, our good outweighed our bad. There's only one goodness
and it's Christ. He is, the definition in Webster's
should say goodness, Jesus Christ. That'd be much truer than whatever
it says right now, I promise you that. Look at verse seven. And Jesus
came and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. Told you, they were probably
afraid of being cast out. Did he cast them out? Nope. He didn't cast them out. What'd he do? He came and touched
them. He came and touched them. Amazing. They fell down,
as they should. And he said, arise. Did he say, just go ahead and
dig your grave? No. Get up. Arise. They were so afraid, terrified.
They didn't strike him down. He said, be not afraid. You know, when we learn our sin,
that's how we feel. I can't explain it. We just have
to experience it. But when we learn who he is,
there's no reason to fear. We fear God. But it's not a afraid
of, it's a Lord your will be done. Your name and your name
alone be glorified and exalted and praised and worshiped and
extolled forever because you're God. We're gonna be singing Christ
praise and glory. That's what's gonna go on. There's
gonna be a new song. There's gonna be a great congregation.
There's gonna be one preacher and we're gonna be at his feet
hearing his voice, hear him forever. Brethren, we don't have to fear.
because Christ put our sin away. He bore it in His own body. Say,
well, I still feel it. I do, too. And yet, we can rest
assured because God tells us, I believe it's Psalm 103, verse
12, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed
our transgressions from us. They're gone. They're all taken
away. We can rest in Him. Does that make you want to go
sin some more? Not me. God forbid. But the sad fact of the matter
is, that's exactly what I'm gonna do, because that's all I know
how to do. And yet he put it all away, and
I'm gonna praise him for it. As long as I have breath, you
know, the Psalms, everything I have breath, let it praise
the Lord. I pray that God would let me do that. I pray God would
let me loathe myself and cling to him and believe on him as
long as I have breath. I pray he would. All right, look
here, verse eight. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. It goes on a little bit,
but I'm going to stop there. I love that. I don't know how long
they were up there. It doesn't seem like very long.
Moments ago, they were there, man, just glorying in the circumstance,
glorying and seeing the Lord and Moses and Elijah there talking.
Just what a wonderful event. And just in an instant, their
sin just ruins it. Our sin ruins everything. And
the Lord speaks to them and rebukes them. And what a rebuke it was. And he saw to it that they heard
it. He humbled them as he does all his people. And he calms
their fear, causes them to stand up. And then they see no man.
They didn't see Moses anymore. They weren't looking to the law
anymore. They didn't see Elijah. Peter wasn't wanting to build
three tents anymore. He wasn't wanting to build any tent. He
just wanted to shut up and rest in the Lord. And that's exactly
what I want to do. Shut my mouth and hear him, see
him. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Oh, for eyes to see him. Don't
you long to see him? We mentioned in the first message,
oh, to taste of his grace. I just want more of his grace.
I want more knowledge of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You
know, behold the man. Pilate said, behold your king.
Oh, I want to. Oh, I sure want to, to behold the Lord our God. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. May God enable us
to see him by faith. And may He allow us to hear Him
and Him alone and praise His holy name forever and ever. It's
been good to be with you. I pray the Lord bless His word
to our hearts. Amen.