Let's be turning to Luke chapter
9. I just want to look at a few things
that our Lord teaches us here in his transfiguration. Transfiguration of our Lord before
his disciples. Now we're told in verse 28, 28
and 29, it came to pass, About an 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,
the look of his countenance, his face, was altered. And his
raiment, his clothing, was white and glistering. Now the first
thing that our Lord shows his disciples here, the first thing
he's teaching us here this morning is something about prayer. Something about prayer. And we
need to learn something about prayer. These three men were
going to see our Lord. They were going to see the glory
of the Kingdom of God. They were going to see our Lord
glorified. But before this takes place,
our Lord is in prayer. Our Lord's in prayer, and we
can never learn too much about prayer. If we're the Lord's,
we're going to learn something about prayer. We're told in Hebrews
5 verse 7 that our Lord in the days of his flesh when he had
offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him unto his father that was able to save him from death
and was heard in that he feared. If we would serve the Lord, if
we would seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,
we're going to learn something about prayer. And I can definitely
say, in being your pastor, you learn something about prayer
and about praying for the Lord's people and seeking the Lord for
a message and seeking the Lord to establish his church, to keep
his church. We're going to learn something
about prayer and our, our Lord here, the God, man, mediator,
the son of God, who only had fellowship with his father for
all eternity, He prays. He sets the example for us. We always find the Lord in prayer. And I tell you, we learn how
to pray. I'm ashamed to think of how little
I prayed by nature. How little I prayed, how little
I sought the Lord, but you learn. I learn. More and more, just
how needful, how necessary it is for me to pray. We're in a battle, a 360 degree
battle at all times, and you don't always see it. But when
you see it, you see, I need to be praying more. The more I pray,
the more insufficient I am, the more I see the need for prayer,
the more I pray and not less. It actually never decreases.
All I see more and more is I need to be in prayer always because
there's always things going on. There's always a need. There's
always trouble. There's always affliction. There's
always difficulties with my brethren. And so we see our Lord praying.
You just consider this verse from Luke chapter three, verse
21. We're told that when all the
people were baptized, this is in the days of John the Baptist,
when all the people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also
being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened. The heaven was opened. And that's when God, the Father,
testified that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's when the
Father testified. And if you would know, if you
wonder, is this Jesus the Christ of God? Is He the Savior? May
I know Him? If you would know the true and
living God, if you would know the Savior, pray. pray because
God testified when our Lord prayed the heaven was open and God testified
that this Jesus is the Christ. He's the Christ. If you would
know the Christ, pray. Ask God. He'll open the heavens. He'll pour out his spirit. He'll
testify to your heart that this Jesus is the Christ. And be in prayer for one another.
Pray for your brethren. There's sicknesses, there's people
here today because they are sick. They are sick and there's people
not here today because they're struggling and they're sick and
they're going through trials and some are just, their bodies
are sick and they're trying to get well, that they may be here.
Pray that the Lord give his spirit. Pray that the Lord pour out his
spirit and establish his body here. Establish this work here.
And that he would be pleased to bring others out of darkness. Others off their couches. Others
out from under dead letter religion and false gospels and out of
rebellion. And that they would come here
and hear Christ. Don't presume upon the Lord.
Well, it's the Lord's will. He's going to do it if he wants
to. Well, he tells us, pray. I'll be sought of my people for
these things. And I'll wait. I'll wait, he
says. We're not to presume. And don't
assume that your brother's got it, that your brother's praying,
because maybe he isn't. Maybe he's in weakness. And you're
praying. And you're holding up your brethren. And you're holding them up to
the Lord. The Lord does that. He teaches us a lot in prayer. And we see our weakness and our
need of Him. The more we pray, the more we
see our need of Him and the more we want to pray because we see
that need. Pray that our God make His Son
known to our hearts. So pray. And we see Christ. I
just gave you one example. He's praying all the time. all
the time, and that's when the heaven was open, when He prayed. The next thing that our Lord
shows us here is a foretaste of glory. Look in verse 27 now. Let's go back up to verse 27.
Our Lord said, Luke 9, 27, I tell you of a truth, there be some
standing here which shall not taste of death till they see
the kingdom of God. And then, verse 28, we're told
that about an eight days after these sayings, he takes Peter,
James, and John up to a mountain. And there, as he prayed, the
fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was
white and glistering. They saw God peeled back. the veil and let them see the
glory of God. They saw the kingdom of heaven.
They saw the glory of their Lord. They got a foretaste of the glory
that is our Lord's and the glory that awaits His saints, His people
in Him, our inheritance. They got a taste of that. That word glistering, I looked
that word up and it means to flash as lightning. You think of a night sky or dusk
and you see that lightning flashing and zipping and zapping all over.
Our Lord, His face, His raiment was glistering in that manner,
shining brightly, flashing and shining brightly before their
eyes. And I think that's important
because these men would, not too long from this time, they
would see their Lord in His humiliation in the Garden of Gethsemane.
They would see Him in agony. They would see their Lord sweating,
as it were, great drops of blood falling on the dust. drop Him from His brow, sweating,
resisting the sin. As the Lord transferred that
burden from His brethren unto Him, and put our sin, laid our
sin on the Lord, which He bore for His people on the cross. And they would see Him led away,
and they would flee, going away free, because the Lord commanded
it to be so. And they would see or know that
He was hung on a cross, and they would hear Yep, it's done. It's finished. He's dead. He's
been laid in the grave. Our hope has been laid in the
grave. And they would see their Lord
first glorified, that they might know, that they might be kept
and strengthened in that hour. And remember, as they saw their
Lord suffer, And they would know that as they go through that
suffering, that same suffering for their Lord, they would know
we're going to be glorified. We've seen Him glorify. We've
seen the glory. Let's persevere, brethren. Don't
turn back now. Don't turn back at the sword
and being threatened and persecuted. We know the glory of our Lord.
He's in glory now. And we've seen our brethren,
and they're glorified. Continue on. And it was given
to them to strengthen them. And then additionally, we're
told in verse 30, and behold, there talked with him two men,
two men which were Moses and Elijah. who appeared in glory."
They appeared in glory. They saw their Lord in glory,
and Moses and Elijah appeared in glory. Now, what does that
tell us about glory, brethren? Well, first, it tells us that
our brethren who have died and gone on before us, though their
bodies lie asleep in the grave, yet their soul is right now with
the Lord in glory. They're in glory right now. Your
brethren who are asleep, they're in glory right now with the Lord. Second, it tells us that Moses
who died, we know Moses died, and that tells us that all who
die in the Lord, they're right now with the Lord. They shall
be in glory with the Lord. They are in glory with the Lord.
And we see Elijah. Elijah we know didn't die. He
was picked up by a chariot and taken up to heaven. And that
tells us that all who remain at the coming of our Lord, they
too shall be forever with the Lord. All our brethren, whether
you die or you don't die, when the Lord comes back, we'll be
with the Lord then, and all who've gone before us, they're with
the Lord now. None will be left behind. And then third, we see
that Moses and Elijah, well, these disciples, Peter, James,
and John, they never met Moses and Elijah, and yet they know
that this is Moses and Elijah. And that tells us that we'll
recognize our brethren, we'll know our brethren, even though
we've never met them. You'll say, Paul, hey, Paul,
John, and others that have gone before us, Martin Luther, all
these men, people in other states you've never met right now that
are believers, you'll know them. You'll know them and recognize
them. We'll know one another in the
kingdom of God. And so that's a comfort to us
in glory that we'll know one another. And then third, our
Lord shows us in this passage that Jesus Christ is all. He's
all the salvation that sinners need. He's made everything unto
us, brethren. Everything. And that's what's
shown to us here. That's the primary thing shown
to us here is that Jesus Christ is all. He is the Savior of sinners. Moses and Elijah. Being there
and talking with our Lord, it tells us all we need to know
about the Lord Jesus Christ, about this Jesus of Nazareth,
and how he is the Christ of God, that we are to hear him. Moses
and Elijah, what do they picture? They represent the law and the
prophets. This is Moses and Elijah, the
law and the Prophets, and both of them being there acknowledges
that this Jesus of Nazareth, this is the Christ of whom all
the Law and the Prophets speak. This is Him of whom they testified. To Him, Acts 10.43, to Him give
all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth
in Him shall receive remission, forgiveness of sins. All the prophets, the law and
the prophets have told us this. Again, Luke 24. Verse 44 After
our Lord rose from the dead, and He appeared to the disciples,
said unto His disciples, 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. This word speaks of Christ. It's testifying of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the promise of God for
sinners. He's the one that would be sent
of God to reconcile all things that were lost in Adam, all that
was destroyed and ruined by the rebellion and sin of Adam and
by our sin in Adam, because we were all in Adam's loins. We
all sinned in Him when He became corrupt and defiled, we became
corrupt and defiled because His sin was corrupted and defiled
in Him and we're born of the seed of Adam. We're all sinners,
we're all guilty, but Christ is the promise of God, the seed
of woman that should come. and destroy the works of the
devil and establish us in perfect righteousness with our God, before
our God, before him in perfect righteousness. Moses also, when
he came down from Mount Sinai, what are we told? His face shone. When he was in the presence of
God for 40 days and 40 nights, his face was bright shining so
that they had to put a veil over his face. and Moses would speak
to them through the veil, through that veil, but the people knew
he's been with God, he's been with God, and these disciples
are seeing this now, this Jesus, he is the Christ, God is testifying
to us, the Father's testifying to us that this is the Christ,
we see him in his glory, and Moses, what this is telling us
is Moses said in Deuteronomy 18, verses 15 through 18, He said, The Lord thy God will
raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken. You are to
listen to this prophet according to all that thou desired 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 any more, that I die not. And the Lord
said unto me, this is Moses speaking, he said unto me, they have well
spoken that which they have spoken. They don't even know what they've
said, but they're right. It's a good thing that they said
they need a mediator. And that's exactly what God intended
to do. Give us a mediator from before the foundation of the
world when he gave us to Christ, our mediator, our savior. He
said, they've spoken well, because that's exactly what I'm going
to do. I'm going to give them a mediator. In verse 18, Moses
says of the Lord, 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. And that's exactly what our Lord
did, right? He said, I've come, not to do
mine own will, but the will of my Father who sent me, and I
speak the words that I hear, that I've heard of my Father,
that's what I testify to you. That's exactly this is Christ
is that prophet and Moses here is testifying. This is the prophet
brethren. This is the prophet whom the
father said he would send that he would raise up from among
you. This is the prophet hear him
hear him next. We're told in verse 30 of what
they spoke of. were told there were two men
which were Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory and spake of
his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. This is the work
that Christ came to accomplish. This is the work the Father sent
him to do, to die for the sins of his people. to make reconciliation,
to redeem his people, to purchase his people from that death and
destruction, to deliver us, to settle all our debts, to pay
all that we owe in perfect righteousness that we can't pay. He paid it
all. I remember being a child. We
all remember being children. And the blessing of being in
the household of our father and mother. They paid everything. We didn't rack up debts. They
paid it all. We just went out and had fun.
We just went out and played and learned and did things. There
was always clothes in the drawer and there was food on the table.
Where it came from, I guess mom and dad are providing because
I'm not. They're just providing. And that's
what Christ has come to do as our shorty. He paid the debt
in full. And nothing rests on our shoulders.
It's all paid and accounted for by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they spoke of his death that he should accomplish. That's
the work he came to do, to accomplish his death. And that word means,
well, the word is exodus in Greek. They spoke of his exodus, his
exit. He's leaving out of Jerusalem. His work will be completed and
finished there in Jerusalem when he's crucified on the cross.
and dies, having accomplished the redemption of his people."
And this is the song that the redeemed sings. We sing of what
our Lord accomplished in his death. They sing of it in heaven
and here on earth we speak of it. We speak of these things. That's what we saw in Revelation
5, 9. They sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book
and open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and has redeemed
us. You've purchased us unto God
by thy blood from every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. You did it. You know that song.
It says that this is a song that only they know. In Revelation
14, only the 144,000 know it. That's speaking of you that believe.
You know the song because you're the redeemed of the Lord. You're
the ones who are not wooed by that false gospel of the Whore
of Babylon. That's what it means that you're
virgins. You're not polluted by that Whore of Babylon. You
believe the gospel. You've been given the gospel.
and you stand before the throne of God right now, faultless in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You are the redeemed. You sing
this song. You speak of this, of what our
Lord accomplished for me, for you, for sinners. He did it. He did it all. That's our song,
brethren. Now here on earth, the disciples who are saved in
hope We are first made to know our weakness. We are first made
to know the corruption of this flesh and that we are made alive
by Christ. So the Lord shows us that that
we're sinners. He shows us our need and then
he shows us Christ and the sufficiency of Christ. This is pictured for
us here in verse 32 Luke 9 32 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. These disciples
were heavy with sleep. And that is a picture of us by
nature. We're dead in sleep. That's just a picture of our
death, our spiritual death, unable to see the glory of Christ. While
all we are is flesh, we're unable to see Christ's glory. We're
told in John 1 10, he was in the world, and the world was
made by him, and the world knew him not. Because we're asleep,
dead in trespasses and sins, unable to see the glory of God.
And we must be born again. And that's what He does. He raises
us up from the dead. He gives us His Spirit. He gives
eternal life. His Spirit and gives eternal
life and the life of Christ in us. He works that. He pours out
His Spirit and makes us born again, made alive, by him and
being formed of the dust of this world, we're not alive until
he breathes into our nostrils the breath of life, that is,
gives us his Holy Spirit who comes into us and gives us life
in Christ, raises up the new man, makes us awake in Christ,
and to see the glory of Christ and rejoice in Him. And then,
we also understand that, you and Christ, that this refreshing
of His grace is always needed. It continues to this day. We get sleepy, cold, dead, dumb
to the things of God, and ignorant to the things of God, we need
to be awakened constantly and shown the glory of Christ constantly,
which he does through the preaching of the word. Our Lord tells us
the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And we
see that, we know that to be true. Lord, I would worship you
and rejoice in you on the mountaintops all the time, but then the next
day you wake up and you're just dull and void and dark and cold
and weary and sleepy and out of it. Until the Lord touches
you again and says, wake, oh sleeper, rise up, rise up. look and you see the glory of
Christ again. We'll always need to be strengthened
by the Lord. Now some people pick on Peter and the disciples
here for being sleepy, but we're told of Daniel who's greatly
beloved of the Lord. And we're told in Daniel 8.18,
Daniel says, now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep
on my face toward the ground, but he touched me and set me
upright. That's true of Daniel. Daniel
also says in chapter 10, verse 8 through 10, I was left alone
and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in
me. for my comeliness was turned
in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the
voice of his words, and when I heard the voice of his words,
then was I in a deep sleep, on my face, and my face toward the
ground, And behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees
and upon the palms of my hands. So when the Lord shows you His
glory, when the Lord draws near, our strength flies away, it flees
away. And our comeliness, our beauty,
our pride, what we think is all going well, becomes corruption
in us. and we wither before the Lord,
and we're made weak in ourselves because we see. When you stand
before the Lord, when the Lord draws near to you, you see, I
am a sinful, arrogant fool. How could I be so blind, so dumb,
so willfully ignorant to the Lord? And it all just flees away
until the Lord touches you and says, rise up, picks you up,
says, come here. I know what you are and you,
and I'm not calling you because you're anything special. I'm
calling you because you're made special in Christ. You're my
son, you're my daughter in Christ. I've bought you, you're mine.
And so he draws us near, but we're humbled and the Lord does
bring us low. And he's the one that raises
us up. He raises us up and we all, all his children know this
and experience this and go through these times. to see our need
of him and the sufficiency of Christ. 33 It came to pass, as
they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is
good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one
for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing what
he said. And so this thing with Peter
wanting to build three tabernacles for all three, it gives us a
good cause. It shows us our need of instruction
here. The Lord is going to further
instruct the disciples and he further instructs us In this
what we need to hear what we need to know and hear right here
verse 34 The Lord does it he while he thus spake while Peter
speaking saying it's good for us to be here And it's good.
Let me build three tabernacles one for you Moses and Elijah
while he thus spake there came a cloud and Overshadowed them
and they feared as they entered into the cloud now Matthew in
his account of this tells us it was a bright cloud A bright
cloud. This isn't the dark cloud of
Sinai coming over. This is the gospel coming over
that the Lord brings you into and you to hear the gospel. This
is a bright cloud, but he's gonna instruct you. He teaches us by
this gospel. And by this gospel, we see the
light of men, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're made to know him
who is our salvation and the hope of Israel. God's people,
Jew and Gentile. And there came a voice out of
the clouds saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. That's
what we hear in the gospel. This is my beloved son. You hear
him. He's your salvation. I've provided
him for your salvation. Hear him. And when the voice
was passed, Jesus was found alone. No Moses. No Elijah. Jesus was found alone and they
were told by Christ to keep it to themselves. They kept it close
and told no man in those days any of those things which they
had seen. Matthew Mark says Christ told them not to say anything.
But the lesson here that we're to see is that Moses and Elijah
were gone. They saw no one else save Jesus
only. And that's what the Lord is showing
us that This word here, the Law and the Prophets testify and
speak of Christ. That's who you're to see. That's
who you're to rejoice in. That's who we rest in is in Christ
Jesus, in Christ alone. All that was written concerning
Him, this whole book speaks of Him and it's good for us. You that are here, you that hear
this word, it's good for us to be here because this is where
God makes known unto his people his will and purpose. In hearing
the word, faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of God. An example of that is in 1 Peter
1, I believe it is, where the Lord says, be ye holy, for I
am holy. Now you and I can't do that.
We don't have any ability in ourselves to make ourselves holy. But the Lord tells us that because
in hearing that word, He's making known to you His will and purpose
in what He accomplishes in you in Christ. Be ye holy for I am
holy. It should make you feel your
corruption and know, I can't do that. I'm a sinner, Lord. But God declares that word that
we hear it. It's good for us to be here.
It's good. Peter, James, and John were there
and they saw this. And you see this in the gospel
cloud. Our need of Christ. That Christ
is all our salvation. He is our righteousness. And Matthew tells us that what
the Lord said was, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased, hear him." It's good for us to be here because this
is where we learn in the preaching of the gospel in whom we are
received. We don't come to the Father with
Christ, we come to the Father in Christ. The Father is well
pleased in Christ, and you that come to the Father in Christ,
hoping in Him, believing Him, trusting His righteousness prevails
for you and all your sin is blotted out and you live in Him. God
is well pleased with you in Christ, in Christ. Because you're coming
not trusting your own works, not boasting of what you've done,
but trusting in and boasting in the Lord Jesus Christ. He died to put away our sins. His blood covers the sins of
all whom he redeemed. All he laid his life down for,
they are forgiven. They have life in Christ. Hear Him, not Moses. He departed. Moses gave his testimony. If this is the Christ, you hear
Him. Not Elijah. Elijah gave his testimony. The prophets say, yep, this is
Him. You hear Him. They all speak
of Christ. When you go back and read the
Old Testament, it's all testifying and pointing to Christ in pictures,
types, shadows. It's all testifying Christ. Christ Christ and here they are
testifying in this form what the word testifies it's all of
Christ and so hear him hear him I pray the Lord bless that word
to you brethren and that you rejoice and hear Christ it's
good for us to be here and because this is where we hear our salvation
and are made to rejoice in him amen