If you will turn with me in your
Bibles back to Matthew 17. Matthew chapter 17. I pray our Lord might enable
us to worship Him. Matthew 17 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. This
is the account of The Mount of Transfiguration. And this is
a glorious passage. Our Lord took three of his disciples,
Peter, James, and John, and he took them up into this high mountain
by themselves, and they beheld his glory. They beheld his glory. And I can't help but think, what
a privilege, what a privilege that must have been for our Lord
to choose them, to take them, that they might behold his glory.
I love the way verse two describes Christ's appearance says his
face did shine as the sun. Don't you love thinking about
that? His face did shine like the sun, and his raiment, his
clothing, was white as the light. His raiment glistened like the
snow, Mark and Luke tell us. And as glorious as this account
was, and it was glorious, did you know that all of us by nature
would have no interest in such an experience? This flesh does
not desire the glory of God, not at all. And the reason is
we do not know God by nature, we do not know Him. And that's
why we seek our own glory and not His. Look back just a page
in Matthew 16, verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is
God we're talking about. This is not just a man named
Jesus. That's all religion sees, just
a man. This is the God man, God manifest in the flesh. And I
love that our Lord asked his disciples, who do you say I am? What think ye of Christ? And
look what our Lord said here in verse 17. When Peter said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus answered
and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. The only way we're ever gonna
learn who God is, the only way we're ever gonna learn who Jesus
Christ is, is by divine revelation. Flesh and blood do not teach
us this. God must reveal Himself. And let me show you this, back
in, or over in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I pray that God might give us
a desire right now to see His glory, to see Christ in His glory. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse
3. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. The light of the glorious gospel
of God must shine unto us. If we're to ever see Christ,
if we're to ever see his glory, God must cause him to shine in
our hearts. And I rejoice to know that's
exactly what he's been pleased to do. Paul tells us how he learned
the gospel. He said, I didn't receive this
of men, neither was I taught it by men, but by revelation
of Jesus Christ. And that's how it must be for
all of us if we're to learn him. And look here in 2 Corinthians
4 and verse 5. He said, for we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. and ourselves your servants for
Jesus' sake." Paul wasn't interested in men seeing him. He didn't
want the glory. He said, God forbid that I should
glory. We preach not ourselves. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord.
Verse 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ.
All God's glory will be seen only in Jesus Christ, in His
face. And that's exactly what the disciples
were beholding, His face. They beheld His glory. And I
pray with Moses, Lord, show me Your glory. We're gathered here,
I pray in His name to worship Him. And our prayer's the same,
isn't it? Lord, show us Your glory. Show us Christ. He is the glory of God. And if
we're ever gonna see God's glory, we'll see it in Him, only in
Him. Second, look here in verse three of our text. Matthew 17,
verse three. They beheld his glory, verse
three, and behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking
with him. Out of nowhere, here come Moses
and Elijah. And again, this is just glorious
to me. We think, well, how did that
happen? I don't know. But we know our God is a mighty God.
He's a great God. And I love reading about what
happened here, Moses and Elijah. Our disciples, the Lord's disciples,
they knew exactly who these men were. And they didn't have pictures
like we do. They couldn't just search them
on the internet. But they knew who they were. We have many loved
ones who have left us, but they're not missing us. We'd be foolish
to think that. Luke tells us that these men,
Moses and Elijah, they appeared in glory. They appeared in glory. They had left this earth long
ago, but they were in glory. And I don't know what all that
means, but I love this verse. We know that when he, Christ,
shall appear, we shall be like him. That's glory. For we shall
see him as he is. What a blessed thought. We shall
see him as he is. In verse three, we're told that
Moses and Elijah appeared talking with our Lord. What did they
talk about? Well, we don't have to wonder.
Turn over to Luke chapter nine. Luke chapter nine. Verse 30, And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory,
and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. They talked about the Lord Jesus
Christ's death that he would soon accomplish. Isn't that amazing?
You know, what struck me in thinking about this was the Lord told
His disciples time and time again about the death that He would
die and that He would rise again the third day, and it just went
right over them. They just never could grasp it.
When they went in the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord is telling
them again what's gonna happen, and Peter says, no, no, no, I'll
die with you. You can't go. Well, Moses and
Elijah knew. They talked about His death that
He should accomplished, and that's the key word. Not the death that
he should merely die. You know, we view death as a
failure, as a disappointment. Well, for Christ, his death was
a resounding success. His death is the reason for our
hope. Moses and Elijah had the same
exact hope we have. They had the only hope there
was. They had the same message. They had They only had one thing
that mattered to them, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Paul said, I'm determined not
to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
the only subject of any importance, especially when we come into
this place. It's a fearful thing to stand here, just so you know.
This is so much above us men. We're just sinful men. But we
know that we've been called to declare one message, and that's
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. the finished work of redemption
in him. Well, what's the significance here of Moses and Elijah? We know Moses represents the
law, don't we? And we also know that most religion
has men and women under the law. But the sad fact of the matter
is, by nature, we have no idea why God even created the law.
We don't know what the purpose of the law is. Well, let me show
you over in Romans chapter three. Romans chapter 3, verse 19. Romans 3, 19. Now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin." The whole purpose of God's holy
law was to show us we're sinners. We've broken it. We cannot keep
it. It doesn't matter if we start
trying to keep it. We can't. And it wouldn't matter
anyway because we defend in one point. God says we're guilty
of all. It's too late. Paul said, tell me ye that desire
to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Well, we just read
it. The law tells us we've sinned against the holy God, and we
cannot be justified by the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. The law serves one purpose, and that's to point us to Christ. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ. The law was never given to save
us. Elijah, Elijah was a prophet. He represents all the prophets,
all God's messengers, all his servants. And they all had this
message, thus saith the Lord. I have one message here tonight,
and that's thus saith the Lord. I'm not here to tell you something
new. I'm not here to blow your mind with something I've discovered.
I hope I don't tell you anything you don't already know. Thus
saith the Lord. Let me show you something over
here in Acts. Chapter 26, Acts 26, verse 22. 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. Well, here
Paul was preaching the gospel to some mighty men. One of them,
whom we're familiar with, he said, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian. Well, the reason it was almost
is because God wasn't pleased to reveal these things to him.
God's been pleased to reveal it unto babes. But here Paul
tells us the only thing he was proclaiming was exactly what
Moses and the prophets wrote about, and that's Christ and
his death and resurrection, Christ crucified. They all wrote of
him, and that's what they stand here on the Mount of Transfiguration
discussing. Turn back to our text, Matthew 17. While this
glorious conversation was taking place, Peter and James and John,
they were asleep. We don't see it in Matthew's
account, but we see it in Luke's account. Well, they woke up. And I'll just point out, they're
a good picture of us. I know we don't come here and
sleep every time we're here, maybe sometimes. But they represent
us and how weak we are in the flesh. Here, Moses and Elijah
stand. We can't even fathom the glory
of this situation. And then they fall asleep. Our Lord was shining in all his
glory, and off they went. Well, if that don't tell us not
to glory in ourselves, I don't know what does. Anyway, here
in verse four, Peter woke up and he had to join the conversation. Then answered Peter and said
unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. And it sure
was. Again, I love the thought of
what took place here. And a lot of times I feel like
we read the scriptures thinking of things as just merely stories
or fiction. This really happened. Just like
Paul really was caught up into the third heaven and he came
down and he didn't even know what to say. It wasn't possible for him to
utter the things which he saw. Well, this really happened. And
Peter, the first thing he recognized is, it's good for us to be here.
And the same is true for us. When we come here, the Lord has
given us a place to gather around his word and to worship him in
spirit and in truth. And we ought to be so thankful. There's no
better place for us to be. I remember I was at a conference
one time, and it was a Friday night, 7, 8 o'clock at night,
and the pastor said, isn't it amazing that we're all here on
a Friday night to worship God? It's only by the grace of God,
isn't it? But nonetheless, it's good for us to be here. Peter
was an eyewitness of the Lord's majesty and glory. So good for
him to be there. Look on in verse four. He said,
Lord, it's good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make
here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and
one for Elijah. Now Peter, bless his heart, he
always just thought he knew what to say, didn't he? Well, he was
wrong here, as he often was. He thought he had a great idea,
and before I harp on him, I just wanna say, Peter, without a doubt,
he had much love, much respect, much honor for his brethren. I mean, can you imagine if our
Lord came and took us up on a mount, and first of all, let us behold
him, but then here comes Abraham, here comes Jonah, and Jacob,
and Isaac, That would be glorious, wouldn't it? I think we'd start
saying, well, let's do something for all of them, wouldn't we?
Well, the only problem with that is that he was given glory where
glory was not due. We ought to love one another.
We're commanded to. But we must not glory in each
other. We're all prone of the same thing that Peter was guilty
of doing here. We all find ourselves a glory in, mostly in ourselves,
but in one another, in the things of this world, in the things
that we do, the things that we accomplish. But I'm so thankful
for this passage because one of the main points here is we
must glory in Christ, only in Christ. No matter how glorious
the occasion, we have these conferences and they're glorious. Just coming
here week after week, message after message, we're so joyed,
we're so filled with God's truth, God's gospel, but we must glory
in Christ. We must be careful to glory in
Him. See, there's a reason When these disciples joined our Lord
on the mount, there's a reason that at first they only saw Him. They only saw Him. And there's a reason, before
they went down, they only saw Him. We must see Him, only Him. Here in verse five, God the Father
speaks from heaven, He rebukes Peter for His suggestion. Verse five, 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. God the Father spoke
from heaven. What a glorious occasion. He
spoke from heaven, and he got their attention. And when God
speaks, he gets our attention. Psalm 29 verse 4 says, the voice
of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. And when God speaks, we would
be wise to listen. We're so swift to speak. We need
to be swift to listen, slow to speak. I don't want to miss out
on hearing him speak. That's one reason I try to be
here when I can, is I want to hear God speak. God's been pleased
to speak through his word. I don't want to miss him speaking. I believe verse five here is
one of the most powerful verses in all the scriptures. Let's
read it again. 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. God the Father spoke
from heaven, and he said, this is my beloved son. Do you see
my son? They started looking at Moses
and Elijah. He said, this is my son. Moses and Elijah were
about to disappear so they could just see His Son. Turn with me
to John chapter three. John chapter three, verse 35. The Father loveth the Son. and hath given all things into
his hand. 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. God the Father
loves God the Son. He only loves his Son. He's well-pleased
with him. He is only well-pleased with
and in him. We must believe on Christ, the
Son of God, if we have any hope of having everlasting life. He that hath the Son hath life.
If we don't have the Son of God, we do not have life, but God's
wrath abides on us. The reason this verse is so important,
this causes us to look only at Christ. As far as salvation is
concerned, It's only in Christ. There's one obedience. Our obedience
is nothing but disobedience. It's not even our faith, it's
His faith. We're just saying, great is thy faithfulness. There's
one acceptance before a holy God, just one acceptance, one
righteousness, and that's Christ. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1,
we're accepted in the beloved, only in the beloved. If we are
not in Him, We will not be accepted. We gotta be in Him. Well, how
are we in Him? Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. We must be in Christ. And back
in verse five, the last thing the Father said was, hear ye
Him. We must hear Him. It saddens
me when I think about people who are lost in religion, because
I know they don't see Him. When they read Moses and Elijah,
that's this book, they don't see Him. I pray that God would
reveal Christ to us. Perhaps He already has. Well,
Lord, show me again. Show us again. We're never gonna
get tired of seeing Him, are we? Well, I hope not, because
that's what heaven is. is beholding Him, worshiping
Him. Our Lord said, search the scriptures, for in them ye think
ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.
He said, Moses wrote of me. Moses and the prophets, they
spoke things concerning Him. When we come to worship our Lord,
We ought to pray before we even get here and when we get here
and while our pastor or whoever is speaking, we ought to pray,
Lord, let me hear your voice. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth.
We must hear him. It doesn't do us any good just
to hear a man. I'm not going to do you any good. We must hear
him. And praise God, he's been pleased
to speak to his people through his messengers. I'm so thankful.
We must have Christ and we must glory in Him. Christ is all. Well, here in our text, after
the Father spoke from heaven, let's see how the disciples reacted
in verse six. And when the disciples heard
it, they fell on their face and were so afraid. If we ever hear God speak, we'll
do the exact same thing. Again, trying to put myself in
their shoes. I imagine I'd have been scared to death. A bright
cloud overshadowed them. This doesn't happen. We get scared
when a thunderstorm overshadowed us. Imagine God the Father overshadowing
us and speaking from heaven, rebuking us. That's what happened.
If we ever hear God speak, we will fall down flat on our face
and worship Him. God is to be worshiped. I thought
about the Apostle Paul. You recall when our Lord first
spoke to him, he had gotten some papers with authority to go arrest
God's people at Damascus. Well, here he is on his way to
Damascus, riding on his high horse, high lifted up in pride,
and all of a sudden, a bright cloud overshadowed him, and he
fell down. He fell down into the dirt, and
he trembled, and said, who art thou, Lord? That's what I'm talking
about. That's what happens when God
speaks to a sinner through his word. When we learn who he is, almighty,
sovereign, holy, just God, who will by no means clear the guilty.
And when we learn who we are, the guilty, it's a fearful thing. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. But I'm not here to bring
a solemn message. I'm here to tell you the good
news. Look at verse seven. Matthew 17, verse 7. They had
fallen down so afraid and Jesus came and touched them and said,
arise and be not afraid. You know, if left to ourselves,
we have no hope. No hope whatsoever. We'll be
just like these disciples, fearful. unless God does something for
us. God must do something for us. Christ, it is I, be not afraid. Be still and know that I am God.
While God is holy and just, while he must punish all sin, he is
merciful, he is gracious, he is long-suffering. Our God is so good, we don't
even know. Jesus Christ is God, and He is
the sinner's friend. Don't you rejoice to read that
He's the friend of publicans and sinners? That He came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? That makes me
rejoice because I know by His grace that's all I am. I'm a
sinner in need of a Savior. And the reason Christ could comfort
them, and the reason He can comfort us, is He took our sin away. He put our sin away forever.
And God will never see it. God will never see our sin. He
will only see us in Him. He will only see us in Christ.
What we saw Christ standing there, shining like the sun, that's
what God sees when He sees us. That's glorious, isn't it? How
glorious. We have nothing to fear in Him.
And look here at verse eight. When they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. They did not see Moses
anymore. They didn't see Elijah anymore. They just saw him. They just
saw him. And there's no doubt in my mind
that they saw our Lord arrayed in more glory, more glorious
than just a few moments prior. The Lord had allowed to happen,
Moses and Elijah to come, and for them to show themselves,
see our sinfulness and how we glory in others than Christ.
But before they went down from that mountain, they were going
to know this is His beloved Son, in whom God is well pleased.
We must hear Him. We must glory in Him. The same
is so for us. I pray that God might cause us
to see no man save the Lord Jesus Christ and Him only. Amen.