Come back to Matthew 17. Matthew chapter 17. I titled this message, They Saw No Man Save Jesus Only. When all was said and done, they
saw the one person they needed to see. and only one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now back in chapter 16, our Lord
revealed more clearly to His disciples how He must suffer. Sin deserves suffering. My sins
deserve suffering. And for the Lord Jesus Christ
to be a proper substitute in my place, He's got to suffer. My sins deserve death. The soul
that sinneth shall surely die. I've sinned. The scripture says
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And for him to be a proper substitute
for me, to take my place, he's got to die. He has to die the
death that I deserve to die. He has to. The sacrifice has
to die. Blood has to be shed. Without
the shedding of blood, it says in Hebrews, without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission, there is no forgiveness of sins
without the shedding of blood. Now, it's either going to be
mine or it's going to be His. Now, mine does not satisfy. He
is satisfied because it's the blood of God, because that's
who He is. So He has revealed to them more
clearly how He must suffer, die, and rise again. You see, a dead
substitute, a dead sacrifice can't save anyone. It can't save
anyone. You know, the blood of all the
bulls and goats, all their blood that was shed, and all those
that were killed, they stayed dead. But what we have is a living
sacrifice. John said when he went to the
third heaven, he said, I saw a lamb standing in the midst
of the throne as it had been slain. He was alive. He was alive. Someone said, I heard one time
said, it's not a dead Christ that saves, it's the risen Lord
that saves. It's the risen Lord that saves.
Not a dead one, a living one. So he tells them he has to be
raised a third day from the grave, and because of that, they were
distressed. They had not yet comprehended the whole scheme
of redemption. They hadn't comprehended it yet. If they had listened to the whole
message, because the Lord said, I have to suffer, die, and rise
again, If they had listened to the whole message, they would
have heard the good news. But it's like we do a lot of
times. I've done it. Something would
be said in the message, and you grab onto that, and you don't
hear the message. I brought a message one time
years ago on the radio back home on the new birth. And I made
this statement. I said, If I could go back and
do things over, if I could come back into this world again and
do things over, I would still do the same things because I'm
still the same person. Well, a guy called me up on the
radio and took me to task over it. He said, no, if I could come
back, he said, there would be some things that I would do different.
I said, you'd still be the rotten rascal you are. You wouldn't
be any different. Unless you're born of God, you're
still the same person. Now, let's say I came back and
I did some things differently. There were some things I did
I wish I hadn't done, and I'd do them differently. You know
what that would make me? That would make me so self-righteous
you couldn't stand me. I'd be so self-righteous you
couldn't stand to be around me. I'd be holier than thou. You
see, we think sin is do's and don'ts. If I don't do this, then
I'm okay. I'm not a sinner. I'm not sinning.
I am sin. That's my nature. That's what
I am by nature. I'm born sin. David said, I was
born in sin and shaped in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. He's not saying it was a sinful act, but he's just saying that
the seed that I was begotten with, it was a sinful seed. That's
where I got my nature from. So, if we'd listen to the whole
message, we'd hear the good news. But here in this chapter, our
Lord Our Lord takes three of His chosen disciples, and He's
going to give them a real glimpse of His glory, His deity, who
He is. You see, they've been following
a man, and they believe that He's the Son of God. Peter said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. They believe
that. But they had just looked at a man. They've been looking
at a man all this time. But now, three of them are going
to get a glimpse of His glory. We'll see that here. You see,
we learn truth. Listen, we learn truth one step
at a time. One step at a time. We don't
learn all at once. I don't know all there is to
know. Sometimes I think one of the
best answers a preacher can give when someone asks him a question
is, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know at
all. Paul said, we know in part and
we preach in part. We must grow in grace and in
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that just seems to me to
come so slow. It comes so slow because there's so much sin still
left in us. Now this transformation, this
transfiguration happened after he revealed what's going to happen
to him, his sufferings, his death and his resurrection. After six
days, they had some time to think about what our Lord said about
His sufferings, His dying, and His rising again. It says, "...Jesus
taketh Peter, James, and John, His brother, and He bringeth
them up into a high mountain apart." Over to Luke, He took
them to a high mountain apart to pray. He was always, always
interceding. He's our high priest. He's always
interceding. He's always praying. But sometimes,
as I thought of this, sometimes we are blessed to have a greater
view of Christ in His person and work than at other times.
And if God gives that to you, cherish it. Cherish it. And here our Lord chooses these
three to go with Him to see His glory. And here's one of the
reasons I believe He did that. The Scripture says, let everything
be done before two or three witnesses. And He takes three with Him.
They're going to see this. They're going to see it. And these are
the same three that were chosen to go with Him in the garden
of Gethsemane to see His agony. They saw His glory and they saw
His agony when He was being made sin for us. They saw that over
in Matthew 26.37. And then it's also necessary
for those who are chosen for a specific work, to have a greater
glimpse and understanding of the One they are preaching. And then it says here in verse
2, and he was transfigured before that he was transformed. And
his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as
the light. This is like, when I read this, I thought of the
bush that Moses saw. that burned, but was not consumed. This is that one. This is that
one. Here's what they see. They see
more than a man. As I said, they've been following
a person they could see, and all they could see was his manhood.
Now, they saw something of him being the Son of God, but not
like they're going to see here. They see the God-man mediator. This is who Jesus Christ is. They see His deity. This is God. This man is God revealed, manifested
in the flesh. That's who Jesus Christ is. That's
why it is written in Isaiah, Behold my servant, he shall not
fail. He can't fail. He's God. God
can't fail. He cannot fail. He's God. And
they see the glory of God in His face, in His person. It speaks of, I believe it's
in 1 Corinthians, that God commands the light to shine into our hearts
to give the glory of God in the face, the person of Jesus Christ. They see it. They see it here. The glory has always been there. The glory has always been there,
but they've not always been able to see it until He makes it No,
until he lets it come out. Until he reveals himself to them. Now before they saw his glory
in his power over devils, they saw his glory over sickness. He could just heal the sick.
He healed all manner of sickness. But now they are going to see
not His glory in performing miracles and power and these things, they
are going to see His glory in His person. In His person, this
is God. Listen, here in John 17, verse
4, listen, I'll read it to you. I will, that they also whom Thou
hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
glory which Thou hast given Me." The glory which I had with you,
He said, before the world was. That's what I want them to see.
And they are getting a glimpse of it right here on this Mount
of Transfiguration. John wrote this. I said there
were three witnesses. John wrote this. We beheld His
glory. We beheld His glory. Peter wrote
this, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. We looked upon Him, we saw, we
handled the Word of Life. That hidden nature, that hidden
glory that was veiled behind flesh, they couldn't see it with
the human eye. But at this point in time, it's
like the Lord pulled the curtain back and said, this is who I
am. This is who I am, God. I am God. As I've said this before, in
the Scripture, we're given many names of God, Jehovah, Jireh,
and many names. But the greatest name of God
is this, Jesus Christ. That's the greatest name of all.
Because in Him, listen, in Him, the Word of God says, dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete
in Him. And it says His raiment, His
clothing was white as the light. That's because He is the light.
He is the light. It says in Hebrews 1.3 that He
is the brightness of His glory. He is the brightness of His Father's
glory. Christ said, He that has seen
Me has seen the Father. Philip said, Show us the Father
and it will suffice us. And He says, Philip, have I been
so long a time with you and you don't know Me yet? You're looking
at the Father. He that has seen Me has seen
the Father. You're looking at Him. You're
looking at Him. And behold, it says here, it
says, Behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah, talking
with Him. There appeared with Him, listen,
the Law and the Prophets. Moses represents the Law. Elijah
represents the prophets. He spoke with the Law and the
Prophets. The Scripture says the Law and
the Prophets speak of Him. And here they're speaking to
Him. They're speaking to their Lord. And here's something else
we see. Those who have died are still
alive. And they're there in a body.
They're there in a box. And here's something else that
jumped out at me when I was reading this. How did they know them?
How did they know them? How did they know? How did Peter,
James, and John know Moses and Elijah? You know, the scripture says,
we shall know even as we are known. There are no strangers
among the children of God. I have no doubt, I have no doubt,
when a child of God leaves this life and they enter into glory,
there's no strangers there. They will know each other immediately. How's that? Because they will
have the mind of Christ. That's what the Scripture says.
We will have the mind of Christ. And Christ knows all them that
are His. He knows them. And then there's something else
we see here, how that the Lord Jesus Christ connects both worlds.
You and I live in this physical world, and that's basically what
our mind is on so much, is all this physical world, but the
Lord Jesus Christ connects both worlds. He's that ladder. Remember Jacob's ladder, where
the angels went up and down? He's the one who connects both
worlds. The Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said this, "'No man
comes unto the Father but by Me.'" No other way. Absolutely no other way. The
Lord said that. He said that. Now what did they
talk about? Well, it says in Luke 9.31, giving
this same story, that they spoke of his decease,
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Death was an accomplishment
for Jesus Christ. He said, no man takes my life
from me, I lay it down of myself, and if I lay it down of myself,
I'll take it up again. But nobody's taking it from me.
Now for you and I, it's a process. You know, we're growing old.
Sin is taking its toll on our bodies. And his body's going
back to the dust. But for the Lord, it was an accomplishment. When he was hanging on the cross,
it says over in Isaiah, his visage was marred more than any man.
He was beat like to a pulp, so to speak. Unrecognizable. And yet, you know, he had to
command his spirit to leave. He had to do that. He couldn't
just die. He had to command. He said, I
command my spirit. He gave up the ghost. He gave
it up. We didn't take it. He gave it
up. He gave it up. No man takes my life. You don't
have that kind of power. Nobody has power over life except
God. You can't die. You cannot die
until God takes your life away. You know why your heart beats
every second? You know why it beats? Because
you have life. You have life. I don't have life
because my heart's beating. My heart's beating because I
have life. That's what keeps it beating. Now when God takes
that life away, my heart will stop. And he said, nobody has
the power over life but God. In another place he said, not
even a bird, not even a sparrow falls to the ground without your
heavenly Father. without his hand involvement,
without him taking it. He said, not even a sparrow falls
to the ground and dies. They spoke about his decease,
his death that he should accomplish. They spoke of Jesus Christ and
him crucified. Our great interest in Our great
interest is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our great interest. But
it's not just Jesus Christ, but it's Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
It's Him crucified. Substitution. Substitution. If we learn the gospel right,
we will learn it through Christ and Him crucified. They spoke of His redemptive
glory. And notice here too, you remember
back in chapter 16, when the Lord spoke of his death, Peter
said, no, Lord, that's far, be that far from pity yourself.
Don't let this happen, don't you die. Don't go to there and
let them kill you. He said, don't do that. Moses
and Elijah didn't try to stop him, did they? They didn't talk
about it. No, they knew that's their hope. Their hope is Christ
and him crucified. Christ dying in my stead. If
he died in my stead, I will not die. I'll just change places. But
this old house, which Scripture calls this body a house, I'll
put it, it'll go in the grave. But now I will go to be with
the Lord and receive a new body, a new body like His, like His. Then answered Peter, well, you
gotta love Peter here. Then answered Peter and said
unto Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you will, let
us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, one
for Elijah. I'm so glad the Lord allowed
these men to ask some of these stupid questions, because I don't
have to. You know, have you ever been
in school and the teacher asks a question, you think you know the answer,
but somebody else pops their hand up first. and they give
the wrong answer, same one you would've given. And you say,
whew, I'm glad I didn't do that. And that's why I feel here. They ask questions that I would've
asked and it saves me the embarrassment. But Peter, listen here, Peter
wants to make a shrine to all three of them. We're gonna get
to the lesson here real quick. He wants to build a shrine to
all three of them. He wants to worship all three
of them. No one is to be put on the same
level as Jesus Christ. He's God. He's God. And when Peter says this, now
notice, when he says this, now this brings God the Father on
the scene. Now He's going to speak. Now
He's going to speak. While he yet spake, and while
Peter was talking, it said, 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. You know, he's never
said that about anybody else. This is the one I'm well pleased
with. Hear ye, listen to him. This
is that prophet Moses said should come, hear him. This is that
prophet. I'm so glad God overshadows our
ignorance and reveals the truth to us. This is my Son. Natural light, natural understanding
must be overcome by divine light. This is my Son. The Father approves
of Him. He said, this is the one I'm
well pleased with. Listen to Him. Listen to Him. Here's the
message. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear Him. He's the messenger.
Christ is the messenger of the covenant, and He's the message
of the covenant. When He speaks, we are to listen
to Him. It says in Hebrews 1 that God at sundry times and in different
manner spoken to our fathers by the prophets, but hath in
these last days spoken unto us by His Son. If God speaks to
your heart this morning, if He speaks to my heart, He's going
to do so by Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God. He's the
Word of God. And when the disciples heard
this, when they heard the voice, they fell on their face in sore
afraid. I tell you what, it's an awesome
thing when God speaks to a man. It's an awesome thing. But, now
listen, there's a Mediator standing there. There's a Mediator standing
there. You and I can't speak to God
directly. Not, listen now, not God is God. There's got to be
a Mediator between me and God. Jesus Christ, the man Christ
Jesus. The Scripture says it's the only Mediator between God
and men. There's a man, a real man, every bit of man, that stands
between me and God. And God can speak to me. God
was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. And Jesus came and touched them
and said, Arise, be not afraid. He speaks comfort to them. Without
Christ as Mediator, we'd be consumed when God speaks. But He speaks
comfort. Arise, He says, don't be afraid.
Here's the Mediator. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. Here's the whole message. Here it is. We've learned some
things, but here's the message. No man saved Jesus only. This
is the place that God brings everyone whom He saves. This
is the place that He brings them to, where they see no one but
the Lord Jesus Christ only. We see Him only as our Mediator. We dare not go before God apart
from the Mediator. We see Him only as our righteousness. Jesus Christ is my righteousness. That's why it says over in the
Old Testament, He's called the Lord our righteousness. He is my righteousness. Christ only is our acceptance. We are accepted, it says, in
the Beloved. He has made us accepted, it says in Ephesians 1, in the
Beloved. He's my acceptance. He's my righteousness. Apart from Christ, I don't have
any righteousness that God will accept. There's sin in everything
I do. In the most sincere prayer I've
ever prayed in my life, there's sin in it. And apart from Christ,
God couldn't hear it. But in Christ, He hears me. He
hears me. And then Christ is our peace
with God. He's our only peace with God.
You and I did not make peace with God. He did. That man did. He's called the Prince of Peace.
He made peace with God on my behalf. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
only hope. You know, Paul said it one time
in Philippians 2, 3. He said, I was a Pharisee of
the Pharisee. He said, I was a Hebrew. He said, I kept the
law. He thought he kept the law. He
said, outwardly, as far as that goes, I kept the law. He said,
as far as keeping the law, blameless. He said, but all those things
that were accounted to me, I count them as loss. Now, he said, they
mean nothing. They don't mean anything. My ancestry, he says, means nothing.
That's what he's saying. There's one that means everything,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that means everything.
Jesus Christ is our all and end all. Him only. And when they came down from
the mountain, the Lord charged them. Jesus said, charged them,
saying, Tell the vision of no man till the Son of Man be risen
again from the dead. The Scripture teaches us over
in Philippians that He made Himself with no reputation. He didn't
come here to get a reputation. He came here to die. He came
to die. He came to suffer, die, and rise
again, to save a multitude of sinners that were given to Him
by the Father before the world began. And He's going to do it.
And he said, that's why I came. But don't tell no man yet, until
I'm risen. Now, he is risen, so let's tell
everybody. Let's tell everybody, because
he's risen from the dead. Our Lord is seated at God's right
hand, and there's good news for sinners. Now listen, I don't
have good news for anybody else. If you're good, if you feel like
you're really a good person, I don't have any good news for
you. He didn't die for good people. That's what he said. He said
there's none good. Now he said there's none good. If you're
really good, you don't need a Savior, do you? If you're good on the
level that God says, good, perfect. If you're going to talk on God's
level of good, it's got to be perfection. And the Scripture
says it must be perfect to be accepted. Now, there is one seated at God's
right hand. able to save to the uttermost,
it says, then that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives
to make intercession for them, for them. I pray that, I do, I pray that
the Lord would give us a glimpse of His glory this morning and
enable us, enable us to see no man Save Jesus only. Alright.