And our subject this morning
is the transfiguration of Christ. And on this mountain of some
height I do not know, is referred to as the Mount of
Transfiguration. This is where Christ was transfigured
before three apostles. And it's a very interesting account.
In Luke 9, it begins at verse 27. In Matthew, it begins at
verse 1 of chapter 17. And in the Gospel of Mark, it's
in chapter 9, starting at the second verse. So it's covered
in all three of the synoptic Gospels, and each one is pretty
nearly the same as the other. And there are no disagreements.
in any one of the three. So this morning we want to read
this passage in Luke carefully and let the words that we read
sort of lay on our minds, if you can get my meaning. Try to take it in with your eyes
and your ears. And then if you get home, you
could use your tongue, you know, your words to do the same thing.
And it might stick a little better. I'm too far gone to be talking
about myself. Now I'm talking about you. So
no hope for me. Verse 27, But 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 it came to pass about eight days. The other Gospels,
I believe, say six days, but they may be measuring it from
a different beginning point. I don't think you should worry
about the distinction between six and eight. came to pass about
eight days after these sayings, our Lord took Peter and John
and James and went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, they are not
said to pray, though they may have been. As he prayed, the fashion of
his countenance was altered, and his raiment, his clothing, was white and glistering, we
might say glistening. And behold, there talked with
our Lord with him two men. which were Moses and Elijah. And these men are seen by the
apostles, at least I can't imagine it any
other way, in a human form or body. Moses at this time had been dead
for some 1500 years, and Elijah for like 900 years. And it says in verse 31, who
appeared in glory and spoke of the deceased, the death, which Christ should accomplish
at Jerusalem. Well, how did Moses know anything
about the death of Christ? Or how did Joshua, for that matter? Because the subject matter of
Moses as well as the prophets is none other than our Lord Jesus
Christ. Curtis pointed that out beautifully
this morning. These people knew They saw Christ
in the types and pictures and ceremonies and offerings and
sacrifices of the whole of the Old Testament. God has never been without a
people. And He will not be. For this
earth is no more. And then they will all be in
glory. Let's read this verse 31 again now. Who appeared in glory. and spoke
of Christ's decease, his death, which he should accomplish at
Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were
with him were heavy with sleep, and when they were awake, they
saw Christ's glory and the two men that stood with him." Now,
it doesn't say that he saw the glory of the two men that were
with him. Because compared to Christ, just
like you and me being compared to Christ, then we ain't got
no glory compared to him. It's mixed in all of what we
are as human beings. So it came to pass, in verse
33, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, and in
a moment it's going to tell us he didn't know what he was saying,
but he said it anyway. You know how that goes, don't
you? Peter said to the Lord Jesus, Master, it is good for us to
be here. Let's stay a while longer. Let
us make three tabernacles. One for you and one for Moses
and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. Putting Moses and Elijah on a
level playing with Christ. They would not accept that honor,
I assure you. Neither should we. And it came to pass as they departed
from him, Peter said to the Lord Jesus, Master, it is good for
us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for you,
one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. While
he thus spoke, while the words were still coming out of his
mouth, There came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared
as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of
the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son. Hear Him." There
are three instances, I believe. This is one, and then there are
two others that took place in other places, as recorded in
the four Gospels. But I don't see that that will
help us understand any better what we're looking at regarding
the transfiguration of Christ. Verse 36, And when the voice
was passed, Jesus was found alone. And they, the three disciples,
kept it close and told no man in those days any of those things
which they had seen. We'll stop right there. Now let's
work on these statements and some things that most certainly
must have a part in what we are looking at and how difficult
it is for us to conceive, let alone believe, spiritual things. And it's only the wonderful grace
and mercy of God in our Lord Jesus Christ that enables any
one of us to lay hold of any truth worth laying hold of. So I've given you the references
in the other gospel accounts. Now let's talk about this transfiguration
of Christ. There are certain things in regard
to ourselves as we become believers while living in this human flesh
in this world that must be taken into account in order for us
to understand the difficulty that these disciples face in
their being asleep when our Lord Jesus is praying in their behalf. Here's the first thing. Men,
all men, all descendants of Adam, men, women, and children, were
all born into this world in what is called a totally depraved
condition. It's not partial. It's total. It's physical, mental, as well
as spiritual. So it's not a limited depravity. It's one that influences every
part of our being. And this is important for us
to know. There are some things that we must learn from this
book in order for us to have confidence in Christ. That even
the sinner we still are. We are not condemned because
our sins are under the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's
one of the first places to go for help when it comes to the
subject of depravity, and in this case, total depravity. When
we find out what really happened in the Garden of Eden, when Adam
sinned and God condemned the entire human race in that one
man, To understand this is to understand, at least in our heads,
what total depravity is all about. There is only one hope for us
if we are totally depraved, and that is that God in mercy and
grace will reveal to us the glory of His grace in Christ. That
is the only remedy. That is the only hope. And that's
the only gospel. We must remember this. We cannot
give credence to any other truth except Christ and Him crucified. Other churches can do and put
on whatever they want to and push their people into things
that they want them to be in. But I'm telling you, there has
to be a place somewhere, sometime, somehow, where men are shut up
to Christ. Nothing else. Nothing less. God demands absolute perfection. And Christ alone can render that
perfection. And blessed be His name, He has.
And it's in this book. The sin of Adam is the same sin
as that of the devil and his fallen angels. What sin is this? What was Adam
saying by his sin? Oh, well, he just had a weak moment.
That's not what this book says. It says that Adam and the devil
had the same thing in mind, to yank the Almighty God off of
His throne and to make ourselves our own God. And that's what
this world is pressing its way as hard as it can go to. People
want to decide for themselves, you know, whether they're interested
in some religion or not, or no religion at all, or if they want
to wait until they get old and can't do anything else, and then
they take up religion. All kind of motives and reasons
and so forth. But I'm telling you this, Adam's
purpose was to kill God. No wonder when God let Himself
in the person of His Son get close enough to them, that's
exactly what they did. Only to discover after having
done so, that this is God's eternal purpose the whole time. You haven't
surprised Him. The Lord Jesus came down here
to die. Alright, that takes care of total
depravity, at least for just looking at a few things. But
the second thing is this. In order to understand who this
God-man Christ Jesus is that is transfigured, we have to understand
something else with the word total in it. And that is total
inability. We are disabled. Spiritually
disabled. All of us. If we're born with
a normal human body, which nobody's ever accused me of that, but
if we're born in a human body, then we're already deformed. The disease is already in us.
Sin has already begun. When we see our total helplessness,
that we cannot and will not help ourselves, then and then alone
can we see the glory of God's electing grace to salvation in
Jesus Christ. The hymn writer put it this way,
"'Tis not that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be.
This heart would still refuse thee, but thou hast chosen me."
So don't beg people to choose Christ. They can't do it. If He chooses them, they must
do it. They must. They must. You might
look up these scriptures on the subject of this wonderful election
of God's grace. Romans 8, 29 to 31, 2 Thessalonians
2, 13 and 14, Acts 13, 48 and a dozen or two other scriptures
in our Bibles, Ephesians chapter 1. All kinds of places, though
people who don't want to see it say it's not in there. That's
OK. That's all right. We can't make
you see it. But I know who can. And if you're
his, he'll get you. I promise you that. Thirdly, this glorious transfiguration. Now, try to catch this. This
is not in heaven. This is on this earth. When this
takes place, Christ is wearing human flesh. And in that body,
that human body, this glory that belonged to Him was so bright,
I doubt they could look on it without harming their eyes. It
was so wonderful. Even His garments shined with
light like looking at a noonday sun. Our Savior is our substitute because He
wears human flesh, without which He could not be our Savior. You
remember when in the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, And by the way, the whole book
of Hebrews is talking about the superiority of Christ, you know,
compared to Moses, the law, the angels, all kind of stuff. If
you read it from that perspective, it will certainly take on a new
meaning. But the angels that fell, how many of them? A third. Mathematician, you're supposed
to know that. A third of the angels that fell. But no Savior,
no Redeemer, no Christ is ever appointed for them. How do we
know this? Because in the second chapter
of Hebrews, the Lord said, and I believe it was Paul that wrote
that letter, but if you differ from me on that, I won't argue
with you. It doesn't matter to me who wrote
it. It's still God's Word. It says, He took not on Him the
nature of angels. But rather, he took on himself
the nature of Abraham. Why did he take Abraham's nature? So he could save God's elect
people in that human race of which there were none in that
group of fallen angels. And all the other angels that
were not fallen were confirmed in that permanent state of righteousness
and glory. So they do not need a Savior
as we need one. Therefore, they cannot understand
what we make such a fuss about when we talk about the Lord Jesus
Christ. But if we see how sinful we are,
we'll see the glory of Christ's incarnation. The Scripture says
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, John 1.14. So God,
simply put, now the incarnation means this, God became a man. The God-man, Christ Jesus, became
a man. I borrowed these words from a
certain fellow. I think they illustrate that
phrase, God becoming a man. The ancient of days, became an
infant of days. The Son of the Highest became
a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. He who made the world
owned not a single foot of land, and yet it is all His. He who is life itself, and He
said that in so many places, and so many different writers
in our Bibles, that Christ is life. All the life there ever
is in anything, in earth or in heaven, Christ is that life,
that life. And yet, in His purpose in coming
to this world, He was subject to death, to death. Now let's work on another little
page, a little shorter than that one, but still continuing to
pick up from where we left off. That was the third point, God
wearing human flesh in the incarnation of Christ. We come now in the
fourth place to talk about the demands of God's holy law. The term by which most people
understand that subject is the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments. And most
of today's religion, almost all of it, is in one way or another
trying to get people to keep that law. And the people who
are trying to get them to keep it don't keep it themselves,
though they would tell you they did. If you can keep the law,
you don't need grace, you don't need Christ, you don't need anything
but yourself. But if you're familiar with this
book at all, you must know that there are some real problems
with people who believe that about themselves. But I'm not
so concerned about them as I am us. If we have a right understanding
of ourselves and what we're made out of, humanly speaking, sinfully
speaking, then we want nothing to do with standing before God
on the basis of His law. And yet you can't set that law
aside. Somebody's got to satisfy it.
And it'll either be satisfied in a substitute, or we'll have
to stand before it condemned on judgment day. So, the demands
of God's holy law. And this shows us the reality
of the holiness of God's divine law. And then it is that we're
enabled to see the glory of Christ's life. Not only dying for me,
but living for me. Why was it necessary for Him
to come here and stay 33 years in a place that didn't want Him?
When He could have accomplished what He did on the cross in just
a matter of a few days. It might have took less than
a day. If He had gone to Jerusalem on
a certain day of the week, especially when that place was full of people
from all over the world, and He began to tell them the truth
about themselves, they wouldn't even wait until the next day.
He'd be put to death that day. But that's not all there is to
it. The reason He came and spent thirty-three and a half years
in this world is to earn and merit for His people a perfect
righteousness that is imputed to them in His grace. 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21, God has made Christ's sin for us, Christ who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Keep that verse close to you. The Bible says that Christ knew
no sin that is of His own. So how did ours become His? By
imputation. Well, how does His righteousness
become mine? I just quoted it to you, 2 Corinthians
5.21, by imputation. Except it's coming in the other
direction. Let's talk about God's law just
for a minute or two or three or more. God's holy law does not demand
the best that we can do. All right, preacher, if not,
then what does it demand? Now listen, the best that God
can do. in Christ, of course. Secondly, the law not only demands
that we love God, and we're born, I hate to break this to you,
but we're born hating God. If you want to talk to me afterwards,
I can prove it to you from the Scriptures. Easy enough. Not only that we love God, but
that we love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And that's the problem. That's
a problem. Thirdly, God demands in His law not only
that you love your neighbor, but that ain't enough. We must
love that neighbor as much as I love myself. And that we cannot
do. Fourthly, not only does God in
the Ten Commandments, not only commands us that we
do no evil, but it says we must not even
Think evil. Now try that one on. You couldn't get to first base
and you know it. I mean, sitting right here, it
ain't no telling what kind of wicked, sinful thoughts have
crossed our minds. And there's no pictures of women.
For women, there's no pictures of men anywhere. There's nothing
in here but plain walls and carpet and pews. Ah, but that doesn't
control the mind. Fifthly, and finally on this
point, God's law not only demands that
you live a good life, but if you'll look it up in this
book, you'll find out that He demands a perfect life. Therefore, our only hope is the
perfect righteousness and obedience to God's law through Jesus Christ
our Lord. There just ain't no other way. Let's come now to a different Not a different
subject, but a different part of the subject. Having to do
with divine justice. God's justice. Not talking about
His mercy, we're talking about His justice. When we're awakened to the strictness
of God's divine justice, we will see the glory of our precious
Savior in His death. Do you know why He is dying? Because God's holy, immaculate
justice is demanding His death. Those dumb Jews are just doing
what they want to do, but it turns out they are doing what
God purposed to be done. There were no surprises in what
happened in Jerusalem that day. God's Word says, I'll in no wise
clear the guilty, the soul that sins shall surely die. We could call Adam as a witness,
I don't think he would help us any, to the strictness of God's
justice, or appeal to the people that were consumed in the flood
on Noah's day, during Noah's time, or the sons of Korah, who
rebelled against God's priesthood, and they created their own. They
had their own congregation. And Moses begged them, he said,
fellows, you need to abandon this. And they just persisted
and persisted. And God opened the earth and
swallowed them alive with their clothes on and all that appertained
to them. I bet you there ain't a preacher
in a thousand that would touch that text and preach from it
in this generation. You know why they won't? They
don't even believe God did such a thing. They think that's fantasy. It's just somebody dreaming.
Well, God was either doing it or the devil ain't, but two powers
can do that. And one of them has to have his
permission. The devil has to have God's permission. God must be just. Number six is the question of
what sin is. What is sin? when we are awakened to the sin
in our own best deeds, not robbing the bank, in our own best deeds. Tithing, for example, might be
considered by many people to be the best thing they can do
for God, and some of them do this. I imagine a lot of them
do. But no matter whether the deed
is commendable or if it is condemnable, it still must have an understanding
of divine justice. You must have an answer for that.
You cannot say, well, God's too kind to send me to hell. Well,
there's a whole bunch of people already gone, and I don't know
that that had any effect on how many went and how many didn't. You could talk to the people
that used to live in Sodom and ask them about divine justice. Did I come to point number six,
what sin is? I think I did, and I got sidetracked
back to the other one temporarily. The sin of our best deeds. If we understand this, that everything
we touch is contaminated by sin, and the
sin is in us, not in those objects. And here we must appeal to the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as our intercessor at God's right
hand. If He speaks in our behalf, it
is as good as done. If you want a wonderful place to
read on the subject, try John 17, the high priestly prayer
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then there is this little
thing called judgment. If I understand the judgment
will take place when time is no more, and we'll all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ on that great day of judgment. There are plenty of pictures
in our Bibles, not the least of which is Matthew 7, 21 through
23, when our Lord said in the last day, in the day of judgment,
these people are going to come before me remind me of what all
they've done in my name and how they've loved me and done all
this stuff. And He'll have to say to them,
depart from Me, you that work iniquity. I never knew you. The only way you and I can know
Him is if He knows us and calls us and brings us to Himself. I tell you what, let's go ahead
and turn to hymn number 512, because I want to read you the
first line. I've got it written here, but
I'll just read it out of the songbook. Someday the silver cord will
break, and I no more as now shall sing, I just covered up my words. Let me just turn to the hymn
and I'll read it to you. There it is. But oh, the joy
when I shall wake within the palace of the king, and I shall
see him face to face and tell the story. Saved by grace. You know what the alternate term
for that is? Saved by, through Christ. Alright, let's turn to 5.12. Don't you all get spoiled now.
It's early. Saved by grace.