It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The scripture for our sermon
today is Matthew 17, verses 1 through 8. And after six days, Jesus
takes 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. And behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elijah talking with him. Then answered Peter
and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is 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. 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. And when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And
Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. I've entitled this message,
The Transfiguration of Christ. Just before this account, Jesus
told his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer at the
hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed,
and rise again the third day. From our sermon on that text,
we saw that Christ must suffer, die, and rise again because God
must be glorified, and because God was pleased to glorify his
Son in the salvation of his people. This is the context for what
we read here. Jesus honored his father. He
did his father's will, all that was in his father's heart and
mind. And God therefore has glorified his son. It was six days since
Jesus told his disciples that he must suffer and die in humiliation
at the hands of wicked men. He gave them a preview of what
was coming in his death on the cross. This serves as the context
for the transfiguration. Jesus took Peter, James, and
John up the mountain with him apart from the others. He was
transfigured before them. His glory shone forth. Peter
later wrote that they were eyewitnesses of his majesty. They saw the
majesty of Christ as the Lord of glory, the Lord of heaven.
Not only did they see Jesus transfigured, but they saw Moses and Elijah
appear with him in glory. These two Old Testament men appeared
in their resurrected glorified bodies with Jesus. Peter then
spoke, but God the Father corrected him from heaven. This is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. The disciples fell
on their faces when they heard God speak. Jesus came and touched
them and said, Arise, be not afraid. When they looked up,
the cloud was gone and they saw Jesus only. Now, there are at
least four important lessons taught in this account. First,
Christ is glorified. Second, Christ must have the
preeminence, the highest place of honor. Third, the New Testament
is now come. Christ, the head of the covenant,
is come. The New Testament now appears.
He will fulfill and abolish the old. He will put into force the
everlasting covenant by shedding his own blood. And fourth, Jesus
only. In the Gospel, we must see what
the disciples saw. Jesus only. The first thing we
learn from the account of Jesus' transfiguration, then, is that
God glorified His Son because His Son honored Him in His life
and death. Christ, as the covenant head
of his people, fulfilled the everlasting covenant that God
made with him before the world began. In that covenant, Christ
must fulfill all conditions. In doing so, he saved his people
and now gives them eternal life. In John 17, Jesus spoke in prayer
to his Father. He said, Glorify thy son, that
thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Jesus continues and says, I have
glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. You and I must know in the low
bottom of our heart that Jesus Christ has finished the task
God gave him to do. He has actually saved his people
from their sins. Because of this, he is now seated
in glory on the throne of heaven. Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had
by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. Having accomplished the will
of God in his life, he now goes to the cross to offer himself
in satisfaction to God for the sins of his people. Hebrews 10
verse 6-7 says, In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast
had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. With the Son of God, saying and
doing are the same thing. Therefore, on the certainty that
he would fulfill all of God's will, he said to his father,
Glorify thy son. He speaks with authority, as
equal with his father, Glorify thy son. In John 12, 23, Jesus
told his disciples, just before he went to the cross, the hour
is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. And again, in John
13, 31, after Judas went out to betray him, Jesus said, now
is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. All of these verses speak about
the same thing. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the Son of God and the Son of Man, eternally redeemed His people
from all their sins, from death, from the curse of God's law,
and from bondage to Satan. He gave Himself as a ransom offering
to God for His people. By His precious blood, He paid
the price of their redemption. On fulfillment of this eternal
will of God, God bestowed upon him, the God-man, the highest
possible honor and glory. It is a glory that he deserved.
God will not give his glory to another, Isaiah 42.8, but he
is pleased to give all of his glory to his Son as our God-man
mediator. Christ honored His Father in
obedience. He honored His Father by putting
away the sins of His people, by perfecting them, by the offering
of Himself to God. He honored His Father by His
triumph over all their enemies. Because Christ humbled Himself
in life, and the humiliation of His sufferings in death, God
has highly exalted Him. Philippians chapter 2 verse 6
through 11 says, Who being in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men. and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus Every knee should bow of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Now the disciples see a glimpse
of the glory of Christ in preview of all that God is about to bestow
upon his son. I recently watched the acceptance
speech of our newly elected president. In his speech he recognized many
who helped him during the campaign. Now if I publicly commend someone
for doing a good job it may mean something to them but not a lot
to others because I am a nobody. But when a president openly commends
those who served him before an entire nation, lavishing praise
on them, it means a lot more. Here, God the Father openly acknowledges
his son. What do we learn? We learn that
the measure of Christ's glory is the measure of the greatness
of the One who bestows that glory upon Him. There is none higher
than God the Father. He speaks in the highest honor
of Christ as His Son. He calls Him His Beloved Son. He says He is well pleased with
His Son, and He commands all to hear Him. There is no higher
honor than honor given by God the Father. He gives honor to
Christ here in preview of what he was about to accomplish in
his death. Moses and Elijah spoke to the
Lord Jesus about the death he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. We therefore know that Christ's
death was the subject of the conversation into which God the
Father interjects this high honor of His Son. If God so honored
His Son, we must highly honor Him. The high honor given to
Christ by His Father is the measure of His accomplishments in His
work on the cross. He put away the sins of His people. He perfected them forever. He
triumphed over all enemies. He made known His Father's glory,
and now He reigns to give eternal life to as many as God has given
Him. In the Old Testament Book of
Esther, the king of Persia gave honor to Mordecai, a Jew, Mordecai
had told of a plot to kill the king. When the king discovered
what Mordecai had done for him, he asked his highest officer,
Haman, what shall be done to the man whom the king delights
to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart,
to whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? And Haman answered the king,
For the man whom the king delights to honor, let the royal apparel
be brought, which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the
king rides on, and the crown royal which is set on his head,
and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one
of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man with
them whom the king delights to honor, and bring him on horseback
through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus
shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. And
the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and
the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the
Jew that sits at the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that
thou hast spoken. Haman was a wicked servant. Nevertheless, in gross self-conceit,
he imagined that the king would honor him. He had a high opinion
of himself, even though he was plotting to kill Mordecai. But
the tables were turned on Haman. In this account in the book of
Esther we see a preview of what is done in Matthew 17 in the
Transfiguration of Christ. The Coronation of Christ is the
greatest upset victory in all of time and eternity. The One
whom man and devils despised is now exalted to the throne
of God the Father and revealed to all to be the One whom the
King delights to honor. This honor is so great and His
sovereign rule so undisputable that even His enemies must proclaim
His greatness to the glory of God the Father. Every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Why? because He alone is worthy,
because He alone has opened the book of God's eternal will and
fulfilled it in total, because He saved God's chosen people
with an everlasting salvation. By His accomplishments and sovereign
rule, Christ now gives eternal life to as many as His Father
gave to Him before time began. By this, God is glorified in
him. God the Father therefore bestows
all honor on his Son. The second thing we learn from
this account in Matthew 17 is that Christ must have the preeminence. I think the greatest lessons
in scripture are often given in the context of great mistakes
by sinful men. Here, Peter wants to set up three
tabernacles, one for each of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Peter
wanted to honor all three. He saw his master as one among
the others. But while Peter spoke these words,
God the Father spoke from heaven to teach us the lesson of Christ's
glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. Hear Him. Jesus is not to be
honored among the great men of Scripture. He is to be honored
alone. He must have the first place
of honor in all things. Moses and Elijah were holy men
of old, but they stood in glory with the Lord Jesus for the very
reason why Christ must have all glory. It was He who saved them
from their sins and raised them from the dead and gave them glory
with Him. Christ must be all to us, or
He will be nothing at all for us. He must have all the glory,
because He alone is worthy. No man deserves glory. The glory God gives to His saints
is the reward of Christ's obedience. They must claim, as Paul did,
I am what I am by the grace of God. Moses and Elijah were holy
men of old, but in themselves they were sinners. No man is
just before God except those justified by the obedience and
blood of our covenant head, the Son of God in our nature. In
heaven, all the saints will cast their crowns at Jesus' feet.
There is not one thing we can claim as our own. As Solomon
said, of thine own hand have we given to thee. And Paul said,
For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to
whom be glory for ever. Amen. And then in Colossians
chapter 1, Paul says, For by him were all things created that
are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.
All things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. He is the head of the
body, the church. who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. Christ must have preeminence,
because by Him all things were created, all things were created
for Him. He is before all things. He is
the head of the body, the Church. It is for His people, the Church,
that He accomplished God's will. He created the church for himself
and he redeemed the church to himself. As the head of his people,
the God-man, our mediator, has been given all glory and honor. He must have the preeminence.
He made everything in heaven and earth to fulfill his purpose
of salvation for his people and he has accomplished that purpose
in his own death and resurrection. The third thing we learn from
Matthew 17 is that Christ is glorified at this time because
it marks the transition between the Old and New Testaments. Moses
gave the Law to Israel on two tables of stone called the Tables
of the Covenant. The Law of Moses is a covenant
of works. In a covenant of works, man must
obtain and retain God's favor by what he does. The Ten Commandments,
along with the entire Law of Moses, put requirements on Israel. God promised to bless them if
they kept His Law, and He promised to curse them if they did not
keep it. Their very lives and all blessings from God depended
on their own continuous and perfect obedience. Any failure by Israel
to keep, not merely try to keep, but keep every commandment with
their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, with gladness and
joy, would bring God's curse upon them. They could only live
if they kept all of the law, all of the time, perfectly. Of
course, no man ever did and no man ever could keep such a covenant. The law says do this and live,
but it gives sinners no hope and no help. We cannot keep God's
law because it is holy and we are sinners. We cannot keep it
because our heart is the source of evil. Jesus said, Out of the
heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within.
In the Law of Moses there were mainly two things. There were
precepts to keep and there was a hint at how holy God could
receive sinful men. Such an approach to God required
a tabernacle where God could meet with men and make himself
known to them. It required a priesthood to mediate
between God and man. It required sacrifices to make
atonement to God for the sins of the people, and it required
a Sabbath to rest in the salvation work God would do to remove those
sins. Thus, Moses represents the Old
Covenant, which was a covenant of works. In that covenant, God
placed requirements on man for obedience. Man must meet those
requirements to live, and God gave representations in that
same law for how sin would be dealt with. Elijah also appeared
on the Mount of Transfiguration. He was the most prominent of
all Old Testament prophets. He represents all of the prophets.
These two men appeared with Jesus on the Mount. Moses represented
the covenant of works and laws which foreshadowed and pointed
to Christ. Elijah represented the Old Testament prophets that
spoke of Christ's sufferings and death and the glory that
would follow. But when the cloud was raised,
only Jesus was left. This signifies that the New Testament
is now come by Jesus Christ and that the Old Testament was to
be done away. The New Testament is a covenant
of grace. In the covenant of works, sinful
man must meet all conditions. Men can break a covenant of works. All men have. And a covenant
of works also brings men into bondage because it demands what
they can never give. But in the New Testament, all
conditions are put on Christ, the covenant head. He is the
head of the entire church, the elect of God, those Christ created
and purchased with his own blood to be his own body. The New Testament
is not new because it was set up when Christ came. Actually,
the New Testament is an everlasting covenant. It was established
before the foundation of the world. God says in Hebrews 13,
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect. Until Christ,
the Old Testament was in force. But when Christ offered himself
to God, he put the New Testament in force. As head of the covenant
of grace, God made all of the promises to him. All of God's
people received those promises with him as their head. All of
the promises depend on Christ fulfilling the will of God, and
this he did when he gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
the Father. Galatians 1.4 When Jesus gave
the cup to his disciples in the Last Supper before his death,
he said, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins. Matthew 26, 28. The conditions
of the New Testament were that Christ would stand for his people,
that he would fulfill their obligations to God for obedience and endure
the punishment for their sins. His death was the culmination
of His obedience. It fulfilled all of the conditions
of the New Testament. This testament, therefore, is
a covenant of grace to His people. In a covenant of works, man can
break the covenant. But every promise in the covenant
of grace depends only on Christ. Therefore, man cannot break this
covenant. Unlike the covenant of works
that brings men into bondage, the New Testament frees men from
sin to serve God in newness of spirit. When Moses and Elijah
departed from the scene on the mount, it signified that the
Old Testament was fulfilled in Christ. On fulfilling it, God
glorified His Son to the highest place of honor. He fulfilled
all of the law for His people. He is the priest who offered
himself, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. He is the
lamb offered. He tore the veil that prevented
sinful men from approaching holy God. All those whom he saves
approach God by his blood. By his death, our Lord Jesus,
as the covenant head of his people, fulfilled the Old Testament.
That law is now put away for all he died to save. Jesus said
in Matthew 5.17, Think not that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. When the disciples heard God
the Father speak on the mount, they fell on their faces. But
Jesus came and touched them. And when the cloud dissipated,
they saw Jesus only. At Mount Sinai, the people would
not come near the mount. But now, once, in the end of
the world, Christ has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And to every believer, God says,
when Christ had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on high. Hebrews 1.3 It is because
the New Testament has been fulfilled in His blood that Christ now
speaks peace to His people to their great comfort. The sum
and substance of all that God says in Scripture is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. The Gospel of Christ is the New
Testament in His blood. The Gospel is the light that
gives the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The law instills fear in the
heart of sinners. It identifies our guilt. It exposes
our sinful corruptions and reveals our utter helplessness to keep
it. The law calls for our curse, but Old Testament scripture foreshadows
the coming Redeemer. The Old Testament tells how God
put his people into Christ. The Israelites, on the night
of the Passover, were in the house where the blood was sprinkled,
and they were saved by that blood. The one thing God was looking
for that night was the blood of the Passover lamb. In the
New Testament, God deals with all of his people in Christ.
1 Corinthians 15.22 says, As in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive. God considers only Christ and
for His sake forgives all of the sins of all of His people.
It is the obedience of Christ alone that God sees as the righteousness
of His people. God rewards His people for what
He has received from His Son. All that Christ has done is all
that any sinner has, by which we can be saved to the glory
of God. And this is true for every believer.
When God shows us Christ and His glorious achievements for
sinners in the gospel of His grace, then, with eyes of God-given
faith, we see and trust and boast in and rejoice in and hope for
Jesus only. The message of Christ's transfiguration
is that by Himself, He accomplished all to save His people from their
sins, according to the will of God. And for this, He is honored
by God the Father with incomprehensible glory. All for whom He died will
be with Him in glory. He speaks peace to us, saying,
Be not afraid. All is fulfilled. Christ has
accomplished all. It's not about me or you. It's
about Jesus only. It's not about my service. It's
about His. It's not about my faith. It's
about His faithfulness. It's not about my experience.
It is about His experience. O, that we would see Jesus only! My sin raises objections in my
conscience. Doubts and fears swallow me up.
But God the Father in Scripture lifts our eyes out of the sadness
and shame of ourselves to see Jesus only. He is glorified. Behold Him! Our Lord Jesus spoke
in prophecy in Isaiah 45, 22. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there
is none else. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts 4.12 When
Jesus told his disciples that he must suffer and die and rise
again, Peter rebuked him. And then Jesus rebuked Peter.
Six days afterwards, Peter was granted this high privilege of
seeing a preview of Christ's glory. What grace! Our Lord Jesus
saw no sin in Peter. In addition, Peter not only saw
Christ in His glory, but he heard God the Father speak from heaven.
Yet, soon after all of this, Peter denied the Lord three times. What do we learn? We learn that
we are sinners. We learn that we are saved for
no reason found in us. Indeed, it is in spite of us
that the Lord saves us. And why does he do it? It is
for his great name's sake. He will be glorified in our salvation. He will do all by himself or
he will do nothing at all for us. It will be in spite of our
sin. Christ has done all to fulfill
the Old Testament and put the New Testament in force. He offered
Himself to God for our sins, shedding His own blood. Every
promised blessing is ours because of Him. God the Father has glorified
Him, and we sinners, saved by His grace, now glorify God for
His mercy. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
Lord, You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.