In a moment, I'll be reading
from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 9, beginning with verse 28, if
you want to open your Bibles and follow along. Luke, chapter
9, beginning with verse 28. Now, Hebrews 12, 29 declares,
Our God is a consuming fire. Another passage says, God dwells
in light which no man can approach unto. And this unapproachably
holy and infinitely glorious God came to this earth and assumed
a human form. Jesus Christ was and is His name. No matter what the followers
of Joseph Smith or Charles Russell or any other false prophet may
say, Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. unapproachable self or essence,
his self who is a consuming fire. He must robe himself in flesh
in order to be approached by man. Now, most who saw him in
his robe of flesh, most who saw him and heard him did not believe
that he was God in spite of his plainest declarations. And they
would say, you're just a man and you make yourself to be God. And even so today, many claim
that very thing today. He was just a man, a good man
albeit, but not God. The Son of God, yes, but not
God, the Father, God, the Creator. And most do not really believe
He is and was God. That's why most talk of Jesus
and not the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why they have made up
graven images and pictures of some long-haired fellow and called
him Jesus, when they do not know who he is or what he looks like. Well, one day the Lord of glory,
the Lord Jesus Christ that is, peeled back his veil, his robe
of human flesh, and let three mortal men, three of his disciples,
hand-picked, hand-chosen disciples, he let three mortals see him
as he is. And also two of his prophets
also came to see and talk with him there. I'm reading from Luke
chapter 9, verse 28. And it came to pass, about 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 scripture
said, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment
was white and glistening. He took Peter, John, and James,
and went up into the mountain to reveal himself to these three,
to show himself as he was and is. Now this is an example, a
clear example of God's electing grace. Yes it is. God choosing
whom he will to behold his glory. That's what election is all about.
That's what sovereign grace is all about. That's what salvation
is, beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, these
three men never did choose him. He said so. He reminded them,
you did not choose me, I chose you. And this is what he says
of all his people. In Isaiah 43, verse 10, he says,
You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I
have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand
that I am he. And so, salvation is God choosing
persons to behold the person of his Son. God chose them. Ask them. Ask every person in
Scripture whom the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to. They'll
tell you, they'll tell you, the only ones who do not believe
this, that God does the choosing, that God does the revealing,
God does the saving, the only ones who do not believe this
have not been chosen by God. All right? Because God will not
share His glory, the glory of His choice, the glory of His
grace, the glory of His work, the glory of His Son, the glory
of His Spirit, with puny man. Salvation is 100 percent of the
Lord. Well, let's read on. In Luke
chapter 9, with verse 29, As he prayed, the passion of his
countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glycerine. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elijah." Now these two men,
Moses and Elijah, they represent the law and the prophets, which
is all of the Old Testament. the law and the prophet. You
have the first five books of Moses, the law, and then you
have mostly the prophets, with the exception of the Psalms.
And then the law and the prophets, throughout the scriptures, the
law and the prophets speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. The law
and the prophets came in the person of Moses and Elijah to
bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Christ said
to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus one day. In Luke
chapter 24, verse 44, He said unto them, 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 even in the Psalms concerning me. concerning me." The Old Testament
is not a book of Jewish history, but it is his story, the story
of the coming Christ. The Old Testament is a book of
prophecy concerning Christ, who he is, why he comes, what he
does. And if someone does not see Christ
in the Old Testament, then their eyes are blinded, just as Scripture
says in I Corinthians 3, their eyes are blinded to this day
in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in the
Lord Jesus Christ." That's 2 Corinthians 3, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 3. And that veil is done away when
you see Christ, when you see Him. All right. These two, Moses
and Elijah, and the Lord Jesus Christ, spoke one to another
about something. What did they speak of? What
was the topic of their conversation? I'll give you a hint. It's the
same subject of all true saints, the subject of all believers
from the beginning until the end, the subject of all believers
in heaven and earth even now. Verse 31, it says, they appeared
in glory and spake of. This is what they spoke of. They
spoke of his, or Christ's, decease, or rather his death. They spoke
of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. His death, his decease, which
he should accomplish. Now that's a strange statement.
Strange to mortal ears. Death and accomplishment? Men view death as anything but
an accomplishment. Why, death is thought of as the
end of things which are hoped to be accomplished. Death is
thought of as unfulfilled goals or unaccomplished tasks. But for the Lord Jesus Christ
now, his death was an accomplishment. You see, death is our due. It is appointed unto man once
to die, Scripture says. The Scripture also says the soul
that sinneth must surely die. Why? Because sin is the crime
we're guilty of, and death is the punishment. But not this
man, not the Lord Jesus Christ, not God-man affest in the flesh,
not this man. He knew no sin. He had no sin. Scriptures say, the law says,
this do and live. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ did.
He kept the law of God perfectly. He was and is holy. So he could
not die. He could not. Had Adam, the first
man, never sinned, he would have never died. Well, and so it's
said of Christ that his death was an accomplishment. He had
to lay his life down. That's what he said. No man taketh
my life from me. It's impossible for me to die.
I must lay it down on myself. So it was quite an accomplishment
for Christ to die. But principally now, Christ accomplished
some things by his death. Here is what he has accomplished
by his death. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
the law by his death. Every jot and tittle of the law
was fulfilled in his life. But justice against his people,
the penalty of the broken law which his people broke, the law
which they broke, was satisfied by Christ's death. His death
was a substitutionary death. He died in the stead of, in the
place of, as a substitute for his people. and he paid the penalty
of their sin. All the Father gave him, the
elect, Christ accomplished their complete and eternal justification,
the putting away of all their sin by his death. That is why
everyone for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died must be saved, because
he accomplished that. He accomplished full complete
justification by his death. Now, the Jesus men speak of today
is dying for all, yet some of them perish anyway. Well, obviously,
he didn't save anyone. But the Lord Jesus Christ now
accomplished the eternal salvation of his people. By his righteous
life, they are holy, accepted by God. By his sin-atoning, sin-paying
death on Calvary's tree, they are completely justified from
all things from which could not be justified by the law of Moses. That's what Christ accomplished
by his death on Calvary's tree, and that's what God's Word is
all about. all the types, shadows, pictures,
and symbols, all the sacrifices, lambs, turtledoves, bullocks,
goats that are slain in the Old Testament scriptures. They point
to the Lord Jesus Christ who was to come to make an end of
transgression, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,
to put away the sins of His people, to accomplish their redemption.
That is the subject of the Old Testament, the New Testament,
and the Revelation, and the subject of saints in heaven, as Moses
and Elijah show us, and saints on earth. Saints in heaven and
saints on earth now are not talking about Y2K, but they're talking
about Christ's accomplishment. Well, poor Peter, John, and James,
earthbound mortals as they were. It says in verse 32 that they
were heavy with sleep, but when they were awakened, they saw
His glory. And so it is with a natural man.
He does not see Christ's glory unless he is awakened by God's
Holy Spirit. In verse 33, Peter ignorantly
said death. When Moses and Elijah departed,
Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it's good for us to be here.
Well, let's make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one
for Elijah, not knowing what he said. And while he thus spake,
Scripture says, 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."
And when the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone. Peter didn't know what he said,
and neither does anyone who worships anyone other than Christ or puts
anyone or anything beside Christ, his person and word. If God chooses
you to behold the glory of his Son, his Christ, his person and
word, you will see Salvation is in Him and Him alone, that
there's none with Him, no man, Christ and Christ alone. God
was manifest in the flesh, God who's a consuming fire. Jesus
Christ is that God, and salvation is in Him. Until next Sunday,
good day. I think that's it. Thank you.