We'll take our text this morning
from Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. I want to go ahead and read a few
verses of Scripture here in Luke chapter 9, beginning with verse
28. Luke chapter 9, verse 28. I'm preaching today, both this
morning and this evening, from two glorious passages of Scripture. This evening will be from 1 Peter
1, 19, on the precious blood of Christ, and this morning upon
the transfiguration of Christ. Read with me in Luke 9, beginning
with verse 28. And it came to pass, about eight
days after these things, these sayings, Christ took Peter and
John, the one who wrote the Gospel of John we just read, Peter,
John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion
of his countenance was altered, and his raiment, his clothing,
was white and glistening or shining. And behold, there talked with
him two men who were Moses and Elijah. who appeared in glory,
and they spoke of his death, his decease, which he should
accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were
with him, James and John, were heavy with sleep. Apparently
they fell asleep while he was praying. But when they were awake,
when they were awakened, they saw his glory. They saw him in this changed
sight. And the two men that stood with
him, they saw them also. And it came to pass, as Moses
and Elijah departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master,
it's good for us to be here. Peter was excited. Let's make three tabernacles,
three monuments, one for thee and one for Moses and one for
Elijah. He said this not knowing what
he was saying. And while he was speaking, verse
34, there came a cloud and overshadowed them. And they feared, they became
afraid, a fog, a cloud consumed them. on that mount. And they
were afraid as they entered into the cloud, and there came a voice
out of that cloud saying, This is my beloved son. Hear him. And when the voice was passed,
Jesus was found alone. And these three kept it close
to themselves and told no man in those days any of those things
which they had seen. Now, the great and glorious God
of the universe who dwells, the Scripture says,
in light unapproachable. No man has seen God at any time. We cannot look upon the face
of God and live, the Scripture says. We can't even look at the
sun, the sun in its brightness, the S-U-N, without being blinded. And no one can see the Father
and live, the scripture says. But this God came to earth. He came to earth and took the
form of a man, took a body upon himself, and his name was Jesus. I know you've heard this before,
but listen. His name was Jesus. He was called
the Christ. And by taking this human body
and dwelling in this human body, he clothed or he concealed his
glory as God. Now, this is God in the body
of a man. Yet the glory of God is concealed
because he has on this body this robe of flesh, because you can't
look at God in all his glory and live. So he took upon this
body. And his glory, his true glory,
the glory of God the Father, was concealed from view by everyone. Three times it's recorded in
the scriptures, this glorious transfiguration or manifestation
of his true person, this true revelation of who this man was,
God. Three times this is recorded
for us to see and for us to learn. It's called a transfiguration. metamorphosis, the changing,
the transformation of his human body into light. You remember us reading there
in John chapter 1, it says, in him was life and the life was
a light. He was light. God dwells in light. You can't look upon it. He here in this passage of Scripture
shines as this light. And three men saw it. Three men
saw it. Here the deity of Christ shone
forth. Here the glory of God Himself
shone brightly for a few men to see. And while He showed Himself
in this glorious vision, they fell asleep. God sent Moses and Elijah down
to see him, to bear witness of him. He sent the law and the
prophets to bear witness of who this man really was, while men
didn't much care. There's much to be seen here
on this mountain, this Mount of Transfiguration. There's much
to be seen here, several things to be seen here. First of all,
we can see that life does not end with this earth. We see two
men, Moses and Elijah, who had died many hundreds of years previous
to this. Life does not end here upon this
earth. Many people ask that question.
If a man die, Job asked, will he live again? Yes. Yes, he will. Two men came back. They came back to prove this.
They proved it to James and John and Peter. We ask ourselves,
will we know one another in heaven after we die? Will we know one
another? Yes. The disciples knew Moses and
Elijah, but never met them before. But they knew them. Moses knew
Elijah and Elijah knew Moses. They talked with one another.
So we see here that life does not end here with this world. We see the deadness and dullness
of man by nature, our spiritual deadness, how dead we are to
the things of God. When the Son of God himself can
be transformed into a marvelous being of life or shown as who
he really is, and yet men sleep in the presence of such glory.
And yet Peter said, we have, we saw that. Peter was there. He said, we saw that. We beheld
his glory as of the only begotten of the Father. But he said, you
have a more sure word of prophecy. Well, do you do well to wake
up? We fell asleep in the midst of
that glorious vision, he said, but you have something more glorious.
So he says, wake up. We see also man's need for visible
means of worship. Peter was no different than men
are today. Men need some outward show of
religion. Peter said, Let's make some statues
or some buildings. Let's do something here. We've
got to do something. We're seeing this. He's excited. It felt real
good. Let's do something. sit down and behold his glory,
Peter. Now, let's do something. Men
love religious relics. Someone said the less you have
on the inside, the more you have to have on the outside. The more you have to drum up
some feeling of religion. Men like to have something they
can touch, you know, beads, a cross, something they can see, a picture
of Jesus over their bed, something they can feel crosses beads. They like to have the organ playing
real softly, and the choir singing lowly, just as I am. Now, come forward. You've got
to make people feel religious. Just feel religious. You've got
to have some buttons and some pins to show that you're a Christian. You've got to have some graven
images. You know, if men don't place
much significance upon these things, these pictures and crosses
and so forth, you try burning one of them and see. You try
burning a cross. You've seen these three crosses
that this man's going all over the United States, putting up
all over the place. I told someone that I'd like
to go on a personal crusade with a chainsaw. But you let somebody
catch a man cutting one of those crosses down as an image, as
a graven image, they'd string him up. They'd string him up
or burn a picture of so-called Jesus, a picture. If we were
meant to have a picture of what Jesus really looked like as a
man, don't you think that the Bible would give an accurate
description of him? Yes, it would. Well, man needs
visible means of worship in order to worship his conception of
God. We see here on this mountain,
we see God's glory. We see the glory of God. God
said, This is the one. This is the one. This is the
one I'm concerned with. This is the one I'm taken up
with. This is my soul. This is the one I'm well-pleased
with. This is the one, my well-beloved, only begotten, the one I rejoice
in, the one I honor and glorify, my Son. My Son, that's the glory of God,
the Son of God. We see the glory of God in the
Son of God, the face of God. We see here also on this mountain
Now we're going to get into all these things. I'm giving you
a rehearsal here. We see the subject of all the saints and
all eternity. Moses and Elijah came to talk
about what? They didn't come down to earth
and say, Now, we've got to do something about this political
situation. Rome's just getting out of hand. The people are being
oppressed, and this abortion Thousands, millions of babies
are being killed. We've got to do something about this, don't
you think? They didn't talk about that. Who did they talk about? Him. They came all the way from heaven,
came down to talk about something. What was their conversation?
Him. Him. The Scripture says, to whom
all the prophets gave witness. Well, let's look at this. Look
at verse 31 with me. Look at it. So, Moses and Elijah.
Here's the vision. Moses and Elijah came down. Christ was on that mountain with
his disciples, and they sat over to one side, and Christ went
over to pray, and he arose from praying after a little while.
And Moses and Elijah appeared. I don't know how, but they came
down and appeared with him, and in this whole vision, Christ
was changed into a glorious being of light, not changed into one,
but just had his flesh peeled away for a moment, just peeled
off this body for a minute and shone as he is. Have you ever
read the Revelation, that picture of Christ in Revelation 1 or
2, is it? That he shone, his raiment, his
eyes were the flame of fire that burned, his feet as fine brass. as countless as the sun that
shines in all its strength. And he showed himself like this
just for a little while, just for a little while. And while
Moses and Elijah, and it says they were glorified beings too. They appeared in the same character,
not as bright and as glorious, but they appeared with him. And
they appeared in glory, verse 31. They appeared in glory and
they spoke about something. Well, Christ was in this glorious
state. Moses and Elijah and Christ spoke
to one another. Yes. They spoke, they conversed with
one another. What did they speak of? Look at it. They appeared
in glory and they spoke of his death. They spoke of his death. Like I said, they didn't speak
of anything else, not politics or whatever, but they spoke of
his death. They spoke, Terry, of Christ
and him crucified. And what do we preach? We dare
not preach anything else. We dare not preach it. The only
subject, it's the only subject of any consequence, isn't it?
It's the only subject of any consequence. It's that which
the prophets spoke of. It's that which the prophets
prophesied of thousands of years beforehand that would come, pointed
to, everything pointed to that event. And when they came down,
they came down with a concern with one thing, which is death. Because why? Well, all the universe,
all of eternity is riding on this event. And they talked about
it. They talked about it. I'm sure
Moses and Elijah asked him all the questions, because he had
all the answers. He is the answer. And if that
is what they discussed, if that is what they were taken up with,
what are we going to be taken up with? Dare I preach anything
else, no reason to me, Paul said, if I preach not what? The gospel. The death of Jesus
Christ. And it says here that they spoke
of the death. Look at this. Here's the key.
Here's the title of the message. They spoke of his death, which
he should accomplish. Accomplish? Accomplish death? This is a strange statement.
Three points here. This is a strange statement.
Point number one. Accomplishment? What kind of
accomplishment is there in death? Everybody does it. He didn't have to. Men view death as anything but
an accomplishment. Right? Even us. We view death
as anything but an accomplishment. Death is the end to most men. Sin. And most men spend thousands
of dollars upon their bodies. Most men and women spend thousands
and thousands of dollars upon themselves while upon this earth
to try to keep from dying. And then when they do die, we'll
spend thousands more to try to make them look like they didn't
die at all. And people go by and say, they
sure did a good job on him, didn't they? A good job, yes, of what? Making him look like he's not
dead. Men speak of what men did when
they were alive, because death is generally the end of it all. It's the end. Death is the end.
They don't seem to be concerned, to wonder where he is now. You
don't hear anybody saying, I wonder where he is now. I wonder what he's doing. Now,
death is anything but an accomplishment to man. Anything but an accomplishment. Because death is the ultimate
confession of sin. Paul said, by one man's sin entered
into this world. That awful spirit or nature of
sin, wickedness, entered into this world by one man, by Adam. passed upon all men and women,
all die, little boys and girls even, babies, infants, because
of this spirit of sin within us all. Because God won't have
sin in His presence. And the soul that sinneth must
surely die. Death is the ultimate confession of sin, because death
passed upon all men. And death, death destroys our
wrong notions of things in this life. our wrong notions of superiority,
and I am somebody. After all, I've made some strides
in this world. I'm the president of a corporation. You're going to die like the
drunk. It happens with the wise as it
happens with the fool. All go to one place, the Scripture
says. The doctor is going to die with
the drunk. They're both going to lay down in the gutter and
die. The queen, her body's going to
rot and stink like the prostitute. The rich with the poor, the black
with the white, the old and the young. It's anything but an accomplishment,
you see. Anything but an accomplishment. But for this man, for this man,
he had to accomplish death. Death had no claims over him.
had no claims over him. Listen to this. This is a descriptive
statement, a strange statement. Accomplished? A death he should
accomplish? Now, that's a strange statement.
Secondly, it's a descriptive statement. Because of sin, as
I said, because we're sinners, death is something which is done
to us. The soul that sinneth must die. You sin, death is coming on you. You're going to die, damn, die. because of sin. It's done to
you. Done to you. The scripture says,
The Lord killeth, and the Lord maketh alive. You don't die of
your own sin. Death comes upon you. Death enters
into a person. It's appointed unto a man once
to die. Everybody here has got an appointment with death. It's
going to happen to you. You're going to avoid it at all
costs, but it's going to happen to you. Even a twenty-one-year-old
My brother was 21 years old. Where is he? He's gone. He's
not here with us anymore. It's appointed unto man once
to die. We have an appointment with death, and God made it.
God said on January 23, 1993, Vicki Patton is going to die. Nancy Parks is coming. It's appointed unto everybody
who wants to die. God made the appointment. He
set the bounds. You can't pass. That's the Scripture.
Choose to believe the Scriptures or not. That's the Scripture.
It's an appointment. It's something that's done to
us, you see. It's done to us. He stops our heart. He gives
breath, doesn't He? He takes it away. He withholds
the breath. Where do you think His breath
comes from? Why? What makes us do that? What makes
his heart keep pumping? Just keep pumping year after
year. What makes it that God does? And when he says, Stop! It stops. He made it start. There's a baby getting ready
to be born. When God says, Live! That baby will live. And when
God says, Die! You will die. See, it happens
to you. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning, from the beginning. But because of whom
this man was, God, he can't die. Death has no claim over him,
does it? The soul that sinneth must surely
die, the scripture says. He had no sin. a righteous man
can't die. God would be unjust to make a
righteous man die, right? That's the reason everybody Christ
died for will live, because he punished Christ in my spirit.
But a righteous man can't die, and Christ is the only truly
righteous man that ever lived. God said, I'm well pleased with
this man. He's loved like a man's should
live holy and righteous. Death can't die. That is why
so many times that they sought to get him. So many times. They sought to kill him. One
time they let him go by on a cliff. They were all going to throw
him off. Says he passed through the mist.
Why? Can't die. You can't die. Can't do it. He's got the will to do so. Now, he's got to accomplish it. You see? It requires no will
on our part to die. And we die, you know. Try it,
and people say, he sure had a will to live, didn't he? Well, let
somebody try this sometime. Ed, you try this. Will yourself
to death. I'm going to die. can do it, can't he? He did. Hanging on that cross. God, here comes my spirit. He willed it. He accomplished
it. Accomplished it. Why? Why? Why? Well, it's a definitive statement
also. It's a strange statement. It's
a strange statement, it's a descriptive statement, it's a definitive
statement. Accomplishment. Accomplishment. His death that he should accomplish. That means, what does that tell
you? When somebody accomplishes something, what does that tell
you? He got the job done. That means it was a resounding
success. He was no failure, he was no
murderer, no mere dreamer, he was the accomplisher. Men say he wants to, he tries
to, if you'll let him. God says he does it! He accomplishes
exactly what he sets out to. He succeeds. He cried on that
cross, it is accomplished! I did it!" Nothing left to be done when
the great accomplisher gets the job done. What are we going to
add? Huh? He accomplished it! What? What did he accomplish? First
of all, what thirty-nine books of the Old Testament said about
him. Nine hundred and twenty-nine chapters, to be exact, were written
about this man, what he should do. Done! Checkmark beside every scripture.
Nine hundred and twenty-nine chapters. How many verses? A
thousand. Done! Done! Done! Spelled, spoken,
done, written. Accomplished. Did it all. Finished. Complete. The scriptures
wrote of his birth. where he would be born, how he
would be born. Done! Get it. What he would say? Done! He spoke it. His life,
what he would do, miracles, the life he would live, the perfection,
his holiness that he wrought as a man? Done! I've done it.
The suffering that he would accomplish upon that cross? According to
the scriptures, pierce my hands. Now it's time to pierce my hands.
Now it's time to place a thorn on my brow. Now it's time to
give me something to drink. I thirst. Bring me!" Proof of
who he was, the atonement, redemption, salvation of his people. Darn
him! Nothing left to do but to die
in him. Done. This is our hope. This
is our comfort. There's nothing left. You don't
have to be religious. You don't have to make yourself religious
or moral or holy. You just look to Christ because
He did it for you, for a man. Done! But I've got the small
stuff accomplished. Whew! Just rest. Done. You know, when I get that
house finished over there, it's going to take me a good long
rest, because it will be done. Done. I'm going to get in my
easy chair, and don't you call me on the telephone. I ain't
getting up. I'm going to rest. And don't
let no man bother me from this day forward about my salvation. It's done. It's done. In Christ. What was accomplished? The scriptures
were fulfilled, and God brought Moses and Elijah, two fellows
that were in the scriptures, He brought them back to see the
final chapter. That was a real blessing that
God bestowed upon them. Come back, and we want to personally
talk with you, Moses, about all the things you wrote. I want
to show you the end, the finished, the end result. They came back to write the final
chapter of the hymn book, the final song. Completed. It has a happy ending, Terry,
a happy ending. Done. Done. He fulfilled all the types and
the shadows in the Old Testament, every type, every shadow. the
Ark of the Covenant, all of those types, the candle, the showbread,
the table, the labor, the incense, all of those types and shadows
that were a picture of Christ. All of them came down to this. All that blood, all those sacrifices,
pointed to this one. And God says, now here, you had
your high priest. Here's mine. You had yours. Here's mine. And here's my sacrifice. This is my lamb. Behold, my lamb,
which taketh away. See, it's not possible for the
blood of bulls and goats to take away sin, but this man, After
he came, he offered unto God one great sacrifice, didn't he?
And after he offered that one sacrifice, God said, it's done. It's done. No more sacrifices
to be offered. No more blood to be shed. It's
all been done in him. That one great sacrifice. Now,
behold. Now, simply by faith, behold
the Lamb of God, which takes away your sin, if you had if
you think you have any. But this is the only hope for
somebody that does, that when Christ died on that tree that
he got the job done, the only hope. Now, he put away our sins,
he didn't leave it up to us, didn't leave it up to us. Now,
Christ's death either accomplished something or it didn't. Christ's
blood is either all-powerful to deliver you from your sin,
or it is worthless. It's no more powerful than my
blood. Either it is or it isn't. It
is. It is. According to the Scriptures,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our
sins. And all those priests and ceremonies
and the ark, this was the accomplishing. This is the fulfilling of it.
This was the greatest display of the glory of God that is in
the mercy of God in showing salvation to sinners in the person of Christ,
redemption, substitution. Turn over to Romans chapter 8
with me. Romans chapter 8. Christ Jesus
paid for the sins of his people that he died for. And now all
those people that he died for, are justified from all things,
from sin. Justified, declared innocent
of any wrongdoing by God Almighty. Not all men, not all women, but
those whom Christ died for. I hope it's you. Look at Romans
8, verse 33. Paul says here, in the power
of the Holy Spirit, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? Why? Because they lived a good
life. Because they were more moral
than anybody else? Because they went to church on
a regular basis? Because they made their profession
a faith? Who is he that can do that? No, that's not it at all.
Because God justifies. It is God that justifies. God
up and says about Deborah Huff, innocent. I know you're a sinner,
Deborah. But God says, no, she's innocent. She's holy, righteous, unblameable,
unapprovable in my sight. perfect to me. Why? Because of
anything he did? Oh, no. Why? Well, here's the
reason. Who is he that condemned me?
Verse 34. Christ died. Christ took Deborah Huff's sin
and rebellion and her wicked heart. He took all that somehow. How did he do that? I don't know.
He's God. He did it to her. Took that away from you and put
it on himself. And God killed him. in her place. God killed him, and he took his
righteousness and clothed it on you. And when God sees you,
he sees Christ, and you're holy, beautiful, righteous, spotless. That's out. Now, who can condemn
you? Not even God. Why? Christ died
for you. Yea, rather, he's risen again.
Not only that, he's rose to the right hand of God Almighty. And
he's seated. He's even at the right hand of
God. And he's saying right now, Deborah, Father, I love that
girl. I love that girl. Receive her, come I say. Wow. He's even at the right hand
of God and also makes intercession for you. My, my, my. He got the job done. He accomplished redemption. Old Brother Ed Hale's song says,
A ransom was found, a ransom was found. Love paid the price
on Calvary's mind. Justice was met and the law satisfied. And mercy was born because a
ransom was found. Everybody for whom Christ died
is redeemed, bought and paid for. Belong to the Father, not
to the devil, not to yourself. Here he is. Why? Because he walked
an aisle, joined a church, believed? No. Christ died. Christ died. And anyone for whom Christ died
can say that, Who is he that condemns me? Christ died. Christ died. In closing, why was Christ's
death an accomplishment? Why? Simply put, let me put it
just as simply, simply as I possibly can. Christ's death was an accomplishment
because he got the work done. I've said it five or six times
already. He got the work done. He was no failure, but he was
a victor. He is the victor. He's no door
knocker. He's the door. He's no pathetic
martyr, he's the great Redeemer.