I want you to go back to that
scripture that Brother Joe read to us. And I'm going to speak
to you tonight on this subject, the last two words of verse eight. Jesus only. Jesus only. Now this is the, occurrence of
the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus. The scripture says in
the second verse here of chapter 17, he was transfigured before
them. And the idea being that which
was inward all along, his deity, his magnificence, his glory,
was manifested outwardly. There was a metamorphosis that
took place. That which was within him all
along, he's been God. He never gave up being God. He
never ceased to be God. I know he left heaven above and
he came down to this earth. He was born of a virgin. lived a perfect life, but that
was the God-man living that perfect life now. And we must never forget
that he was always God. There was a glory in his essence,
in the very essence of his being. The magnificence of God, the
very power of God, the person of God. was within him, but he
kept that glory hidden most of the time. But on this occasion,
he takes three of his favored disciples, Peter and James and
John, and they go up into a high mountain, and that's where our
Lord was transfigured before them. Now Matthew, Mark, and
Luke all record this transfiguration of our Savior. Because they want
to set forth, as led by the Spirit of God, the person of our Savior
being both God and man. Now, there is no record of the
transfiguration of our Savior in the Gospel of John, because
John writes to establish the fact that he was the Son of God. So John begins his book by saying,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. But it's these three, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, these three evangelists who record this magnificent scene
of our Lord's transfiguration. These three favored apostles
were privileged to see the glory of the Son of God. Now, why didn't
he take all of the disciples? There were 12 of them. Why didn't
he take them all? Well, I can't tell you. I can raise the question, but
I can't answer the question. But it reminds me of this, where
the master said, cannot I do what I will with my own? Job said, he giveth no account
of his matters. So we don't need to know why
he only chose these three. I think it is necessary to point
out the fact that these three were present when our Lord not
only revealed his inner glory, but when he went through his
humiliation in the garden of Gethsemane. That's where these
three beheld him, weeping tears that were as drops
of blood falling from him. And on that occasion, surely
they remembered that on this occasion, He manifested His deity
and His glory, whereas on that occasion He manifested His humiliation
and His sorrow. Well, why were there three men
present at this transfiguration? Well, the Scripture says in Deuteronomy
17, in the mouth of two, two witnesses or three witnesses,
let every word be established. Our Lord would go to the very
extreme of the law and provide three witnesses to what happened
on the Mount of Transfiguration. Now as to these three men, Peter,
he has in the previous chapter made a magnificent confession
of faith. James and John, they were the
sons of Thunder, the sons of Zebedee. James was the first
of the apostles to seal his faith with his blood. Herod had him executed. And then John, John lived longer
than any of the other apostles. He died of old age. one of the
old Puritan writers. I enjoy reading the Puritans
from time to time. A man by the name of Thomas Manton. He said, this is a solemn confirmation
of the glory of the person of the Lord Jesus and his office. You'll remember that John said
in John chapter one in verse 14, concerning the Word of God,
John said, we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. And no doubt John
was writing about this very event. He beheld the glory of the Son
of God. Glory that for the most part
was veiled. Although he performed many miracles
that proved his deity, proved his authority over disease and
death and demons, yet for the most part, he kept that glory
hidden. These three disciples were eyewitnesses
of his glory, and they were earwitnesses of the word of God, because God
said, this is my beloved son. Not Moses, not Elijah. I know it's Elias, but I'll call
him Elijah. That's who he's talking about.
Just the Son of God. He has that glory that no one
else has ever had or will ever have because he is the everlasting
Son of God. Thomas Manton also commented
on this. He said, here's a pledge. and a foretaste of the glorious
future, future condition, and the future glorious state of
all the children of God. Because you see, as our Lord's
body was adorned with heavenly glory, one of these days our
bodies are going to be adorned with heavenly glory too. In fact,
hold your place here and go over to Philippians chapter 3. I'm sure we don't have any real
awareness of the glory that awaits us, but here the Apostle Paul
gives us some indication in chapter 3 of Philippians, the last two verses, Philippians
3, 20 and 21. For our conversation, for our
citizenship is in heaven. And then he says, from whence
also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even
to subdue all things unto himself. When our bodies are raised from
the dead, when we die, as you know, the soul goes back to God
who gave it. The soul goes back to God who
saved us, who ordained us unto eternal life. The soul goes back
to God. And we have, according to 2 Corinthians
5, a heavenly body that awaits us. This body is going to be
buried. It's going to go back to the
dust. But one of these days, our Lord is coming back and we
shall be changed. And this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And then we will have in the
change that our Lord is going to bring about, glorious bodies. And Brother Manton said that
this is an indication here of something of the magnificence
that our bodies will have someday. There'll be no tears, no aches,
no pains, no sickness. The main thing is no sin. What has sin done to our bodies? You have aches and pains? It's
because of sin, not specific sins, but just sin in general,
because that's what we are. All of our problems, the wars
in the world, disagreements in the world, the hatred that's
in the world, the anger that's in the world, all of those things,
it's a result of sin. It will be absolutely marvelous
when our bodies are raised and our bodies will be absolutely
free from every effect of sin. Our bodies will be glorified. Now one of the apostles who was
present at this transfiguration of our Lord gave his record,
his record of this event. It was the Apostle Peter. Go
to 2 Peter chapter 2. And this, Peter wrote this just
before he was martyred. In Foxe's Book of Martyrs, if
you've had the occasion and the time to read it, it is said that
he wanted to be crucified upside down because he said he wasn't
worthy to be crucified like his Lord. He wrote this, what I'm
gonna read you, just before he was crucified upside down. 2
Peter 1, 16 and 17. Yeah, verse 16 and 17. 2 Peter 1, for we have not followed
cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power
and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. You remember John will say in
1 John 1, we handled the word of life. We hugged him, he hugged
us. In fact, I'm gonna show you in
this passage back in Matthew 17. He's going to hug the disciples
when they were full of fear. And John felt his presence. John's
the one who laid his head on the Savior's bosom so often.
And he referred to himself as that disciple whom Jesus loved. So Peter says in verse 16, for
we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known
unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but
were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Now we haven't been eyewitnesses
of his majesty, but due to the work of the spirit of God, we've
been sole witnesses of his majesty. We have seen something of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you see His glory, and
nobody can show you His glory but the glorious Savior Himself,
if you ever get a sight of the crucified, buried, risen Redeemer,
if you ever get a sight, a soul sight of His majesty, you'll
never get over it, ever. Peter continues, verse 17, For
he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there
came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Verse 18, And this voice which
came from heaven we heard. It's not a fable. It's not something they imagined.
Peter says, we heard this voice when we were with him in the
Holy Mount. But I think I ought to also read
what follows this because Peter continues, we have a more sure
word of prophecy. We have something more certain
than even that glorious visit with the Savior. We have something
that establishes His deity, the glory of Christ, the person of
Christ, the work of Christ, the redemption of Christ, the preciousness
of the blood of Christ. We have something more sure. What's more sure than having
that wonderful vision of the glorified Savior? The Word of
God. That's more sure. That's why Peter says, we have
also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well that you
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, unto
the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. In this day, of imaginary extra-biblical
revelation. When preachers are saying, God
told me to tell you, we need to be reminded the only sure
word is the Word of God. And if some preacher or somebody
tells you I've had a vision and God told me to relay this message
to you, you just walk away knowing they're lying, they're deceived,
you shouldn't listen to them. We have this sure word of prophecy. Peter had seen extraordinary
things. He had seen the master transfigured. His inner glory was manifested,
and yet Peter says, we got something more sure than that. And we still
have something more sure than that. Though we haven't seen
a vision of the glory of Christ with these eyes, nor heard the
voice of God with our ears, we've got something more sure. It's
this book right here. That's everything God's got to
say to you. It's everything to be believed.
This book will tell you who God is. This book will tell you who
you are. This book tells you who Jesus
Christ is, who he is, why he came, what he did when he came,
where he is now. We'll go back to our text now.
Let me see if I can get in some of these verses. Look at Matthew
17 again. Notice in chapter 17, it says,
note where it was that this happened. After six days, Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high
mountain. That's all we know, one of the
mountains around Jerusalem. No specific mountain is named,
lest people make a pilgrimage to it. Lest people say, that's
a holy place there. That's where the Lord Jesus transfigured
himself. We don't honor places. No place on this earth is holy. I've heard ever since I was a
little fella in church, I've heard people say, I want to go
to the Holy Land. There is no holy land except
that land where God is, where Christ is. And you're welcome to disagree
with me. It doesn't matter to me, but
I'm not interested in going where Jesus walked. It's so commercialized. I'm interested in going where
he's walking now. That's where I want to go. Not
where he used to walk. To speak of a holy place on this
earth is idolatrous. So it's just one of the high
mountains around Jerusalem. And there these disciples saw
his majesty and his excellent glory. And the way that this
begins tells us something very important after six days. After
six days. Well, what had happened six days
before this? Well, you go back into chapter
16, it was six days before this that our Lord warned his disciples,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Go back to chapter 16. Verse 11 and 12, and I don't
have time to read all of this, Chapter 16, 11 and 12. Our Lord
said, how is it that you do not understand that I spake it not
to you concerning bread, that you should beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understand they how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. He warned them. What was the
doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Their doctrine
was to be very simple about salvation by works. Salvation by obedient
to the law. Salvation by you doing. Salvation
by you fasting. Salvation by you praying. And
our Lord warned them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees. And then, six days before this
transfiguration was when Peter made his great confession of
the identity of the Savior. Go back again to chapter 16,
verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some say Elias or Elijah, and others
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And six days before our Lord
revealed His inner glory, Simon Peter answered and said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Essentially what
God the Father would say, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm
well pleased, hear ye Him. And then, Six days before the
transfiguration, our Lord gave words of instruction about his
sufferings, his death, and his resurrection. 1621. From that
time forth, From that time when Peter made
this tremendous confession of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth,
he's God. He's the Son of God. He has all
the essential characteristics of God, all of the attributes
of God. He's one with God. He has all
power. He has all glory. From that time forth, began Jesus
to show, to manifest unto his disciples how that he must go
into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and the
chief priests and the scribes and be killed and raised again
the third day. Our Savior made this announcement
to his disciples of the necessity of his death, his sufferings
first and then his death and then his resurrection. It's the
only way that sinners could be saved. God didn't have several
options at His disposal as to how He would save sinners. There's
only one way. The only way His justice could
be satisfied, the only way His law could be honored, the only
way our sins could be put away, the only way that Christ could
bring in everlasting righteousness was by His sufferings and death
and burial and resurrection. That's the only way. And it's still the only way.
It never has changed. That's why Christ said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. It was right on the heels of
Simon Peter's bold confession. Who do men say that I am? And
Simon Peter said, thou art the Christ, the sent one, the Messiah
promised and prophesied in the Old Testament, the son of the
living God. And our Lord said, you're blessed.
Flesh and blood didn't teach you that. My father taught you
that. And then six days before the
transfiguration, our Lord had to rebuke Simon Peter because
Simon Peter rebuked the Lord. Look at verse 22, and then Peter
took him and began to rebuke him. Is that astounding? That
Peter would rebuke the Lord of glory? Far be it from thee, Lord. You're
not gonna go to Jerusalem. We're gonna keep you alive. Nobody's gonna kill you. We'll
protect you. He began to rebuke him. Be it
far from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto thee. It's almost like he was saying,
over my dead body, it'll never happen. I'll be there to protect
you. And this bold disciple turned
coward in the presence of opposition. But our Lord rebuked him, put
him in his place. Don't you ever talk negatively
about the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter,
shut your mouth. And I look forward to the day
when every false prophet speaks ill of the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ when he shuts their mouths. And you know what's amazing to
me? You want to see the grace and the mercy of our Lord? Six days later, that very disciple
who dared to open his mouth and rebuke the master. The master
took him up on top that mountain and revealed his glory to him.
You see, the Lord doesn't punish his people for our sins. Our
sins were punished in him. Doesn't mean there's not chastisement,
necessary correction and instruction. But there's no condemnation of
them who are in Christ Jesus. There can't be any condemnation
because he was condemned for us. And so these things happen. And then here's something else
that happened in chapter 16. The Lord spoke of the cost of
following him, verses 24 and 26. Or through 26, then said Jesus
unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny
himself. Let him disown himself. Disown
his works. Disown his religious deeds. Deny yourself. Deny any acclamation
or drawing attention to yourself. This is not about you. It's about
Him. Says verse, the next 25 says,
for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever
will lose his life for my sake shall find it. So six days before this event,
Heavy, heavy, very important subjects were dealt with by our
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, when our Lord was transfigured,
his face, it says in the second verse, did shine as the sun.
I tell you, that sun's pretty bright out there. It'll blind you. Our Lord is brighter than the
sun. His raiment was white as light. Then Matthew, Mark, and Luke
record this and behold, be amazed. There appeared unto them Moses
and Elijah talking with him. And we learned from Luke they
were talking about redemption. that he would accomplish, his
decease, that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. You see, Calvary
was an accomplishment, the accomplishment of the eternal purpose of God.
God, who chose a people unto salvation, had purposed that
his Son would come to this earth and die in the room, stead in
place of his guilty people. He would take our place. And when these men were present
there on top of that mountain, they saw Moses and Elijah, who
spoke of the Savior, they wrote of the Savior, talking with him about his decease. What do you reckon people in
heaven are talking about? Well, it sure is good to see
you. I missed you at the last family reunion. I'm glad to see
you up here. No, no, we're not gonna be talking
about that. And we're not gonna be talking
about the enjoyable companionships that we had on earth. And we're not gonna be talking
about what we did. We're gonna be talking about Him, praising
Him. Redemption! Redemption, the blood
shedding of our Savior. That's the theme in heaven. That's
what people are talking about. That's what people are singing
about. Salvation to our God and unto
the Lamb. That's what they're singing in
heaven. That's what we're going to step into heaven singing also. Watch this. Here is a factual demonstration
of life after death. Moses had been dead. God buried
him. He'd been dead and buried 1,500
years. And guess what? He's still Moses. He retained his identity. And somehow or another, these
three favorite disciples knew, well, there's Moses. There's
Moses. I think we will know even as
we're known. Because we're one family. We're
brothers and sisters in Christ. You know members of your earthly
family, don't you? Yeah, but what if there's millions
of them? Hey, you're gonna have different
thinking apparatus when you get to glory. You're going to know
a whole lot more people. You're pretty smart now. Smarter than I am, I'm sure.
But in heaven, we're going to know all of the family of God.
We're going to know Moses. We're going to know Elijah. Elijah
went up by whirlwind into heaven 900 years before this. Moses,
1500 years. Elijah went up to glory 900 years
before this. They retained their identity.
Peter, James, and John knew them and heard them. Like I say, this confirms this
truth. There's life after death. And I think we can safely infer
from this passage of scripture, we'll know as we're known. Doesn't the scripture say we're
gonna sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? How are we
gonna know them? Who's Abraham? Which one of y'all's
Abraham? Raise your hand. Now we'll know
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the other saints of God. And we'll know our brothers and
sisters in Christ that we've worshiped with, but we won't
have the same earthly relationship. Husband and wives will know one
another as brothers and sisters in Christ, but not as husband
and wives. In that sense, we'll be like
the angels. That's what the Savior said. Well, look at verse four. Peter
said to him, Lord, it's good for us to be here. Well, I reckon
it was. That was magnificent. I can't
imagine how wonderful it was. If thou wilt, let us make here
three tabernacles, such as they would make during the Feast of
the Tabernacles, which commemorated living in tents during their
wilderness journey. One for thee, one for Moses,
and one for Elijah. And I can understand what Simon
Peter's saying. I just want to stay right here. But once again, Simon Peter slipped
up because he put Moses and Elijah on the same level as the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as the words were coming
out of his mouth, before he even finished saying whatever it was
on his mind, verse five, while he yet spake, or literally, while
he was yet talking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, such
as that bright cloud that hovered over Israel during their wilderness
journeys during the day. And behold, a voice out of the
cloud. Peter has said something that
got God's attention. He has really insulted the Lord
Jesus Christ by putting him on the same low level as Moses and
Elijah. God's not going to stand for
that. God will not stand for anybody humiliating the Son of
God. In fact, he'll put you in hell
for it if he's not pleased to correct you. The voice said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. And when they heard that voice,
verse six, they hit the dust. In the Bible, that's what happened
when people were confronted by the Lord. They fell down before
Him. And they were sore afraid. Verse 7, And Jesus came and touched
them. And really that word touch doesn't
mean that He just touched them like that, like I just touched
that pulpit. It means that He hugged up to
them. He held them. It's the same word
that Mary Magdalene used, or that our Savior used when Mary
Magdalene touched him. She grabbed hold of him and she
wouldn't let him go. Because he said, touch me not,
stop holding me. I got things I gotta do. And our Lord Jesus Christ, here
are these three favored disciples, and now they're afraid. And he says, arise, be not afraid,
but he took hold of them. Can you imagine that? Here are
these three shivering, fearful disciples, scared to death in
the presence of God. And our Lord comes up to them,
and somehow or another, he puts his arms around all three of
them. And he says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. And they stood
up. And let me tell you something.
You who are the children of God, by his spirit, he's always hugging
you up to himself. He's always embracing you. He's never going to let you go.
He draws you close to Himself. In your times of fearfulness,
in those times when you don't know what's going to happen,
you're at a loss for any peace within, Be very much aware that
the Savior who laid down His life for you is hugging you and
saying, don't be afraid. If I could just hear those words
by faith, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Who is this one who embraced
Him? This is God's beloved Son. And watch this what he says,
what the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye him, listen to him, listen
to his voice, listen to his gospel. And notice this, it doesn't say
this is my beloved son in whom or with whom I'm well pleased. It doesn't say with whom, it
says in whom. in whom I'm well-pleased. And
everybody who's in Him, He's well-pleased with them too. Where are we? We're in Him, in
whom I'm well-pleased. And in Him, He's well-pleased
with all of His elect, all of His redeemed ones. You know,
in Ephesians chapter 1, we're accepted in the Beloved. That
is not a time thing. We have always been accepted
in the Beloved. We've always been the family
of God. Don't be afraid. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. Moses and Elijah now have
vanished because they picture the old covenant. It's vanishing. It was on its
way out. There's a new covenant. It's
the oldest covenant there is, but the new covenant is going
to be established by the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The testator is about to die. He made His last will and testament
in eternity past, and now He's gonna seal that testament with
His own blood. It's in effect. And everybody
whose names were written down in the Lamb's book of life, He's gonna draw them to Himself. If your name's in the will, Is your name in the will? Jim,
I don't know. Well, Peter says, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. Have you been called to
Christ? Yes, I have. He's my all. He's my Savior. I'll only look
to Him. That's how you make your election
sure, by your calling. Peter, James, and John, they
stood up and got their vision back. They could see clearly.
No more Elijah. No more Moses. They saw Jesus only. It's a blessed day when a sinner
sees Jesus only. It's the dawning of a new day,
it was. Now, let me make some final comments,
but I want to preface them by saying this. I want to make it
very clear. I'm not in any way denying the
deity of the Father and of the Holy Spirit. We recognize the Father is God
who chose us unto salvation back in eternity past. Forever back
got away in the past. He chose us unto salvation. And I would not take anything
away from the deity of the Holy Spirit. He is attributed to the work
and salvation of revealing the Lord Jesus Christ and of regenerating,
giving us life. We're born of God, God the Spirit. We recognize that the Father
and the Spirit are God, as well as the Son. However, I do mean for you to
understand that all of God we will ever know and see is the Lord Jesus Christ. And looking on Him by faith,
we say exactly what Thomas said. After our Lord had appeared to
the other disciples, the other ten, Judas is dead, of course,
at that point, And then Thomas met with him the next Lord's
day. He just fell down and said, my Lord and my God. Who did he
see? Jesus only. Jesus only. See, Jesus only is the Savior. He's the surety of the everlasting
covenant. He has made flesh, he humbled
himself, made himself of no reputation. He suffered all that men could
do to him and suffered the infinite wrath of God in his soul. Jesus only could save us, nobody
else. Jesus only has been exalted to
be our Lord, the God-man. my elder brother, that one who is not ashamed to
call us brethren. He rules the world. All men and women and boys and
girls and animals and all of creation, everything is subject
to Him. He is executing divine providence,
all of the eternal purpose of God. Christ is bringing it to
pass now. Jesus only is controlling everything. Put your fears away. Your best friend, your savior,
he rules it all. Somebody said he owns a cattle
on a thousand hills. He does and he owns the hills
too. Jesus only has been exalted to
be the Lord. And I'll tell you this, Jesus
only is our rule of life. He's our rule of life. We're
not slaves under the dominion of the law. Free from the law. Oh, happy condition. Jesus has
bled, and there's remission. We're his children. We walk in
the path of our elder brother because we love him. The most powerful motivator in
this world is love. That's why the Lord asked Simon
Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me? And I'll tell you what Paul says,
if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema
maranatha. And that means let him be damned
when Jesus comes back. Jesus only is our hope. What
is hope in the Bible? A confident expectation a future
good and future glory based on the word of God. And I'll tell you this, Jesus
only, that's our reward. The psalmist said in Psalm 73,
whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
He's our portion. He is the crown that we seek. And he's the beauty we desire. To be with him, that'll be heaven. And Jesus only is our all in
all. And Jesus only, really, that's
the theme of the whole Bible, isn't it? Jesus only. This book's
about him. Pick up your Bible and you read
it. Look for Jesus only. If you don't see him on that
page or in that verse that you just read, read it again. Ask for some understanding from
the Spirit of God. Jesus only. Those men, Savior helped them to their feet
and they didn't see Moses anymore. Well, the Israelites bragged
on Moses. And they bragged on Elijah. They
were just sinful men. All of God's earthly servants,
preachers, we're just sinners saved by grace. God has given
us some knowledge of the truth and the ability to convey the
truth through words. We're not the Savior. He's our subject, Jesus only. That's the subject of this pulpit.
Jesus only. Well, okay, that's it. 147.