I don't know, it's not written
what he prayed about, but I'm sure he prayed for the glory
of the Father. Acknowledging the greatness of
the Father, after all, the scripture says that he taught his disciples
in this way, he said, after this manner you pray, our Father which
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. God, you're holy. You're
holy. He glorified the Father. He recognized
the attributes of the Father. That's what we do in prayer.
We have some awareness of the One that we're coming before
and we have a little bit of understanding of what we are and the distance
between us and God We go before Him and we bow before Him. We
close our eyes before Him because we realize that we're not worthy
in ourselves to come to the Lord. We're not worthy of the least
of God's mercies. We need Him. When we come to
the Lord in prayer, it's a recognition of our neediness. It's a recognition
that we can't do without the Lord. We need the Lord. And I'm
sure that when the Lord Jesus, when He bowed before the Father
and prayed, He prayed for the success of the gospel. Indeed,
that's what He said for us to do. He said for us to pray this
way, Thy kingdom come. Oh, that God's kingdom would
spread. We pray for an increase of the
kingdom. We pray for God to save sinners
by His grace. We ask the Lord if it be His
will to show mercy to those who don't know Him. And then I'm
sure that He prayed for these men. These men. He prayed for His disciples.
He prayed for His followers. And I'll tell you something that
encourages me. He still prays for us. He still
prays for us. I still need His intercession.
Don't you? You know you do. This One who
gave Himself for us, who was crucified, buried and risen again,
He's ascending back to glory and He makes intercession for
all of His people. He's our representative. He's
our advocate. We have a lawyer. John says in 1 John the second
chapter, My little children, these things I write to you that
you sin not. Don't sin. Don't sin. If any man sin, and we do, we
weep over it, it causes us great grief, our sin. But don't despair. Don't despair. Because He says, if any man sin,
we have an advocate. We have a go-between. We got
somebody to represent us to the Father. Well, who is He? He's Jesus Christ. What's His
qualification? He's the righteous one. That's
His qualification. He makes intercession for us.
So I feel absolutely certain when he got alone to pray, he
remembered these men. I want you to pray for me. I
hope that you will. And I think that you do. And
I appreciate it. I'm thankful when somebody takes
the time to call my name before God in prayer. Oh God, help our
preacher. Help our poor pastor. He stands
to break the bread of life to us. Help him to exalt the Lord
Jesus. Help him to say some things that
will be magnifying to your name. Help him to preach things that
are absolutely honest and truthful according to your word. Oh God,
keep him from ever saying anything contrary to your gospel. Anything
that would bring reproach upon your name. Oh Lord, guard his
lips. Oh Lord, give him the message.
Give him the message we need. Oh God, fill him with your spirit,
fill him with your grace. Give him that sweet gospel bread
from heaven that we need to hear. We need to feed upon. Oh God,
feed us as he preaches the gospel, as he exhausts the Lord Jesus
Christ. I sure would appreciate if you'd
pray for me. But as much as I want your prayers,
I want his more. Because God the Father always
hears him. He always prays in accordance
with the Father's will. Well, his disciples were with
him. And he asked them this in verse
18. He says, Whom say the people
that I am? I tell you, He is the I Am, isn't
He? He is the I Am. He is Jehovah, over all, blessed
forever. Well, they answering said, John
the Baptist. People say that you're John the
Baptist. Others say you're Elijah. Others
say that one of the old prophets is risen again. He said unto
them, but whom say ye? that I am." Peter answering said,
the Christ of God. You're the Christ of God. You're
the Messiah. You're the one promised in the
Old Testament, predicted in the Old Testament, pictured in the
Old Testament. You're that one who is equal
with God. You're God's own son. You're
the anointed one. You are the promised Messiah. Come to save His people from
their sins. And then He said to them, He
straightly charged them and commanded them, don't tell people this
thing, lest they come to make me an earthly king and then he
said this he said saying verse 22 the son of man must suffer
many things and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and he must be slain and be raised the third
day he must. Why must these things happen?
Because God purposed it. Everything God purposed must
happen and everything God purposed, it will happen. Well, what has
He purposed? Everything. Everything. These things must happen. They
must happen. He must be rejected by the elders
and the chief priests and the scribes. He must die. He must
be slain. He must be raised again because
He's our eternal surety. He received us in the covenant
of grace as a gift. All that the Father giveth me,
He said, they shall come to me. Him that cometh to me, I'll in
no wise cast out. He took responsibility for us. He accepted us. He, the Great
Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, He was our
Shepherd in eternity past. And all the sheep were given
to him, this great innumerable multitude of God's elect, God's
children. He said, I give them to you.
You're responsible for them. Bring them all safely home to
me. And in order to bring them all
safely home to the Father, he must be slain. He must suffer
many things. He must because justice has got
to be satisfied. I tell you, whenever I listen
to a message, I'm listening for this. And not so much the exact
words or the phraseology. You don't have to say things
the precise way. But this message has got to come
across in every sermon if we're going to preach the gospel. And
that's the answer to how can God be just and justify the ungodly. That's what I'm listening for.
That's what you ought to listen for as well. Man can say a lot
of things, say a lot of good things, say a lot of things that
are according to the Scriptures, but if he doesn't tell of Christ's
death and the reason for His death, The reason he had to die. You know, you listen to some
of the preachers on television. I looked at one this morning
for just a little bit. And he's talking about the nails
and talking about the sufferings of Jesus. And that's all true. He did suffer. He was nailed
to a cross. And the crown of thorns and all
the agony. But if you don't tell us why
he died, the reason for his death, you haven't preached the gospel. Our Lord Jesus, He was purposed
to die. He had to die that God might
be just and justify folks like us. Because all of our sins,
they deserve and the law of God demands death for them. God says
the soul that sinneth shall die. It must die. Death is the penalty
for sin. For the wages of sin is death. Somebody's got to die. That's
why Christ came. He came to satisfy God's offended
justice. God says, release us from going
down to the pit. For what reason? He found a ransom. And the ransom was His own Son
who had to die to pay our sin debt. These things must happen. We read, was it last, I think
it was maybe last Sunday night, or maybe this Sunday night before
that, where Simon Peter said, no, no, this can't ever happen. Oh, it must happen. It must happen. I tell you, if our sins are going
to be dealt with and forever put away, He must suffer many
things and die. If God's law and God's justice
is going to be honored, He must suffer these things and die. And I'll tell you this, He must
rise again too. That's what it says. Yeah, He's
got to be. He's got to suffer many things.
He's got to be rejected. He's got to be slain. He's got
to die. And He must be raised the third
day. He must. Old Testament pictures of that? They've got to come to pass as
Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great
fish. Even so, the Son of Man's got to be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. He's got to be raised again.
He's got to live. He said to Martha, I'm the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live again. The reason we live again
is because He lives again. In His death, we see the removal
of our guilt and all of our transgressions. And in His resurrection, we see
the absolute certainty of us being with Him someday. We're
going to live forever because He lives. He lives. He's the head of the body. He's
the head and if the head ever lives, the body shall ever live
as well because we live in Him. We're united to Him by everlasting
covenant love. He must rise from the dead. And then He said this to them. He said it to each of them. Verse
23. If any of you will come after
me, deny yourself. Deny your works. Deny your deeds. Deny your goodness? Deny all those things that you
think would recommend you to God? Deny them all! Take up the cross daily. Follow me. Follow me. He said in John chapter 10, my
sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. They follow me. He said, whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. You try to save it, you try
to deliver yourself, you'll lose it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, lose your life in Jesus Christ Himself. Be lost
in Him. The same shall save it. He says, for what is a man advantaged
if he gains all the world, the whole world, all the riches of
the world, all the joys of the world, all the glories of the
world, all the honors of the world, all the recognition of
the world, all the prestige of the world, all the possessions
of the world, all the materialism of the world? What is a man advantaged? What shall it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and loses himself? or be cast away. That's a total loss. Total loss. He says, but whosoever shall
be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be
ashamed and he shall come in his own glory and in his father's
and of the holy angels, ashamed of his person. Ashamed of who
He is, God over all, blessed forever. Ashamed of His humanity. Ashamed of His grace. Ashamed
of His righteousness. Ashamed of His blood. Ashamed
of His sacrifice. He said, if you're going to be
ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of you. You are not going to
identify yourself with me. I am not going to identify myself
with you. That is what he says. But he says this in verse 27.
But I will tell you of a truth. There will be some people standing
right here, he says. They won't taste death. till
they see the kingdom of God, that is the kingdom of God coming
in its power. And that happened. That happened
after his substitutionary death and his resurrection, his ascension. He told them just wait for the
Spirit of God, the gift of the Father. And God sent the Holy
Ghost in unusual and marvelous, gracious power. Multitudes were
brought into the kingdom of God. Some of these folks saw it. Boy,
it'd be something to see, wouldn't it? See hundreds and hundreds
of people not walking an aisle, not making a decision, not getting
religious. But hundreds and hundreds of
people who cry out, men and brethren, what shall we do? Our hands are
dripping with the blood of the Son of God. What shall we do?
We killed the Lord of glory, that one that God has made both
Lord and Christ. What shall we do? Boy, wouldn't that be something
if somebody was to cry that out to us. What shall I do, preacher?
Oh, what shall I do? One of your neighbors, one of
your family members come to you and say, what shall I do? Oh,
I'm such a wretch. I'm such a sinner. Oh, I see
I deserve hellfire and brimstone. God ought to cast me away forever. What shall I do? What shall I
do? I tell you, Peter didn't say,
well, there's nothing you can do. You better hope that when
the smoke clears and the dust settles, you're on the right
side. That's not what he said. He said to all of them, he said,
repent. You better repent. Change your
heart. Change your heart toward God.
Oh, change your heart about yourself. Change your heart about Christ
Jesus, the Lord. That Jesus that you crucified,
it better be a change of heart. And with many other words they
preached to them. And they said, save yourselves
from this crooked, this wicked generation. This religious
but lost generation. They saw the kingdom of God come
in its power. I pray I ask God, oh God, bring people
to Christ Jesus. And I pray that he brings them
in our congregation, but not just here. Lord, rescue your
lost sheep. Bring them into the fold. Listen,
if your understanding, if your belief of sovereign grace makes
you calloused toward the lost, toward the perishing, you've
got a wrong understanding. God have mercy on you. Oh Lord,
give us tender hearts. People are perishing in their
ignorance. They're dying around us. I want
people to be saved, don't you? I want people to come to see
the glories of Christ Jesus. I don't want you to go to hell.
Now if you go, I'm going to have to say amen. I'll say hallelujah. The Lord did right if he sends
you now, if you're a rebel against him. But I don't want you to
be a rebel against him. I don't want that. After all
the sermons you've heard from Brother Mahan, Brother Parker,
from me, after hearing the gospel over and over again, Lord, break
the hearts of those who don't know you. We know that he's the
only hope we got. You can't talk anybody into the
kingdom of God. I was mentioning to somebody
before the service about the message this morning. I tried
to preach so honestly and so clearly and so simply. I think
about our young people. You know, sometimes if I could
just cradle your face in my hands and say, let me talk to you.
Let me talk to you about the things of God. Would you listen
to me? But you know what? I can't get
the ear. I can't make anybody listen. I can't make anybody
see what I'm saying, but I know who can. I know who can. Let's be compassionate. You can
say what you want to, but our Lord, when he saw Jerusalem,
the scripture says, he wept over that city. That what he said,
Alma? He wept over that city. I wish
God would break our hearts so we'd do some weeping. Weep over
our city. It's such a religious city. It's such a lost city. People don't know who God is.
They don't know who Jesus Christ is. They don't have the foggiest
idea why he came into this world. They don't know what it takes
to save a soul. They think all it takes is a
decision. That's all it takes. Just answer
yes to the right question. You're all right. A, B, C. Accept, believe and confess. Do you do that? Yeah, well, you're
good then let's baptize you and get you singing in the choir.
In a couple of weeks we'll have you as an assistant Sunday school
teacher and you'll go places. Our church needs somebody like
you. Oh God, spare us from that kind of garbage. We want God
to do something in people's hearts for our children, our grandchildren,
our loved people that we love so much. Lord, do something for
them. Lord, break our hearts over them. And I've said this before, if
you won't weep over yourself, I'll weep over you. If you won't
pray for yourself, I'll pray over you. And the one I pray
to, he's got the power. He's got the power to give you
what you've absolutely got to have, life. You've got to have
spiritual life. And he raises the dead. In fact,
there's several people in here this evening, and I'm sure there
are people who are watching on the internet. We're objects of
His mercy. We're like a bunch of Lazaruses.
We're in the tomb, dead in trespasses and sins. And He stopped by our
tomb and He told somebody, roll the stone away. Preach the gospel
to them. Tell them the truth. Brag on
me. Preach of my righteousness. Preach
of my blood. Preach of my sacrifice. Both
of them, I'm the sin offering. I'm the sin offering. And then
the Lord Jesus by His power says, Lazarus, come forth. And then though we're bound,
we come forth alive. That's what's got to happen.
That's what's got to happen. Well, look at verse 28. Well,
it came to pass about eight days after these things. He let these
things, they kind of soaked in for eight days. Sometimes things
need to marinate, right? They just need to, just give
it some time here. Let's just think about this.
You know, our Lord, He does all things right on schedule, but
He don't get in a hurry. Sometimes we wish He would, but
He doesn't. Everything goes right on schedule.
Eight days goes by after they saved. And he took Peter, John,
and James, and went up on the mountain, and guess what? He
went up there to pray. There he is again praying. He takes these three men. I don't
know why he took these three only, except to say it's his
sovereign right. I know that he had ordained that
these three men be with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They'll
see his grief. They'll see his agony. They'll
hear him pouring out his heart to God. They'll see him sweating,
as it were, great drops of blood. And my thought on this is he
gave them this glorious experience when He revealed His majesty
to them to kind of strengthen their faith for what was to come. Well, look at verse 29. And as
He prayed, the fashion, the appearance of His countenance, of His very
person was altered. And His raiment His raiment,
white and glistering, he was radiating light. Light was radiating
from within him. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elias. Moses and Elijah. They talked with him. I tell
you, this is encouraging to me for two or three reasons that
Moses and Elijah were talking with him. Because it tells me,
number one, it tells me that though God's people leave this
world, they still live. They still live. Now, I know
Elijah didn't die. But I tell you, Moses did. Because
God took his life just like God takes every life. God took Moses
up on a mountain and said, see that land over yonder? You're
not going in. Joshua is going to lead my people
in. And God took his life and God buried him. But you know
what? Moses, though he died, he lives
forever in Christ Jesus. And so does Elijah. They live
forever. God's people still live. When
a child of God dies, it's absent from this body, immediately present
with the Lord. There's no loss of consciousness. We're with Him. With Him forever.
I'll tell you something else. And this is encouraging to me.
They still live personally. That is, they keep their identity. We keep our identity. Guess who
Moses is after he died? He's still Moses. And Elijah,
after he left this world, he's still Elijah. We retain our identity. You'll
still be you when we get to heaven. You'll still be you. I'll still
be me. Oh, we won't have any of the
effects of this thing called sin. We won't have that anymore. But you'll still be Alan, Gayle
will still be Gayle, just go around the building. Call all
of you by name that I believe that have a good hope through
grace. You'll still be you. Somebody said, you think we'll
know one another in heaven? And Spurgeon answered that question. He said, you think we'll be more
dumb in heaven than we are here? We know one another right now.
Shall we be more ignorant in heaven? No, we will know each
other in heaven. Not on the physical level like
we did, and certainly not the physical relationship like we
had on this earth. Husbands and wives and fathers
and mothers and children, that sort of thing. But we'll know
one another as the people of God. You're my brother, you'll
always be my brother, and when you get to heaven, if I get there
first or you get there first, when the next one gets there,
say, good to see you, brother. Good to see you. Because we're
family. We're family. We're born of the
same seed. We have the same Father. And I'll tell you something else
that encourages me. These men, they're talking about the redemption that our Lord
is going to accomplish in Jerusalem. You know what the saints of God,
you know what they're still talking about in heaven? They're still
talking about the blood. This is ever the song of the
redeemed. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
who shed His blood for us, salvation unto God and unto the Lamb. Look
at verse 31. They appeared in glory and spake
of His decease, of His exodus. That word decease is exodus.
Of His leaving this world, of His death in other words. Which
He should accomplish at Jerusalem. Which He should fulfill at Jerusalem. Listen, when our Lord died, He
accomplished something. He fulfilled something. You know
what fulfilled means? You can't add anything to it
because it's filled to the full. And when our Lord Jesus died,
He fulfilled, He filled to the full redemption and salvation. You can't add anything to it,
and you can't take anything away from it either. And if you seek
to do either one of those, you insult Him. Don't you try to
add even your faith to what He did. Don't you even add your
repentance to what he did. I know those are gospel commands,
but those things don't put away your sin. No, sir. No, without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. But look at verse 32. But Peter and those that were
with him, John and James, They were heavy with sleep. They fell
asleep. He prayed so long, they fell
asleep. Have you ever prayed so long
you fell asleep? I have. I'll tell you a funny
story on me. I had read, I'd done some reading
about Jonathan Edwards. how he got up every morning and
prayed four hours. And I thought, that's a good
thing to do. I'll do that. And so I set the
alarm clock, and I got up at like four o'clock. My study was
down in the basement, and it was like a guest bedroom, too,
for preachers or whoever came to stay with us. And so at four
o'clock, I got up, splashed some water on my face, I got down
there, and I got down on my knees and my hands on the bed. And about 7.30, Nancy came and
woke me up. And she said, wake up. I hurt
so bad. Have you ever fell asleep like
that? See, that's the way we are. The
Spirit's will in flesh is weak. And then I decided that probably
Jonathan Edwards didn't stay up till 11 or 11.30 at night.
Like I did. I'm not saying it's wrong to
pray that long, but I had to have a different schedule. So
don't try to copy somebody else. That's a lesson I took away from
that. That's okay for Jonathan Edwards,
but for Jim Byrd, that just don't work. But these men, our Lord,
pouring out his heart to the Father and then talking to Moses
and Elijah and they fell asleep. Isn't it sad that we are, when
it comes to spiritual things, we get spiritually sleepy. We are very much awake, very
much awake to the things of the world. We are very much awake
to these things out here. But this flesh is so opposed
to worship, so opposed to the things of God, fights against it. They fell asleep, but when they
were awake, the Lord woke them up. He woke them up! And He woke them up so that they
would see His glory. And that's what's got to happen
in the spiritual realm when people are lost in sin, dead in trespasses
in sin. The Lord's got to wake us up
from the sleep of death. And if He does, if He's pleased
to do that, here's what's going to happen. People are going to
see the glory of Christ. That's what we're going to see.
And even as the people of God. I tell you, we can get a little
lethargic, can't we? Well, you know that's the truth.
We can get spiritually sleepy. The Lord has to wake us up. He
wakes us up to see the beauties and the majesty and the glories
of Jesus Christ and His work of redemption. And then, what
is it? Fanny Crosby wrote that song,
said, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim
in the light of His glory and grace. Oh God, show us Christ. They saw His glory. And watch
this at the last part of verse 32. They saw His glory and the
two men that stood with Him didn't see their glory. But they saw
His glory. And it came to pass as they departed from Him, Peter said unto Jesus,
Master, it's good for us to be here. Let's make three tabernacles. One for Thee, one for Moses,
one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. At least he didn't say
let's make six. Three for y'all and three for
us. He didn't say that. But he put Moses and Elijah up
on the same level with Christ. Listen, Moses and Elijah represent
the law and the prophets. Thank God for the law and the
prophets. Thank God for the Moses of the world. Thank God for the
Elijahs that he sent. Thank God for preachers of the
truth. But don't ever, ever put a preacher up on the same level
as the Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ. We're just a bunch of sinners
trying to tell other sinners the way. That's all we are. I'm not any better than you,
probably worse than you in some ways. I'm just up here telling
one... I'm one sinner telling other
sinners about the Savior. I'm one beggar telling other
beggars where a free meal can be found. That's what I'm doing.
bragging on him. Don't you put us in a position
that we don't have any right to occupy. That's a very dangerous
thing for the man. Because if you elevate a preacher,
and we're thankful for preachers, and we esteem preachers highly
for the gospel's sake, and I don't take anything away from that.
But if you elevate a preacher to a position that only Christ
Jesus has the right to occupy, you put that preacher in a dangerous
position because God's going to have to show you he's only
a man. And I don't care who it is who's
ever preached the gospel. It's still so of that man. Man
at his best state is altogether vanity. I don't care who it is.
I have great respect for the two men who preceded me pastoring
this church, but they're sinners saved by grace. That's all they
are. Don't you elevate a man to a position he has no right
to occupy because the Lord is going to have to show you. Now
wait a minute. Wait just a minute. He's a sinful man. Oh, that we
just exalt Christ Jesus. Just exalt Him. Well, he said that. And the last
statement, verse 33 says, not knowing what he said. I tell
you, we say a lot of stuff we don't know what we're talking
about. We just don't know what we're talking about. While he thus spake, there came
a cloud and overshadowed them. They feared as they entered into
the cloud. There came a voice out of the
cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. And when the voice
was gone, the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone. And they
kept it close and told no man in those days any of those things
that they had seen. Do you remember what Brother
Joe read over here? Go back to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17. I'll give you this and I'll quit.
Look at Matthew 17. Look at verse 5. This is after Peter said, it's
good to be here. He's built three tabernacles.
Matthew 17, 5. 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'm well
pleased. Hear ye Him. God's only pleased
with His Son. And He's only pleased with you
in His Son. That's the only way He can be
pleased with anybody. That's the truth. But now watch this. Verse 6. And when the disciples,
they heard the voice of God, they fell on their face. They
were absolutely terrified. And Jesus came and touched them. Isn't that sweet? That is so
sweet. Jesus came and He touched them. He said, arise. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Because you
see that voice that they heard, the voice of God is the voice
of God the Father. The voice of the Father who adopted
them into His family. The voice of the Father who had
sent His only begotten Son to be their Savior. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, He put His hand on them. And doesn't He do this
for us so many times? Not literally, but you know by
the power of His Spirit there are many times when He comes
to you through His Word, through the preaching. And as it were,
He puts His hand on you. And He says, now, don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid. There's no need to be afraid
of anything or anybody because Christ Jesus rules over all.
Don't be afraid. Well, let's sing a closing