with me, if you will, to Matthew
17. Let me apologize for the heat. He's on his way out here
to fix it. Tell you what the problem is,
there's a little switch up there on a pan that's supposed to catch
water when the dehumidifier's running. That thing gets down,
and it's supposed to pick back up. Well, it falls down, and
it kicks the heat off. And he's going to come out here,
and they're going to fix it, and they're going to put a new
switch in. For $2, I ain't going to put up with this. But James is back there waiting
on him, so they'll get in here and get this fixed. And I apologize
for it. And let me mention this. December
the 18th, that's two weeks from today, we'll have a dinner here
at the church on December the 18th. And from what I understand,
all we're going to have is soup and sandwiches. They're not going
to have a big, big meal. So you folks that make good chili
and good potato soup, bring it on, because I love both of them. And so that's what we're going
to do, just soup and sandwiches. No great big meal, and that way
we won't have to have a lot of work and a lot of cleanup. And
look forward to it. Matthew 17, I'm going to read
the first nine verses. After six days, Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into an
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 Elias talking with them. Then answered Peter,
and said, Jesus Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt,
let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses and
one for Elias. 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, and 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. And as they came down from the
mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no
man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. With me
back here in Matthew 17. Matthew 17. This is where our
Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured. Transfigured. And this incident
in our master's life really starts back in Matthew 16 in verse 21
and verse 28. From that time Jesus, from that
time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he
must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and
chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again
the third day. That's where it starts. And then
look what it says down in verse 28. Verily I say unto you, there
be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they
see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. And what happens
here in this transfiguration is that some of those that were
standing there saw the glory of Christ and what it would be
like when He comes in His glory. And what it'll be like when He
comes and we see His glory and His fullness. And so then it
says, After six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brothers,
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. Before our Lord Jesus passes
under the awful, awful darkness of the cross, he's transfigured
before five people, three disciples, three apostles, and two men that
as far as anybody knew, they'd passed on generations and thousands
of years before. But here he is and they're standing
there and they caught a glimpse of our Lord's glory in his kingdom,
what he'd be like in his kingdom. And men, men have always wanted
to see things. see things. They want to see
the things they say of God. Men want to see miracles. They
want to see evidence of being saved. I heard a fella this morning
talking about he got saved when he was 13. Some fella made him,
you know, what are you going to do with Jesus? You're going
to accept him or reject him. If you reject him, you go to
hell. And he said, well, I had to make a decision that day.
And he decided that day when he was 13 years old, he's going
to accept Jesus. And he did. Now he's trying to get everybody
else to do the same. And he talked about how he got
saved. How it was when he got saved. Well, people want evidence
of being saved. Evidence of having the Holy Spirit.
How do you have the Holy Spirit? Well, you got to speak in tongues.
People want to see healings. They want to see what they can
do for God. But this one thing I know. I know this without a
shadow of a doubt. From the Scriptures. And I know
it from my experience. that when men truly, truly see
the Lord, the one thing they desire, the one thing they desire
to see the Lord from then on is to see His glory. If they
ever see the Lord, the only thing they'll want to see from then
on is His glory and see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know
that. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. I want to see your glory. He
had seen all the great signs and wonders in Egypt. He went
through the Red Sea on dry land as it was parted. And yet he
got on the other side of the sea and he says, Lord, oh God,
I want to see your glory. What have you seen all these
times? He said, I want to see your glory. Paul said when he
was caught up into the third heavens, he saw things that he
couldn't even describe because it was so gloomy. Isaiah said,
when I saw the Lord, that's when I saw his glory. And when I saw
his glory, everybody that's ever saw it has said, just like Peter,
James, and John, they got down on their faces. They got down
on their faces. And from then on, they want to
see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we get a glimpse,
I know this, that when we get a glimpse of the Lord and the
glory of Christ our Lord, everything else fades into insignificance. Paul said, I was really somebody. I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. I was a Jew of all the Jews. I was somebody. I had a righteousness. Oh my goodness, everybody said
that fella, if anybody's going to heaven, that's Saul of Tarsus
is going. But when he saw the glory of
Christ on the Damascus roads, you know what he said? Lord, And what did he see? He saw just
what these fellows did, a light above the brightness of the sun. And I tell you, beloved, and
oh, so let's look here, go through these nine verses and see what
it's like to see the glory of our Lord, to see His glory. You know, the first thing to
be alone with the Lord is a glorious, glorious privilege. Look what
it said there in verse One, after six days, six days after he had
told them about his having to go to Jerusalem and suffer and
die and be killed and be raised again. And before I taste death
or anybody here tastes death, they're going to see the Son
of Man coming in His glory. And He saw in His glory here.
And He taketh Peter and Johns and bringeth them up into a high
mountain apart and was transfigured before them, and his face did
shine as the sun, his raiment white as light. And I want you
to notice there, first thing, that He taketh them. He taketh
them up into a high mountain. Jesus taketh Peter, James, and
John. And if you ever get along with
the Lord Jesus Christ, He'll have to take you. He'll have
to take you won't go on, you'll have to take it. And he was transfigured
before them. And they went with him over in
Luke 9, 28, it says in the same story here that they went up
on the mountain to pray. And O Beloved, listen, to be
alone with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Master, and they were
as being alone with the Lord Jesus and their Master, and they
were eyewitnesses of this majesty that happened on this mountain
as they beheld His glory. And I tell you, look what it
says over here in II Peter chapter Chapter 1, this is where Peter
said, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. And this is what
they saw here, this majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they
were alone with their master and were eyewitnesses of his
master. This was before his face was more marred than any man's. Here is that glory hidden in
him that can't be seen without being alone with him. Here's
the only place that this glory is hidden until He takes you
under a mountain with Himself, until He takes you to be alone
with Himself. And when He does that, you can't
see this glory unless you're alone with Him. And look what
He said here in I Peter chapter 1 and verse 16, For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables, stories, and things of men, when we made known
unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's what he saw here. He said, when was he talking
about this? But were eyewitnesses of his
majesty, the coming and power of our Lord. For he received
from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a
voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased and this voice which came from heaven
we heard when we were with him in the holy mount he said there
he saw his kingdom and his glory he said eyewitnesses of his majesty
when it happened there and it was when they were along with
him in prayer that they beheld this glorious manifestation of
our lord Jesus Christ and he took them to see his glory. And
one of these days he's gonna take us and sometimes he takes
us alone and allows us to enter into his glory. Every once in
a while, that's what we love to come to services for. Every
once in a while, God takes us from this world into another
world just for just a little while at a time and all to behold
his glory, to have the presence and power of Christ. What a great
glorious blessing it is. And he has to take us to do this.
And I'll tell you something else, not only is it glorious to be
alone with the Lord Jesus Christ, what a privilege. You know how
many times the Lord Jesus was alone with one person? He was
alone with the woman at the well. He was alone with the woman taking
in adultery. And I tell you what, to be alone
with the Lord Jesus Christ, and here's something I also know,
that I don't care how many people's in a meeting, how many people's
gathered around, when the Lord Jesus comes to you, it's just
going to be you and Him alone. just going to be you and even
when you come to worship in a morning like this or in the evening on
Wednesday night wherever you go to be in meeting and it's
the gospel in you the gospel comes to you and you alone it
only has an effect on you and you alone regardless of who's
sitting beside you that's a wondrous manifestation of the glory of
Christ and you don't always get the same thing out of every service Oh my, look what else it says
here. The Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely more glorious than
man seemed to be. Seemed to be, look what it says
there. And he was, verse two, he is
transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun
and his raiment white as light. Oh, he's infinitely more glorious
than man seemed to be. See, there's a double glory here.
There's a double glory here. There's the glory that's shown
out from heaven from the Father upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that was shown out of Himself as the express image of His Father's
person. He shined like the sun in His
face. That's the glory that's within
Himself. That's the glory that belongs
to Him. That's the glory that men cannot
see unless God Himself gives you a sight of Christ. That was
in Him naturally. That was in Him naturally. His
glory was veiled in the flesh and He was allowed that those
fellows to go up there and see that face shine as He was the
brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person.
And then when His raven become white, that was God manifesting
how glorious and how righteous and how accepted and how blessed
the Lord Jesus Christ is in the Father's presence. He's white
as light in the presence of God. And He's to us when God allows
us to see it the same way. Oh, bless His holy name. I tell
you, He's the brightness of God's glory. And here's the difference. Here's the difference. The natural
eyes see no beauty about him that they should desire him.
The natural eye sees no beauty about him. But whether man ever
sees it or not, he's all glorious within, all the same. At that
what it says, I think it's in Psalm 45, you can check on it
later. But I think it says there that
my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. What are you going to
write about? I'm going to write about the King. And I'm going
to write about how He's all glorious within. And that's what He said
here. A man may not seize beauty, but
that still does not change the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's still all glorious within
the same. and the hidden glory of our Lord
and the hidden glory of all believers will both in one day be manifested. You know that? The glory of our
Lord and the glory of all of us as believers will one day
be manifested. You say, you mean we got glory?
Yes, we do. Yes, we do. He talked about the
glory which shall be revealed in us. Look over here in 2 Corinthians
3.18. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. You know, our Lord, When he was
glorious, he said, there's going to be some standing here that
ain't going to see death until they see the Lord in his glory.
And I tell you what, the hidden glory of our Lord and the hidden
glory of all believers will both in one day be manifested. You
say, I ain't got no glory. If you're in Christ, if you're
in Christ, God's give you glory. Look what it says here. Now this
is talking in verse 18, but we all with open face. behold him
as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. Moses came down off the
mountain. He had the veil over his face
because he had been in the presence of God and the glory of God shone
in his face. And so he shone so bright that
they had to cover his face until that glory faded away. And that's
the way the law does it, fades away. And so now we don't have
a veil over our face. We don't have a veil over our
eyes. we don't have a veil over that and he says and we beholden
in a glass just like looking in a mirror and the mirror is
the lord is this blessed word of god but we all with open face
beholding as in a glass is in a mirror the glory of the lord
and in his blessed word and are changed as as we behold Him are
changed in the same image from the glory. What glory? The glory
He made us new creatures in Christ. The glory of making us believers.
The glory of giving us faith. The glory of choosing us and
electing us and causing us to believe in Christ. All the glory
that He gave us and we'll be changed from glory to glory to
be in the same glory that Christ has and how is it gonna happen? By the Spirit of the Lord. That's
how we were given new hearts, given new spirits, made to be
in the same image of Christ. And one of these days, as we
behold His glory in the Gospel, in His Word, one of these days
He's going to take us and he go change us and make us just
like himself behold what manner of love the father has bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of god and it doth not
yet appear what we shall be but we do know this that when he
appears we shall see him as he is and you know what it says
we shall be just like him oh and oh i think they got the heat
on don't they Did it come on? And let me tell you, you know,
our Lord Jesus Christ, He's done the work in our hearts. He's
transformed our hearts. And someday He's going to transform
these bodies. Going to transform these bodies.
I tell you what, I don't know about you, but that'll be fine
with me. And I tell you, the death of
our Lord Jesus Christ is the most important subject under
heaven. Now, I want you to look, here's
the other part of it over here in Luke chapter 9. Here's what
happened on this same thing in Luke chapter 9, verse 30 and
31. Where our Lord Jesus Christ was on the mountain, counting
salt and raiment, white and glistening. And it says, Behold, there talked
with him two men, which were Moses and Elijah. And it says
that over there. Now watch this. Who appeared
in glory, they appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, or
his death, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Now this happened
the same day on the mount when Moses and Elijah came and they
came to talk to our Lord Jesus Christ about his death and what
that death would accomplish. And that's what it should accomplish.
The most important subject under heaven is the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the most important subject
that's ever been under heaven at all. His death HIS BLESSED
DEATH WAS APPOINTED BY HIS FATHER. GOD SENT HIM INTO THIS WORLD
NOT ONLY TO LIVE, AND LIVE AS A REPRESENTATIVE, BUT TO DIE
AS A SUBSTITUTE, AS TO DIE AS THE LAMB SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION
OF THE WORLD. to take our place before the
holy and infinitely righteous Father, to render satisfaction
to God Himself and His justice, to please His Father, to always
do the work that the Fathers gave Him. It says, you know,
it said He was wounded for our transgression. When they speak
of His decease, talking about what His death would accomplish,
they was talking about what would happen in His death, what His
death would accomplish. And when I said it pleased the
Father, it pleased the Father to bruise Him. It pleased the
Father to make His soul an offering for sin. It pleased His Father
to lay our sins upon Him. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him for our iniquities. It pleased the Father to put
His Son to open shame and to set Him forth as a mockery and
a scourging and a derision before the hands of wicked, sinful men
like ourselves. An angel stood in wonder at this
awful scene as the Lord of Glory was slain. So this is the most
important subject under heaven. God Himself said, this is my
Son. This is my blessed Son, my Son,
whom I'm well pleased. Oh, listen, the death of Christ
and what His death accomplished, there's not another message,
not another message that God ever called a man preach than
the death of Christ, and that's why they come here to talk to
our Lord Jesus Christ, and it was the prophets and it was the
law that came. And not only is it the most important
subject under heaven, but it's the most important subject in
earth. The most important subject in
earth. Between the eternities, this is the greatest event in
all history, in all eternity, when our Lord Jesus Christ died
and was buried and rose again. No doubt, that's, that's, what,
what has more effect upon men more than anything else other
than the death of Christ? Do you know that time is measured
before Christ came and after Christ came? They measure time
by the cause of that death of our Lord Jesus Christ on that
cross. It's called before Christ and after Christ. before Christ,
and then, O dominion, the year of our Lord, after He was risen
from the dead. And I tell you what, what affects
men more than anything else other than the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ and His death. You know what men glory in now
who once gloried in their sin and in their shame? Paul says
we glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are called
not to baptize men, but to preach the gospel. This death of our
Lord Jesus Christ that they talked about, it put sin away. It put sin away. I was thinking
of this the other day. You know, God remembers no sin
that we ever committed. Never remembers any sin we ever
committed. He don't remember any of them.
But I remember them. I remember some of them. And
they bother me. It shouldn't, but it does. But
this death of our Lord Jesus Christ, it puts sin away. It
satisfies our conscience. It takes our guilt away and satisfies
our conscience. Does your conscience want anything
other than the Lord Jesus Christ? Does your conscience want anything
else other than the blood of Christ? Does your conscience
cry for anything else than Christ himself? Does it cry that I must
do more? Does it cry I must pray more?
Does it cry I must be devoted more? Does it cry I must be consecrated
more? What does your conscience cry
out? It don't cry for anything. You
know why? Because the death of Christ satisfies the conscience.
And the death of Christ, it becomes our glory. That's what we glory
in, in our Lord Jesus Christ. He becomes our message. He becomes
our message. Y'all listen, if we got anything
to say to anybody, it's about our Lord Jesus Christ. It's about
Him and what He accomplished and what His death did accomplish.
And He's our motive for what we do. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is. He's our motive. Excuse me, man. I'm going to turn this down a
little bit. It's hot. I can't do that. I want y'all...
You set to get real cold and then you get heat, you know.
Folks gonna start giving the tests and I don't want that to
happen to me, or you either. But that's what happens. I don't
know how in the world they'd have several thousand people
in one service like Mr. Spurgeon did in some of these
big mega churches. But I tell you what, this subject
of the death of Christ, most important under heaven, most
important under heaven, most important in earth. When we go
out to preach, when we go out to witness, When we tell anybody
anything, what are we going to tell them? We're going to tell
them what a good work we've done for the Lord. We're going to
tell them how faithful we've been. We're going to tell them how
good we've been. We're going to tell them how
righteous we've been, how faithful we've been, or we're going to
tell them how faithful he's been, how good he's been, how righteous
he is, how righteous he is. You know, when our Lord Jesus
Christ's death, and they came to speak of His death, when our
Lord died on the cross, when He was there, it caused the sun
to cease to shine. The sun would not look on His
blessed death. The sun said, His face shone
as the sun, but the sun said, I won't shine, I will not look.
on the death of this blessed, holy, glorious man. And I tell
you what, we know what else happened in his death. The earth did quake. Rocks began to split in two.
The dead rose up and their spirits appeared unto men in town. And
it caused a dying thief to rejoice when our Lord said today, today
you'll be with me in paradise. He saw the, listen, he saw the
glory of Christ, and this is the thing, they saw it there
on that mountain, but that thief saw beside him, that cross in
the middle, saw beside him a naked man, beaten and bloody and bruised,
his beard plucked out, a crown of thorns on his head, and blood
flowing down his face. And he saw him nailed hand to
foot on a cross. And he saw this man in all of
his gore, and he said, Lord, Lord, he wasn't on this map,
but he saw the glory of Christ. He said, Lord, Remember me, this
old sorry thief, this old sorry sinner, this man who's a malfactor,
this man who has no hope, no right to ask you for anything,
but oh Lord, remember me. What? Just like they said here,
when you come into your kingdom, and oh listen, that's what happened
at the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. oh my oh and I tell you
what this this is this has this this is the most important subject
in hell you know why because hell's power has been broken
he has by his death by our Lord Jesus Christ Christ's death he
vanquished he beat he defeated the souls foes that you and I
have. He went into the grave and he
took death and just like a big wasp or a big bee he took the
sting out of it and he says now go on there and let death come
and it will not sting the conscience, it will not sting the soul, it
will not sting your conscience when you face God. When you go
to find death it will not sting like it will an unconverted man.
And oh, I tell you what, he took the sting out of it. He vanquished,
he conquered death, hell, and the scripture said in Revelations
1.18, you know what it says there? He has on his girdle the keys
of death and hell. He's got the keys of death and
hell in his hand. And he opens with those keys
into the kingdom of God. He opens and you get in because
he's got the key. And when he turns that key off
and locks that thing back up, there's no hope for anybody.
And that's coming soon. And he has the keys of hell.
People say, well, these preachers say, well, you send yourself
to hell. No, no, no, no, no. That's not right. You ain't got
power to send yourself nowhere. You can't get from here to town
if God don't get you there. He could cause your car to blow
up. He could cause you to have a wreck. He could do a thousand
things to keep you from getting from here to cross. But I will
tell you this, that if you ever go to hell, it'll be Christ that's
got the keys. And you'll go there justly, and
you'll go there, and I don't want nobody to go. Please, don't
misunderstand me. I have no pleasure. No, I do
not enjoy talking about hell. I do not enjoy people having
the idea of somebody going there. I don't want you to go. I don't
want you to go. Christ himself died to keep men
from that awful place. He shed his blood so men wouldn't
have to go. But if a man lives his life and
he does not ever consider God, consider Christ, or hears the
gospel and believe the gospel, just as sure as Christ on his
throne, he will take them keys and he'll unlock hell and he
himself will be responsible for putting you there. If he's got
the keys of life, he's got the keys of death, he's got the keys
of heaven, he got the keys of hell, he has the door, he has
the door, he opens and shuts, and when he opens, no man can
shut it, but when he shuts it, ain't nobody can open it. Oh, listen, I got the door itself. He's the door into the sheepfold. And here they are. Here we go
back over here in Matthew 17. Here they are in verse three. And behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elijah and Elias is Elijah talking with him. Here they are. What's Moses? He represents the law. He represents
the law. And Elijah, he represents the
prophets. And what are they talking about?
About his death and what it should have accomplished. And the scripture
says that they appeared in glory. Whatever, here's the thing, they
appeared in glory. And whatever body they appeared
in, that's the kind of body we're going to appear in when we stand
in the presence of Christ. When these fellows stood in the
presence of Christ, raised from the dead, they appeared in the
same glory, and the glory that we're going to have when we have
those new bodies. And the only, and here's the
thing, the only glory they have, the only glory that Moses, the
law, and the prophets have, the only glory they have is as they
talk of Christ, of His death and His glory. And that's all
that the scriptures have said. Moses, our Lord Jesus Christ
said, wrote of me. And the prophets, what do they
do? They speak of me. To him, all the prophets give
witness. The only glory they have is they
speak of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here our Lord is appearing
in his glory. And he'll get to glory by the
way of his death and what it accomplished. He says, Father,
I've glorified you on the earth. Now glorify thou me with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. And our Lord's
decease, our Lord's death would actually accomplish something.
And I tell you what, wouldn't it be awful, wouldn't it be awful,
that pitiful, pitiful, awful, it'd be a horrible thing if God
left up his death and what he would accomplish up to men and
how they reacted to it. Did His death actually accomplish
something? Or was it just a valiant effort for our Lord Jesus Christ
and God His Father to save some people, if He'll let it? Did
our Lord's death actually accomplish anything at all? Yes, it did. It accomplished an atonement.
on the day of atonement the scripture says that they laid their hands
on the head of that goat and one goat was offered and offered
as a sacrifice and the other goat they'd lay their hands on
it a fit man would take it off into the wilderness and on that
day of atonement no man did any work the only person who did
anything was the priest and beloved our lord jesus christ he's both
our goat that was offered, our lamb that was offered, and our
fit man who took the sins away and came back by himself. He
had an atonement that actually nobody done had anything to do
with it but himself. He by himself purged our sins
and sat down at the right hand of God. And His redemption, His
blood, redemption means to pay the price for something, to actually
get what you redeemed. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
redeemed a people, and He paid the price for a people. His blood
was shed for His elect and His elect only. People say, well,
that's not the way you're supposed to preach. You're supposed to
preach that you know His death, you know if you'll believe on
His death. Listen, His death, I'm telling you, His death accomplished
just exactly what God meant it to accomplish, and that was that
His blood was shed for His sheep and His sheep alone. His death
was for His people and His people alone. And you say, well, what
are you going to do about it? Why do you say that, preacher?
Because I want you to understand that you and me are in the hands
of Christ and He can do with us what He pleases. If He died
for us and if He died for me, there ain't nothing in hell that
can keep me from trusting Christ and going to glory. But if He
didn't die for me, then I tell you what, there's nothing I can
do that'll ever make His blood effectual for me. Now that's
the way it is. You say, that's awful. No, we're
in the hands of Christ. We're in the hands of a sovereign
Christ. It was his blood that put away
sin. It was his death that satisfied
God. It was his work that accomplished
salvation. And so what are we going to do?
I tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to do like I've
been doing for years and years. I get up and look to Christ all
day, every day. That's what I'm going to do.
And if you care about people you love that's lost, you need
to pray that way. Lord, they're in your hands. You can save them or damn them.
I heard this fellow told me, I heard this again just a couple
of weeks ago. A man told me that he knew a man that said that
he prayed when he got married. He prayed and he said, Lord,
Lord, don't let us have any children unless they're your elect. I don't want no children unless
they're your next. I wish I'd have knew that. I
wish I'd have been converted when I do that. But I didn't
know that. But that wouldn't change anything. That wouldn't
have changed a thing. And oh, there's nothing, nothing
in this world. And his death is an accomplishment. It wasn't an effort. It wasn't
an effort. It wasn't an effort to get you
on the good side of God. It wasn't an effort to try to
talk you into something. It wasn't an effort to hope you'd
start loving God. It wasn't an effort to hope you'd
start trusting God. It actually brought salvation. And I tell you, the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of our Lord can be but little
appreciated in our present state. Look what it says here in verse
four through six. oh little little so so little
appreciated in our present state look what it says and then answered
peter when they saw moses and elijah talking when this answered
peter said unto jesus lord it's good for us to be here oh it
was it really was good for them to be there if thou wilt and
that's what he says now said we won't do it unless you will
to do it let us make here three tabernacles one for you one for
moses one for elijah Oh, my. Then look what happened. While
he is yet speaking, while he yet spake, while he was talking,
a bright cloud, the shogunate glory of God, overshadowed them.
And behold, a voice out of the cloud said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Not Moses, not Elijah. And look what it says. And when
the disciples heard it, they fell on their face and they were
sore for it. Ah, they didn't appreciate what
happened. They didn't appreciate the glory of the Lord. They saw
three men there in glory, but they didn't see the sunshine
in the face of Moses and Elijah like they did in Christ. That
cloud and that voice terrified them and it should. Be still
and know that I'm God. Men ought to be afraid in the
presence of God. This idea of running the aisles
and whooping and shouting and hollering because God's in the
building. No, no. These fellas, when they
saw the glory and heard the voice of God, they fell on their faces. They was frightened. They was
frightened. And all Moses, he had to be hid
in the cleft of the rock just to see the back parts of God's
glory. Paul was caught up in the paradise,
heard and saw what was unspeakable. He didn't come back and say,
you know, I saw this great light when he come back from there.
No, no. He said, I heard things that's unlawful, unspeakable.
And the high priest never came out from behind the veil to try
explain the Shekinah glory. And the only way we can behold
the glory of God is in our Lord Jesus Christ. And how little
of it, how little of it do we see and know? And let me hurry
up and get on with it here. Let me tell you this, the Lord
Jesus only is sufficient to comfort the troubled heart. And look
what is said in verse 7. And they fell on their face,
they were so afraid. They went up, went from wanting
to make three tabernacles, talking. And then they got on their faces,
so afraid. And Jesus came and touched them. Touched them. There's three men
there. Did he touch them individually or did he take both hands and
lay on them? I don't know. But he touched
them. But he touched them. And said, arise and be not afraid. I ought to
be touched by the Lord and for Him to speak to you. And that's
what happened there. Oh my, he touched him and said,
don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. No reason for
you to be afraid. You just heard the voice of God.
You've seen the glory of God. You've seen the glory of Christ.
No reason for you to be afraid. And then look what it says in
verse eight. And when they had lifted up their eyes, I tell
you, they were still down, you know, and they lifted up their
eyes and they're looking around. Moses ain't there anymore. Elijah
ain't there anymore. Christ is back in His bodily
form, and the glory has left Him, and it's veiled again in
His flesh. And they lifted up their eyes
and was looking around. There was nobody left but the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when you see Him and the
Moses and the Lord and the prophets and everything fade into nothing
when you see, they lifted up their eyes and saw only the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's what I would say to
you now. Those of you who don't know Him, look and live. Look
and live. Huh? Look and live. Oh, lift
up your eyes now. And oh, to be touched by the
Master, to hear His voice. His is the voice of grace, He
never chided Peter for wanting to be three tabernacles. His
voice of grace is the voice of compassion, the voice of pity,
the voice of power. And look what it says there in
verse eight. And they lifted up their eyes
and saw no man, no man. Huh? Now they saw the Lord Jesus
Christ, but they saw no man. They saw no man. Moses is a man. Elijah is a man. And they saw
Jesus only. He's the God-man. He was the
Savior. The only one who could do anything
for their fears were our fears. For our failures, our faults,
and our flailings about. He's the only one that can do
anything for us. And I tell you what, when the
master touches you and his word is enough, his words enough. And let me hurry on him. I tell
you, I took too long. I know I have. Look down here
in verse nine, the resurrection of the gospel, the resurrection
of our Lord is the foundation of the gospel. And our Lord said
in verse nine, and as they came down from the mountain, Jesus
charged them saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son
of Man be risen again from the dead. There is no gospel until
Christ. There is no gospel just in His
death. He got to be buried. He got to rise again. And it's
got to be according to the scripture. There's no gospel if there's
no resurrection. If Christ be not risen, then
we're all dead in our sins. We're not yet have no faith.
If Christ be not risen and then beloved, we're of all men most
deceived and most miserable. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and sits now at the right hand of God. And now in
the Lord Jesus Christ, he is exalted. He has ascended. He's
the Prince and he's the Savior. Oh, there is no hope for any
man till our Lord was risen from the dead. And the last point
is this. Look in verse five. Oh, and don't
tell nobody about this until I'll be risen again from the
dead. And oh, without Christ being risen from the dead, we
have no gospel. We have no gospel. In verse five,
look what it says. 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 it. Now I want you to
understand this. This word of God that he gives
here is a command. He don't say, well, listen. He
didn't ask him and said, well, do you wanna believe on my beloved
son? This is my beloved son. Do you
wanna listen to him? Okay, if you don't, that's all
right. I'd like for you to listen to him. I hope you'd listen to
him. That's not what he said. He said, hear him. That's a command,
hear him, hear him. He didn't say you wanna hear
him, hear him. This is my beloved son, hear him. God gave him a
name that's above every name, that at his name, every knee
is gonna bow, Every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ
is the Lord to the glory of God. And I tell you, and O. Scott
said this, I couldn't tell you how many times he said this,
that God will not be approached except through His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, nor will He approach any man except through His Son. He says, no man cometh unto the
Father but by Him. And I tell you what, God will
not speak to anybody nor be spoken by anybody apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hear Him. That's what He said
because He said He's my beloved Son. My beloved Son. Hear Him
because God's only pleased in Him. So He said hear Him. Hear
His Word. He's God's prophet. He was the
Word made flesh. Hear His works. Hear his works. He said, the works that I do,
they testify me. And hear his blood. His blood
speaketh better things than that of Abel. His blood speaks of
justice satisfied, sin put away, consciences cleansed, God honored
and glorified. Hear him. Hear him. Our Father,
in the precious, holy, glorious name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
thank you for allowing us this blessed, blessed time to meet,
to preach the gospel one more time, to magnify our Lord Jesus
Christ. Again, we're reminded who is
sufficient for these things, who is sufficient for them. Lord,
we're just clay pots, but Lord, we want the treasure to be seen,
want the treasure to be beheld. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
the greatest treasure. Oh, in Him are hid all the riches
of God's wisdom and knowledge. In Him are all the riches of
His grace. In Him is all the riches of His
glory. In Him we're made rich and wealthy
only in Him. Thank you for allowing us to
meet here today. Thank you for your gospel. Thank
you for your blessed Son. Thank you for the Holy Spirit.
And meet every need of every heart. We ask in Christ's name. Amen.