Matthew chapter 17. Verse one. Matthew 17 1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. It 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 him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and 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, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face and they 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.

Now, let me mention something that is not in my notes this morning that I just saw again, as we've seen before in the scriptures. It says in the last word in verse one, apart, apart. Our Lord is pleased to take his people, notice the word, he took them, he took them there. He took them apart, apart from this world, apart from their own concerns and vain endeavors or thoughts. And that's where we find ourselves this morning. The Lord brings us often apart. So precious, it's so important to come apart with Him.

Just going up and moving on up to a mountaintop just because you don't like people, that's not any good. Because you took you with you, you see. That's the problem. You're the problem. But if you can go apart with Christ, and I believe that's what worship is.

He showed himself to them in a magnificent way, apart. Now when our Lord walked this earth, men could not see Him for who He was. He didn't walk around with a glow around His head, or the way He's pictured sometimes by those who are foolish enough to try to depict Him in some way.

In fact, we have no reason to believe that he was even a handsome man. Likely was not. Isaiah said, he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He wasn't a magnetic personality of some kind.

Just about everybody despised him and rejected him. when he spoke, but even as even in his appearance, he was not attractive. But these three men got a glimpse of his glory on this mountain, and it changed them forever. They never got over it. And that's what I pray for us, that the Lord will reveal himself to us in such a way that we'll never get over it.

And not in a physical, not in a vision of some kind, but in our hearts from the scriptures, he reveals himself in his word. And in John 1 14, John was one of the ones that was up there. And you know what he said? He said the word was made flesh. and dwelt among us. And it's important that he called him the word, because we'll see in our text, what did God the Father say from heaven? Hear him, hear him. The emphasis is always on the word. You see that every time we meet together. It's the gospel, the word.

That's how God saves sinners. That's the power of God unto salvation. You want to see some display of God's power on this earth? He's not gonna send lightning down and strike you and reveal some great vision to you. If you wanna see God's power displayed, Paul wrote in Romans chapter one that the way God displays and exerts his power is by the preaching of the gospel. You wanna see a wretched, vile sinner changed into a son of God?

Still be a sinner, but he'll be a son of God in experience. He'll know that he is, it'll be revealed. That happens by the preaching of the gospel. So we're never to take that for granted. But he said, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Isn't that interesting, the way he described him? How would you describe it? The son of God, if you saw his face transformed and his glory, at least to some degree, shown forth from his very face. This is the way John described it.

He was full of grace. Grace, grace and truth. Peter was there too. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 1. And let's just listen to this as you kind of turn it over there. You know that's what God revealed to Moses too when Moses was shown The Lord, as much as he could be shown, the Lord said, I can't, you can't see my face or you won't live, but I'll show you what I can of my glory. And what did that involve? I will have mercy.

John saw the same thing when he saw God's Son shining forth in a display of his glory, he saw grace, grace and mercy towards sinners. God's greatest glory is revealed in his purpose of grace and mercy towards sinners by the sacrifice of himself on Calvary. Peter said in 2 Peter 1 17, for he received from God the Father honor and glory.

When there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, and this is what was said to them in our text that we just read a minute ago, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice came from heaven, which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We heard God speak, and He spoke of the glory of His Son. But our Lord didn't walk around on this earth the way that He appeared on that mountain. He didn't walk around like that all the time, with His face shining like that, and why not? He even told them, don't tell anybody about this.

He didn't do that because men love a spectacle. They'll love a spectacle. If you show people a piece of Noah's Ark, they'll start worshiping that relic. Religion loves to worship relics, statues. Why can't you find that? Because people would worship that. How do you know that, Chris? Is that just, you know, you're just reasoning?

No. When they found that serpent of brass that Moses had lifted up in the wilderness later, The Lord told him to fashion a serpent of brass and lift it up, and the Lord told us what that was about. He said that even as that serpent, that brazen serpent, was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And if I be lifted up, I'll draw sinners to myself. But they found, in the Old Testament, they found that serpent, and they started worshiping that brazen serpent. insomuch that the prophet had to say, Nahushtan, this is a piece of brass. What are you doing worshiping a piece of brass?

Are we stupid enough to do that? People worship a cloud if it blows into the form of the Virgin Mary or something. Yes, we're that stupid. So the Lord, you know, and the Lord doesn't We're not going to find the Ark of the Covenant. Everybody would worship that. But even apart from finding these ancient relics, people are still going to worship things because that's our nature. We're creatures of sense. And unless God does something for us in here, we're going to worship him with our hands. When the scripture says the Lord is not worshiped with men's hands, with what we do. with the rituals that we go through in religion.

The repeating things and the, you know, I won't go through it. You know what happens in religion. It's all outward. Did he not say to the Pharisees on the outside, you look religious and you sound religious, and with your lips you draw nigh unto me, but your heart is far from me. And that's evidenced in the physical ritualism of religion. But no gospel.

When the Lord's glory is revealed, the gospel is emphasized. That's why we sing a song or two. We're together, gather together and sing psalms and hymns as we see in the New Testament. But the purpose of worshiping and gathering in his name is to hear from him. to hear his gospel.

That's how he saves his people. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Do you want sinners to be saved or do you want sinners to see pretty stuff and holy looking rituals take place? If God's gonna save somebody, somebody's gonna have to tell the old story of the son of God who gave himself for sinners. That doesn't get old. That doesn't go out of fashion. Sinners are not saved by a spectacle.

When God spoke from heaven, listen to this now, when God Almighty spoke from heaven, have you ever experienced that? Has God ever spoken to you from heaven? As far as we know, he only did that a couple of times in the history of this world. And when he did it here, when the glory of God shone from the face of his son, and he spoke from heaven, he didn't say, this is my beloved son, look how shiny his face is.

He said, hear him! That's what we're here for this morning, to hear from the Lord Jesus Christ. to hear His words. He said, as the Father sent me, so send I you. Go and preach. Go and preach. Go and preach. That's our commission from the Savior. And what did He say to tell people? Everything that I've said to you, speak, say it to them. Say it to them. Our Lord said in John 6, 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth, that gives life.

Okay, that's salvation. We're dead in trespasses and sins by nature, we need life. And listen to what he said, it's the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. You can go around draping things and pouring things and making statues and all that till you're blue in the face, it's gonna profit nothing. What profits is what goes on right here and listen to him.

The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. If I could say it enough, I believe we see it three times, four times a week in the scriptures. The Lord has exalted his word above all of his name. And, you know, I get it. We're gonna find better things to do sometimes than to hear from God. We're just cut out that way. But every time we open this book, we hear these words, hear him. The words, they are life. Do you love your children? Do you love your family? Do you love those that are lost that God has put in your heart? There's one way they live, and that's if they hear from God through the preaching of the gospel of his son. Hear him. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

And no sinner is saved apart from faith now. By grace are you saved through faith, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. By grace are you saved. What did John see in his face? Grace. The grace of God towards sinners. You can be a vile, wretched sinner and we are by nature that God can't even look at. He's got to throw you in hell. But in Christ, there's mercy, there's grace. By grace are you saved through faith. Even the very event of our Lord's death, you think about it, what would that be to us if we didn't have the gospel?

People stood there and saw it in person. People know all of the details about it in religion. And what do they do? They make idols and worship the idols. The Lord said to the Pharisees, you search the scriptures because in the scriptures you think you have life. In other words, their knowledge convinced them, we know all this stuff and therefore we're saved.

We're God's people, we're saved. And he said, but wait a minute, the scriptures testify of me and you won't come to me that you might have life." All of the Scriptures from beginning to end, they point to a person, and that person is salvation. Not your knowledge, not your understanding, not even your faith. Faith looks to a person. The Word speaks of a person. Salvation is a person.

What would the crucifixion be to us if we didn't have the gospel, the truth of the gospel? And I'm not minimizing the importance of his death. If he doesn't die on Calvary, nobody's saved. His redeeming blood is our redemption before God. But I'm saying this, if everybody ever born could have been there and witnessed his death, it wouldn't save anybody without the gospel. Many who were there no doubt are in hell now. The ones that cursed him and spit on him, they rejected him. They saw it happen and they rejected him. But in the gospel, God reveals to us who it is that died there that day.

What was it that the thief on the Lord's right hand said that differentiated him from the thief on his left hand? The thief on his left hand cursed and railed on him. He saw the Holy Son of God dying for sinners and mocked him. And so did the one on his right hand. There's no difference by nature, but the Lord revealed himself to that thief on his right hand.

You remember what he said? Lord, it's who died there on that cross that we must preach. Not that somebody died on a cross 2,000 years ago. Everybody's saying that, but who is it? And what did he accomplish when he died? Why did he die? What happened on Calvary?

And all of those questions are answered by who it is. If it's God's son that died to save people, then he saved them. Whoever he redeemed with his precious blood are redeemed. Paul said in Hebrews, he hath obtained eternal redemption for us. You don't add anything to that by walking down an aisle. What happens is God reveals to you in your heart that he did that for you. And like that lame man, when the power of Christ was, he jumped up and leaped and praised God. That's what you'll do in here when God shows you what he did for you on Calvary. You're going to praise him for the rest of your life. You're never going to be the same again. You're going to fall in love with him. Peter, do you love me?

What he did there on that cross, what he accomplished. He said, the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Did he do it or did he try his best? Well, he's God, so that kind of answers the question, doesn't it? That kind of answers the question.

Maybe you think if God would show me something like he showed Peter, James, and John, if I saw, if I could have been there and seen the glory of God shine forth from the face of his son, I would never doubt again. No, that's not right. And that's terrible unbelief because you're dismissing what God does reveal in his word. You're saying, well, that, you know, the Bible's like, I can't believe what God said, but if he showed me something, I'd believe it.

Turn with me to 2 Peter 1, and we'll be through for a little bit. 2 Peter 1, 16. This is Simon Peter, this is one of the fellows that was there on that Mount of Transfiguration, when the Lord Jesus revealed his glory for a little bit. And he said, we have not followed, verse 16, Chapter one, we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We stood there on that mountain and we saw that he is majestic. He's not the pitiful little martyr that everybody's talking about in religion.

He's majestic. He's a king. He's the Lord. He does as he pleases. He's exalted. We saw his majesty for he's 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 and whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mountain. Listen. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. What is more certain? What is more convincing? What is better evidence?

What will convince my soul better than seeing the Lord Jesus in his glory within my very eyes. I'll tell you what, Will, the word of prophecy, we have also a more sure, more certain, more reliable, my eyes may deceive me. One person will see one thing and another person will see another thing. Now don't get me wrong, it's a great blessing to see his glory shine forth, wonderful, but that's not how God saves sinners, by showing a vision.

We have also a more sure, word of prophecy, where unto you do well that you take heed. Don't neglect so great a salvation as is revealed in his gospel as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn. Now listen, take heed, keep listening, keep hearing, keep coming, keep sitting, Keep hearing the gospel preached. Take heed unto the word. How long, Simon? Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Until God does a work right up in here. And you don't see some light that's a vision, that's some visual revelation. but keep listening to the word of God until you see a light rise up in here, till the son of God is revealed in you."

That's what Saul of Tarsus said before he, when he was turned into Paul. He said, when it pleased God, when God got good and ready, he ain't waiting on you. He's not waiting on you to do something. When it pleased God, He revealed His Son in me." That's the day star. That's the bright and morning star. That's the Son of God.

And that happens up in here, in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." We have the prophets, we have Moses, the first five books of the Bible, we have the New Testament that gives account of his very time on this earth and what he said and what he did and reveals what he accomplished on Calvary.

Keep listening until God does something in here. And the Son of God is revealed in your heart. Till that day star rises. Till the bright and morning star sheds light on his word and gives you a saving knowledge of God's Son. May God do so among us. May he reveal himself afresh to us this morning that we might worship.