Good morning to everyone. If
you care to open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 17.
We'll continue our study in the book of Matthew beginning to
look this morning at chapter 17. Before we begin, let's bow
before our Lord in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. Father, our hearts are
thrilled this morning to be able to come before you in prayer,
to offer our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. So thrilled
at another opportunity to be able to meet together, have your
word open to us, to have Christ preached. Father, I pray that
you'd send your spirit upon us this morning. I pray you give
me the spirit of teaching and you give your people the spirit
of listening. who is sufficient for these things. Father, I pray
that by the power of your spirit, the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ will be preached and believed this morning. Father, we're so
thankful for this place that you've given to us. I thank you
for this family of believers that you've called together.
Father, I pray you bless each one, that you bless each person,
that you bless each home with your presence, your mercy, your
grace, your leadership. Father, we're so thankful for
your countless, many mercies, how merciful you have been to
this congregation, and we are so thankful. And Father, we pray
that if you would, would you be pleased to continue to be
merciful? Would you be pleased to continue to reveal your glory
in this place, in your mercy and your grace to your people?
Father, we pray that you'd be with our children's classes this
morning. We pray you'd bless special way that this might be
the time you'd be pleased to plant the seeds of faith in the
hearts of our children, our young ones. Father, this morning we
pray that you'd show us your glory, help us look into your
word and see the glory of Christ our Savior. It's in his precious
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Our text this morning is a very
familiar passage of scripture. I hope that The Lord will enable
us to look at it with fresh eyes, to see a fresh revelation of
the glory of Christ our Savior, and not just think, oh, I've
heard this before. Now, there is a whole lot in
this passage. I've entitled the lesson, Lessons
from the Transfiguration. There's a whole lot for us to
see here, but I want us to focus on and see these four important
lessons, four important lessons for us to learn and to remember.
Number one is this. The believer's standing, the
believer's acceptance with God is always in Christ. Like verse one, Matthew 17. And
after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother,
and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. Now six days. For six days, Peter, poor old
Peter, and the other disciples have been thinking about this
conversation that the Lord had with them when the Lord told
Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. That's pretty harsh, isn't it?
It was true. It was necessary. But that had
to be hard to hear. And for six days after that,
can you imagine what's going through Peter's mind? I don't
know what's been going through my mind. I'm thinking the master's
going to kick me out. He's going to excommunicate me.
The other disciples wouldn't surprise me to learn that they
are waiting for it. Don't you reckon they're waiting
for the Lord to cast Peter out Six days later now, the Lord
still includes Peter in what we call the inner circle of the
disciples, those that seem to have been closest to the Lord,
that he took with him in private and different places. He includes
Peter in that group and takes Peter to the Mount of Transfiguration
to show Peter his glory. Peter had been so foolish, hadn't
he? But the Lord didn't kick him out. The Lord still took
him with him and showed Peter his glory Now Peter is like every
other believer. Why did the Lord take Peter?
Why didn't he kick him out? Why did he take Peter with him?
Because our standing, our acceptance with God is always in Christ. Always. Peter had made this great
confession of faith back in chapter 16, verse 15. And he, the Lord,
saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter
answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. That what a great confession
of faith. And the Lord said he built his
church on that confession. And every believer, this is our
experience. It will make the same profession of faith. I know this. Jesus is the Christ,
son of the living God. And the Lord said, upon this
rock, I'll build my church. Now, thankfully, the Lord wasn't
talking about Peter. Was he? He wasn't saying the
Lord's going to build his church on Peter. He builds his church
on himself. He's the foundation. He's the
rock. But it sounds like, I'll tell
you why it's a good thing the Lord wasn't talking about Peter,
because it sounds like later that very same day, after Peter
makes this confession of faith, Peter later that day was telling
the Lord, don't go to Jerusalem and suffer and die. He said,
think about yourself. Have pity on yourself. Don't
do that. Peter confessed genuine faith
in Christ. That was genuine. That wasn't
made up. That was genuine. But Peter also tried to stop
the Lord from going to suffer and die. to suffer all the shame
and these things. And that was genuine too. That
was genuine too. And unfortunately, every believer
is going to have moments exactly like that. We do not understand
the Lord's purpose. He's, he's doing something to
bring about the salvation of his people. He's doing something
to bring about good for his people and glory for his name. Just
like the Lord is going to go to Jerusalem for the very purpose
of putting away the sin of his people. And Peter tried to get
him to stop making the sacrifice that the whole church would be
bought with. Every believer's got moments just like that too.
And here's the lesson. Peter's relationship with the
Lord wasn't dependent on Peter. It wasn't dependent on what Peter
did or what he didn't do, what he said right or what he said
wrong. Peter's acceptance with God was based upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. It wasn't based on what Peter
did. It was based upon what Christ did for Peter. Peter had faith. He had faith to make this genuine
confession in Christ because God gave it to him. That's why
he had it. And Peter's foolishness was forgiven for Christ's sake.
The same thing's true of every believer. And I'll tell you a
good way to tell if you have faith in spiritual life is this. If hearing this truth, that your
acceptance with God has absolutely nothing to do with your works,
but it all depends upon Christ, if you have faith, in life, that
won't make you lazy. It won't make you complacent.
It won't make you fatalistic. It'll make you cling all the
harder to Christ. It'll make you cling to him.
It'll make you so dependent on him. Always serving. Our relationship with God depends
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Always. Always. Now that's good news, but that's
also a warning to us. Always. Cling to Christ. Cling to Him. Come to Christ
and keep coming to Him. Cling to Christ and keep clinging
to Him. Believe Christ and keep believing
on Him. Trust Christ and keep trusting
on Him. Always, always. Don't think that
you ever grow to the point that you're not completely dependent
on Christ. It's a warning now. I've seen
too many people go off the rails and become so self-righteous
and start putting stock in what they do and what they don't do,
and then they start putting that burden on other people. You know,
Peter said, why do you want to put this burden on these Gentiles
that neither we nor our fathers could bear? Don't do that. Our relationship with God depends
on Christ. Always. Then keep depending on
Him. All right, here's the second
lesson. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. Verse
two, he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine
as the sun, and his raiment was as white as the light. Now on
that mountain, the Lord went there, and he pulled back the
veil of his flesh, just a little bit, and he revealed something
of his true glory as God. Now there's a picture being fulfilled
here on the Mount of Transfiguration. It's the picture of the temple.
Remember in the temple there was a veil that separated the
holy place from the holy of holies. And in that holy of holies, behind
that veil was God's presence. There was the mercy seat and
the Shekinah glory of God over top of that mercy seat, hidden
by that veil. And when that veil was pulled
back, what a sight that must have been. What a sight that
Shekinah glory of God came out. And that's just a picture. Here,
the Lord fulfilled that picture. He pulled back the veil of his
flesh for a moment. And the glory that came out was
so bright, the disciples couldn't even look straight at it. It
was brighter than the glory of the sun. And this is God's glory. God's glory. This is not glory
that a man can produce. In Mark's account of this, Mark
tells us that the Lord's clothes signed exceeding as white as
snow, such as no fuller on earth could whiten. No man can make
this glory. It's not man-made. This is the
glory of God. And the Savior on that mount
revealed to his disciples his glory. His glory is God. He also revealed the glory that
awaited him. After his suffering, after his
death as a substitute for his people, he's gonna have a glory
that the Father's gonna give him. A glory that he earned as
the Redeemer when he put away the sin of his people. When he
saved them from their sin, and fulfilled the Father's covenant
of grace. Now since the Lord Jesus, the
Lord Jesus Christ, this man Jesus of Nazareth, he is God. He appeared in human flesh. You
can trust him. Now he's God. You can trust him.
You can trust that he is able to save you. You can trust that
he's able to save any sinner that comes to him seeking mercy.
That includes you and that includes me. Why don't we come to Him and
beg for mercy? Why don't we come and follow His feet? That's His
glory. All right, here's the third lesson. All of the Scriptures speak of
Christ and His redemptive glory. Whenever you're reading the Scripture
and you read Scripture, you think this is what this passage means. And what you think it means is
not Christ and His glory. I promise you we've missed it.
All of the Scriptures speak of Christ and His glory. Look at
verse 3. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking
with you. Now Moses and Elijah actually
appeared talking with the Lord. Now Moses died over 1500 years
prior to this. Elijah was caught up into heaven
over 900 years before this happened. Yet here these two men are on
earth talking to the Lord. Now, The believer does not need
any evidence that there's life after death. Scripture tells
us there is, you know, that's all we need. But this pretty
clear evidence, there's life after death. Here these two men
appear talking to the Savior. And also note this, the disciples
knew Moses and Elijah when they saw them. Now how do you reckon
that happened? How do you reckon? They didn't
have any drawings. They didn't have any photographs.
How did they know that's Moses and Elijah? Well, they just knew.
And that tells me that in heaven, we're going to know one another.
When you see Moses and Elijah someday, you'll know who they
are. We're going to know each other, even though we never met on earth.
Now, I can't explain how that's going to be. That's just the
way it is. And that those those things are kind of interesting.
But that's by not the lesson that I want us to take from this
verse. By far, there's a much more important
lesson. Moses represents the law. When
those old Jews talked about Moses, they're talking about the law.
Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. And those books
of the Bible contain the law. And that's the Jews were just,
you know how they were about the law, and just, oh, how they
held Moses in such esteem. They didn't while he was alive,
but now that he's been dead 15, 30 years, they do. They esteemed
him because God used him to write the law. And Elijah represents
all the prophets. The Jews somehow, I picked out
Elijah and figured he's the best prophet. You know, they talk
about Elijah. They're talking about how he represented all
of the prophets. Here's the law and the prophets
appeared talking with the Lord. The law and the prophets all
wrote of Christ. They all prophesied of Christ.
They all preach Christ. When Moses wrote the law, he
didn't write the law to point to us. The law was not written
to point us to us. The law was written to show us
that we cannot make ourselves righteous by keeping the law.
You know, people think, you know, that God gave us a law and we
can keep it well enough to earn a righteousness. No, that would
mean the law is pointing to us. Wasn't it? The law was written
to point us to Christ. The law was written to show us
that we can't keep the law. We need somebody to come keep
it for us. We can't keep the law. The law is given to show
us that we're sinners. And we need a savior to come
and save us from our sin. See, that's how the law points
to Christ. The law points us to Christ,
the law keeper. The law is not written to tell
you to rest on Saturday. The law is written to show us
Christ, our Sabbath rest. The law required the Jubilee.
Every 50 years, all the slaves would go free. Every debt would
be forgiven. There's not. evidence in history
anywhere, not in the scripture or in other written histories
of anywhere, that the Jews ever one time celebrated the Jubilee
where they let the slaves go free and they canceled all debt.
Not one time ever, not once. Well, why was it given to point
us to Christ our Jubilee, that we're free In him, slaves to
sin, slaves to the law go free in Christ. Our debts are forgiven
in Christ, because Christ paid them. All the law is written
to show us Christ. Christ is the one who loves God
with all his heart, soul, and strength. And he loves his neighbor
as himself. And he proved it when he came
to suffer and die for his people. The law is given to point us
to Christ. The same thing is true of the prophets. The prophets
all prophesied of Christ. They just kept with those pictures
that Moses and the law gave us and they kept giving us more
pictures and more prophecies of the one who was coming to
do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Now I've thought,
um, a different times thinking about some of these great, great
preachers of the past that I've heard as a, as a child, as a
young man, And boy, they used to travel all around the country,
you know, preaching these conferences and stuff. And they typically
would drive and, you know, they're driving from here to Texas and
driving together. Can you? I would just I just
think sometimes I'd love to be a fly in the back of that car,
just listening to what these fellows are talking about. This
is Moses and Elijah speaking with the Lord in his glory. When you hear what they're talking
about, wonder what they said. Well, if you look at Luke chapter
nine, Luke tells us Luke chapter nine, here's what they were talking
about. Luke chapter nine, verse 30 and behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elias who appeared in glory. and spake of his decease, which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Moses and Elijah came and
they spoke with the Lord about the very same thing that they
wrote about when they wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
They wrote, they talked about him. They talked about his death,
his decease that he would accomplish, that he would accomplish. Now,
all of us when we die, it's not gonna be an accomplishment. It's
just going to be sin when it's finished, brings forth death.
It's just, you know, it's not an accomplishment. These men
talked with the Savior about what he would accomplish by his
death on Calvary's tree. They talked about him accomplishing
the salvation of God's elect by his substitutionary suffering
and death for God's people outside the walls of Jerusalem on that
cross. That's what they talked about.
And if the Lord ever enables you and me to see His glory,
that's all we'll talk about too. That's all we'll talk about.
That's all we'll trust in, is what Christ accomplished. That's
all we'll preach. You wonder, why does a man, woman,
why do they preach about everything in this world but Christ? It's
because they haven't seen Him. They haven't seen His glory. If God
ever shows us His glory, I can promise you this, that's all
we'll preach about. Him. That's all we'll want to
hear, is Him preached. That's all we'll trust in. Christ
is the subject of all of the scriptures, the law and the prophets.
All right, and here's the most important lesson. I kind of took
these things in the order in which they were given, but I
saved the best to last. This is the most important lesson
for us to draw from this passage of scripture. Christ is the issue. Christ is the issue. He is the
only issue. And I want this to be a hallmark
of this ministry and this congregation. Christ is all that matters. Christ
is all that matters. There's things that, you know,
we can disagree on and see differently and that's fine, but Christ is
the only issue. The only issue. Verse four, back
in our text, Matthew 17, then answered Peter and said unto
Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If thou will, let
us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses and
one for Elias. Poor old Peter, he sticks his
foot in his mouth again. Look at Mark chapter nine, Mark
nine, is Mark's account of this. And you know, you and I, we can't
be too hard on Peter. It really is hard to tell what
we would say if we were there, we saw something so dramatic.
and so glorious. It's really hard to tell what
we would say. Look here in Mark nine verse
five and Peter answered and said to Jesus, master, it's good for
us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles,
one for the one for Moses and one for Elias for he wished not
what to say for. They were so afraid. And here's
a good clue, both in spiritual things and in matters of the
world. When we find ourselves in a situation
where we don't know what to say, don't say anything. Don't say
anything. People say the most foolish things
when they don't know what to say. And they're well-meaning. I understand they're well-meaning.
They just want to say something to help. They want to say something
to comfort. They want to say something to
identify. And they don't know what to say,
and they end up saying something foolish. That's exactly why Peter
said something so foolish. He didn't know what to say, but
he felt like he had to say something. I betcha everybody here can identify
with that. I betcha. I want us here to now
look at that. God's response to Peter's comment
back in Matthew 17 verse five. Why? Yes. Bay 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. Now the father
spoke audibly from heaven. He told Peter, he told those
other disciples, and he told us, he's telling us that the
father is pleased with his son. And he's only pleased with those
who are in his son. He's not pleased with anybody
anywhere else but his son. That's the message of the law.
and the prophets. That's the message of God himself. That's the message of God's preachers
because God gave it, gave it to us. God's pleased with his
son. Now this site was, I mean, it's
just very dramatic. Being gone from this earth, 1500
and 900 years appeared with the Lord talking in glory and in
some sort of glorified bodies. I don't know what body that they're
clothed with in glory, but they're there. They're clothed with something.
They're not naked. It's very dramatic to see this. Moses was
there. I mean, Moses, Moses. And God wasn't pleased with Moses.
Elijah appeared. Elijah, one of, I reckon only
two people that we know of that did not die were taken straight
into glory. Elijah. God wasn't pleased with
Elijah. Peter, James, and John, apostles
of Christ, the inner circle, Christ and God wasn't pleased
with him. The father is only pleased with his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's so pleased with his son
he put everything, everything into the hand of his son. He's
so pleased with his son he put his entire covenant into the
hand of his son. The father is pleased with the
obedience of Christ. He said it personally. He's pleased
with the sacrifice of his son. The father said, it's enough.
His sacrifice is enough. It paid the debt in full. He's
pleased with the blood of Christ. It was a sweet smelling savor
to the father. He's pleased with the death of
Christ. It satisfied his justice, completely satisfied his justice.
He's pleased with Christ our mediator. He's so pleased with
his son, but he makes intercession for his people as their mediator.
he always gives his son what he pleads for. Because he's pleading
his sacrifice, he's pleading himself, he's pleading his blood.
The father is pleased with his son in every imaginable way,
and he's just as pleased with his people. Just as pleased with
his people who are in his son. Because it's back to our first
point, our standing's always in Christ. It's not dependent
on us, it's dependent on Christ. And the father is well pleased
with those people who were in His Son. And when the disciples
heard that, they heard the Father speak from heaven. They heard
the Father speak and say, Peter, it's not Elijah. It's not Moses. It's not you. It's not anything
else. It's only Christ. They were sore
afraid. But look at verse 7. There they
were just trembling down on their faces in the dust. And Jesus
came and touched them and said, Arise. Be not afraid. And when they lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. The Lord has such compassion
on his disciples. There they are laying down there
in the ground. Oh, so afraid it's all they can do is fall
down on the ground. But he didn't leave them there. He came and
touched them. There again, Peter made another
foolish statement. The Lord didn't let him suffer
in his fear, you know, laying there and, you know, cast him
out. The Lord came to him and touched
him. Put his hands on him. He said, don't be afraid. Don't
be afraid. Isn't that a good picture of
salvation? Isn't that the message of the
gospel? Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. The Lord could
tell him, don't be afraid of the law. Don't be afraid of it.
I obeyed it for you. I know you can't obey it, but
I obeyed it for you. Don't be afraid since you can't
keep the law. Don't be afraid of God's justice. I satisfied
it for you. Don't be afraid of death. I died
and rose again for you. Don't be afraid of death. Be
not afraid. Only believe. Only believe. Hear the gospel of Christ and
believe. Believe on him. Rest in him.
It's not good enough to know the facts and figures. It's not
good enough just to know the doctrine. Believe. Trust Christ. The Father is pleased
with His Son. Well pleased with Him. Now you
be pleased with Him too. And rest. Come to Him and rest
in Him. Now this is the very important lesson for us. When
they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. The only thing they saw. was
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the lesson. Christ
is the issue. He's the only issue. He's the only thing we need to
be looking at. He's the only thing we need to be considering.
It's Christ only. And let's never forget that.
At least at this very moment, that's true. This congregation
as a whole. But let's never forget this.
No matter how long this thing goes on, no matter how long it
is till the Lord calls us home or until he returns, this will
never change. Christ still will be the only
issue. He's the only issue. And let's never get pulled off
on a tangent. Let's never get pulled off on
a tangent of the law. Yes, we ought to be moral, honest,
upright people. Absolutely. But let's not get
pulled off on a law somehow thinking that we can make ourselves better
by keeping it. Let's not get pulled off on a tangent of the
prophets and men, the great preachers of the past, the people that
we respect so much now. Honor to whom honor is due. But Christ is the issue. Christ
is the issue. Christ is all to the Father. He's all. And Christ is all to
the believer, too. Everything else will just take
care of itself. Christ is the issue. And if God gives us eyes
of faith, we'll see the Lord Jesus Christ only. Only. We'll see Christ is the
only issue concerning life and death. He's the only issue. It's
not what I can do to somehow make my life better or something
I could do to cause God to condemn me. In this matter of spiritual
life and death, the only issue is Christ. He is the life. He's
the only issue. If God gives us eyes of faith
to see Christ, we'll see this. Christ is the only issue concerning
all of our religion. He's the only issue. The only
issue. We can disagree on little minor
things, you know, about the scriptures, things that are not clearly revealed,
because Christ is the issue. Now, we're going to disagree
on Christ. We're going to disagree on his person, his work. Well,
then there's going to be problems. But in all of our religion, Christ
is the only issue. He's the only issue. If God gives
us eyes of faith to see Christ, we'll see this. Christ is my
only righteousness. I don't add to it by what I do
now. It's not added to by the flesh. Christ is our only righteousness. The only savior we have is Christ. The only holiness we have is
Christ. We ought to be good, upstanding,
moral people, but now Christ is our holiness or we're unholy.
That's all there is to it. He's the only issue. Christ is
our only hope. I don't add to it. Christ is
the only hope we have. Christ is our only preservation.
The only way we're gonna make it from here to there is if Christ
keeps us and preserves us. He's the only issue. If God gives
us eyes of faith to see Christ, Quit with this business of being
self-righteous and quit looking at the law. We're not going to
see the law anymore. We're going to see Christ, who fulfilled
the law for me. We won't see great preachers
of the past and just be so frantic about them. We'll see Christ,
that prophet. We'll see Christ, and I love
these great preachers of the past, these ones, the men that
preach now, that God's just gifted them so much. I love them. I'm
thankful for him. But the issue is the Christ that
they preach, not them. See that? Christ is the only
issue. He's that prophet. And God help
us to never get our attention off anything other than Christ
alone. He's the only issue. God help us to trust him. God
help us to keep trusting on him because he's the issue. There's
no other issue worth preaching about. There's no other issue
Worth believing. There's no other issue of faith
but Christ alone. There's no other issue to divide
over other than Christ alone. And there's no other issue to
unite over other than Christ alone. See, he's the issue. All right. Well, the Lord bless
that too.