If it seems as if I don't know
most of you, I'm not putting you on, it's not an act, I don't
know. It's, as he said, quite a while, quite a while. I'm going to be going to Matthew
chapter 17, and my sermon is called Jesus Only. It's kind of interesting about
that. I was thinking about that this week. My wife and I grew
up in what was called Jesus-only Pentecostalism. We were full-blown
heretics. But I heard Henry on television. And the next thing we know, we
were down there. And we were there for years and years and
years until he finally sat down. So when I came across his verse,
I said, I'm going to preach from that. My wife said, that ought
to be easy. Women are like that, they think
it's easy. But in Matthew chapter 17, I'm going to read to you,
start here, chapter 17, verse 1. And after six days, Jesus
taketh up Peter, James, and John, his brother, and 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 as white as the light. Our Lord took three chosen witnesses
up there. You'll notice oftentimes in Scripture
when the Lord went places, He would take three of His favorite
men. You say, well, did the Lord have favorites? Yeah. You do
too. And these men were counted as
faithful witnesses to him, Peter, James, and John. They were chosen,
oftentimes, of the Lord to go, and the reason for that was that
every word of God would be established by two or three witnesses. When
the Lord was doing something, it would be established by two
or three witnesses, which is one of the reasons why when we
preach, we just don't preach from a single verse. We show
two or three witnesses whenever we do this. We compare spiritual
things with spiritual. And these are the same men that
the Lord took with Him when He was in Capernaum. There was a
young man, a ruler of the synagogue there named Jairus. And his daughter
was dying, and he came to get the Lord to heal her. And on
the way to that man's house to heal that dying girl, there was
a woman in the crowd who had an issue of blood. She came up
behind him and touched him. You've read all about that. And
he turned and said, OK. After that woman had confessed
that she had done that, Some people came and said, don't trouble
him anymore, your daughter's dead. Can you imagine what that
felt like? And Lawrence said, fair enough. And he went and
raised that girl. He took Peter, James, and John
in with Jarius and his wife. went in that room, and when he
said, told the people who were already there mourning, they
had gone full-blown, they would hire people to mourn and carry
on. And he walked in and said, why
are you mourning such? She's not dead, she sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn. And when he went in there, he
said, Talitha Kumi made a rise, and she did. Can you imagine
that day, just a few minutes after these people had thought
she'd died, she was outside playing. What a testimony. It's good to
have two or three witnesses when something like that happens.
And these men were also used of the Lord as witnesses that
night in Gethsemane. He took Peter, James, and John
out there in his time of sorrow, that time when he was heavily
sorrowful, exceeding sorrowful. They were there. They were there
to witness that. And you remember he had to wake
them up. He had to wake him up. Insensitive, insensitive. Matter
of fact, I'll show you something in Luke. Listen to this. Luke
records this in Luke 9. Just listen. You don't have to
turn there. It says, as he prayed, he took
Peter, James, and John and went up into the mountain to pray.
And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered,
and his raiment was white and glistering. You know what glistering
is? It means lightning. He looked like lightning. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory
and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
And Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were awake, they
saw His glory. And the two men that stood with
Him, once again, sleeping, sleeping, insensitive. The best, the best,
the cream of the crop, these three men that had been taken
away from the nine down below and brought up to the top of
that mountain, there they are once again, insensitive to what's
going on in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I,
my friends, are insensitive to what God's doing right now. in
our world, in our time. It's just true. Failures. These witnesses were failures.
What do you think woke them up? The glory of the Lord woke them
up. I was out the other day looking
when I was thinking about this text. I stood out and looked
at the sun. I can barely stand to look at
the sun until late afternoon. But to think that God's Son,
there on that hill, on that mountain, had a face that was shining as
the sun, and that His garments, His garments were so cleaned,
it's said in Mark, His raiment became shining, exceeding white
as snow, as no fuller on earth can white them. There's nobody
in this world that can white the Lord's clothes like that.
Never has been. There never has been anybody
that could make a garment that white. I know when Moses went up into
Mount Sinai, he came down with the glory of the Lord on his
face, but it was a dim, dim glory. He could put a veil over it and
cover it, but there's no covering the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll read you scripture. I won't have you turn to all
these because I only have so much time. It says in 2 Corinthians
3 verse 7, but at the ministration of death, that was Moses' ministration. written and engraved in stones
was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance
which was glory, that glory was to be done away. How shall not
the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the
ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the
ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that
which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason
of the glory that excels, excels. For if that which is done away,
which is the law, if that was glorious, how much more that
remaineth glorious. Listen. Moses had to put a veil
over his face, and the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that, which was to be abolished. They didn't
understand what was going on. And I'm here to tell you that
day, our Lord had a glory on top of that mountain that nobody
on this earth could give Him. No fuller, nobody can make your
garment shine like lightning, glistering. You know, I had a
hard time even thinking about this. It's just, it's something,
it's something beyond our comprehension. Nobody could, nobody could accurately describe this. Not
then, not now. Now you have to remember this.
The disciples had already seen him. One day, in a boat, sinking,
sleeping, on a pillow, and he stood up and just rebuked the
waves and the winds. They saw that. They'd seen all
his miracles. They'd actually seen him come
walking towards them in the sea. They thought he was a spirit.
And he told them, don't be afraid, it's me. And Peter stood up and
said, if that's you, bid me to come to you. And he did. And
he started walking. Imagine Peter walking on the
water. And he got almost to Christ.
I know that because when he started to sink, He said, Lord, save
me. And the Lord just reached down
His hand. He must have been from here to here, out there, gone
to meet His Savior. But I'm telling you, up to that
point, what they had witnessed was what we would call just a
poor man. A poor man, the Scripture says.
This one who was declared to be meek and lowly, Isaiah said
he would be a tender plant, a root out of dry ground. You expect
much out of a root out of dry ground? Scripture was written,
it says, when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should
desire him. No beauty about him. You know,
I see these pictures of Christ. Wrong. All wrong. He didn't have a Breck
hairdo. Oh, and suddenly, suddenly this
man, this man, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery." What
does that mean? He did not take anything from
the Father in glory. He did not take any glory from
the Holy Spirit. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. A man? The God-man. But he made himself of no reputation. That man on the top of that mountain
was a man who'd made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,
who being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted
him. and given him a name above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things
on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father."
He was about to be deceased. Go to his decease, as I read
to you. And when he accomplished that
decease in Jerusalem, he would be raised to sit on high, and
here on that mountain that morning, it was, or that evening, it was
the preamble, the prelude of his glory, which was about to
come. Now that scripture I read you
in Luke, you know, you probably, have you ever wondered how Peter,
James, and John knew that that was Moses and Elijah? The Jews don't have any statues. They don't make images. You won't
find any drawings. You won't find any drawings of those men. Moses had been
dead 1,500 years. God took him. God buried him. No one knows where he was buried.
That way we won't go and bow down at a shrine for Moses. And
Elijah had been translated, caught up in a chariot, a chariot of
fire and taken to heaven 900 years earlier. How did these
men know? Well, first off, they knew who
those two men were because God had revealed it to them. Really,
when you get to glory, how are you gonna know Paul and David?
God's gonna reveal it. People you've never seen before.
I'm looking at people today I've never preached before. We're gonna know all their names.
And we also know, I'm sure that they knew who he was because
of what it says here. He heard them, in Luke it says,
they appeared in glory, in glory with Christ and spake of his
decease, his decease which should be accomplished at Jerusalem.
There was a deceased that was being spoken of. That, my friends,
was the death of Jesus Christ. It should be accomplished. Accomplished. Now that word, His deceased,
the word is exodus. Did you know that? Exodus. They
came and they spoke about His exodus that was about to be accomplished
in Jerusalem. No doubt about it, it was going
to be accomplished. For this purpose he came into
the world. It was going to be accomplished.
The Son of Man must be lifted up. Talking about this exodus,
this departure, and matter of fact in Luke 9 it says, when
it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received
up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. A time to
be received up. All of this, listen to me. The
death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and
his received into glory is our great high priest. All these
things were spoken of, of him, and Moses and the prophets knew
about it. Death, burial, resurrection.
I bet you've heard that over the years, haven't you? And they came, I don't know,
some people think that they were there to help and encourage the
man, Christ Jesus, of the sufferings he was going to go through. Speaking
of the victory that would come afterwards, maybe that's it.
But I'll tell you, Moses and the prophets had foretold
all of this in Scripture. All of it in Scripture. Throughout
the Bible. He'd mentioned the first time
I preached. It was down in Mexico on a mountain, San Rafael. Coffee
plantation. And I'll tell you, I had spoken
a day or two before and it was so pathetic I don't even. But
on that morning, I had an Old Testament picture of Christ.
It was a loose Sunday school lesson that Henry Mahan had written
on Cain and Abel. And I preached on Cain and Abel
and showed that to be where we're at today. People trying to please
God by keeping the law, cleaning their lives up, planting their
gardens like old Cain, and a man just simply comes by the blood.
That's still the way it is. That's still the way it is. Moses
and them, they showed up there. Do you know why they showed up?
They showed up to make you and I aware this day of their complete
agreement with Jesus Christ. Their complete agreement. And it says here in the chapter,
back in the chapter, 17 verse 4, they were talking, Moses and
Elijah were talking with him. Peter then answered Peter and
said unto the Lord, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If thou
will, let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses,
one for Elijah. It's good for us to be here. Luke tells us after he said that,
listen, it says here that Peter said this not knowing what he
said. Thoughtless talk. Thoughtless
talk. So often, we're like that. He
didn't know what he was saying. He didn't know what he was saying.
He thought it was a great place to be. It was surely better than
being down at the base of the mountain. It was surely better
than being at Jerusalem. But I tell you, you don't build
three tabernacles. You don't build one for Moses.
You don't build one for Elijah. You don't build one for Jesus
Christ. No, sir. No, sir. There's no glory to all three.
There's glory to only one. Moses and Elijah could never
be equal to the Lord Jesus Christ. Never could. Never will be. They came there to show that
Christ would be the complete accomplishment of everything
they ever wrote. everything they ever wrote. You've read that scripture in
Romans 10 that says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. What does that mean? It means
Christ is the end of the law. for righteousness. There is no
other righteousness. The end of the law for righteousness
is Christ to everyone that believe it. Now when it talks about the
end of the law, it's talking about the goal of the law. The
very goal of the law, the final cause of the law. The law had
not been given had it not been for the Lord Jesus Christ. You
realize that? The law wasn't given to you and me. Not in that
sense. Because you and me can never
keep it. None of us have ever kept anything in God's law. Never. By the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified. You realize, I know you do. You've
been taught in these things. We've never kept it. The law
was written for the sake of Jesus Christ. Man's circumcised. He has to
fulfill the whole law. Why was Christ circumcised? Because
he was going to fulfill the whole law. Everything about it. Everything about it. Everything
about it. All of those things that you
read about, all those things, all the institutions in the Old
Testament, all of the things that we've read about in the
Bible, all of those things pointed to Jesus Christ our Lord. Everything. The ordinances, the sacrifices,
everything pointed to Jesus Christ our Lord. They were all on his account.
They were all shadows and types of him and what he would accomplish. They were shadows. That's what
it says in Colossians. Let me read this to you. Colossians
2.8. You folks know this. You beware lest any man spoil
you through philosophy or vain deceit. Just beware. after the
traditions of man, pay no attention, after the rudiments of the world,
the elements of the world, the ABCs of the world, that's religion.
That's religion, the rudiments of the world, ABC. Don't do this,
don't do that, don't go here, don't go there, you know that.
I grew up that way. That's not after Christ, for
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you're
complete in him, which is the head of all principality and
power. That's right, and down in verse
14 it says this, what he did was blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances which were against us. They were against us, which
were contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it
to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he
made a show over them openly, triumphing over them in it. So
let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect to a holy
day or a new moon or sabbath days. Which things were a shadow
of things to come, but the body is Christ. You understand that?
You go out today, if the sun ever shows up, you're going to
have a shadow. But the body is here. And all
those Old Testament pictures and types were a shadow. They
were not the substance. All those things were fulfilled
by our Lord Jesus Christ. It amazes me to think of him
taking that to the cross and having it blotted out there on
the Calvary. All the law and prophets. fulfilled
in Jesus Christ. He's the end of it, the mark
of it. It's what everything that you
read about in the Old Testament was pointing at. And it's always a mistake to
put Moses, the prophets, and Christ in three separate tabernacles. You can't separate them. You
can't do it. Because Moses, Moses spake of Christ. That's
what it says. John chapter five, I'll read
it. 45 through 47, it says this. Do you think they've come to
accuse you of the Father? There's one that accuses you.
That's what he's saying to the Jews. There's one that accuses
you. Even Moses in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you
would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe
not his writings, how should you believe my words? There was
no conflict between the Lord and Moses. Now, but that's something you and
I have to learn. by the Holy Spirit. You know at the cross there were
three women. Mary Magdalene was there. There was Mary the mother
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there was Mary's sister Mary. You ever heard that? Mary's sister
Mary? You mean The Lord's mother, Mary,
had a sister named Mary? No, she had a sister-in-law named
Mary. And she was married to a man
named Cleophas, also known as Alpheus. It was not uncommon
for the Jews to have two names. And I'll tell you, one of the
most amazing things is when our Lord rose from the grave, There
were two men that set out from Jerusalem, going to a place called
Emmaus, and they were walking along and they were so discouraged,
they were so discouraged, and our Lord came walking up behind
them. And he heard them, their sad
communications, He asked him what this is about, and one of
them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said unto him, Art
thou only a stranger? Now, Cleophas, that is the husband
of that Mary. That man, or that other Mary,
who was Mary's sister, he was either Joseph's brother, or Mary,
his wife, was Joseph's sister. There's just no way around it.
And he had two sons that we know of that are mentioned in scripture
called James, who wrote the book of James, and another one named
Jude, Jude or Thaddeus. He was the man that wrote the
book of Jude. Some believe that he, under the name of Alphaeus,
he's also attributed to being the father of Levi, known as
Matthew, the man who wrote the book of Matthew. But whatever
the case may be, he was the father of at least two of the apostles,
maybe three. And he's walking along so discouraged And they started talking about
the things that concerns Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet mighty.
And they thought, they thought, we trusted that he had been,
it had been he that should have redeemed Israel. And besides
all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
Now that's Luke 24. Talking about these things. And
they were astonished. And they were saying, saying
to the Lord, all these things. And you know what the Lord said?
Oh fools. and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. Moses and all the prophets. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them all the scriptures,
from all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. And
as they got near to Emmaus, They got near, the Lord acted like
he was gonna go on. They said, no, no, you gotta
come in here. They brought him in and normally, normally if
you go into a man's house, the man who's the head of the house
breaks the bread. But our Lord sat down and broke
bread. Because he's the head of every house. He broke bread
and while he was breaking that bread, they suddenly knew who
he was. Their eyes had been holding.
Now, you say, Dan, what's that all about? Cleophas was the uncle of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what that's about. You imagine meeting your nephew
on the road and not knowing him. His eyes were holding. That's
what the scripture says. The eyes were holding. Didn't
know his nephew until he revealed him. And that's
the way it is with me and you. We don't know Christ until Christ
reveals himself. We're just sleepy, senseless
sinners until the day the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ shines
in our lives. Opens our eyes. Our Lord said to the disciples,
who do the people out there say that I am? They said, well, some
say that you're Elijah. Some say you're John
the Baptist, back from the dead. I know Herod was scared to death
of that. Some say you're Elijah. Some say you're one of the prophets.
Some say you're Jeremiah. You know, that generation, that
religious generation, that adulterous religious generation had become
so deluded that they had actually taken up the thinking there's
such a thing as reincarnation. They were saying Oh, we believe
you're a reincarnation of somebody. And our Lord said, but who say
ye that I am? Whom? Who? Who do you say that
I am? Peter said, thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah. Now you know what
the word bar means in scripture, it means the son of Jonah. Oh what a blessing, blessedness.
Oh blessed art thou, Simon the son of Jonah. You might have thought that you've
lived your life and you've had a blessed life. I understand
that. I've had a lot of blessings in
my life. I look at my life and I'm But our Lord went on to say what
he meant by that. For flesh and blood have not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Honestly,
in this world, you're not blessed in any way, shape, or form by
your first birth. A blessed person is a person
who the Father has taught concerning Jesus Christ. For flesh and blood
hath not revealed this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven.
To have my eyes opened as to who Jesus Christ is. As I said, no blessing like that,
nothing in this world. Years ago I used to to sell Mercedes
Benz and I took one over to Huntington, West Virginia one day and I got
there and I handed the woman at the door, the lady of the
house, my card and it's Ann Culver and she said, oh, are you a Culver? I'm a Culver. And she said, you
know, we came over on the Mayflower. I bet you've heard that kind
of stuff. She said, are you from the The
New England Culvers or you one of the Florida Culvers? I said,
my dad told me that at the end of the 1800s, coming into 1900,
my great-grandfather rode into Wheatley County, Tennessee with
a bunch of horses and they thought he was a horse thief. That's
all I know. That's all I know. No blessedness. in this birth on this earth.
Just give it up. Ancestry.com, give it up. Scott
Richardson once said, if you look long enough and study into
it hard enough, you'll find out that your granddaddy was Adam
and your great granddaddy was the mud. I remember that. There's nothing to all that.
Our blessings are in this second birth, this having our eyes open
to who Jesus Christ is. And I'll tell you, while they
yet spoke, we read that, while they yet spake, behold, a bright
cloud overshadowed them and a voice out of the cloud which said,
this is my beloved son. Hear ye him. Hear ye him. Those words are almost exactly,
almost exactly what's said in Deuteronomy 18 verse 15. The Lord thy God will raise unto
thee a prophet. From the midst of thee, he's
going to be a Jew. of thy brethren, like unto me,
unto him shall ye hearken. That's right. I'll raise them
up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and
I'll put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them
all that I command him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall not hearken unto the words, my words, which he
shall speak in my name, I'll require it of him. This is that
great prophet, that one shining on that mountain that day. That bright cloud came around.
That cloud was similar to the cloud that covered the Jews as
they walked through the wilderness. That was a bright cloud. The
Shekinah glory of God. And we read where they were fearful.
They were fearful. I don't blame them for being
fearful. When God's glory came down at
the tabernacle Moses built, Moses could not stay in there. When
God's glory came down at the temple that Solomon built, no
man could go in there and minister. And here, all of a sudden, these
failed, sleepy, failing apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ are
standing there with Moses and Elijah and a glorious Son of
God, and a cloud comes over them, and they're afraid. And the voice
says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. He's not a servant like Elijah.
He's not a servant like Moses. He's my beloved son. So you hear him. You hear him. Tear down the tabernacle over
there to Moses. Don't even plan one for Elijah. You hear him. You see, and that's
the subject of our ministry, the subject of any true preacher's
ministry. You notice in the scripture the
Lord never says, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.
You would say that, wouldn't you? With whom I'm well pleased?
Nope. It's in whom I'm well pleased.
in whom I'm well pleased. What am I saying? Well, the subject
of my ministry, 2 Corinthians 5, 19, to wit, this is our ministry,
the ministry of reconciliation, that God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself. He wasn't reconciling everybody
out there in the world. He's reconciling the world of
his elect, people from every nation, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, he hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation." And you know
this verse. This verse is, he, he, hath made
him, that one on that hill, to be sin for us. He hath made him
sin for us, to be sin for us, as some say, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I love it. What do I mean? I mean that was God's intention
from the start. He intended to do that. He intended
to do that, to provide a sacrifice, a propitiation for the sins of
his people. He did that. It was God himself
doing it. And the disciples, the disciples,
listen to them. They heard it and they fell on
their face and they were sore afraid. I'll bet you. And Jesus came and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. And my friends, he's my propitiation.
He's my mediator. Anything that God says from heaven.
Even though that voice they heard that day was not a voice of anger.
That was a voice of love. That was a voice of instruction.
And though it made him afraid, this one, our mediator, he came
and relieved their fear. And he still does that. It says, stand up, arise, be
not afraid. Listen, in Christ, the Father
is well pleased. And in Christ, everyone that's
in Christ, the Father is well pleased with. We have been accepted
in the beloved. What a glorious thought. His God is my God. His Father
is my Father. I have access before a throne
of grace as a result of what this one great mediator, the
God-man, has done." And when they'd lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. Moses is gone. The Law of Moses,
we're no longer under. The Prophets, so many beautiful
things were written, but they were all in reference to Christ.
They're finished and gone. We live in a new day. This is
the day which the Lord hath made. That's Psalm 118. That's talking
about the Gospel day. This is the day. He's my only
Savior. He's my only Redeemer. He's my
only substitute. And listen, 1 Corinthians, I
want to read this. But of Him, that's 1 Corinthians
1. Listen to this. But of Him, that's
of the Father. Are ye in Christ Jesus? Who is what? Who of God. This is God's doing. Is made unto us wisdom. I need wisdom. Anytime I need
wisdom, I see Jesus only. He's been made unto us wisdom
and righteousness. There's no other righteousness.
No other righteousness anywhere but in Jesus Christ the Lord.
Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. You might have thought that that
meant you were getting better and better and better. I used
to hang out with people and talk about how they were saved and
sanctified. What they meant was they thought
they'd cleaned their life up. Christ is our sanctification.
I'll tell you something else. He is our redemption. Redemption. Full and complete. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth Let him glory in the Lord. Appreciate your
patience this morning. Thank you.