message on baptism earlier and
I'll be putting that up on the internet probably this evening
or in the morning and it's very easy to get and download so be
sure and listen to that but we're going to have the Sunday school
lesson on the second with the second
group that we have here this morning so I invite you to turn
with me to Mark chapter 9 And I'll read my text, Mark chapter
9. And he said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here
which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom
of God come with power. And after six days, Jesus talketh
with Peter and James and John, leadeth them up into a high mountain
apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before
them. And his raiment became shining,
exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth could
wipe them. And there appeared unto them
Elias, that is Elijah, with Moses. And they were talking with Jesus.
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it's good for
us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles,
one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Now here's
why he said that. For he wished not what to say,
for they were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed
them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, this is my
beloved son, hear him. And suddenly, when they looked
about them, they saw no man anymore, says Jesus, only with themselves. And as they came down from the
mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what
things they had seen till the Son of Man were risen from the
dead. And they kept that saying with
themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from
the dead should mean. Our Father, we come to you this
morning. We thank you for your faithfulness to add
to your church. To add as you see fit and to
add for the glory of your great name. We thank you for those who have
been here for years and years, faithful servants of God. We pray now as we're about to stand before those
gathered here this morning and declare this gospel one more
time. That you'll give me the ability and accompany me with the power
of your spirit and to take these things home that we teach from
your word. We pray for those who We cannot
be here today for those who are afraid to be here today, for
those who are sick. We pray for those who are about
to die, as our beloved brother Don has said to his church. Be with them now, for Christ's
sake we ask. Amen. All right, for our hymn this
morning, let's turn to hymn number 96. Hymn number 96, and we'll sing, We
Are Bound To Give Thanks. Hymn number 96, We Are Bound
To Give Thanks. We'll sing it to the tune of
Just As I Am. Thank God for love, His sovereign
love. Unchanging is God's covenant
love, which predestined that I should be one of the chosen
family. Thank God for grace, His matchless
grace. Amazing free, eternal grace. Grace chose me and devised a
way to save me and put sin away. Thank God for blood, His Son's
own blood, effectual sin, atoning blood. The blood of Christ poured
out for me, obtained redemption full. and free. Thank God for power, His Spirit's
power, regenerating, saving power. The Spirit's power caused me
to live and made me willing to ? Believe ? ? Thank God for peace,
His perfect peace ? ? The blood of Christ has brought me peace
? ? My conscience free, my heart at ease ? ? I am redeemed and
I ? Have peace ? Thank you. I invite you to turn back with
me to Mark chapter nine. And my subject this morning is
a delightful vision. These men, these special men, called of God to
a special office were gathered by our Lord on this mountain
and granted to see, I don't know if you'd call it a vision or
a reality or what you would call it. But they saw these things,
and later on, though they were commanded not to say anything
right then, later on they referred back to those things, both John
and Peter. I feel compelled to remind you
that the contents of these verses concerning his transfiguration
follows his declaration of his death, burial, and resurrection.
And the teaching that if we would be his disciples, we must deny
ourselves, take up our cross, and lose our lives to his glorious
person and work. And then immediately following
this came this transfiguration. Unless we grow weary in our devotion
or tempted to lay down our cross for any reason, he follows these
demanding and these strong exhortations with a peek at his glory. Now that's what he did for these
men. He gave them a peek into his
glory and those who have already gone on before. So this vision,
if you will, of Christ transfigured is a kind of foretaste of the
glory which awaits us when our warfare's over. We're gonna see
things as they really are. Now at this point in time, Peter
and the rest of them, they didn't even know what the Lord was talking
about when he was talking about the resurrection. They did not
understand what he was talking about. That old Jewish teaching of the kingdom being set up in
this world was still in their minds. And this man, Jesus, they
saw just like they would have looked on David as God's king. It's kind of a foretaste of the
glory which awaits us when our warfare's over and we appear
just like Moses and Elijah appeared with him in the kingdom of God. And I say once again, this is
a delightful vision and one I hope we'll muse upon often as the
Lord brings it to our attention. We go through these verses, let
me point out just a few things that we ought to These things
ought to quiet a troubled mind and a troubled heart. Do you
get trouble? Boy, I do. I do. I get trouble with myself. I
get trouble with this old man, this old nature. I get trouble
with this world, all that it goes about doing and all the
hardships that accompany it. These things ought to help quiet
those fears and quiet the anger and how upset we get about all
these things. During these, I guess what you'd
call perilous times, and I say perilous times not because of
the virus but because of the enemies of our souls and the
adulterous religion that has corrupted the whole
world. These are perilous times, perilous times. Now, the first
thing I wanna point out is the phrase he begins with here in
verse one, the taste of death. He said, some of you standing
here, standing here listening to me right now, it'd just be
like if I was talking to you and I said, some of you, which are standing here this
morning, some of you are not going to taste death until you
see the kingdom of God come in power. It's just a little ways. Huh? A thousand years is what? It's
nothing. It's just a drop in the bucket
when you consider eternity, isn't it? This is what he's telling
them, the kingdom of God is just, it's right here, it's at hand,
it's coming, it's coming. And it's gonna come in power,
and it's so close, some of you gonna see it. But I like this
phrase he uses, some of you shall not taste of death. Even those who have gone on before,
did not die. That's obvious. He was talking
to Elijah and Moses. But you say they're not here.
No. They tasted death. They tasted death. God's elect
only taste of death while the rest of this unbelieving world
is swallowed up by it. It's a reality to them. It's
a reality to In John chapter five, verse 24, he says, he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life and shall not come into condemnation. Now listen, but
is passed from death unto life. You're alive. You have eternal
life. You will never die. You'll never
die. Well, what happens? We just get
a taste of it. That's all. Just a taste of it. In John 11, verse 25, he said,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Now death is a present and
irreversible condition of every unbelieving son of Adam. He's
dead in trespasses and sins. When Paul talked to those converted
by God, those born of God, he said, you hath he quickened who
were dead. You were dead. Spiritual death. Dead. By one man sin entered into the
world. The scripture said, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men. for that all have sinned. Now, you might be 15, 16, 17,
18, you might be 10, but you're gonna
die. And you're dead spiritually right
now, right now. And except God quicken you from
that dead, you have an eternal death coming. You're not just
gonna taste of death, you're gonna die forever. There's a
second death. We die a physical death, we're
born in spiritual death, then we die a physical death, and
then comes the second death, which is eternal. That's eternal. And death is the present and
irreversible condition of every unbelieving son of Adam, Death in an unbeliever is just
the gateway to a greater death, one called the second death.
It's the sudden and final end to all who believe not upon the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's coming. And just like his
second coming, he said it's in an instant, in the twinkling
of an eye, even so when we die. We get a disease, we get a sickness,
we get old, whatever the reason, you're gonna die. And those who don't know the
Lord, those who don't have everlasting life, this is just the beginning
of woes for you. It's just the beginning. It is
the sudden and final end to all who believe not on the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an eternal death. an irreversible
death, and a place of everlasting, the scripture says, everlasting
torment, where the worm dieth not. But not for the believer. The
believer is said here by our Lord to only taste of death. Death to a believer is not really
death at all. but it's a part of his life.
It's that portal through which he goes to be with the Lord forever. Actually, one writer said, the
death of the body is the liberation of the soul. It's liberated. It's liberated. This flesh is
worse than any disease, though it's often pictured by all diseases. When those sinners came to Christ
to be healed, some of them were blind, some of them were possessed
by devils, some of them had the palsy, some of them were paralyzed,
all sorts of reasons. Issues of blood, you can just
go on and on. All of these things together
picture the condition of the natural man. It pictures that
spiritual death. And when we leave this body,
it's like being cured from all diseases perfectly, permanently,
instantly, and graciously. No more sin. No more sin. I can't even imagine. I've never
known anything but sin. When I would do good, Paul said,
evil is present with me. Always, it never goes away. It's always there. When I would
think good thoughts and worship God with a pure mind, evil is present with me. Death is just a passing taste.
Death to the believer is leaving behind all that's ever troubled
him. sin and wickedness and evil thoughts
and temptations and troubles, he leaves them all behind. And
then think about this, to be absent from the body is to be
present with the Lord, is it not? He said, if the earthly house
of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. What must that be like? I can
only imagine. I can only imagine. Our Lord
called it paradise. Paradise. He said to that dying
thief, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Uninterrupted fellowship with
God, not a worry or care or anything to trouble you. Another word to describe the
world to come is this. Paul calls it gain. To live, he said, for me to live
is Christ and to die is gain. It's gain. Everything in heaven
is gain to God's elect. He has no judgment. His judgment
has already passed. His judgment was in Christ. Everything in heaven is gained
to God's elect. And who can begin to describe
what it is with these imperfect minds and hearts? Who can begin
to tell anybody what this heaven is like? The most valued thing
on this earth is The Holy Spirit inspired John to write, and he
just describes heaven as using these things, and I know this
is purely symbolic. I'm not looking for real streets
of gold, but gold, which is precious here, they just use it for building
materials there. What would you build a gate out
of, wood or iron? Gates there is called gates of
pearl. Pearl's nothing there, no big
deal. Gold's nothing there, silver's
nothing there. The most valued things on this
earth are used for building materials. And then know this, that Christ
shall finally be truly acknowledged by all, by all he has redeemed. There'll be no loss in heaven. The only thing we'll lose when
we taste of death is sin, sin. And then secondly, our Lord said
some of them standing in his presence should see the coming
of the kingdom of God in power. Now let me tell you something.
I know some of you have friends in the Baptist religion and they
talk about a secret rapture. You're gonna be driving down
the road. I see bumper stickers all the time. If you see this
car without a driver, it's because I've been raptured. They talk
about this secret rapture, but it's a mistake to interpret this
verse as a literal and carnal kingdom established in Jerusalem
or on some faraway future date. It's nothing more than just intellectual
nonsense that speaks of some secret rapture A seven year tribulation
period and a thousand year Jewish reign where the temple is going
to be reconstructed and the priesthood reestablished and again offering
sacrifices. It's a bunch of malarkey. He very plainly instructs his
apostles that some of them would still be alive. Alive on this
earth when his kingdom would come in power and indeed they
were. You know, I think it's 1 Corinthians
15, where he said he was seen of
above 500 people at one time, and then he followed that with
this, the most of which are still here. They're still here. Those who saw him after his resurrection,
out of these 500, most of them were still alive. And you know Peter, James, and
John were all alive when he was resurrected. And you know they
went to Jerusalem. And you know they stayed there
until they were endued with power from on high. There'll never come a time for
second chances for Jews and Gentiles to rethink their rebellion against
God. And that's all in the world these
intellectuals are doing. They're trying to make a way
out, something other than the death of Christ, something other
than the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're trying to make another
way, and there is no other way. His kingdom came in power as
he took his seat at the right hand of God, and our victorious
king from his throne sent the omnipotent spirit of God into
this world and upon his church. and where his elect are gathered
from the four corners of the earth. And in spite of the awful
presence and power of Antichrist, the kingdom of God is not even
hindered. It's not even hindered. Through false prophets and Antichrist
preachers, they abound, yet his gospel goes forth in power and
glory and all their efforts to put an end to it To put an end
to the truth, to put an end to the gospel of Christ, it only
serves to curse their own souls. That's all it does. Their very armies and policemen
and political powers now serve the elect of God. Read the scriptures. It serves the elect of God. The
powers that be, there are no powers except of God, and the
powers that be, they're the ministers of God to you for good. Isn't that what Paul said? Sure
it is. Is it not a miraculous thing
that small groups of 25 and 30 can gather publicly and hear
the doctrine for which thousands have given their lives for believing
and preaching? And is it not a show of His divine
power that any man or woman dare put themselves in opposition
to Antichrist? And yet, what happens? Nothing. Nothing. Don't you find that
amazing? The whole world's in disagreement
with you and yet they leave you alone. We gather here freely. I get little things that says
the policemen come down, check the premises, nobody's around
here. They're servants to God's elect. I find that absolutely
amazing. It was an unbelievable thing
to Pharaoh that the invisible God would deliver a bunch of
ragtag servants out from under the power of his kingdom with
no army, no weapons, no physical force whatsoever, yet when God
did it, not even a dog was allowed to bark in opposition when Israel
left there, and they left there with all the riches of Egypt. Isn't that amazing? But that's
exactly what's going on right here. That's exactly what's going
on. Some of you standing here, our
Lord said, shall live to see my kingdom come in power and
glory. You're gonna see my gospel preached
by a few men turn the world upside down. These 12, those Pharisees said,
have turned the world upside down. Amen. You'll see my gospel preached
and men's hearts and minds changed before your very eyes. You'll
be a witness as the strong man in all men is taken down. Taken down and the Lord's reign
established in their hearts. You'll see my kingdom come with
such power as to make its own way and overcome all that stand
in opposition to it. We don't have to have baked sails,
we never will as long as I'm pastor. We're not going to have
auctions and bake sales and all this junk to raise money. God's
kingdom will be established and maintained by God, and He'll
work in the hearts of believers to do it. And they'll do it willingly,
freely, and count it as the greatest privilege of their life. You'll see the power of God ordering
and arranging the very providence that unfolds your future. You're
gonna see the power of my gospel as it goes forth in the hands
of my spirit, breaking the chains of sin and idolatry and superstition
and false religion, and affixedly bringing chosen sinners to faith
in Christ and repentance in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
You're gonna see that. You're gonna see my kingdom come
in power. That's God's power. It doesn't
come with observation. Men don't see it. They see it,
but they don't see it. They don't acknowledge it. And then thirdly, I want us to
consider his transfiguration itself. I'm told that the word
transfiguration comes from a word from which we get the word metamorphosis. You know, a butterfly It first
begins as a caterpillar, and it weaves that little web around
and sits in there, and when it comes out, it's a butterfly.
Don't look nothing like it did before it went in, did it? Our
Lord was metamorphosed before their very eyes. He was changed,
changed before their eyes. Actually, if you read all the
accounts, the disciples were asleep. They didn't really see
any of this until after it happened. I think it's Luke's account of
this. They were asleep. And when they
awoke, here he is. And he's talking with Moses and
Elijah, and he's white and glistering, Luke said. He was glistering.
There's no way to really describe his glory and the glory of those
men that were with him. But the point is they saw him
in his glory. He no longer had the appearance
of a lowly servant, but one of honor and great glory. And with
him were two others, whom Luke tells us appeared with him in
glory. And these two men were Elijah
and Moses. What's that mean? Well, Elijah
was always acknowledged as one of the greatest of the prophets.
And when they talked about John the Baptist coming, when they
prophesied of the coming of John the Baptist, they described him
as Elijah. And our Lord said he was talking
about the coming in the spirit of Elijah. He said, if you will,
this is Elijah, pointed to John the Baptist. But Elijah stood
for the prophets. His standing there before the
Lord symbolized all the prophets. And Moses, you don't even have
to think about that, Moses stands for the law. The law was given
by Moses. So here's the law and the prophets. And what they're talking about,
what they're in unison about with our Lord. They're talking
about his decease. Now if you have a Strong's Concordance
or a Concordance at home, look that up and see what that word
is in the original. Exodus That's what it is. He's talking to them about his
exodus Talking to him about his death and his entering into glory. Oh My soul all of the prophets
and all of the law is in perfect unison with our Lord concerning
his death His death and what it would accomplish. I Our deliverance comes by way
of His decease. And listen to this, in Luke's
account, Luke chapter 9 verse 32, it says, they talked with
Him about His decease, now watch this, which He should accomplish
at Jerusalem. Accomplished is not a common
word we use to describe a man's death. We use the word loss. We use the words gone away, taken
away. But we don't use the word accomplished.
Death is usually referred to as the end, the end of life or
the end of our association or presence with someone. But here
the Holy Spirit inspires Luke to write accomplished. Accomplished
means to complete something and it means to complete it well,
to finish a work, to complete a task. And the last words of
our Lord on the cross is this, it's finished. It's accomplished. It's done. I've done what I came to do.
And our glorified Redeemer spoke through the law and the prophets
concerning His life and death and resurrection. And now He
spoke to them again of His accomplished death. What does our Lord's accomplished
death do? What does that mean to us? When
our Lord died on that cross, he fulfilled every Old Testament
sacrifice and the atonement for which those things stood. He
fulfilled all of them. In Hebrews 9, 24, it said,
Christ is not entered into holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to
appear in the presence of God for us nor yet that he should
offer himself often as a high priest enters into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. For then must he have
often suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in
the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Being quickened together with
him, he has forgiven us of all our transgressions. Blotting
out, Paul said, all the ordinances that was against us and contrary
to us, and took them out of the way, nailing them to his cross. He accomplished. He accomplished
all. He fulfilled it all. Not one
jot or till is going to be changed in the law or removed from the
law till all is fulfilled. everything in that law. Don't
you let anybody come to you and hold you saying you have to keep
the Sabbath day. See here it says keep the Sabbath
day. You have to keep the Sabbath day. He is our Sabbath day. Christ is my rest. That Sabbath
day spoke of him. He fulfilled those things. Paul
said, don't you let anybody hold you in contempt. If you want
a pork chop, eat a pork chop. It don't matter if it's Friday
or Monday. Christ fulfilled all that law, everything in it. And he's the end of the law for
righteousness to all them that believe. What else did he accomplish in
his death? Well, he put away our sin. Boy, I tell you, that's a sweet
thing to think about. I see sin all over me, all around
me. He put away our sin. He put it
away. He said he scattered it as far
as the east is from the west. He buried it in the depth of
the sea, never to be remembered again. We live in a generation that
believes God can simply forgive sin. They just believe it's a
matter of His will and desire. But they're ignorant of the fact
that to forgive sin, justice must be satisfied. Sin must be
paid for. The Bible said Christ was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. His resurrection declared his
accomplished death. And the next time somebody tries
to sell you on a universal love of God and a universal atonement
of Christ, you tell them this, if Christ died for the whole
world, then the whole world must be saved. Nobody will be lost
if Christ died for the whole world. There'd be no reason to
have a hell because his resurrection declared
their justification. And if he died for all men and
some perished, then his death didn't accomplish anything. Is
that right? If he died for the whole world
and half of the world or two-thirds of the world or 90% of the world
goes to hell, his death was for nothing. God
subjected his son to such humility and such suffering and pain for
nothing. But scripture said he become
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
His accomplished death is what constitutes our righteousness. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus our Lord. were sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once raw. And then let
me close with this. When Peter suggested that they
build three tabernacles, one for Elijah, one for Moses, and
one for Christ, a cloud overshadowed them. And they heard the voice of God
say, this is my beloved son, hear him. And when they looked
around, they saw no man anymore save Jesus only. You hear him. You hear him. And if you hear
him, you heard Elijah. If you hear him, you heard Moses. You hear him. You hear him. And while there are numberless
multitudes who would have much to say concerning the accomplished
death of Christ, we're to hear Him over them. Is that right? We're gonna listen
to Him. Let God be true in every man
alive. And to see Him alone, apart from
any man. See Him. He's it. He's it. And He was it before
there was anything to say. before there was ever a world
to fall or a man created on it. He was it. And he's still it. And by God's grace, he'll be
it forever. Thank you.