Well, turn back with me to Luke's
Gospel, chapter 9, and I want to look at the verses that follow
on from the solemn, serious passage we looked at last week in verses
23 to 27. I want to look this week at the
account in Luke's Gospel of the transfiguration in verses 28
down to 36. And I've called this message,
A Glimpse of Heaven. A Glimpse of Heaven. We saw last
week Jesus warning about the cost of discipleship, talking
about bearing a cross daily, an instrument of death, and that
instrument of death is death to self. The instrument of death
to self, the instrument of self-denial, bear it daily. and it leads to
a reward of eternal glory which is the clear implication of what
he's saying. Are you a believer this morning? Do you believe you have a hope
in heaven? Is heaven a real prospect or
is it just as they say pie in the sky? Is it just something
we just live for here and now and all people have fond thoughts
about a place called heaven and does everybody go there when
they die and things like that, you know? How can you know? How can you know? How can I believe
that heaven is a reality? You see, people always talk about
life after death, don't they? But it's all ignorant speculation.
If it's not based solidly on the Word of God, all of their
talking about life after death is ignorant speculation. Not
just speculation, it's lies. It's Satan's lies and delusion.
We have the products of Hollywood. Remember the film Ghost, perhaps,
that you saw, you know, with the potter's wheel and all that
sort of thing, and the guy that gets stabbed and immediately
goes to heaven, because he's a good guy, and the bad guys
that got him end up going down to their hell in the end, and
it's not based on the word of God, it's the creation of Hollywood,
which is the creation of fallen men's minds. You have the delusion
of spiritualism in religion. You know, you'll find that the
most agnostic families become all spiritual when a member of
the family dies. Oh, she's up there now looking
down on us. They're all there together, you know. Auntie so-and-so's
up there with Uncle Erne now. They're all having a good time
together looking down on... It's just fiction. It's just
fictitious thoughts of fallen human reasoning, and it's not
based on the Word of God at all. In verse 27 though, Jesus promised
Having said about the cost of discipleship, and remember that
followed him asking that key question, you know, Herod asked
it over in verse nine, who is this, who is Jesus? And then
he asked them, who do men say that I am? And they said, well,
some say you're Elijah and some one of the other prophets. And
he said, but who do you say that I am? And Peter said, you are
the Christ, the son of the living God. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood hasn't revealed
this to you. This is divinely revealed. And then he said, but
it doesn't come without cost. If anyone would follow him, take
up your cross daily. Where are you following him to?
Glory. Eternal glory. How do we know?
I promise you, he says, verse 27. I promise you. that before
they see death there are some of those standing here now that
he's talking to, the disciples, who shall see the kingdom of
God. They'll see into heaven before
they die. Look at the next verse. I know people get all, you know,
it's beautiful to see creation, but you're no closer to God if
you're on the top of a mountain than you are down a coal mine.
But he took them up a mountain to get away from the crowds,
from the people that always wanted to be seeing him. And he took
three witnesses. Why did he take three? Why didn't
he take all of them? Three was enough. In the mouth of two or
three witnesses shall all things be established. These were the
witnesses. They didn't say a thing about
it immediately after it, but when he was raised and ascended
back to heaven and Pentecost and the Holy Spirit came down
upon them, then these things were made known and written in
the scriptures. The testimony of these three witnesses of what
they saw when they peered into heaven. when the veil of heaven
was drawn aside for a moment for them to see in. And we've
got the record of three of the Gospels. We've got the record
of Matthew in chapter 17, the record of Mark in chapter 9,
and the record of Luke here. Is that enough for you to believe? Is the fact that The words of
scripture, these, as the old catechism says, holy men, not
that they were holy in themselves, but made holy, sanctified by
God. Holy men wrote as they were taught,
moved along, inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is Holy Spirit
inspiration here. Is that enough for you to see
that? Or do you want something a bit
more tangible than that? Just words on the pages of a
book. I can't believe that. Do you remember when Jesus gave
the allegory, or the parable, if you like, of the rich man
and Lazarus? Lazarus, the poor man with the sores who sits outside
the gate, and the rich man is faring sumptuously and he dies. And the rich man, because he's
given no thought to God, goes immediately to a lost eternity.
And in the allegory, this is not doctrinal teaching about
people in heaven talking to people in hell, It's to teach us certain
things about eternity. And what Jesus is saying there
is that the rich man who is now in hell and tormented says, please
send somebody to my brethren who are still alive to tell them. that this is real, that hell
is real, the torments of hell are real. Jesus is saying this,
who's he? He's the one who came down from
heaven with the message from God. He is God speaking to us
and he says this is what it's like, there is a hell. And he
said, the rich man is crying there, please send somebody to
my brethren that they might believe. You know, give them something
tangible that will persuade them. And the answer comes back, they've
got Moses and the prophets. And he says, ah, but if only,
yeah, I know they've got that, I know they've got that Bible,
but if only somebody would rise from the dead, then they'd believe. If they will not believe Moses
and the prophets, they will not believe that one should rise
from the dead. That's the message of scripture.
You see, somebody rises from the dead, wow, it'll powerfully
affect your human reasoning. Gosh, did you see what I just
saw? won't affect your heart. It's only the Spirit of God that
affects the heart. They will not believe that one
should rise from the dead. Believe the Word of God with
Holy Spirit enabling. We have the account of God's
Word. And this Word is true about so
much. You know that, don't you? You
know it's true about so much. The more you study it, the more
you find This is an absolutely unique work of literature. Of course, it isn't a work of
literature. It's the inspiration of God by men, by human instruments,
who stamp their own style. Luke doesn't write in the same
way as Peter writes, or as Paul writes, or as the prophets write,
but everything is absolutely consistent because it's the one
message of the Holy Spirit of God. You know it's true. its
miraculous origin. Why, out of all the pieces of
literature, has this ancient book been preserved as it has? Don't listen to the so-called
experts. Don't listen to them. They're
looking with blind eyes. Hear what the people of God say.
This book is true. It's been preserved. Think about
its testimony of life. Is there any greater wisdom anywhere? because it's all Christ who is
made unto us, wisdom from God. In Him dwell all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. It's testimony to life, it's
truth about death. There's not a solitary thing
it says about life and death that you can refute in any way
at all. The prophecies It's truth, you know, the way they get round
the prophecies is they say the book of Daniel is not really
a prophetic book, it's something that was added after the event.
Why do they say that? Well, it couldn't possibly have
been written before things happened, it's too accurate! It got it
too right! How could it possibly have been
written before? If the God who ordains all things inspired it
to be written, it could have been written before it happened
in history, and that's exactly the way it was. It's true. It's wisdom. It's goodness. Think of its effect. You think,
oh, I only know of a little tiny handful of believers. There are
countless thousands, I don't know, millions, that have gone
before, that have believed and lived for and died for the truth
of this book. This is how true it is. And these
are not scoundrels. These are the height. I know there's no inherent goodness
in human flesh, but molded by the Spirit of God and the truth
of God, this is the peak of humanity in its best state. The people
that have gone before, those who've taken the gospel around
the world, those who've totally self-sacrificed for the truth
of the gospel of grace, It has a powerful, powerful effect. Why wouldn't it be true about
heaven? Why wouldn't it be true about
heaven and eternity? When it tells us about heaven
and eternity, why wouldn't it be true about that? Jesus said,
in my father's house, this is Jesus speaking on earth, in my
father's house there are many mansions. I go to prepare a place
for you. If it were not so, I would have
told you. But he's telling us, this is
true. Here's God come down from heaven, and he's saying, heaven
is a reality. I'm preparing a place for you.
Believer, if you trust God, you walk through this veil of tears
with its joys and its pleasures and its experiences, but then
death, it's appointed to man to die once and then the judgment.
And beyond that point of death, there is either an eternity of
remorse, regret, bitterness, what's called agony. Agony and
torment for that which you flew in the face of. And for believers,
enter. Enter into the paradise of God
that's prepared for you from all eternity. But believing,
but flesh still is unbelieving. flesh is. So we cry with that
man who said to Jesus, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. So then, seeing the kingdom of
God, The kingdom of God, you know, is here, in the hearts
of all true believers. Where's the kingdom of God? The
kingdom of God is in the hearts, as Christ the King rules in the
hearts of his people. But, it's felt, experienced reality
is in heaven. That's where it is. When there's
no sin, when there's no flesh to cloud the view, when we're
there and we see Him as He is, it's a prepared place for His
people. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9 says,
as it is written, as it is written in Isaiah 64, I have not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for them that love him. You ask me, tell
me what heaven will be like, and I have to reply with Paul,
I haven't seen it. and I haven't heard, and it hasn't
entered into my heart. Whatever best thoughts I have
about heaven, I don't know the slightest fraction. I haven't
scratched the surface concerning the things which God has prepared
for them that love him. It does not yet appear, said
John in his first epistle, what we shall be. It does not yet
appear, but we know this. When we shall see him in heaven,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The things
of eternity and time, of eternity, outside of time, Paul says when
he's speaking to the Athenians, he says, they're not far, he
says God is not far from every one of us, as one of your own
poets has said, Acts 17. He says, these things are not
far from every one of us. Now, that applies, you know,
here we are. Tangible things, we think this
is it. No, he said, this eternal, Eternal. Reality. These things
are temporal. They're passing. They'll soon
be gone. They'll soon be nothing. Everything that you value and
count dear, the moment you pass from this life, do you know what
those things will be worth to you? Nothing. Zilch, as we say. Absolutely zero. All those things
that your heart aspires to here as material possessions will
be worth nothing in the moment that you leave this life. Not
one solitary thing, but eternity is close to us. It's there. It's
all around us. They're the things that remain. Those things are eternal. The
kingdom of God. Verse 27. The kingdom of God.
Some people here, says Jesus, to those disciples are going
to see the kingdom of God before they die. And it was pretty soon.
It was eight days. Eight days later, he took them
up a mountain to pray with him. The man, Christ Jesus, the man
of prayer. He was a man of prayer. He had
no sin to confess. He was God's sovereign in all
things. Yet as a man, as he walked this
earth, heavenly communion, in prayer was an essential part
of his earthly walk. Is that not an example to us?
Is that not something that we need to learn more of? I feel
we know so little of prayer. We know so little of it. In our
experience, in theory, oh that God would put it in our hearts
as he did with David, to pray to him. To pray to him. To walk
this life, not just in times of formal prayer where we stop
and pray, but living in a spirit of prayer to God all of the time. But he went aside to pray, and
that's a good example. And verse 29, as he prayed, The
fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment, his
clothing, was white and glistering. As he prayed, the ordinary-looking
man was transfigured, was changed from his earthly appearance,
which was, as Isaiah says in Isaiah 53, there is no comeliness
that we should desire him. He was an ordinary man, known
as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, an ordinary-looking
man. No comeliness that we should
desire him for his physical external appearance, but this man was
transfigured into his heavenly glory, into his heavenly shining,
the ordinary looking man. An aura of eternal glory was
seen from earth. When Moses went up into the mountain
to receive the law and to commune with God, you know, he came down
from the mountain and the people said to him, you must put a veil
over your face because his face was shining with the fact. How
did that happen? I don't know. I mean, the worst
thing that can happen is some artists think he can try and
recreate a picture for us because he'll get it wrong. It will be
a graven image. But what happened I don't know,
but the people couldn't stand to look in the face of Moses
without it being veiled, because it was shining with a heavenly... When I go, when I walk down the
garden I like to brush against the rosemary bush. And when you
come back in the house you cannot, you know, ask anybody to say,
where have you been? They know you've brushed against
the rosemary bush because its oils are so pervasive. Or the
lavender is another one. You brush against the lavender,
you'll come back in smelling of the lavender. And in the same
way Moses came down shining with heaven's glory on his face. This man, shining with heaven's
glory. Christ The sinless man was there
transfigured, shining with heavenly glory. And Moses and Elijah appeared
as well. Look, verse 30. And behold, there
talked with him two men. So two figures appeared and they
talked with Jesus in his heavenly transfigured form, glistering
white, and it was clear that the two that were speaking with
him were Moses and Elijah. Elias is the New Testament Greek
translation of Elijah. Moses and Elijah. And they appeared
in glory. They appeared in heavenly glory. They could see them in heaven
now. Though they were on the earth,
the veil was just kind of, if you can imagine, the veil was
just kind of drawn aside. Oh look, they're in heaven. There's
Moses, Elijah, speaking with Jesus, transfigured into his
heavenly glory. And they're speaking. And Peter,
James, and John are there observing them. They're talking from heaven
to God incarnate on the earth, on the top of the mountain. And
the three disciples saw the kingdom of God. They saw heavenly reality. They saw the reality of it. Are
these things real? They saw it. They've testified
of it. They've left their testimony.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall all things be
established. They've left their testimony
of what they saw. Now let's look at their state.
What was their state? Verse 32, But 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.
Now that's difficult to understand at first, is that verse. If they
were heavy with sleep, how did they see anything at all? Well,
the translators are clearly struggling for words here. I want you to
turn back to the book of Daniel. Turn back to Daniel, and let's
look at chapter 8, and verse 18. Well, let's look at verse 17.
It's Gabriel, the angel, messenger from God, who comes to Daniel. So he came near where I stood,
and when he came, I was afraid and fell upon my face. But he
said unto me, Understand, O son of man, for at the time of the
end shall be the vision. Now as he was speaking with me,
I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground. But he touched
me and set me upright. Deep sleep. upon the ground.
Turn over to chapter 10. Chapter 10 and verse 7. And here's a man appears to Daniel
on his own. Daniel had been mourning several
weeks and verse 5, a certain man clothed in linen And the
description that follows is like the description of Christ in
Revelation chapter 1. But verse 7, I, Daniel, alone
saw the vision, for the men that were with me saw not the vision,
but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide
themselves. Therefore I was left alone and
saw this great vision. And there remained no strength
in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption,
and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his
words, and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a
deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. And behold,
a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees, and upon the
palms of my hand, and said to me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved,
understand, and so it goes on. Really what's happening here
is they're not in a sleep, they're not like you were at three o'clock
this morning assuming you were all asleep. That's not what it
means. It means that they were overwhelmed. They were absolutely
overwhelmed with the nature of the vision. Their earthly strength
drained away, their fleshly strength drained away at the shock of,
you know when the angel says to John in Revelation, come up
hither, come up here and see the vision, come up into heaven
and from earth, from your earthly perspective, have a look into
heaven, come up hither. And the shock of coming up hither
with Christ on the top of this mountain when the veil of heaven
was drawn aside, when the eternal realities which are not far from
every one of us, where the veil was opened, They were in this
state of overwhelmed shock, just like that. And they saw in that
state, so they were, it was like a state of shock, but they were
perfectly conscious of what they saw. It was like a dream, but
not like a dream that we have, where you don't know what, you
know, did I really dream that? What on earth did that mean?
No, they were perfectly conscious of what they were seeing. It
was this state of shock at seeing into eternal reality right next
to them. And what they saw was two men
talking with Jesus. Moses, dead, 1,500 years. When they saw him, here's a man
who was put in a grave 1,500 years ago. There's a man talking
with Jesus who was put in the ground 1,500 years ago. And there's another one, Elijah. No doubt we know who it is. And
he wasn't put in the ground, but he was taken in a chariot
of fire to heaven. He was translated into heaven
in a chariot of fire. There they are, seeing these
two men who, as far as this world is concerned, are dead men. In the case of Moses, you could
visit a grave. They're dead men, but alive in
glory. They're alive in glory. Why these
two men, Moses and Elijah? They're representing Scripture.
The law, given by Moses, and Elijah, representative of the
prophets. The law and the prophets. What's
the significance of that? It's the Old Testament Scriptures.
All of which, these are they, which speak of me, said Jesus. They're representing the Scriptures,
which all witness to Christ. And they're showing life beyond
the grave. Here's a simple little lesson
that we can learn from this. Simple. Departed believers, those
that have died in the flesh, are safe with Christ. And not
only that, they're recognizable. They're recognized, I don't know
how, I haven't a clue how, but they're recognizable as Moses
and Elijah. I don't know how, but we'll know
who was who. Well, what happens about marriage,
said the disciples to Jesus. Oh, well, they don't give and
are given in marriage in heaven. It's not like that. It's not
in that way. But we'll know who one another
are in glory. We'll know who is who. And they're
glorified, verse 31. They appeared in glory, in their
heavenly glory. Having been men on this earth,
they appear in their heavenly glory. And does that not speak
to us of the great cloud of witnesses that Hebrews tells us? We now
are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Hebrews 12 verse
1, we also are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses.
Those that have gone before, the people of God that have passed
into eternity, are now in that heavenly realm. And they're that
great cloud of witnesses. And for these three disciples,
The veil was drawn aside, and they, as he promised before they
tasted of death, saw into the kingdom of heaven. And they heard
what was being said, for Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus. They talked with him. Verse 31,
who appeared in glory, and look at the words very carefully,
see this is why I I'll need a lot of persuasion
ever to move away from the King James Version. Look, and spake
of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. I don't
know about examining other versions to see what they say, but this
is the one I trust. Spake of his decease which he
should accomplish at Jerusalem. The words are very, very full
of meaning. They talked with Jesus about
his decease. He came. His death was not an
accident. His death was not the result
of what wicked men did. Yes, they were guilty of it,
as Peter said on the day of Pentecost, but it was all according to the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, because it had to accomplish
the purpose for which he came. And that purpose was to save
his people from their sins. And the only way he could pay
the price for the sins of his people, the ransom price, was
in his shed blood. And so he must die for his people. That's why the death of Christ
To say it's so important, it just doesn't do justice. It's
the center, it's the crux of the entire matter of salvation
and eternity. The death of Christ is what they
spoke about, because he should accomplish it. Not about his
death, which is going to happen at Jerusalem. His death, his
decease is something he's going to accomplish at Jerusalem. Have you ever heard of anybody
else who accomplishes something in his death? He's going to accomplish
his death at Jerusalem. What does it mean? It means he's
going to fulfill everything that was written about it. He's going
to fulfill all the law's requirements in it, in his shedding of his
blood. He's going to fulfill and satisfy the justice of God. That is going to be accomplished
in his death. All prophecy is going to be fulfilled
in his death. All the salvation of his people
is going to be accomplished there. His death, which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem. And the theme of eternity is
his death. You read Revelation chapters
5, chapter 7, chapter 14. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. death. Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain. Oh, what a sight into glory. These three saw the veil of eternity
drawn aside and saw into eternal glory. And Peter reacts to it. Peter reacts to it. You know,
Peter's the one who said, you are the Christ, the Son of the
living God, blessed are you. Flesh and blood hasn't revealed
it to us. And then Peter opens his mouth when perhaps it would
be better if he didn't open his mouth. And Peter, nervous of
the situation, said, you know, they departed away and he said
to Jesus, Master, it's good for us to be here. Let us make three
tabernacles, three booths, three mini temples, one for you, one
for Moses, and one for Elijah. not knowing what he was saying.
Have you ever been in a situation where, quite honestly, you just
think, oh, shut up now before you dig yourself a bigger hole
than you've already dug yourself. There's a time to shut up, and
you can't stop saying something that you know is going to incriminate
you in some way. Peter should have shut up, but
he didn't. Weak in the flesh, and aren't we all weak in the
flesh? No, he spoke in human, sinful ignorance. What he was
saying was, let's build three mini temples, one for each of
these equally glorious men, Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. And we're
so prone to weak and erroneous views of eternal truth. What
does it say? It's Ecclesiastes chapter five,
verse two. When you go to the house of God,
what does it say? Keep your feet carefully. Keep
your mouth shut. Don't be so quick to speak. Be
much more prepared to listen than to speak. Think carefully
before you open your mouth. And that's what Peter should
have done. Better to stay silent and listen than jump to give
our theories. And immediately, while he thus
spake, verse 34, a cloud came and overshadowed them. And they
were terrified, it frightened them. Because what they had just
experienced had suddenly gone from them. They hear a voice, and they're
frightened in this cloud. And this, we know that Jesus
is the word of God, and he, Christ, is the one by whom God speaks.
He, in the beginning, was the word, and the word was with God.
But on this occasion, because he was on earth, this voice came
from heaven, the voice of God the Father speaking, saying,
this is my beloved son. Must be the Father speaking.
This is my beloved son, Matthew adds, in whom I am well pleased. not with whom I am well pleased,
in whom I am well pleased. Yes, he's pleased with him, but
in him and with all who are in him, he is well pleased. Listen
to him alone. What he's saying is Moses and
Elijah are not on the same level. They're men glorified who were
sinners and are saved and glorified. They're saved by that same decease
which he, the Son of God, will accomplish at Jerusalem. But
he alone is God come in the flesh. He alone is the saviour of sinners. Not three booths. Listen to him
alone. In him is where you please God. You don't please God in saints
or other worthies. You know, you can think of Roman
Catholicism. You know, where there is so much
veneration of saints and finding favor with God in saints, does
this passage not teach us straight away the error of that kind of
thinking? God is pleased in Christ, and
with those who are in Christ, not in saints. He's not pleased
with Anything that's done in saints' names is pleased in Christ. Not Moses and Elijah. They're
men. They're the equivalent of every
other saint. In other words, sanctified one,
set apart one, called by God in salvation. He's pleased with
Christ's doing, the things that he did. Jesus was able to say,
has any man ever been able to say this other than Christ? John
8, 29, I do always those things which please him. Can any other
say that? Can you? Can I? Of course not.
He was pleased with his doing, for he perfectly fulfilled God's
law. And in his dying, he was pleased
with his dying. Isaiah 53, verse 10, speaking
of Christ. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. With his stripes we are healed.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. In Ezekiel 33, verse 11,
God says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Because
the death of the wicked must go on for eternity before it
satisfies the justice of God. But in Christ, he's pleased with
all who are in Christ. As Ephesians says, that we should
be those he has saved to the praise of the glory of his grace
wherein he has made us in Christ accepted in the beloved. He's
pleased with his people in Christ. He accepts his people in Christ. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. Hear Him alone. Listen to Him. Now, I must draw this to a close. The Scripture tells us that eternity
is true, that heaven is real, that life after death is certain,
and it's a life either of heavenly bliss or of hellish agony. Do
you believe God's Word? Do you? Would you believe it
more if you'd been there? Would you believe it more if
you'd been there? If you'd been on that mountain, would you believe
it? I'm a bit doubtful, but if I'd been there with Peter, James,
and John, I think I would have believed it. I can suspect that
some of you know where we're going next. 2 Peter 1. Just turn
over there. 2 Peter 1. Verse 16. Peter is
speaking. He says, we haven't 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. He's talking about this Mount
of Transfiguration when he was there with James and John. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory. This is my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased." He's speaking of this time on the top of the
mountain. And this voice which came from heaven, we, Peter,
James, and John, heard. I was there, says Peter, when
we were with him in the Holy Mount, on the Mount of Transfiguration. But, having been there, having
been there, What's better than being there? Next verse. We have
also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until
the day dawn. What's he talking about? Verse
20. The scripture. The word of God. The Bible preached. That's it. If you're hearing
this word now, I tell you, on the strength of what God's word
says about it, you are in a more privileged position than Peter,
James, and John were on that mountain looking into heaven,
because we have the testimony of God. If they will not believe
Moses and the prophets, they will not believe that one should
rise from the dead. Oh, that God would enable us
to see this. It was an amazing experience, but we have something
better, he's saying, the Bible. This is all the glimpse of heaven
we need. It testifies this, 2 Corinthians
4, 16-18, For which cause we faint not, but though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our
light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. In heaven, while
we look not at the things which are seen, which you can knock
with your hands and which you can eat and taste, but the things
which are not seen, for the things which are seen are only for a
little while temporal, but the things which you don't see, that
eternal reality that is just there behind the veil that was
drawn aside on the Mount of Transfiguration, they're eternal. Peter, James,
and John saw it while living as men. Oh, that God would give
us faith and the Holy Spirit's witness within to believe his
word and hear his Son concerning these things.