Matthew 17 verses 1 through 9
we'll read this morning. The New Year in one sense is just a date on
a calendar. But what I like about that time that we call the New
Year is that it's a reminder It's a reminder of all of God's
blessings throughout the previous year that he's guided us. Hitherto, the Lord has helped
me. That's why I'm where I am today. Paul said, I am what I
am by the grace of God. It's a good time to think about
that, about the specifics of that. It's a reminder that the past
is the past. It's over. 2012 is gone. It no longer really
matters. Today, as you sit here, it doesn't
matter about your past. 2012 doesn't matter. 2011 or
10 or 9 or 8 doesn't matter. Your past doesn't matter. And
the future doesn't exist as far as your seeking of the Lord is
concerned. Today is the day of salvation. The past doesn't matter anymore.
What matters is right now, does thou believe on the Son of God? And may God give us grace to
honestly answer that question in our hearts this morning. The title of the message this
morning is Jesus, God's Son Only. Look at 17 one of Matthew. After six days, Jesus take his
Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bring them up into an high
mountain apart and was transfigured before them. And his face did
shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light. And behold,
there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. And
then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good
for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here
three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for
Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.
And behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, this is my
beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And when the disciples heard
it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came
and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. And when they
had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. And as they came down from the
mountain, Jesus charged them saying, tell the vision to no
man until the son of man be risen again from the dead. Now, when
our Lord walked this earth, men could not see Him for who He
was. He didn't walk around as He's
pictured sometimes with a glowing aura around His head, or walk
slowly and stately around, looking around like some kind of a robot.
He was a normal human being, a man like everybody else, in
the sense of His humanity. We have no reason to believe
even that he was a handsome man. In fact, we have reason to believe
that he wasn't. Isaiah said, who hath believed
our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For
he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root
out of a dry ground, and he hath no form nor comeliness. And when
we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. There was no physical beauty
about him. No temporal beauty like some
have. Some people are followed and gawked at and delighted in
because of their physical beauty. Something that's absolutely meaningless. As far as what it's given credit
for. But these three men on this mountain
got a glimpse of the glory of the Son of God. And it changed him forever. It
affected him. Just that glimpse, that earthly
glimpse. John said in John 1 14, the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. We beheld his glory. The glory
as of the only begotten of the father. God said this is my son. And John never forgot that. Would
you? If God spoke from heaven and
you saw the glory of God in the face of His Son, full of grace and truth, oh, you could see the grace and
truth of God in His very face as it's shown there. Peter, he
said in 2 Peter 1 17, that the Son of God 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'm well pleased and this voice which came from heaven
we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. He didn't
just say this voice we heard, he said this voice which came
from heaven. Would that have impressed you? But our Lord didn't walk around
this earth the way they saw him on the mount. Why not? Have you ever wondered that?
Why not? Men love a spectacle. Everybody
would have followed him if he would have looked like that all
the time, don't you imagine? So why not? Well, I don't presume
to know the Lord's secret motives, but I know this, sinners aren't
saved by a spectacle. When God spoke from heaven here,
in our context, He didn't say, this is my beloved Son, look
how shiny His face is. He said, hear Him. Hear Him. Our Lord said in John 6.63, it's
the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. And you've heard that quoted
a thousand times, but the last part is rarely quoted. Listen
to it. The flesh profits nothing, it's
the spirit that quickeneth. Okay, you've heard that a lot.
What about this part? The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life. Hear him. Hear him. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. No sinner, no sinner is saved
apart from faith. By grace are you saved through
faith. If God's going to save you, it's
going to be because He wanted to, and He's going to give you
faith in His Son when He does. Even the very event of our Lord's
death, and listen to me carefully, don't misunderstand me, Even
the event of his death, what would it be to us without the
truth, the doctrine, the gospel? What would it be to us? What
would it mean to you if you had been there? Now understand me,
I'm not minimizing the importance of his death. Without his precious
blood, we have no redemption, no remission of sin. But I'm
saying this, if everybody born could have been there and witnessed
his death, it wouldn't save anybody without the gospel. There were
many there who witnessed his death who are in hell now. In the gospel, God reveals to
us who it is that died there that day. Like he did to that thief on
the cross. In the gospel, he reveals to
us what our Lord did there on that cross, what he accomplished. and why he did it. Hear him. Hear him. Maybe you're thinking, maybe
you've thought before, if God would show me something like
he showed Peter and James and John here on that Mount of Transfiguration,
if he would reveal himself to me that way, I would never doubt
again I'd never worry about anything again. Do you know what that
is? That's terrible unbelief is what that is. Think about
what he has shown you. Turn to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 16. This is the context of what I
quoted you a moment ago. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables. Now think about what he's talking
about, the subject of this whole passage of scripture. What have
we followed? The word of God. When we made
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We're telling you what
we've seen and heard. We're not making this up. For
He received from God the Father honor and glory. This Jesus of
Nazareth is exactly who He said He was, who He claimed to be.
When He said, I have power to give life to whomsoever He will.
He said, the Son of Man has power on this earth to forgive your
sins if He wants to. When He said, the Father hath
given me all authority, in heaven and earth. We saw him receive
honor and glory from his father with our very eyes. And there
came a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy than that. There's something
more convincing. There's something that you can
rely upon even more. Where unto you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. Oh,
the gospel is the light. until the day dawn and the day
star arise in your hearts, knowing this first." What's he talking
about? What is this more sure word of
prophecy? No scripture, no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. Don't make it say what you want
it to say. Don't say, here's what God said, now here's what
he meant by what he said. Here's what God said. He meant
what he said. But by the will It wasn't given by
the will of man. Why is it a more sure word of
prophecy? Why is the word of God something
that we can rely upon and trust our very soul? He said to Timothy,
that word that you learned, it's able to make you wise unto
salvation. From your very youth, you've
learned that which is able to make you wise unto salvation.
It's by that Word that God saves sinners. It's by grace through
faith in the revealed, written Word of God, the Gospel concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ. It's believing this Book. Holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It didn't
come by the will of man, it came from God. That's why you can
count on it. That's why it's sure and certain. More sure and more certain and
more convincing and more reliable than any vision, no matter how
great. They saw something that day,
but did they know what they saw? How are they going to know what
they saw? By the word of God. There were
those who saw him dying on that cross, that saw his precious
blood shed upon that cross and run to the ground. They saw the
greatest thing that's ever happened, period. But did they have any
idea what they were looking at? If they did, it's by the word
of God. Hear him. You see what he's teaching? Now think about what happened
there in that passage, 2 Peter there, where we just read. Peter
is giving an account of what they witnessed on that mount.
And Peter, he was there when our Lord was transfigured. And
he uses the account and remembrance of that event to emphasize the
absolute necessity and the inestimable value of the Word of God. That's significant. The written
and spoken word of God. That's what Peter took away from
that later. That rich man in Luke 16, he
said, if you'll send somebody back from the dead, my brothers
will believe. Do a miracle. Let them see something
powerful, a spectacle that they can't deny. And they'll believe. And Abraham said they have Moses
and the prophets. They have the Word of God. And if they don't believe what
Moses and the prophets wrote concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
they won't believe, though one come back from the dead. There's
only one thing that can break a sinner's heart and cause you
to submit, to quit going about to establish your own righteousness
and submit to the righteousness of God in Christ. There's only
one thing. that God will use to make you
quit loving yourself and fall in love with the Savior. And
that's His holy word. That's the word of His Son. In
these last days, He has spoken unto us by His Son. Hear Him. God has revealed His Son, the
person of His Son, His work, His purpose of redeeming grace
in His Son, Jesus Christ, His perfect, spotless, holy life
and His sin-atoning, effectual death for sinners. He's revealed
His glorious will unto us. And many are still looking for
a sign. Some kind of a spectacle to excite the flesh. Oh, hear
the word of God the Father from heaven. Hear Him. This is my
Son. Hear Him. Don't speculate about what he
would do in your situation. Hear him concerning what he did
do and who he is. The Lord Jesus Christ already
said in his word, I'm not going to give you a sign. This evil
and wicked generation seeks after a sign, and ours does too. And
he said, I'm not going to give you a sign. You have the sign
of the prophet Jonah. In other words, You have the
Word of God. You have this testimony from
God written by inspiration of His Holy Spirit by Jonah. Salvation
is of the Lord. Don't look to an experience.
Look to the Lord who saved sinners. It says in our text that the
Lord Jesus spoke there on the mount with Moses and Elijah. What did they talk about? Do
you know what they talked about? Some of you do. I know. We're
told in Luke 9.30, and listen to this. This is Luke's account
of this event. He says, 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. They talked about Christ crucified. Now, the important thing is what
they talked about, and we're going to See that I pray by God's
grace, but notice Luke 930 there where I read that Moses and Elijah
appeared in glory. You reckon that's why Peter wanted
to build three tabernacles? It says that Peter wanted to
build a tabernacle to the Lord and one to Elijah and one to
Moses. He was impressed by all three of them. But it also says that Peter didn't
know what he was saying. When he said that. I know this. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know this. We're going to be like him. How
do you know that? He saw Moses and Elijah there
talking with him. You reckon? We're going to be
like him because we shall see him as he is. That's what happened
there on that mount. I'm not sure And that the Lord
showed him everything that day. You reckon? I don't know. They
saw his glory. I don't know if they saw him
the way we will see him. I don't think you can with these
eyes. You think? Oh, but what they saw Peter didn't know what he was
saying, it says, because their glory, they appeared in glory,
but their glory is Christ's glory derived from Him by grace. God
said to that little dead baby in Ezekiel 16, 14, after it says
that his time was the time of love. There's a little baby laying
in its blood in an open field, dead, with nobody to care about
it. But the time of love came and the Lord came by and He said,
When I passed by, I said unto thee, live. And then after he said unto him,
live, he said in Ezekiel 16, 14, and thy renown went forth
among the heathen for thy beauty. For it was perfect through my
comeliness. That's how Elijah and Moses appeared.
They were wearing some of his glory. Through my comeliness,
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. When John spoke of this, he said,
Beloved, now we're the sons of God, and it doth not appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, he's gonna
be like us. No, we're gonna be like him.
There's a difference. Him being like us, that was before. But then, we're gonna be like
him. Paul said in Hebrews that Christ
is worthy of more glory than Moses inasmuch as he that built
the house is worthy of more glory than the house. Now don't build
a tabernacle to Moses or Elijah. What they talked about there
was the deceased, the death. The death that our Lord should
accomplish Isn't that a glorious phrase? My death's not going
to accomplish anything. My death will be a victory because
of what he accomplished by his death. But my death doesn't accomplish
anything. His death accomplished everything.
Everything. Keep in mind these words now
in Luke 9.31 that we just quoted. The decease which he should accomplish
and turn to Luke 24. And look with me, verse 13. And behold, two of them, two
of his disciples, went that same day to a village called Emmaus,
which was from Jerusalem, about three score furlongs. And they
talked together of all these things which had happened, of
how the Lord Jesus Christ had been betrayed. And it was like
he said he must do, just in our context of our passage this morning.
He said, I must suffer many things. and be killed and rise again.
They were talking about all these things on their way to Emmaus. And it came to pass that while
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. Now they reasoned. They were
figuring out, why did this happen? What was that all about? But
then later, he opens their understanding that they might understand his
word. But right now they're reasoning among themselves. But he appeared
to them, he drew near and went with them, but their eyes were
holding that they should not know him. They didn't know who
he was. They saw that he was there, but
they didn't know who he was. And when he said unto them, what
manner of communications are these, that you have one to another
as you walk and are sad? And the one of them whose name
was Cleophas answering said unto him, Ortho, only a stranger in Jerusalem,
and has not known the things which are come to pass there
in these days. And he said unto them, what things? All of his questions are like
that. He's the one that did these things, but he's asking them
what things? to cause them to search their
heart, to cause them to speak and tell what's in their heart
so that He can teach them, correct them, comfort them. And they
said unto Him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet,
mighty indeed in word before God and all the people, and how
the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned
to death and have crucified him." They were talking about the same
thing that Christ and Moses and Elijah were talking about on
that mountain. Exactly the same thing. They were looking back
on it. But we trusted that it had been
He which should have redeemed Israel. And beside all this,
today is the third day since these things were done. Yea,
and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which
were early at the sepulchre. And when they found not his body,
they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels,
which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulchre and found it even so, as the
women had said, but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools,
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Our Lord was never unnecessarily
harsh to his disciples. He wasn't like a lot of preachers
are, like I don't ever want to be again. Hard-hearted and harsh. But he just told them the truth.
You're fools. You're fools. And that's us. Slow of heart. That means, like I've told you
before, when you see somebody that was born without the capacity to understand things
the way most people are, you say, he's a little slow. In other
words, he's retarded. That's what that means. Stupid. Oh, fools and slow of heart to
believe what? All that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into
his glory? Isn't this exactly what God has
been declaring would happen, should happen, must happen from
the beginning? Ought not he suffer in the place
of his people? Ought not he pay the sin debt
for his chosen ones? Moses and Elijah had written
and believed this very truth all their lives since God had
revealed himself to them. They wrote of this very thing.
No wonder they were talking about it on the Mount with the Lord
Jesus Christ. They weren't talking about how
Moses that day raised that rod in the air and the Red Sea parted
before the people of God. and they walked on dry land to
safety while all their enemies pursued them and that Red Sea
collapsed upon that mighty army of the Egyptians and destroyed
every enemy they had. They didn't talk about that on
the Mount of Transfiguration, although that's a beautiful picture
of the redeeming power of Christ crucified. If you're going to
stand still and see the salvation of God, you're going to have
to look at the cross and see who hung there and why. and what
he accomplished there. They didn't talk about Elijah
and all of the great miracles that the Lord enabled him to
do, although they pictured the Lord Jesus and His miraculous
saving power and the grace of God in saving the poor and hopeless
in spirit. They didn't talk about that morning
that Elijah and his servant woke up And his servant went outside
the tent, and there was a massive army surrounding those two men. They were surrounded by an army
of God's enemies. And it says in 2 Kings 6.15,
when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone
forth, behold, and host compassed the city both with horses and
chariots. And his servant said unto him, alas, my master, how
shall we do? What in the world are we going
to do? This is the same question they
asked in the book of Acts when Peter preached the gospel to
them. You know, that servant there,
he wasn't asking, what's our plan? How are we going to? We
can beat him. What are we going to do about
it? What's our plan? Let's work something out. No,
that's the cry of despair. What are we going to do? We're
done for. And that's the same thing that
happened in the book of Acts when the gospel was preached.
They said, what men and brethren, what shall we do? What are we going? We've killed
God's son. How are you going to make up
for that? How in the world can you stand before God and say,
well, my good outweighs my bad when you killed his son in cold
blood? What shall we do? They didn't
talk about that great miraculous morning when the prophet, he
said this to that servant, fear not for they that be with us
are more than they that be with them. You reckon that servant
took another look and said, what in the world are you talking
about? In his heart at least. But then Elisha prayed And said,
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elijah. When Moses and Elijah appeared
there with the Lord Jesus Christ, they didn't talk about that.
They didn't talk about Moses and the prophets, although all
that All that took place in those days. Moses had been dead for
1,500 years. Elijah, almost a thousand years. The Lord Jesus Christ hadn't
died yet. They didn't talk about all those
things that happened back then, even though everything that happened
then Pictured what was about to happen. Set forth and exalted Christ
crucified. Every one of them. Everything.
That's what our Lord said there on the way to Emmaus. He opened
Moses and Elijah and the account of Elisha that we read and the
words and experiences of Abraham and all of those things recorded
in the Old Testament. And He showed them the things
in that concerning Himself. How that all of that pictured
Himself and set forth Christ and what He would do for His
people when He came to this earth. What He would accomplish. The
death that He should accomplish. That's what God's people have
been talking about from the beginning. And on the mount there, when
they appeared in glory, Even when they didn't have any good
sense, they talked about that. Now that they're glorified, what
are they going to talk about? But the debt that he should accomplish.
They spoke of that which all of God's word pictures and typifies
and reveals and exalts Christ crucified. And after this experience,
this transfiguration, this voice from heaven, this conversation
that they overheard, it says they were afraid. and comforted by Christ. After
Peter made that suggestion, when it says he didn't know what he
was saying. Before, it says, as he yet spake,
before he even got those words out of his mouth, God spoke.
Aren't you glad that the Lord interrupts our foolishness? And speaks the truth that causes
us to receive it in our heart. This is my son. This is my beloved
son. Hear him. There's nothing you
need to do. Hear him. They were afraid, it says, and
Jesus came and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man. You know how to not be afraid
in this world? Just look to Him. Only. What did He say to that
one man? Only believe. They saw no man save Jesus only. If Peter had done that, he never
would have sunk. When did he sink? When he started
looking at the winds and the waves. Back in Luke 24 there where we
read where the Lord showed these disciples in the Word of God
what Moses and Elijah were speaking of in our text. It says later
in that chapter, listen to these words. He was talking to them. They were talking about the same
thing Moses and Elijah were talking about with the Lord on that mountain,
the decease which He should accomplish. But they were sad. They didn't
understand. But He spoke to them. It says this in Luke 24, 44.
He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you. I told you this was going to
come to pass. And I said, Don't be afraid. Don't be sad. Let not your heart be troubled."
And here they are troubled. What about you? That all these
things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses
and in the Prophets. When I told them to you, it wasn't
the first time you heard of them. Have you ever read the Scripture
anywhere? And listen, it already said,
talked about Moses and the prophets and how they revealed Christ
he includes the Psalms here in this passage he said these things
which must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me that includes
and encompasses the entire Old Testament concerning me Jesus
only then opened he their understanding the difference between witnessing
these things and having read them in the Word of God, and having heard them from the
very voice of the Master Himself, and being sad and confused and
stupid and slow, and hearing it and seeing the glory of God
in saving sinners. Hearing it and seeing how God
can be just and justify a worm like me, hearing it and understanding. The difference between those
two is he opened their understanding that they might understand. And said unto them, thus it is
written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission
of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem and ye are witnesses of these things." Now they had
been witnesses of his very death and resurrection. Some of them
saw him in his very glory there and heard the very voice of God
testify of him but it wasn't until by God's grace and the
very power of Christ to open their understanding that they
understood the scriptures that they could be true witnesses
of these things. Five minutes ago, how would they
witness of Him? They didn't even know what happened. They were sad and confused about
it. How are they going to be witnesses? What made them witnesses
is God revealed His Word to them. And that's what will make us
witnesses. They saw with their very eyes and yet had no idea
what they saw until God revealed His Gospel to them. Has He done
that for you? I pray that he will, for Christ's
sake, for his glory, hear him. Jesus, God's son only, hear him. Let's bow in prayer.