Luke chapter 9 if you're in your
Bibles Luke chapter 9 now the title of our message today is
eye witnesses of his majesty eye witnesses of his majesty
now what's taking place as we have been privileged to go through
the gospel of Luke and observe and watch our Lord's work particularly
with the disciples, but in a larger sense with all the people to
whom he ministered, I want to remind you once again of the
uniqueness, the uniqueness of having a Bible which allows you
to read about the incarnate God. I want to remind you of the uniqueness
of having a Bible which allows you to read and therefore comprehend
mentally about the incarnate God. There is something special
about that epic where God took on a human nature, lived among
us, ministered among us, and then left having accomplished
his father's will. Thank God that you have an opportunity
to view and to peruse and to think upon the God-man Jesus
Christ. It is God's mercy to us to reveal
Himself to us in the person of Christ. It's His mercy to human
beings like us for God, the infinite, glorious, transcendent God, to
communicate to us in the person of Christ. Therefore, for you
who are believers, ask God for every grace to learn everything
you possibly can about how God has revealed himself to us in
the person of Christ. everything he did everything
he said every act he committed every place he went every gesture
he engaged in his relationship with the masses his Relationship
with individuals his relationship particularly with the disciples
are all for our learning there is no knowing about God apart
from Christ and when we have grasped our by the spirit of
God, some understanding of the character and nature of God in
Christ, we have truly grasped something about God. Today, we are going to pick up
where our Lord in the busyness of his ministry schedule has
chosen to take three of his disciples to a place because he knows from
here he will be now making his descent to Jerusalem within six
months to a year's time for the purpose of accomplishing eternal
redemption. The events that are taking place
here in Luke chapter nine are for our learning and our admonition. You may have read this account
many times. You may have also had it preached
to you. God may have wonderfully and
gloriously revealed to you the significance of this account.
If that's the case, you are blessed. But just like I like eating beans
and cornbread again and again and again and again, just have
another bowl of beans and cornbread. They get better and better, don't
they? They get better and better. What we are told by the author
Luke in verse 28 is that one of the reasons for which Christ
took himself and Peter, John and James, who are called pillars
of the church, up into a mountain was in order to pray. I want to call your attention
to the first point in our outline, prayer for power. To proceed. Prayer for power. To proceed, I will not belabor
this point, but I will say this, as I've said it so many times
before, if Christ. The son of God felt it necessary
to pray in order for him to proceed in his ministry. Don't you think
that you and I need to be praying? One of the most humbling and
appealing things to me about our master is his prayer life. See, it's one thing to pray,
it's another thing to have a prayer life. You can't read the gospels
and not notice You can't read the gospels and not notice that
for the Lord Jesus Christ, prayer was something he did often. He
prayed in the wilderness when he was tempted by the devil,
did he not? Our Lord Jesus is seen in the scriptures, recorded
in the scriptures as having prayed at mealtimes. You remember when
he multiplied the loaves, he broke it and he blessed it, he
thanked his father for the meal. He prayed at mealtimes. Do you
know our Lord prayed when he was happy? Matthew chapter 11
tells us he lifted his head to heaven and he said, Father, I
thank you that you have not revealed these things to the wise and
the prudent, but unto babes, for so it seemed good in your
sight. It appears that our Lord Jesus Christ took full advantage
of all of his human faculties because God gave us a body to
praise him. and he gave us emotions in order
to accurately respond to his goodness in our life. So I think
prayer is due whenever you're happy. Whenever you're joyful,
pray. Our Lord also prayed when he
was sad. Remember his friend Lazarus died?
The two shortest words in the Bible is what? Jesus wept. Well, the text said he also prayed. He prayed. So our master prayed
when he was sad. You know, sometimes people fail
to pray when they're sad. But the Bible tells me if there
be any afflicted among you, let him what? Pray. So it seems to
me a very appropriate thing for spiritual men and women. Now
we've learned the difference between a soul man and a spiritual
man, have we not? That a spiritual man will find
himself or herself praying on all occasions. We thank God for
the food. We thank God for difficult times,
do we not? We thank God for the favorable
times of blessing. We thank him for friends, don't
we? We thank him also for enemies. Don't be quick to answer that.
We thank God for successes, but we also thank him for tragedies
Yes, we do because we know who understand the grace of God in
the all-surpassing Providence of God that all things work together
for good to them that love God. I don't have a problem saying
Lord I thank you for this trial because at the end of it I'm
gonna be better than at the beginning Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. Isn't that what the scriptures
say? I And so our Lord not only prayed in tragic times, he's
about to be taken, betrayed by Judas Iscariot, denied by the
apostles, by the disciples and taken by the Roman rulers. And
what is he doing? He's praying. He prayed in our
tragedy and he prayed in his own tragedy. Our Lord is hanging
on Calvary's tree. being the mediator of his people
and the substitute for sinners and bearing the wrath of God
as the only qualified lamb. And what is he doing? Praying.
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I am taught,
therefore, by this characteristic of Christ, the incarnate Christ,
that Jesse, you must always pray. It appears to me also that this
kind of prayer life of our master affected the disciples. How do
we know that? In Luke chapter 11, verse one,
after our master had prayed another period of time in a unique time,
the disciples, grown men, say to the master, Lord, teach us
how to pray. Now that, the Lord must have
been a mighty prayer warrior for him to have been asked by
the disciples how to pray. Because you see, people think
they know how to pray. But we we we wing everything,
you know, we we in americans. Well, we wing everything Don't
we we we just come out of the box knowing everything don't
we? But have you asked the lord to teach you how to pray the
disciples? upon this unique privilege of
seeing christ Realized that whomever they were taught to pray by mama.
Daddy are the jewish leaders. They were taught inadequately
And thus when they saw our master in his frequent and constant
disposition of prayer, they were compelled to ask, teach us how
to pray like that. And it wasn't saints about them
being able to get ahold of God in order for God to give them
something. They realized that the son of God had a connection
with the father that was demonstrated in the context of prayer of which
they did not have. You meet someone that really
knows how to pray and you are taught inwardly that your prayers
are pathetic compared to theirs. Isn't that true? Certainly it's
the case here. Our Lord Jesus Christ went up
into a high mountain, as Luke puts it, to pray. Mark's gospel
says he went up into a high mountain in order to get away from the
people to have a private time with the disciples. One of the
things we're learning about the gospel accounts is how caring
Christ is for his people. Doesn't he care for us? Doesn't
Christ care for us? See, be very careful. As true
as it is that he is the infinite God, he is omniscient God. He is everywhere present in his
ontological and original essence. He is God Almighty. He is also
the God-man who can sympathize with our infirmities and throughout
the gospel accounts It's very clear that he cared for people
and more particularly for his disciples now our Lord had an
itinerary of ministry that was beyond our comprehension and
he was dragging 12 men along with him and he was wearing them
out and From time to time, more frequently, he would have to
take them to the wayside just so they could get a little reprieve,
just some rest, which teaches us something about ministry too.
When ministry is done on all eight cylinders, it's a lot of
work. When we are doing ministry the
way God calls us to do ministry, there are seasons in which rest
is absolutely prudent and necessary. Our Lord has taken them up to
rest. And for us, rest doesn't mean to sit back on a pillow,
have somebody throw grapes in our mouth and drink Pina Coladas.
It means to rest in a sense of restoration and refreshment by
meditating on the things of God and getting prepared to continue
ministry so we see that Luke says they were there to pray
and what's also marked about this we'll see in verse 29 is
that he was the one praying do you see that and it says important
verse 29 and as he prayed the fashion of his countenance, that
is, his face was altered, and his raiment was white and glycerine. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elijah." What we have before
us is a very marked account, an account in which Christ, I
am sure, knows that this will serve for the disciples to seal
for them events that are about to take place of which no other
experience would have been able to sufficiently seal for them
since they would be called upon to take the gospel into all the
world. They are about to experience
something of enormous significance, which brings us to our second
point, awaking to the revelation of his glory. Awaking to the
revelation of his glory. The context is Christ is praying
The assumption is that the disciples are praying right along with
the Lord Jesus, right? He took them up into a mountain
to pray. We see that he is praying Might we also assume that the
disciples are praying well in the context no In the context
the disciples are doing what the disciples often do when they
are tired sleeping I almost developed a point called sleeping while
praying, but I decided not to make that a side route, although
some of you are professionals at that. It's something quite interesting
with regards to prayer as it is with preaching and witnessing
and telling people about Christ. It really is a supernatural thing. It's something spiritual. The
unsaved man does not pray. He may go through some form of
veneration and expression and articulation of words, but to
be really someone who prays to the true of the living God, you
have to be born of God. Authentic prayer comes from a
place of communion between the father and his son. His sons,
S-O-N-S, where the spirit of adoption is given to you by which
you are able to now commune with God. It is a familial thing. Might I also say prior to your
salvation, whatever you call prayer was not prayer. The Bible
tells us with regards to the apostle Paul when God knocked
him down on the Damascus road and revealed his glory to him
He told Ananias go to a house on a street called straight You'll
find a man there named Paul and guess what? He will be doing
for the first time in his life pray When a man or woman is actually
born again like the baby that comes out of the womb crying
So we cry our father And it's not merely just the emotional
outburst because we are, as it were, you know, bereft of need. It is a natural disposition on
the part of the believer to call on God. But we must also admit
that while as yet we are in a state of grace, we are not in a state
of glory. And being in a state of grace,
we are operating both with a new nature and a fallen nature and
a body that makes it hard to pray. Am I telling the truth? So Jesus said to the disciples
in another place, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is
what? So on this occasion, what do
we find our brothers doing while our master is praying? They're
sleeping. Well, I can say they're sleeping because they're tired.
I've been tired and I've fallen asleep in prayer, haven't you?
I wanted to pray, but the flesh took over. then I started having
dreams and revelations so the disciples are in this is what
religious folk calling I was having a dream in revelation
I bet you were sowing wood that's what you were doing the disciples
are asleep the master is praying and then the disciples awake
to something look at verse 30 30 32 but Peter and they that were
with him were heavy with what and they weren't just sleep.
They were heavy with sleep And when they were awakened, the
original verb form here means that they had begun to arouse
out of sleep and were in process of opening their eyes. And so
they were in a state of drowsiness. They had now awakened from their
slumber and they are beholding something that is taking place
that is absolutely magnificent before them. And so in our context,
point number two, awakening to the revelation of his glory.
I might carry that over into a redemptive principle too, because
do you know that when you come to a place of seeing the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, it is a kind of awakening? Do
you know that God has to awake you out of the sleep of sin,
and the sleep of darkness, and the sleep of death, and there
is a revelation and awakening that takes place? Awake thou
that sleepest, and Christ will give you light. Men and women
are sleepwalking until they come to see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus. They are sleepwalking Justice
sleeve and justice ignorant and justice dead and blind to the
glory of God until the gospel penetrates the mind and reveals
Christ to them and Awakens them in all of their spiritual members.
It is an Awakening and the disciples are experiencing this this state
of incognito in which they were in is not uncommon All throughout
the Old Testament history, the prophets were put in these sort
of half-sleep states, weren't they? Daniel was in a half-sleep
state in Daniel 9 and 10, of which during that time God revealed
to Daniel what we would call the pre-incarnate, post-resurrected,
glorified Christ. And in that incognito state,
he was able to see something of the glory of God in Christ
and speak with Christ in that incognito state. Ezekiel was
the same way. You read Ezekiel 1 and 2 and
Ezekiel 10 and 11. And Ezekiel says, my face was
on the ground. I was out. And the Lord had to
grab me by the back of my hair and lift me up and bring me into
the revelations of Christ. And there's a sense in which
we must appreciate then the blessing of coming under sound God-anointed
preaching. Because you may not admit it,
but you are a little bit more sleep. prior to the preaching
and the work of the Spirit of God in the preaching than you
were during the preaching or after the preaching. Am I making
some sense? There's a greater sense of awareness, a greater
clarity that takes place while the preaching is going on. When
the Word of God is being taught, the soul, as it were, is being
illuminated, the mind is being quickened, the understanding
is being enlightened as if I am waking out of sleep. It's a wonderful
thing, isn't it? Isn't it a wonderful thing to
be under sound, God-exalting, Christ-glorifying preaching?
Isn't it a wonderful thing? Isn't it a wonderful thing for
God to wake his people up in the preaching? Just to wake you
up. So we sleepwalk to church, don't
we? I'm going to church to get awakened
by the Spirit of God. And then to be able to leave
with more understanding of my Savior's beauty and glory than
I had before. See, what I'm talking to you
about is what we call all of grace. All of grace. All of grace. This is a work
of God. But before us, there are some
lessons for us to learn this awakening to the revelation of
his glory, what these men had seen and what was said to these
men would frame and seal their ministry from here on out. This
was a necessary revelation for which I am sure our Lord led
these soon to be pillars of his church to the mount for this
experience. The disciples didn't know, but
that they were about to inherit a magnificent stewardship right
here. Point number three, the promise
of his glory revealed prophesied the promise of his glory revealed
prophesied look at verse 27 of our text and all the authors
Bring together these this this promise that's given in verse
27 adjacent to this revelation on The mountain where the lord
has taken the disciples. Here's what he says over in verse
Let me start at verse 26 for whosoever shall be ashamed of
me And of my words of him shall the son of man be ashamed when
he shall come in his own what glory? And in his fathers and
of the holy angels But, this here's a contrasting clause,
I tell you of a truth. There be some standing here which
shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God.
Mark's gospel says until the kingdom of God comes with power.
Until the kingdom of God comes about now because we here in
America American Christians are capitalists We love to sell stuff.
So immediately we take this verse and apply it to what we call
in time theology And we're talking about Jesus second coming so
people can make money on writing books and selling it but I want
to warn you that this text is not speaking of the final coming
of Christ and but rather the promise of the revelation of
the central glory of the kingdom of God in the person of Christ
as these men are experiencing it right now. Often Christ would
tell them of things to come of which he would give them a prelude
or a precursor shortly after telling them about future things.
In other words, when you hear about future things, don't think
of future things as remotely in the far distance. Sometimes
future things are things right around the corner. And that's
important in biblical interpretation too, because in our present pre-dispensational
age, as you know, dispensational theology makes a whole lot of
stock out of what's going to happen in the end time. premillennial
dispensational theology and they take a lot of verses of which
many of us would argue those verses don't apply to the end
time but they apply to the end of the old dispensation and they
apply to the cross work of Christ and they apply to the exaltation
of Christ as both Lord and Christ as Paul our Peter speaks of him
in Acts chapter 2 God have made him both Lord and Christ we're
not waiting for God to make him Lord in Christ he is We're not
waiting for the king to take his throne. He has we're not
waiting for him to rule over the nations. He does To the glory
of his father and the salvation of his people and we rejoice
in it and the disciples here about to taste of the power of
the kingdom of God How do I know that my interpretation has validity
go with me in your Bible to 2nd Peter chapter 1 2nd Peter chapter
1 listen to how Peter remember the Peters among these three,
right and He's probably the one that's sleeping the hardest.
But Peter's among these three. And he was the one who was able
to write these things down under inspiration. And he says in verse
16 of second Peter one for we have not followed cunningly devised
fables when we made known unto you. Now I want you to mark the
way Peter describes the experience. We Have not followed cunningly
devised fables when we made known unto you watch this the power
Do you see it and the coming? Of our lord jesus christ. He's
not talking about christ coming in the second coming He's talking
about what we're reading in luke chapter 9 He called it power
And he called it coming Akuma Christ came in a way that Christ
hadn't come before Christ manifested a power in a way that he had
manifested before and it was exclusive to the disciples the
power and coming and Watch this and we were eyewitnesses of his
what now when you use that term majesty you are calling him sovereign
and There was something about the event that sealed in the
hearts of the disciples the absolute sovereignty of Christ. It's beautiful. Listen to the language. For he
received from God the Father honor and glory. Do you see it? 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 and This voice which came from heaven. What
did Peter say we heard? When we were with him, here's
the phraseology in the Holy Mount Do you see it that event was
important to Peter and it should be important to us go back to
our text Let's work through this The promise of his glory revealed
prophesied in verse 27 of chapter nine is also stated in Matthew
16, 28 and Mark chapter nine. And the apostles here are privileged
to see this. They would see his glory, his
kingdom and his power manifested centrally in the person of Christ.
And it would, it would for them be the transition of authority
from the Old Testament church to the New Testament church by
way of Christ, who is the executor of the covenant through the disciples
who would be the stewards administering the covenant to the New Testament
church. They are about to see something
of which I want you to benefit in terms of what they are experiencing.
Point number three in our outline, point number four in our outline
rather, his glory from Genesis to Revelation Witnessed His glory
from Genesis to Revelation witness whose glory the glory of God
in Christ The glory of God is Christ When we say his glory
we are talking about the glory of the triune God as manifested
in the person of Christ There is no other place where God's
glory resides but in Christ Are you guys hearing me? The glory
of God that emanates and manifests itself in any other place is
merely a reflection or a consequent of the central glory that has
its origins in the person of Christ. In other words, Christ
is the center and effulgence of God's glory and everything
else simply benefits from the radiation of that glory. Does
that help you understand what I'm getting at? Listen the text
tells us and Luke makes this clear that when the disciples
opened their eyes they saw a mediating Savior in the midst of prayer
Manifesting the glory of God not from heaven downward from
inside of him outward There's a radical difference between
between what Paul saw on the Damascus road of the glory of
God proceeding down from heaven and what Peter, James, and John
sees of the glory of God manifesting itself in the center of the second
person of the glorious triune God. God's glory was wrapped
up in a human body veiled from the world to see and part of
that glory leaked out in the presence of the apostles so that
they might know where the glory of God has its being and origin. The text tells us it radiated
from his face and the language of white and glycerine is the
best that the Greek language can do for a manifestation of
glory and brilliance and dazzling and whiteness that cannot be
described. Another account of the gospel
says whiter than any fuller soap. That's tacky language for what
they really saw. What they really saw is what
God created you and me for. God created you for his glory.
He created you to behold His glory, to be a partaker of His
glory, and to live out of His glory. Did you know that? When
God created you in His image and in His likeness, He created
you to be an object of His glory. He created us with the possibility
and the prospect of us dwelling in the midst of ineffable bliss. He created us for that. We are
in the process of being brought back to that place right now.
The redemption that you and I are experiencing is leading to one
place. Are you ready? Glory. Listen,
when you listen, when your head gets on backwards like Rosemary's
baby, you know, you walk. Listen to me. Listen to me. And you are a believer. You're
actually born of God. Stop for a moment and say, listen, knucklehead,
we're headed to glory. It's necessary in order to bring
all these other things that get in our way, that get in our life,
that hinder us, that stifle us, that are obstacles to what God
has called us to. Didn't He call us to a high calling?
a holy calling, a heavenly calling, a high mark in Christ Jesus.
You know what that is? The glory of God. I'm headed
to glory. If you believe on Christ, you're
headed to glory. What on earth then is even worthy
of the least hesitation of that journey? And see, if I keep that
in mind, I will do well. In our marriage series about
six months ago, as we opened up the series called Rules of
Engagement, one of the things I said to married couples is,
when you get married, if you don't make as your ultimate aim
for the husband and the wife and the whole of your family
the glory of God. The wins and trials and snares
and gins, the difficulties of relationship, all the worldly
counsel, devils and demons will have a great way in your life
because your ultimate aim is not what God has called you for. As a married couple, your aim
is glory. Therefore, it should regulate
and advise everything you do. Every decision you make, every
choice you make should be regulated by this. Does this advance me,
my wife, my family's agenda toward the glory of God? See, God called
me to be married for his glory. He called me to live in the context
of marriage, to head towards glory. Everything in my marriage
is designed to lead me to glory. And you too, short of that, your
life is going to be difficult. Your aim is too low. Our aim
for the people of God must be glory. It will keep in check
all of the foolish notions and thoughts that enter into. You
know how we get sidetracked. Can I get one witness in here?
We get sidetracked. And as soon as you get sidetracked,
all of the liars and fools and cons and crips, they can get
you at that point because you forgot your journey was about
the glory of God and you settled for something less. The disciples
here are privileged To see the king of glory That's his name
in this name the king of glory. Don't we call him the lord of
glory? Isn't he the prince of glory? That's what the scripture
says. The king of glory has appeared to these men. The lord of glory
has manifested himself to them He is the prince of glory And
they get to enjoy this They get to enjoy this pastor. What's
going on his glory from Genesis to Revelation witnessed. The disciples have a front row
seat. In fact, it's only them in church today. The ministry of the word is taking
place between Christ, Moses and Elijah. They have an opportunity
to have the book opened up to them and the gospel preached
to them by these three men culminating in the subject of that book,
which is Christ. They get a chance on this day
to get their theology corrected, confirmed and sealed in preparation
for their own ministry. They have the audience of the
greatest preacher in the world. His name is Jesus. They have
the witness of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, Moses
and Elijah. But that's a worship service,
isn't it? And here you, listen, God grace
you to wake you up out of your stupor and sleep to hear the
greatest message in the world. So what shall we learn from what's
in front of us? Are you ready? Your Bible, from
Genesis to Revelation, is a compilation of biblical truth that has, as
its sum total, one message. Christ and Him crucified. Christ
and Him crucified. Christ, the glory of God. Christ, the power of God. Christ,
the wisdom of God. Christ is all in all. Your Bible
from Genesis to Revelation is the Amen of God. He is the Alpha
and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last. And this whole book is a word concerning Christ. The disciples are about to be
sealed in this reality of which you and I fully understand. And
so we read over in verse 29, he prayed And the fashion of
his confidence was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening.
And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses
and Elijah." Moses and Elijah. In this, we have a conversation
between the law and the prophets. Watch this, and their author.
You got that? In this, we have a conversation
between the law and the prophets. the author. No one can deny that
the law is represented and personified by who? Moses. And no one can
deny that the prophets, all of them, are summed up in Jewish
thinking under the person of Elijah. What we have in our context
is the whole of the Old Testament scripture in the presence of
the author of those scriptures, Jesus Christ. The disciples therefore
get to see the Tanakh, the whole of the Torah and the law and
the writings coming to the very author of the book himself. And
the text tells us that they have been for 1,500 years witnessing
to the coming of Christ. Witnessing. Witnessing. If you
read your Bible right, with a very clear work of the Spirit of God. From Genesis to Malachi, it's
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Our fundamental hermeneutic in
this church is Christ is the testimony of Scripture. Christ
is our hermeneutic. He is our grid. He is our method
of interpretation He is the aim and goal for which we preach
and teach and we follow what his word says John 5 39 tells
us you are searching the scriptures and in them You think you have
eternal life, but they are they which what testify of me? we are told in Revelation chapter
19 10 that the spirit of prophecy is When a person actually has
the spirit of prophecy, they're not talking about healings and
dreams and visions and being able to twist God's arm for houses.
The spirit of prophecy is the gift of the Holy Ghost that allows
a man or woman and the people of God to see, know, understand,
and declare that Jesus Christ is the message of this book.
So we say with the Apostle Paul in first Corinthians chapter
2 verse 2 I am determined to know nothing among you but Christ
and him crucified and I believe in the Old Testament writings
and I believe in the New Testament writings and I believe the spirit
of prophecy in Psalm 40 verse 7 which says lo I Come in the
totality of the book. It's written about me so you
can read the Bible and miss the author and if you do you haven't
read the Bible, right and But what the disciples are doing
on this day is being witnessed to by Moses and Elijah coming
to Christ because they're about to seal up the covenant. Seal it up. Seal it up. Do you know what they're talking
about? His death that he should accomplish at Calvary. Isn't
that what the text says? Look at what it says here in
verse 31. Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory spake of his
deceased. See that term deceased? That's
our Greek term exodus from which we get the term to departure.
Peter talked about it himself in first Peter chapter two. The
Lord has shown me how I must put off this body. The word exodus
means to depart. It means to leave one state and
go to another. And what Moses and Elijah are doing on the Mount
that we call the Mount of Transfiguration is affirming that all the Old
Testament Scriptures are now about to be fulfilled because
the author of the Scriptures is at the point where he will
now be crucified. When you read your Bible, therefore,
make sure that you look for Christ in the Scriptures. Ask God to
reveal Christ to you in the Scriptures. Your soul won't be satisfied
until Christ is revealed to you. in the scriptures. That's the
work of the Spirit of God. And when He, the Spirit of truth
has come, He will take the things of mine and He will what? Show
them to you. He will not speak of Himself.
He will not boast of what He does. The Holy Ghost will not
make Himself independent of the Son and independent of the Father
so that all the church folks are stuck on the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost's job is not to glorify himself. He came to glorify
the Son, just as the Son came to glorify the Father. Thus,
we conclude that a church has the Holy Ghost evidently when
they exalt and preach and worship and glorify the Son of God. Did you hear what I just said?
See, I've taught this in theology before and you've got to get
this. When the son came, he says, I came not to do my own will,
but the will of him that sent me and to finish his word. So
when you see me, you see the father. The son is the silhouette
of the father. This is what we understand in
John chapter one, verse one. In the beginning was the word
and the word was with God. The Word of God with God, the
profile of God, the face of God, the image of God. You can't know
God apart from the Word. The Word is the very profile
of God. That's why he says, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. And if Christ came to reveal
the Father in himself without variation, so the Holy Ghost. Mark this then. There is nothing
that the Holy Ghost does that Christ didn't already do. So
when you talk about how the Holy Ghost acts, you better find Christ
acting that way first, because the Holy Ghost doesn't say, do
or act any different than the Son. His job is to silhouette
the Son, to make the Son a reality in our life to our souls so that
we might be conformed to his image. Am I making some sense?
Am I making some sense? This is so very critical. The
disciples here are privileged to see the baton being passed
from Moses and Elijah. The Old Testament law is now
being summed up in the person of Christ. And they don't know
what else is about to take place, but they are witnessing, they
are witnessing a conversation and point number B in our outline,
they are witnessing also the confirmation that Calvary would
consummate the covenant. I call it in our outline ground
zero. Ground zero, what you talking about? Listen, you can't know
anything about God except you go to ground zero. Ground zero
is where all the work was done. The cross of Jesus Christ is
the place where God reveals his glory. He manifests His holiness,
His righteousness, His justice, His mercy, His kindness, His
goodness. Both are manifested to sinners
like us in the person of Christ on Calvary Street. Am I making
some sense? You can't know God in mercy apart
from Calvary. You can't know God in justice
apart from Calvary. You can't know God in salvation,
redemption, and glory apart from Calvary. Calvary is where God
reveals Himself to sinners without destroying them. Calvary is where
God reveals himself to sinners without destroying them. Mercy
and peace, truth and righteousness. They kiss each other. They come
together right here at Calvary's tree with the God men hanging
there between God's glory. Man's sinful state and the Apostles
are able to observe this here the conversation Moses and Elijah
appear in glory what glory the glory of Christ They obtained
that when they died didn't they Moses died in a unique way. He
was taken up into the mouth of orb He couldn't cross over into
the promised land No one saw when he died only we have the
record of Jude that the devil labored for his body But obviously
he failed Because he ended up in glory. Elijah was taken up
in a whirlwind into glory. When we die, if you're the Lord's,
guess where you go? To glory. To be absent from the
body is to be what? Present with the Lord. Entering
into his glory. That's why he purchased you.
Remember what he said in his mediatorial prayer of John 17?
Father, I will that those whom you have given me be with me
where I am. That's how much Christ loves
the purchase possession. He wants us to be with him. Now watch this. I want to be
with him, too. I want to be with him, too. I
want to be where he is, too. And in Christ, I'm there. That's
what we're going to talk about in the series in him. The apostles
get a chance to see this and witness this language. And certainly
for them, this will form. Listen, this will form their
gospel. This will structure how they
talk how they preach how they communicate but not before they
stumble listen to what verse 32 said But peter and they that
were with him were heavy with sleep and it came to pass in
verse 33 That as they departed that is moses and elijah peter
said unto jesus Master, it is good for us to be here and let
us make three tabernacles One for thee and one for moses and
one for elias not knowing what he said Now have you ever said
something? not knowing what you said. Do you know how bad this statement
was? Do you know how bad this statement was? This statement
was so bad that the father had to intervene before he got the
words out of his mouth. Heaven had to open up and the
father had to speak. Wait a minute, Peter. Do you
hear me? Because you know what we'll do
when we don't understand the gospel? Is we will start establishing
rivals with Christ. This is what I'm saying about
the Holy Ghost. People who are ignorant of the
design and purpose and scope of the ministry of the Holy Ghost
makes him a rival to Jesus. Like Jesus is just a means to
an end to get to the Holy Ghost. Are you hearing me? And then
legalists have done it for decades and for centuries. Make the Old
Testament law a rival with the gospel. Works religion does that
all the time. They say Christ plus grace plus
salvation through Christ alone plus Peter in his ignorance was
saying Christ plus. Are you hearing me? God said,
no, it's not Christ plus. It's Christ alone. It's Christ
alone. It's Christ alone. And the text
is so very clear. Having said that listen to what
the scripture says verse 34 while he thus spake there came a cloud
and overshadowed them and they feared as they entered into the
cloud and there came a voice out of the cloud saying this
is My beloved son watch this here him You know what Peter
tells us in 2nd Peter chapter 1 and we heard And we heard this
was the one time they heard that We heard They fear and quake
because heaven opened up and out of the couple of times that
God spoke from heaven You know through the Gospels when he spoke
from heaven The only thing God had to say was this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased The second time he spoke is here.
He says hear ye him God has nothing to say to us apart from Christ
This is what we're getting at You cannot make more of Christ
than he is You cannot speak more of Christ than there is there
is nothing but Christ Christ is all Are you hearing me? Christ is all Christ is all and
God is making him that way too And so what we find in point
C is Christ is the end of the law as a rule of life for the
people of God Do you see that ground zero teaches us this?
that Moses brought to the law, but grace and truth came by who?
Jesus Christ. That's what ground zero teaches
us. When you understand Calvary, you're right. Here's what you
understand, that you and I have broken God's holy law, violated
God's holy law. God's holy standard is what condemns
all of us, right? The wages of sin is what? That's
very clear. All of us have sinned and come
short of the glory of God the law of God shuts our mouth but
the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 3 that the righteousness
of God the Righteousness of God have been revealed apart from
the law and the prophets being witnessed by the law and the
prophets Romans 3 23, that's what we have going on right here
What is God's righteousness? It's Christ. I It's revealed
apart from Moses and Elijah, but they are confirming him,
are they not? So listen, when we say that we
are men and women of grace, we are not pitting the law against
the grace of God, but we are subordinating the law to the
grace of God. When we say Jesus alone, we are
not abolishing the law, but we are subsuming both Moses and
the law under the author, which is Christ himself, where it properly
belongs. What we teach when we say I am
not under law, but under grace, we are teaching that we are under
the law of Christ. And as being under the law of
Christ, listen to me now, as being under the law of Christ,
by the grace of God, there are a couple of things that are essential
for you to know. If I am in Christ, by virtue of him being my substitute,
all of the laws demands were perfectly fulfilled by him and
imputed to me. Thus, with regards to the law
of God, it has no claim on me in terms of obedience. Did you
hear what I just said? By virtue of Christ's perfect
righteousness, imputed to me, the law of God stands over against
me as a friend. a friend as a Companion it will
shed light on my fallen nature will remind me once again that
I stand only by grace But it has no claim on my soul in terms
of justification or sanctification Christ is all my righteousness
And I read God's law not in order that I might seek to live or
attain to its righteous holy standards But that I might watch
this see Christ in the scriptures And then because I'm in love
with Christ by the Holy Ghost, I want to live for Christ. See,
for us, the law is embodied in a person. That person is Christ. Christ is my law. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? I couldn't do nothing with those
10 commandments if God gave them to me, but break them just like
those knucklehead Jews did before the commandments even cooled
down. Smoke's still on the stones. They're down at the bottom of
the hill committing idolatry. I would have did the same thing,
eating barbecue and eating beans. I'd have done the same thing.
But by God's mercy and the person of Christ, the law of God can
be given to me graciously And I can long to live for God's
glory because I see his glory in the person of Christ. Am I
making some sense? I can long to live for God's glory without
the threat of failing. Because in the eyes of God, I've
already succeeded. Am I making some sense? Am I
making some sense? It's critical to understand for
those who are in Christ Jesus, the only way God can speak in
the past tense of us being perfect in Christ, new creatures in Christ,
the righteousness of God in Christ is for God to have already satisfied
the claims and demands of holy justice and his righteous law.
For God, the law has been perfected in the person of Christ and the
merits of that righteousness has been imputed to me by faith
alone. by faith alone. And in fact,
I can't receive it any other way, but then by, watch it now,
faith alone, faith alone, faith alone. Now this boasting in Christ,
of which I'm sharing with you now, could only have come if
the Lord did what he did in bringing those men to the mountain, showing
them what he showed them, and then qualifying them to pass
that message on to us. So we go to our last point. So
very critical for us to know this. When Peter said what he
said, the father intervened and he affirmed what we call the
exclusivity and preeminence of Christ. That's verse 34, 35. This is my beloved son, preeminence,
hear ye him, exclusivity. Christ is the message of the
church. He was the message of the apostles.
The apostles are the foundation of the church, Ephesians chapter
2, 18 through 20. The church is built upon the
apostles and the prophets and Jesus Christ, the what? Chief
cornerstone. Are you guys following me? The
apostolic ministry was to lay the foundation of the church
in the preaching of Christ alone. They did that. It's been 2000
years since their efforts have been accomplished. And many of
us believe the gospel they preach. Am I making some sense? Do you
remember the day when the gospel came to you in power and broke
your heart and crushed you and laid you low and then opened
your eyes to the beauty and magnificence of Jesus Christ? Do you remember
that day? Your life has not been the same
since. It hasn't been the same since
and you know what God has been teaching you through the gospel
Through the Word of God to this very hour. Are you ready? Christ
is all you need Christ is all you need And in
fact once he has persuaded you that Christ is all you need,
you know, the next thing he persuades you watch this Christ is all
you have And when you understand that
Christ is all you have and Christ is all you need, you now labor
to enter into his rest. Stay right there. Stay right
there. Some of you have never entered
into the rest because you're doing religion. You're doing
church. You have never had the gospel
preached to you in the person and work of Jesus Christ in such
a vivid, cross-centered way. so that you can see what it means
to believe on him. And as such, you have strived
and labored and toiled, going to church and paying tithes and
doing good works, trying to get right with God, because the glory
of the gospel had not been revealed to you. Your soul never heard,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I, not
they, I, not the church, I will rest you. I'll rest you. I'll take that yoke off your
neck. I'll take that yoke off your neck. I'll take that bridle
off your face. I'll rest you in the pasture, green pastures
of my truth. You'll go in and out and you'll
find salvation to your soul. See, the soul has to hear this.
The soul has to hear this. And what it has to hear is the
glorious message of the gospel. So our final point is the simplicity
of the gospel of Christ is the apostolic message. The simplicity
of the gospel of Christ is the apostolic message. What the apostles
preached is what we preach today. Christ in him crucified what
the Apostles preached is that of God are we in Christ who of
God was made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption and that what Paul preached was that Christ
was the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes and
what Paul preached was that by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God not of words
lest any man should boast what Paul preached was that we are
the righteousness of God watch this now in him in Christ the
just for the unjust that he might bring us to God what Paul preached
is that from beginning to end Salvation is all of grace where
Christ alone gets the glory. Are you hearing me? And this
is how you know you say You want to make sure he gets the glory
Are you hearing me? This is how you know you say
that when you hit doctrine and teaching and you see conduct
and manners You ask the question does this glorify the one who
loved me and gave us gave his life for me if it doesn't I don't
want to have nothing to do with it because I love him having
loved me first And I want to see to it that everything that
takes place in my life brings glory to the one whom God lifted
up between heaven and earth and said to the whole world, come
unto me. Whosoever believeth on the Son of God hath life. He that believeth not doth not
have life. The wrath of God still abides
upon him. Because the apostles witnessed
this and have passed this on in the writings to us, And because
the Holy Ghost has been given to the church to preach this
message to us, some of us can raise our right hand and say,
I believe the gospel. I trust Christ as my savior. He's my only hope for glory. I want the world to know Christ
alone, Christ alone is my only hope for glory. Isn't that so?
This is the reason for which right now we will partake of
the Lord's table because God gave him for us. He gave him
for us. Isn't he good? Amen. Amen.