Transfiguration

[00:00:01] Lord, in these remaining moments we do pray that thou wilt draw very near to us. Again. We thank thee for thy presence in our midst, Lord. We thank thee for the glimpse the little had of thee this morning. As we've been together in thy presence. Lord, we ask that the closing part of this morning shall not in any way mar or spoil, but will just be the means by which thy spirit shall lead us into an even closer and fuller looking upon thyself. [00:00:41] Lord, thou knowest the days in which we live. And thou, nurse, o Lord, the need that is around us on every side. And thou knowest also the need that is within our lives, each one. We do ask, Lord, that in grace and in thy mercy, thou wilt visit us anew and renew and rekindle our heart's devotion for thyself. [00:01:04] Sayings that he took with him Peter and John and James and went up into the mountain to pray. [00:01:14] And as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered. And his raiment became white and dazzling. [00:01:23] Behold, there talked with him two men who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spake of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. [00:01:36] Now Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. But when they were fully awake, they saw his glory. And the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass. As they were parting from him, Peter said unto Jesus, master, it's good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles. One for thee, one for Moses, one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. [00:02:05] And while he said these things, there came a cloud and overshadowed them. And they feared as they entered into the cloud. [00:02:13] And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, this is my son, my chosen. Hear ye, him. [00:02:23] And when the voice came, Jesus was found alone. [00:02:30] And then if you will just turn to two corinthians and verse four, chapter four. [00:02:46] Two Corinthians, chapter four, verse six. [00:02:53] Just the last part of that verse. Who shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [00:03:07] And the chapter before, chapter three, verse 18. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. [00:03:36] As I've got some rather disjointed thoughts this morning, I believe that they have something to say to myself and to all as we share them. [00:03:48] It seems to me that in the days in which we live, our greatest need is to see the Lord Jesus himself anew. [00:04:01] I think all of us have got the same capacity as Peter and James and John had. [00:04:09] That is, even when we are walking with the Lord and we are listening to the Lord, and we even know the Lord to a certain measure, yet we are only too ready and prepared to share his glory with others. [00:04:27] There are other things so often in our lives, like Moses and Elijah. Not necessarily evil things, not necessarily illegal things, often very good things, very right things, even spiritual things. [00:04:44] And we have a strange capacity for deepening our devotion to the Lord. Somehow or other, we put the Lord there and we give him so much of our love and our thought and our attention of our life, our being. But then there is perhaps a Moses in our life who is given quite a good deal. [00:05:16] And there may be an elijah in our life who is given also quite a lot. [00:05:23] Of course, these three, if it had been others, if it had been the devil, or if it had been balaam, or if it had been perhaps Saul, King Saul, or some of the others who had appeared, they would have been on their guard straight away. But of course, it was Moses, to them, the greatest of all the prophets, and Elijah, the one of whom it had been said he would come before that great and notable day of the Lord. To them, the two greatest men instrumental in God's purpose. [00:06:06] These two men appeared with the Lord Jesus, and they saw them talking with the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus talking with them. And mark you, the subject of their conversation was nothing paltry. It wasn't something poor. It was the cross, the work of the Lord Jesus, that was the subject of their conversation. And so quite spontaneously, quite naturally, the three of them said through their spokesman Peter. Well, Lord, it's wonderful for us to be here. Oh, isn't this just wonderful to see thy glory. Now, Lord, let's build a tabernacle for thee, and a tabernacle for Moses and a tabernacle for Elijah. [00:07:02] Let's, as it were, have a time of worship. [00:07:07] Let's express our devotion in this way. [00:07:13] And this, in many ways to me at any rate, has become a very real picture of our own life. [00:07:23] It's rather remarkable that the Holy Spirit has, of course, taken this at the very highest level that he could. [00:07:31] He is nothing dealing with the many things in our lives that divide our devotion and detract from the Lord Jesus Christ. No, the Holy Spirit here shows us how our capacity, even with the most blessed things and the most spiritual things, to allow them to divide our devotion to the Lord Jesus, our allegiance to him and somehow other to detract from his person. [00:08:08] You see, in fact, all that we have that we call Christianity is so simple. [00:08:22] We have, again, an unbelievable capacity for complexity. [00:08:29] We somehow or other work out our schemes of doctrine, our systems of teaching, and our whole organized methods of government and everything else, which all become so complex and difficult and so on, when in fact, really and essentially the gospel and the life that is ours in Christ is utter simplicity. You remember Paul once spoke of the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus, the simplicity which is in him. You see, basically, basically, and essentially everything in Christianity is directly related to the person of the Lord Jesus. [00:09:20] And any single thing, when torn away from his person, can become an idol. It could be a Moses, it can be an elijah, but it can become an idol. [00:09:38] It can be the tabernacle itself. Do you remember one very interesting thing in the story of Judah and Israel? You remember the brazen serpent that was used by Moses, that was made at the express command of God and which was used and was instrumental, as everyone looked at it, to their deliverance from the vipers that were poisoning them and killing them. You will remember that later on, many years later, that the brazen serpent became an object of worship. And I believe I am right in saying that it was Hezekiah who had the courage to take it and grind it to powder. [00:10:27] You see, even something used to God can become an idol. [00:10:33] It doesn't matter in many ways what it is. [00:10:39] Whatever it is, it can become an idol. Do you know that christian teaching can, in fact, become an idol? We can worship doctrine instead of Jesus again. The church, if we divorce it from Christ, can become a thing which we worship. [00:11:03] It becomes an idol again. People who have been instrumental in perhaps much blessing in our lives can become idols. If once we begin to take them outside and apart from Christ, friends can become idols. Husbands, wives, children, homes, jobs, everything, anything can become an idol. So what shall we all do? Shall we enter convents and monasteries and get away from homes and families and jobs and places and everything else? No, you'll find as much idolatry there in spirit as anywhere else. You see, it is essentially a question of whether we find everything in Christ or outside of Christ. [00:11:57] So our greatest need, at least in my estimation, for my own life, if not for yours, is to see the Lord Jesus anew. [00:12:08] It is somehow or other to have a fresh vision of the person of the Lord Jesus. You know, it is a sad fact that most of us christians worship a God who is, in fact, very much smaller and very much more confined and restricted than the living God. [00:12:37] There are many of us who have a God who cannot do certain things. [00:12:43] He can only do what we allow him to do, what we think rationally, he can do what we can see, he could do. You understand? If we can see the way, for instance, he can provide money, then he can do it. [00:13:00] But we haven't got a God who can do anything. [00:13:05] That God is an idol. [00:13:07] He is the product of our own conceptions. He is the product of our own mental understanding, of our own intelligence. And therefore he is limited by our intelligence. Our intelligence will make our God as intelligent as the degree of our own intelligence. Do you understand? [00:13:33] If we haven't got a lot of intelligence, our God won't be very intelligent. [00:13:38] If we've got a great dealer intelligent, our God will be very much more intelligent. You say we've got that kind of God. There are many of us who got a God who can do things for other brothers and sisters, but cannot do anything for us, or we're perfectly prepared to believe that in brother so and so's life, he can do it, and he does do it. And we say, thank the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? And we even worship on the strength of what the Lord is doing in someone else's life. But he can't do it in my life. [00:14:10] I'm, as it were, a different kettle of fish. He just somehow can't get through in my life. He's not able to provide in the way in my life as he can in those other lives. Or perhaps I feel I'm unworthy or something else or something. But you see, we've got a warped conception of the Lord. And really it is a kind of hiatus. [00:14:32] What I'm just simply saying is this, that we can even have a conception of the Lord Jesus, which we believe to be him, which is an idol. It's not really the Lord. It's a tremendous thing when the Lord breaks us of all that and suddenly we're found in the presence of the living God. It's a wonderful word, you know, the living God. It just means this, that the whole world is in him. [00:15:01] Everything, the universes upon the universes are found within him. He's as big as that. He's so great that suddenly we are dwarfed into little ones. He can do anything and everything if he choose. We can put no limits upon him. We cannot give him any restrictions. We cannot bind him in any way. All we can do is bow in his presence. That's worship. [00:15:28] When people bow down to some little God who can only do certain things and pretend to worship him. They are only worshipping something to solve their own conscience, to make them feel good. Thousands of people are doing that with idols of stone and wood. [00:15:45] They worship the thing which is the product of their own hands. And many christians today are worshipping a God who is the product of their own mentality. Temperamentally, he is like them. He thinks like them. [00:16:02] He is somehow or other colored completely by their own conceptions. [00:16:08] That's their God. [00:16:10] What is the root, really, of what I'm saying? It's simply this that you see, there's going to come a day it may not be so far off when all these conceptions of ours are going to be blown sky high. [00:16:29] All this facade of Christianity, all this even amongst ourselves. I'm talking all this that's artificial, that's superficial, that's superior, that's just simply the product of our own conceptions of mind is going to just go sky high. [00:16:50] And we shall be left just with what we really got, the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:16:58] Some of us are living in a fool's paradigm. [00:17:02] Some of us have no idea of the seriousness of these days. No idea, no concern in this little island with our. Often with our historic ability to only look at things at the very last moment. [00:17:24] We are living so much in a fool's paradise. [00:17:29] Of course, we don't get political with all these dear people sitting down on pavements and everywhere else. We feel very sorry for them in many ways. But they are people who faced realities. [00:17:41] At least they have faced what it's costing, what it might cost and what might happen. And they are terrified of it. [00:17:51] Terrified of it. [00:17:55] You see, you and I have got sooner or later to face realities. [00:18:00] All our jobs, our homes, all that we're spending our money on, our families. The whole thing may, at the worst, or perhaps in some of our minds, the best, just go up in a single moment. Or at the worst, it may be that we shall slowly die over months from some invisible activity in the atmosphere which we cannot even see. [00:18:28] That is one of the facts that's actually facing us all as a race. [00:18:35] And where are the Christians? What are they doing? [00:18:38] On we go like a great old steam engine on a track that can't stop. On to the end, plodding on to our routine of meetings, on through our Bible studies, on through our lovely times of fellowship, on with our singing, on with the same old prayer and all the rest of it. What does it matter? [00:19:05] What does it matter if one day soon we shall all be in the presence of the Lord. [00:19:13] Then we shall see what was in his mind. First thing essential to understand some of you who never come to a prayer meeting who shall understand? Oh God, whatever was I doing? [00:19:29] Some of you who are not the least bit responsible in the service of God you'll think, oh God, whatever was I doing? [00:19:38] Some of us who've got issues in our lives that we've toyed with and played with and will not bring to the Lord we said, they're old, God, why ever didn't I get through on it? [00:19:49] Then and only then shall we all face reality. Then when the facade's gone, the idols have been blown up. Then when we're just what we are in Christ alone we shall wish with all our hearts that God had used every single device and means of increasing what is of himself in us. Then all this work, all the time we have given so much else that took up our place. We had the other tabernacles with the Lord Jesus we built so carefully, we furnished so beautifully, we've lavished so much affection upon. Then what is it in that day? It will mean nothing. [00:20:41] Only we shall find have ended in loss and injury and harm. [00:20:48] Well I know some may not like speaking like this but you know we've got to speak like it. We've got to speak like it. [00:20:59] We who have any responsibility in ministry and we're very poor people in indeed have the most terrible prospect awaiting us if we do not warn God's people of what might well happen. If it doesn't happen in the next year or two we can promise you it's going to happen in the future sometime. [00:21:22] We've got to be sensible. We've got to warn you and not just warn you. We must go out toward others, not in a scaremongering way but in a solid and reasonable and sober and solemn way that we might be those who hold forth the word of life. Oh dear brothers and sisters, if only you would read your bibles. You come on Thursday evenings to the Bible studies and some people say all this prayer why can't we have our good old Bible studies back? But you see, the law doesn't want us to have Bible study after Bible study after Bible study that goes into our head and forms a kind of repertoire of knowledge inside what is the point unless what we hear is being translated into our very beings so that we're understanding what these books mean and exploring what the scripture means. [00:22:19] This book is a living book. It has a message. We must find out the message. We must never treat it as just a book of sacred scripture, as something somehow or other, out of which we get nice promises and little comforting words, blessed as they may be. We must treat it as a book which is relevant to the 20th century and which has the message of God to humanity, not to us who are saved, but to the whole human race. [00:22:49] That's the way we've got to look at this book, and that's the way we've got to discover its meaning. And when we do discover it, it mustn't be shelved and put aside. We must face it. [00:23:00] And if we find things within it that have relation to our day and generation, we must pray about them. We must pray that these things, like Daniel, might be realized and fulfilled. Oh, that we could be so. Have you read those? I believe the 8th and the 9th chapter of the Book of Revelation. [00:23:23] Oh, what a description. It may be symbolic, but what a description. [00:23:30] What a description of radioactivity. Read it. Just read it. You know the first letter of Peter and the third chapter. [00:23:40] You remember when I. Even when I was first saved in the lifetime of most of you, when we were really young people, that was in the realm of the miraculous. So was the 8th and 9th chapter. If I'm writing, quoting those chapters of the Book of Revelation, they were in the miraculous. They belonged to those weird pictures we sometimes saw on monastery walls and old church walls of the sort of middle age belonging to the middle ages of flames and devils jumping about with forks and fork tails and, you know, horns and the rest belonged at. It no longer belongs to it. [00:24:14] The description that John saw of that great city with a column of smoke that rose up to heaven so that the whole of a continent could see it and wept when they saw that that great city in 1 hour had gone up in smoke. Why? What does that mean when it tells us of all the living things in the water, a third of them dying without an explosion or anything, just dying. All the third of the green things being burnt up without any visible activity, when it speaks of a third of the human race being smitten with ulcers, which is the exact result of the bonds at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All these things. [00:24:55] You read the old Prophet Zechariah and the 14th chapter of Zechariah, and he speaks of the last days and he says suddenly the Lord will act in judgment and their eyeballs will melt in their sockets and their tongues will just fall out. [00:25:12] What a description. [00:25:15] But these things are things that we know about. [00:25:18] Most of us won't look at them. We won't read about them. We won't go and see a film depicts them. [00:25:25] But there's an actual possible prospect of us all. [00:25:31] And there you all are, all of us. [00:25:35] You have your homes, you've got your little one. You're seeking to bring them up. What future have you got? I tell you, the only future you have is to see the Lord Jesus Christ and live in the light of his face in such a way that those little ones will be covered and guarded. Whatever happens, they will be safe because of your faith and your walk with the Lord. Oh, that we should be careful and responsible people. [00:26:07] Well, you might wonder, what on earth is all this about? You see the way sobering and in all our understanding and all that we see in the word of God, all that has been revealed to us, we can even out of those very things somehow make tabernacles, and they are over against the Lord Jesus. Why are we meeting for prayer? I trust it is that the Lord Jesus may meet us in. It's not that we want any specific something or other. It's just that somehow or other, we may be met by the Lord Jesus. We may see the Lord Jesus again, and together may be established and strengthened for whatever lies ahead. [00:27:00] When Peter looked at the ways, he sang, but when he had his eye on the Lord Jesus, he walked on the water. [00:27:08] When those days come, if we are going to be those who have our eyes on things, we are going to sink. But if we have our eyes on the Lord, we are going to be saved. [00:27:20] That, I am sure, is what it means in that word of the apostle when he said, looking for the blessed coming of the Lord Jesus, looking for the coming of the Lord, he shall come for them. He shall appear a second time without sin unto those who look for him. [00:27:42] You see, that surely was what the writer to the Hebrews meant when he said, consider him looking unto Jesus. Listen, the author and the dictionary, you see, the writer to the Hebrews saw it was all in Christ. [00:28:04] Everything was in Christ. [00:28:06] Oh, that we could see our homes as part of Christ. [00:28:10] We could see the church as Christ. [00:28:13] We could see the teaching as the truth as it is in Jesus. [00:28:16] We could see the life, what we call the christian life, as the life of Christ. That every, everything may be somehow or other essentially related to the Lord Jesus. It's so simple. You see, what I'm really saying is we can have all the knowledge in the world. We can have all the christian activity in the world. We can all be busy about this and the other and perhaps devotedly maybe in some lives. It's not a question of putting the Lord firm. [00:28:48] He seems. Maybe there's a lot there. And yet, somehow or other, we can miss the real point of what the Lord is trying to do, really. And essentially it's a question of him seeing him, beholding him, considering him, walking with him, knowing him somehow, just seeing him. [00:29:20] Just him. [00:29:22] They feared as they entered into the cloud, but they were left afterwards with Jesus. [00:29:32] If the Lord answers our prayer, a cloud may come over us, and we may well fear as we go into the cloud. [00:29:40] But the end of it will be that Moses and the larger have gone. [00:29:46] It's Jesus only who is left. [00:29:51] Well, I do trust those few thoughts will be a real challenge to our hearts. They renew us in our prayer. [00:30:00] Because it is true that everything finally boils down in the last analysis, to our relationship to the Lord Jesus and our love for him. [00:30:13] Oh, we can go on and go on. We've lost our love for him. The first love that we had for him. It's drudgery, just sheer drudgery. When the time comes that everything begins to break up and goes to peace, it's not worth it. Just not worth it. No. [00:30:36] Those days are described as these. The love of the many shall wax cold. [00:30:43] May the Lord Jesus Christ give us to see that and to plead with him that at least our love shall not wax cold, but shall grow more and more and more. Because in the. In loving the Lord Jesus, we shall love each other. And in loving the Lord Jesus, we shall love the world. However wicked and evil it becomes, it is the key to. [00:31:07] And in loving him, we shall be preserved and safe. [00:31:13] The Lord help us.