I really don't know why we don't sing these songs throughout the year. We just like narrow them in. I mean, I understand associating them with Christmas and everything, but like that song right there, it starts out by talking about the three, we three kings, of course, but the fourth and fifth verses are talking about the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. Suitable to sing all year round, you know? There's good messages in all these songs. I guess we'll have to thank the preachers. I really think we ought to sing some of these songs at least more often than what we do. Good songs. Because they have a good subject, right? talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what we're doing, of course, here in our study through Mark, and in all the scriptures speak of Christ. We're gonna continue here in Mark chapter nine. We'll read again verses two through eight, and this morning we'll focus in on verses seven and eight, and the last two verses there that have to do with the transfiguration itself directly. You know, last week we looked at the foolishness of human religion, and this week we're gonna examine Christ-centered religion, okay? And that's where we ought to be. Everything we do, when we worship, when we gather together as a body of believers, it ought to be centered upon Christ Jesus. When the songs we sing, you know the prayers we offer up everything we do Should be focused on on the Lord Jesus Christ because he is everything He is everything to us And we should we should worship him as such. Let's read our text Mark chapter 9 starting at verse 2 and after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter and James and John and and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. And his raiment became shiny, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can like them. And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not what to say, for they were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed them. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. And suddenly when they had looked round about, they saw no man anymore, save Jesus only with themselves. Let's pray. Our kind and most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for these verses of scripture that speak to our hearts about who Jesus is, about his glory. We just pray, Lord, that everything we do indeed would focus on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Fill our hearts with that peace that only comes from you, O Lord, that we may know more fully our Savior and what he has done for us. Lord, I just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Looking at verse 7, I want us to As we talk about Christ-centered religion, I want us to see here the glory of God in his words. We read there in verse 7, and there was a cloud that overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. What must have seemed like an incredibly glorious and amazing moment to these three disciples, now gets taken up to a whole new level. And this really kind of sums up what has been happening with the disciples over time. When they first see Jesus, they see in him a man who was a great teacher. through his teaching and the testimony of the miracles that he performed, they began to see him as first, I think, a prophet, and then as the Christ. If we go back at the end of chapter eight, as we've already noted, Peter makes that observation that he is the Christ. But now, Well, before that, then here is they first come up on the mountain and the transfiguration begins to occur and they see Moses and Elijah, I think, and by Peter's words, I believe they see Jesus now on a level with Moses and Elijah, which to them was an advancement in their thinking, but as you and I know, they're still way off the mark because Jesus is greater than Moses and Elijah. And in our verses here, I believe they are being brought to understand this. They are beginning now to see that he is much greater than mere men. Let's note a few things here. First of all, in all of this, Jesus has not said a word. He's not said anything. And I'm going to tell you this, he doesn't have to say anything. His glory speaks for itself. His deity speaks for itself. The fact that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords speaks for itself. Not that he doesn't speak or has not spoken, obviously he has. And we should cherish every word that he has said. But on this occasion, he has not yet said a word. Then second, we see a cloud that overshadows them. And I think we can understand this cloud to be an expression of the Shekinah glory of God, as we see displayed on occasions in the Old Testament. First of all, Exodus chapter 40, if you wanna turn there for a moment, Exodus chapter 40, we see a similar thing occur upon a mountain that has to do with Moses. Exodus chapter 40 and verse 34. You see this cloud. as we're gonna see in the Old Testament, would appear, and it was a way of kind of masking somewhat the glory of God, because you and I, mere men, cannot behold the glory of God and live His direct glory in all of its essence. We can't behold it and live in these mortal bodies. And so God often has kind of covered his glory and revealed just enough of it that we can see and that we can comprehend so that we can know indeed that he is God. In Exodus 40 verse 34, then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. So this is the tabernacle that's built for the Israelites as they go through the desert on their way to the promised land. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode their own. and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. That was an amazing moment for Moses and the Israelites. And now we have Peter and James and John experiencing that themselves up on top of this mountain. The glory of God appears in this great cloud. Another occasion in the Old Testament, 1 Kings 8, Verses 10 and 11, and it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place, this is speaking now of the temple that Solomon has built in Jerusalem, when the priests were come out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord. so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord." This thing is so marvelous that they couldn't even go in to it. They couldn't stand inside this cloud. I think to stand inside this cloud would put them too close to the glory of God, and they would expire. So this is a marvelous event that is being played out for them here up on top of this mount as our Savior has been transfigured himself. Then third, we see that God the Father speaks from out of this cloud. Now this is something that has occurred before also. If you turn back in Mark to chapter one, the very beginning of Mark, we read, and we've already preached on this, verses nine, 10, and 11, and it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in Jordan. and straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened and the spirit like a dove descending upon him and there came a voice from heaven saying thou art my beloved son in whom i am well pleased so god had already spoken to people where they might hear concerning his son and saying how he is his beloved son and how well pleased he is with him. So at his baptism, the father spoke to him. Here at his transfiguration, Well, at his baptism, the father spoke directly to Jesus, okay? He says, thou art my beloved son. He's saying that to his son. And then now here at the transfiguration, though, the father speaks to the three disciples. What does he say to them? He said, this is my beloved son. Hear him. So he speaks directly to the three disciples and says to them, this is my son. Now, if they needed anything at all to corroborate for them at this point, that Jesus is God, that he is the son of God, this should have done it, right? As they walk off this mountain, they should never ever doubt the fact that Jesus is God and that he is the son of God. And God reveals this to them directly here upon this mountain. There is a purpose for them being up on this mountain, not just that Jesus might be transfigured, but so that they might become witnesses to this and that they might be able to share these things at the appropriate time. Now Moses had actually prophesied that this would happen back in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15. It says, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me. Unto him ye shall hearken. So Moses told him, there's going to become another prophet someday, like unto me. In other words, he would be a man. But as we know, Jesus is more than just a man. He is the God-man. And that he came in and that he would speak and he says unto him you shall hearken. Listen, it's the same Words that god is saying basically to those disciples listen to him Hear what he has to say Now i'm sure they've been listening to jesus Not so sure how much of it they are they are comprehending to this point, but they've been listening to jesus But I guarantee you from this point forward. They're going to listen ever more closely to jesus And you know what, that's how it should be for us. When we are born again, and we come to the knowledge of that, and we believe, and we repent, and we determine to follow Jesus with our lives, we should, at that point, we should be listening to Jesus like we never have before. Now what will happen is, and we know it, sin will drag us down, the affairs of this world will plague us, and we will lose some of that desire sometimes to listen to Jesus. And we need revival when that occurs. And there will come, God will send revival, and you've experienced it, and all of a sudden you can't hear enough about Jesus. You can't hear enough. You want more. You want to listen to what he has to say. And it means something to you so much that you try to do what he says. And that's how it ought to be for us as believers. Hopefully more of that than the not listening part that sometimes happens. Because Jesus has much to say to us. So God says, this is my beloved son. Hear him. Everything in God's Word points to Jesus. We must hear him. When you read the scriptures, you should do so with the understanding that you are listening to Jesus speak to you. Everything we know as Christians, as followers of Christ, ought to be centered on who Jesus is and what he is doing for us, what he is doing in us. Our eyes should be on him. We must hear him. He is the great teacher. Those who desire wisdom must listen to him. Now there's a lot of quote, unquote, wisdom in this world that really is worthless. But people will spend their very lives pursuing. And someone can become so educated and have a lot of head knowledge about things, but as you know, that doesn't mean that they have what I'm gonna say is real knowledge about things. I'm not against education. I think we ought to learn as much as we can. I think the development of our minds and the growing of our minds is important to all of us, not just children. I tell students in the classroom, they'll ask me, why are we doing this? Why does this have to be so hard or something like that? And I'll say, well, I'm trying to grow your mind, trying to expand that brain a little bit. We need that. but we especially need that about spiritual things. To grow our minds concerning things of this earth, that's one thing, and again, the right pursuit of the right kind of knowledge is a good thing, but greater than that is the pursuit of spiritual knowledge, and we only find that from the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, there have been a lot of men that have written a lot of books, they've written commentaries and such, and you know, I have my favorites that I typically will go to if I have a question about something or whatever, but you know what? The word of God is what we need to be listening to. What Jesus says, my pastor, where I surrendered to the ministry, he's, Like Paul to my Timothy if you will I've heard him say many a time the Bible makes a great commentary for the commentaries There's some people spend too much time in the commentaries Really we need to spend more time in the Bible, but he is the great teacher We need to seek wisdom from him and we must listen to him. He is the light of the world Those who do not want to stray must follow him and Why do you reckon he's shining that light for us? So that everybody can see us? Put us in the spotlight? No, he's shining that light so we can see where to walk. So we can follow him. And there's no excuse for us to not follow him because he shines the way. But when you're not looking at Jesus, what's going to happen? You're gonna go astray. When you begin to listen to others more than you listen to Jesus, you're gonna go astray. When you listen to yourself more than you listen to Jesus, you're gonna go astray. The worst thing you can do, and young people listen to this, because there'll be a lot of people who are gonna tell you through the course of your life, when faced with a difficult decision or something like that, they'll tell you, listen to your heart. No, don't. Your heart, the Bible says, will deceive you. Listen to Jesus. He will never lead you astray, never lead you astray. I know people who made poor life decisions and they'll say, well, the Lord led me to do that. Oh, no, he didn't. No, he didn't. He will never lead you to sin. So we must follow him. He is the head of the church. Those who want to be members of his living body must look to him. Please look past me to Jesus. I'm your pastor. but I'm just an under shepherd. Jesus is the great shepherd. Look to him and follow him. If we want to be the church God wants us to be, then we must follow Jesus. Look to him. Look to him. So we need to understand that there are times when we need to put to the side what people say. What preachers say, what churches say even? And listen to what he says. Now he often, he may very well may, and he often does speak through people, through preachers and through churches. But we need to make certain that we hear what he says. And we can know when he speaks because of two things. The first one is the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit will speak to your spirit so that you can know that Jesus is speaking to you and leading you. And by the way, when I say speaking to you, we're not gonna hear him with an audible voice. We might, he could choose to do that, right? He could. But now with the fact that we have his Holy Spirit indwelling us, he speaks to us through his Holy Spirit. And I believe the Spirit will guide us and lead us. That's one of the purposes for the Holy Spirit to come and to come after him to us, and that he sent the Holy Spirit to us. So you can know that you can know and you can follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The other thing is, of course, his word. We need to carefully examine his word and what it has to say. So listen to him. Remain in him, lean on him, look to him. He will never fail you. Or leave you. or lead you astray. Turn to John's Gospel, John chapter 10, Gospel of John chapter 10 in verse 25. But how, Brother James, how will I know that it's Jesus speaking? Well, as I've said, the Holy Spirit will help you know. If what you're hearing agrees with God's word, that is a confirmation to you. that Jesus is speaking to you. But how do we know this happens? Well, let's listen. Look at these verses. John 10, verse 25. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. You see, Jesus doesn't leave his people hanging out there. He's left witnesses of himself. His works that we read about in the Holy Scriptures tell us much about Jesus and all we need to know about Jesus. But he's telling these unbelievers here that they bear witness of me, verse 26, but you believe not. Because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Verse 27 now. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. If you're a sheep, And in this context, that means you belong to the Lord, you've been born again. Then you'll hear his voice, you'll know, and you'll follow him. Now I understand I haven't been around sheep much in my life at all. Some of you may have. But I understand a shepherd, a lot of times, especially in these days, sheep would be brought into a fold at night for protection purposes, near the town, near a city, near a place where they could be guarded and keep the wolves out and that kind of thing. And of a morning, the shepherds would come and they would call their sheep and their sheep would follow them out to go to pasture and to get water to drink and so forth. And those sheep knew their shepherd's voice, and they wouldn't follow someone who wasn't their shepherd. They would come out, and they didn't have to sort them out. Oh, is that one yours? No, that one's mine. They'd just call, and they would walk out, and they would follow. That's how it is with believers. You know the Lord's voice when you hear it, and you follow Him. And we should be like sheep and follow Him. What gets in our way? Pride, that deceitful heart that wants to do what it wants to do. Listen and practice listening to the Lord. He says, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. If you're a sheep and then you belong to Jesus, then nobody can change that. Nobody can come along and take you away. Because God has you in his hand. And there is nothing in all of God's creation that can separate his sheep from his hand. He is that great shepherd for us. So listen to him, follow him. That's what Christ-centered religion is about. It's not about following the creeds of man. It's about following Christ himself as he has revealed himself to us through his Holy Spirit and through the word of God. Now look at verse eight. And know this. In Christ-centered religion, Jesus stands above every witness and all testimony. Look at verse eight. And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man anymore save Jesus only with themselves. You know what's happened when the cloud appears and God speaks, boy, they are riveted to that, I'm sure. They're focused in on that. And after God speaks and the moment kind of passes, they do what we would all do, they begin to look around. And what's happened? Where's Elijah? Where's Moses? They're gone. They're gone. Why didn't God let them hang around a little while longer? I believe it's because he's wanting them to understand that they're just witnesses. That Jesus is the one they need to look to. Jesus is the one they need to focus on. I believe the message is clear. As much as the law and the prophets tell us, They are only a dim vision of what is the truth, the light, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our eyes must be on him alone as our savior, our deliverer and master. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12, verse one. Hebrews chapter 12, verse one. They had those witnesses there for them, Moses and Elijah there on that mountain. These three will become witnesses themselves. A lot about witnesses in the Bible. These two verses give us another look at all of this. Hebrews chapter 12, verse one, wherefore seeing we also are compassed or compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Now what's that telling us? which using the analogy of a race, being a runner in a race, and it's not much fun to have a race and there's nobody there to see who wins, right? So you'd like a crowd to be there. And they are witnesses to what happens, okay? They are witnesses as to who wins the race. They are witnesses as to the performance that's given, okay? And that's what he's saying. Word come past about was so great a cloud of witnesses. Now who are these witnesses? I believe they're the ones, the saints that have gone on before us, okay? And they are witnesses to us. It could be that they are witnesses here upon this earth as well. But he's saying, lay aside the weight, that's what you would do if you were a runner, you want the least weight on you possible. And he makes a connection there to sin. Sin is a weight on us that weighs us down and keeps us from running the race for Christ that we should be running. And he says, let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Verse two, and how are we to do this? Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Understand this, there is no one more important to you as a believer in Christ than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He is the very author and finisher of our faith. Think about that. We have faith and many churches want to make a big, big deal about a person's faith and their choice to believe on Jesus. And they put all the emphasis on that faith. Let me tell you something, they've got it wrong. It's not your faith that saves you. It's not your faith that even brings you to the knowledge that Christ is your Savior. It is His faith. He is the author of it, not you. He is the finisher of it. That's what makes it effective for you. He came here and He believed His Father. He trusted His Father in every way. He obeyed His Father in every way. And in so doing, he finished what he started. He finished this thing called faith. And as the scriptures tell us in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, if you're very careful to read it, he gives it to us as a gift. It's with his faith, then, that we believe that Jesus is our Savior. And we need to look unto Him who is the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Could you do any of that? Could you have endured the cross? Could you have despised the shame? Could you have sat down at the right hand of the throne of God? Absolutely not. Only Jesus can do that. For Jesus is the most important person to you. No one else should be more important than Jesus. Anything else that becomes more important to you than Jesus by definition then is an idol. and you're worshiping an idol or idols. Don't let it be that way. Jesus is the only one who can save. He is the only way to the Father and to eternal life. Turn now back to John's gospel, chapter 14. I want you to turn to this and see these verses, and then there's gonna be another passage in John. But John chapter 14, verse one. He's the only way. Even later after the transfiguration, there'll come a time right before Jesus is crucified where the disciples are still not quite getting everything. And I don't fault them. I mean, this is major stuff here. I mean, this goes beyond what they were thinking in many ways because it's of God. And Jesus, is ministering to them right up until the crucifixion. John 14 verse one, let not your heart be troubled. He didn't want them to have troubled hearts. They had troubled hearts at that moment. I think they're getting a sense that something bad was about to happen, and they're troubled. He says, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. Oh, what beautiful words. And receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. Oh, don't just skip all those words. You've probably heard them a lot. You've probably heard them at a lot of funerals. This is one of those passages we ought to preach more about other than just at funerals, okay? Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in eternity. And he promises, if I go, I will come again. And I will take you to that place, receive you unto myself, he says. And then verse four, he says something interesting. And whither I go, you know, in the way you know. Oh, Thomas, I think I'm a lot like Thomas. Thomas was crashing his head. I don't know, what are you talking about? He saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? He's looking for something other than what's standing right there in front of him. Who is standing right there in front of him? Jesus. Where should his eyes have been when Jesus said, there's a way? You know the way? Well, Thomas is looking around as if the way was some pathways gonna appear or something. I'm not sure what he's thinking, but he's not looking at Jesus. Because what does Jesus say? Verse six, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. There is no other way than Jesus. There is no man-made religion that will get you into eternity. I don't care how many billions of people follow that way. They're gonna follow it straight into the pits of hell. There's only one way. And his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our way. Therefore, that's who we need to put our eyes on. We travel a dangerous, risky path through this life. I think some people get a thrill out of trying to race that path and do it themselves. Well, they need to just slow down and follow Jesus. If you know that pathway's difficult, if you know the turns are gonna be sharp, if you know there's gonna be obstacles that pop up in the way, what do you need to do? You need to look to Jesus. You know that got illustrated in the miracle on the lake when? The Sea of Galilee when when Jesus comes to the disciples and he's walking on water Okay, and Peter says Lord Ask me to come out there And Jesus says come on then Peter steps out and he's walking on the water just like Jesus Why Where are his eyes? Their own Jesus but then he takes his eyes off. Why would you take your eyes off of Jesus? Because his brain, his senses are telling him, Peter, this is water. Peter, there are waves. Peter, the wind is blowing. You're gonna sink. And what does Peter do? He looks at those things. And what happens? He begins to sink. Does Jesus walk away and let him sink? Praise God, he doesn't. He raises him up. And that's what he does with us. I often marvel at the attention spans or lack thereof of students in the classroom. But I'm convinced that there's something worse, and that's the attention spans of God's own people. We're too quick to take our eyes off Jesus. For some, it's the fad of the new thing, whatever that might be. That's how many people, many churches approach their their ministry and their service to God, they latch on to the latest thing, the latest sure-fired way to get people on the pews, and they take their eyes off Jesus. Folks, the Lord will fill the pews. We need to be diligent to do the work he's called us to do. Be true to the word. Preach it and teach it and live it. But how often do we take our eyes off of the Lord? The very scriptures point to Jesus. The gospel is about Jesus. He is the only way. Believe on him, trust him, follow him. In John 11, I'm just going to read this quickly. Lazarus has died. Word's been sent to Jesus. He delays his return to make sure, you know, that Lazarus indeed is dead. He's been in the grave and he comes along and Lazarus' sisters come to him and everything. And in verse 25 of John 11, it says, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She said unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. Do you believe this? Have you made a profession of faith that you believe this? Have you changed your walk in this world to follow Jesus because you believe this? Have you been baptized to show the world that you believe this? Have you joined with a church that also believes this? That's what one must do. And that is a part of the pathway that God has laid out for you. Have you done this? Are you looking to Jesus? Do you believe on what he has done? Let's pray. Our kind and most gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we again thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being here. We thank you, O Lord, for these precious words. We thank you, Lord, for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And may our eyes ever be on you, O Lord. We just pray all of these things in Jesus' name, amen. So I'll stand, what number shall we stand?