I ask your attention this evening for the Gospel according to Mark, and the ninth chapter, and we'll begin reading there in the first verse of Mark chapter nine. Mark nine, starting at verse one. And he that is Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter and James and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, as no fuller on earth could white 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 knew not what to say, for they were sore afraid. There was a cloud that overshadowed them and the 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. And as they came down from the mountain, He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of Man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. Thus far, God's inerrant and precious Word. May He bless His truth. to our hearts and to our lives. Dear friends, it would afford us a lot more security, stability, and growth in the Christian life if we believed and understood that what God aims at most of all in our lives is not our comfort, but His own glory. Let me repeat that. It would afford us a lot more stability, security, and growth if we believed and understood that what God aims at most in our lives is not our comfort, but His glory. Of course, God wants His people to receive and enjoy comfort, but He does everything preeminently for His own glory. And this is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ wanted to teach his disciples as he brought them up to the top of the mountain here, the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus had done remarkable miracles. Just a few days before this, he had taken a boy's few loaves and a couple fishes and he had multiplied them to feed thousands on the hillside of Galilee. And Peter, shortly after that, had confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Blessed. And Jesus had said, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. And right on the heels of that, Jesus had begun to speak of his suffering, his betrayal, his death on the cross, and his resurrection. And these are mysterious things for the disciples. In order for them to understand something of what the Lord was going to do in and through all these events, Jesus took three of them. He took them to a high mountain. We want to see the lessons that Christ was teaching them and what He's teaching us still today as this glory of Christ shines magnificently through the Word of God. And so, with God's help, we want to see this passage. Let me just read once again to you verse 8. Mark 9 verse 8, And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus, only with themselves. We want to see tonight, with God's help, this theme. Glory, glory, glory. You want to see, first of all, the glory of the person of Christ, secondly, the glory of the work of Christ, and thirdly, the glory of hearing Christ. Glory, glory, glory. The glory of the person of Christ, the glory of the work of Christ, and the glory of hearing Christ. Well, here we are on the Mount of Transfiguration. Probably Mount Tabor in the northern part of Galilee. If you've ever been there, high mountain, fits the description of this mountain, this high mountain where Jesus took his disciples. Some people think it's Mount Hermon there in the way north, a snow-capped mountain. It's possible, we're not exactly sure. At any rate, it was probably night. Now many of you probably never knew that. I didn't know that either until I worked on this sermon. But there are three reasons that some commentators believe that this was night. First of all, we read there that Jesus went to pray and he usually did that at night by himself. Secondly, we read that the disciples were sleeping. Now that could happen during the day, but it's likely that that happened at night. And thirdly, if you read Luke, in the parallel passage, it mentions that the next day, when they came down from the mountain, then they encountered a demon-possessed boy at the bottom of the mountain, whom the disciples were unable to cast out, and Jesus came and cast him out. And that was the next day. And since not much time elapsed, scholars believe that the transfiguration took place in the night hours. And isn't that a beautiful thought there, that against the dark midnight sky, all of a sudden, there was this brilliant, radiant, splendid light that spread far and wide. And that woke up the disciples. And what a powerful picture that was. It's children like, maybe sometimes happens in your house when you're fast asleep, and the curtains are shut and your mom or dad comes in the room and they flick on the light switch. There you are. You cover your eyes. You want to hide almost from that light. So it opens the drapes and it's 9, 10, 11 o'clock and there the light pours into your room. It hurts your eyes when you see it. And so too these disciples were asleep when all of a sudden they were there awakened to this brilliant light that shines from the face of Jesus. Now, in an instant, it's as if the disciples are brought face to face with the heavenly world. Imagine that. They fall asleep on the earth and they wake up and it's almost as if heavens come down. and glory filled their souls. Because what do they see? They see Elijah and Moses, departed saints, shining brilliantly in the presence of Christ. Now, Moses and Elijah had died and they were in heaven. Elijah was translated on a fiery chariot into heaven, body and soul in an instant. He jumped, as Matthew Henry says, over the ditch of death. never falling into it like you and I and the rest of humanity does. In a fiery whirlwind, he's taken there up into heaven. Moses, he died and his body was buried. We were told by the Lord no one could find his grave. But at any rate, he appears here with Elijah. We don't know if the Lord supplied him with some body for this occasion, but the disciples know this is Moses and Elijah together with Christ and they appear in glory. Now isn't this a comfort? When we think of our departed friends and loved ones. Someone said this morning they had just lost a mother. I don't know anything about her, but what a comfort it is when we know our loved ones are with the Lord. They're in a far better place where everything is so much better. We're all sorrow and sigh and flee away when we're forever with the Lord in sunshine country. With the Lord Himself. As the Westminster Confession teaches us, the souls of believers, immediately at their death, pass into glory, while their bodies, still being united to Christ, wait in their graves to the resurrection. And then, upon the resurrection, they will inherit full glory forever and forever. So here are Moses and Elijah in splendid glory in the presence of Christ, there, appearing at the top of this mountain. But the glory that Moses and Elijah had was nothing compared to the glory which was Christ's. It wasn't somehow some equally shared glory between Moses, Elijah and Christ. Because the Gospel writers made clear that there was a dazzling brightness that came off the whole body of Christ and the clothes of Christ. So much so, it was so dazzling that it was as if no washer or bleacher on earth could bleach things this gloriously clean. And Matthew 17 says that Jesus' face was shining like the sun. Theris, Lord Jesus. It makes you think of that psalm, Psalm 104, verse 2, who covers thyself with light as with a garment. The Lord is splendidly arrayed here. But don't think for a moment that somehow heaven is shining a spotlight on Christ. That's not what's happening. I know in the past that's what I kind of thought or imagined. It's not as if some spotlight like you have here that's shining on Christ, but it's rather a light that's shining out of Christ. He, the glorious Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is clothed here in flesh. He's taken to Himself flesh of our flesh, but He's shining in all His brilliance, just like He did in Revelation 1, verse 16, where we read that John, the Apostle John, who was also on the Mount of Transfiguration, he saw Christ and he said His face was as the sun shining in its strength, the noonday sun. I was driving from Grand Rapids this morning. I was driving east and that sun was bright. I couldn't see. There were times when I came really close and the car was in front of me. There was a truck there in front of me and I couldn't see it until I got really close. Shining there brilliantly in its strength. Something that you turn away from if you can. Amazing, isn't it? This is like the glory which Saul of Tarsus saw when he was on the road to Damascus, and it was as if the veil of heaven was torn apart, and Jesus Christ, whom he had been persecuting, appeared to him, and he was knocked off his horse, or somehow fell to the ground, and he hid as it were his face, and his eyes were blinded. He heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why? persecute as thou be." You know, when Christ came to this earth, He veiled His glory. He always had that glory. When He lay in the manger, when He was a boy growing up, Joseph's carpenter shop, when He did most of His ministry, that glory was veiled. People didn't see it. They saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. When He walked up and down the land of Israel, preaching and performing miracles. At times, His glory was seen just ever so briefly when He calmed the storm. People said, what manner of man is this? Most of the time, it was hidden. It was as if a curtain covered it. And hardly anyone could see it. But here, three of the disciples witnessed the glory He always had And the Apostle John, he says in his Gospel later on, after many decades, he says this, we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And Peter, who was also on the Mount, he wrote of it in his first epistle general. He said, we were eyewitnesses of His glory, of His majesty. We had His majesty as it were stamped on our eyeballs. We could never forget it. We were eyewitnesses. We saw it with our very own eyes. By the way, Jonathan Edwards, this is what he says, live like a man or a woman who has eternity stamped on your eyeballs. That's how we need to live. They had glory stamped on their eyeballs. Well, the point of all this is that the light of the Bible is Christ. There's no one like Christ. There's no one as beautiful as Christ. He's the fairest of 10,000. He's the lily of the valley. He's the bright and morning star. And I ask you today, when you read your Bible, do you see the glory of Christ? You need to. Maybe there's someone here, maybe a young person, older person who says, listen, I wish I were on that mound. I wish I had seen the Lord Jesus Christ in His splendid glory. You know, when you open that book in front of you, you have the exact same privilege that these men had. Do you know that? The Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1, he says, we were with him in the mount when we heard such an excellent voice from the heavens say, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And then he goes on and he says, we have a more sure word of testimony, where unto we do well to give heed to a light that shines in a dark place. When you open this Bible, And you read from Genesis to Revelation, there's light shining just beneath these pages because Jesus Christ is clothing himself in this book in the garments of beauty, holiness and glory. We need eyes to see it. Most of the world never sees it. They open this book and they push it away. It's offensive to them. They're blind to His glory. But you and I too, a lot of times we're in this book and we don't see His glory. This is what you and I should pray. Open my eyes that I might see beautiful things out of Thy Word. Help me to see Jesus. We would see Jesus. Is that why you come here to this place? Men and brethren, we would see Jesus. You come here to see Jesus. When's the last time your eyes The eyes of your heart, the eyes of your soul saw Jesus. Do you know why the world, why the church is so much in love with the world? I'm speaking generally. It's because they don't see the glory of Jesus Christ in the Bible, in the Gospel. Because if you see the glory of Christ in the Gospel, then the world has no glory. The lights have gone out pretty much. Well, yes, we're to be lights in our world. And we love the souls of people around us. We pray for them and we witness to them. But the world doesn't have any glory apart from Jesus Christ. And once we see Him, there's no one, there's nothing like my Jesus. Maybe you're here tonight and you say, but I don't see Jesus like that. My friend, I'm glad you're honest. But you know what it is? It's not because He doesn't have any glory. It's because your eyes are blind. You don't see Him the way He is. You're just like these disciples who were sleeping. They were sleeping when it all happened. And until they woke up, they didn't see the glory either. You know, a lot of people in church, they're sleeping. They're sleeping to the glory of Christ. They don't see any beauty in Jesus Christ. And if that's you, my friend, there's good news for you, because the Bible says, wake up, you who are sleeping, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. My friend, that's what we want. That's why we bring unsaved people here to church with us. In order that they would hear the message of Christ, and their eyes would be opened. They'd see the glory of Jesus Christ. There are people who come into doors like this, over the world and they come in and their eyes are shot and they leave and they've tasted and seen someone who is far greater and more glorious than the sun. Yes, it hurts. It pierces, you know, into the darkness. Whenever that happens in our life, it's not initially pleasant. It's uncomfortable. You feel exposed. You mean, God really sees me? God really knows me? He knows me inside and out. It's like the light of Jesus Christ is shining through you and God knows you. He knows the innermost secrets of my mind. And He knows the innermost secrets of my heart. Thou hast searched me, O God, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. And you know, to someone who is unconverted, that's a terror. But to someone who loves the Lord, becomes a comfort. So much so that we say, search me, O God, and know me, and know my inmost thought. And if there's a wicked way, God, I know there's wicked ways in my heart. Root them out and lead me in the way everlasting. The glory of Christ. Glory, glory, glory. Lord, open my eyes that I would see the glory of Thy Son. Well, that first of all, that's the first glory. The glory of Christ. But secondly, the glory of His work. Elijah and Moses are talking with Jesus on the mount. Amazing, isn't it? Here, these two representatives of the Old Testament Moses, the law. Elijah, the prophets. They stand for all of the Old Testament. There they come. They come to speak of Christ here in the eve of His suffering, the eve of His chief work. And there they come. Of all the great cloud of witnesses, they come to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and finisher of the faith, who for the joy set before Him, He despised the shame. And he's gone on to be the author of salvation to all those who believe. And here two of those witnesses come forward. Moses and Elijah. Now, from Mark, we're never told what they talked about. And Matthew doesn't mention what they talked about. Just that they were talking. But the Holy Spirit saw fit to leave one word in Luke to tell us what they were talking about. If you would turn to Luke chapter 9, let's do that a minute here. Luke chapter 9, you'll see this. This is very, very important. This is what our whole second point is built on. Luke 9 verse 31. I'll just back up to verse 30, "...And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spake of his..." Now, there's different translations here. My translation says, "...decease." Some translations say, "...death." Some say, "...his sufferings, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." And really, the word in the Greek here, you all know. Maybe you didn't know that you knew Greek, but you know this word. Even the children here know this word in Greek. It's the word Exodus. You know that word, don't you? It's a book in the Bible. Second book in the Bible. Genesis, Exodus. So this is what it says literally. And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spake of his exodus. which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." Now, what's the exodus? What happened during the exodus? Moses came to Pharaoh and said, let my people go, because God was going to redeem his people from slavery. He's going to bring them out of bondage and lead them into the promised land. He would free them from the slavery of sin and lead them to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. And so when Moses and Elijah speak with the Son of God on the mountain, do you know what they talk about? They talk about redemption. They talk about the cross. They talk about the sufferings of Christ and the death of Christ. All that Christ was going to do in the great work of redemption. Someone said it like this. If people are going to come together and speak about anything, why not speak about the exodus that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished? Do you come together and speak about that? We do, don't we? When we come together to worship in God's house, we want to hear about everything in the Word of God. But doesn't your heart go out after mostly this, the cross of Christ? I glory in the cross of Christ. I will glory in nothing else, Paul says, than in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For by the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. And the Lord's Supper is held here in the midst of the congregation. Isn't that the great subject? The cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. The redemption which Christ accomplished The cross. I want you to see something here. Peter is here. James is here. John is here. Moses, Elijah and Christ. I already said Moses stands for the law. Elijah stands for the prophets. John is a gospel author. And Peter wrote an epistle. So we have four biblical authors. We have James who died very quickly after Pentecost. He was killed very early. He never had time to write any Bible book. But basically we have representatives of the whole canon of Scripture. And here they are all gathered here on this mount together with Christ. And what are they hearing? What are they saying? What's at the center of it all? It's the cross of Christ. And what's at the center of my Bible here in front of me? It's the cross of Christ. When you read Genesis, and you read Genesis 3 verse 15, there will be the seed of this woman that shall crush the head of the seed of the servant. I'm reading about the cross of Christ. When I read about the exodus out of Egypt, I'm reading about the cross of Christ. When I'm reading through the voyage through the Red Sea, passing through this barrier that no one could pass through, that is death. for Pharaoh and his hosts, and life for Israel. I'm reading about the cross of Christ. And when Israel passes through the River Jordan into the Promised Land, and they go away that no one has gone before, and the way separates through that River Jordan, I'm reading about the cross of Christ. And the prophets speak about the cross of Christ. Isaiah 53 is full of the cross of Christ. And so the whole Bible, when all the biblical authors, as it were, come together on the pages of this book in front of me, what's their theme? It's the glory of the cross of Christ. I ask you tonight, do you see any glory in the cross of Christ? Paul says to the Jew, It's a stumbling block. And to the Greek, it's an offense. But to the people of God, it's all their salvation. It's all their hope. If you're here today and you're not saved, the cross of Christ is a mystery to you. You hear about it. It's kind of words. And something in you, especially when you focus on it, you don't understand that why would Christ have to die the bloody death of the cross? Why would He have to shed His blood? Why would He have to come under the bitter wrath of God? But if you're here a Christian, you say, He took my place, as we sang. It was my sin that nailed Him to that cross. And take away my cross, you take away everything. You take away my cross, you take away my hope. You take away this cross of Jesus Christ, I have nothing. I have nothing at all. All my hope, all my foundation, all my comfort, all my perspective, all my inheritance. is bound up with the cross of Christ. In the cross of Christ I glory. Forever. This is my theme. This is my life. I don't want anything else. Riches? It's nothing. Wealth, it's nothing. Fame, take it away from me. But the cross of Christ is everything. And throughout all eternity, as I face the Lamb in all His splendor and glory, even then with His nail-pierced hands and His spear-pierced side, I'll say, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. To receive honor, dominion, power, and glory World without end. Sometimes I've wondered why in eternity will the Lamb still have these wounds. Yes, He'll be glorified. He won't suffer. He's not suffering now anymore, but He still will have His wounds throughout all eternity. He'll be the Lamb that stood, as it were, as slain. You know why? Our song will be much greater as we look at Him. He died for me. He died for me, who deserved to die. Do you see, dear friends, how the cross is everything? The cross is a dividing point. There are people here, I don't doubt, as there are in every assembly, who see nothing in the cross of Christ. My question to you, together with my brothers and sisters, is how can you see nothing in the cross of Christ? It's everything. It's my life. It's my hope. And it can be for you as well. Because my friend, know something. Know something tonight. If you've never known this before, that if that cross is not yours by faith in Jesus Christ, then you're exposed to the wrath of God. Then God is a consuming fire also to you for even one sin, one thought, one word, One lack in your life of not bringing glory and honor to God, there is eternity in hell that you will need to pay, unless you are covered by the blood of Emmanuel, the blood of Jesus Christ, until that glorious cross is yours by faith, resting on God's Word, resting on Christ in the Gospel. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless to the fountain fly. Save me, Jesus, or I die. That's how every person who is saved comes to Christ. And that's where they stay all their lives. They never outgrow it. Well, there are times they stray from it. You know what I mean. My dear brother, my dear sister, we stray from it. Oh, it's never easy. It's never good. Something inside of us grows cold, grows languid. But once we fall at that cross once again, we say, in the cross of Christ is all my salvation, is all my glory. There's nothing like it. And that's why we read this book in front of us. We're looking for that cross of Christ that melts my heart. You know, the thunderings of Sinai won't melt my heart, but the blood that drips from Calvary. It melts my heart every time because my Savior bled and died for me, for a wretch like me. And that's glory, glory, hallelujah. Well, dear friends, this is the second glory, glory, glory. And this takes us to our third and last glory, the glory of listening to Christ, of hearing Christ. Because while this holy conference is going on between Elijah and Moses and Christ, what do you think Peter, James and John would be doing? What do you think they should be doing? Don't you think they should be listening with rapt attention to whatever these men are saying? Let me ask you something. What are you doing when you're opening that book in front of you and reading it? Are you listening to it with rapt attention? Well, these disciples are not as tuned in to this conference as they should be. Like all the Lord's people, they are prone to misunderstanding and mistaking what the Lord says in His Word. Because listen to what Peter says. He's the spokesperson for them all. He rushes, doesn't he, to speak on behalf of all of them. He says, it's good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles. One for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Christ. And at some level we understand what Peter is saying here. He loves this moment and he wants to stay there. He wants three tabernacles. He wants to stay there on the mountain here where he has this beautiful vision. And maybe in his mind even he's making good connections, good biblical connections, logical connections. He's heard about an exodus. He's there on a mountain and now he wants to make a tabernacle. Has that ever happened before? During the Old Testament, they were on a mountain. There was glory on the mountain. In fact, Moses' face, remember, was shining. And what happened? They made the tabernacle. Not a tabernacle for Moses or for Elijah, but they made a tabernacle for God there at the foot of the mountain. God ordained it and he told them exactly what they needed to make there at the foot of the mountain, this tabernacle that would travel with them all the way to the promised land. Or maybe some commentators think this tabernacle, maybe it would shield something of this brilliant glory. Maybe Peter had the sense of this is too much and we need to shelter somehow here. Let's make three tabernacles. But what Peter is saying here isn't right. And there's a couple of reasons for it. I want to go through this, because we can learn about ourselves here from Peter. And the first thing is this, that Peter says here, and you don't read it so much in translation, but if you look at the original, he really puts the emphasis on himself. He says, it's good that we're here. That we, Peter, James and John, that we're here. And you know that language, don't you? It's something that you and I are familiar with saying. We like to be in the foreground. We like to be there in that special place where all the action is, where all the attention is. And Peter is like that. He loves that. He's Peter who wants to be front and center. And he says here, he doesn't say it's good that they are here. He says, it's good that we are here to witness this and to tell other people about this. At any rate, it's certainly, at best, it's one-sided. He should have said, if anything, it's so good, so gracious that Christ is here. You know, when Christ is in the proper place, we fall away. And it's not about, I'm glad I'm here in this church. I'm glad this church has me as a member, or me on the board, or whatever it is. We're happy to be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, and to dwell in the tents of wickedness. So Peter had to learn something on that front. But also, secondly, Peter wants to give kind of equal attention to Moses, Elijah, and Christ. Three tabernacles, one for each. And that's not right, is it? Because all the glory goes to the one and only Son of God. If anything, He should have said, let's make one tabernacle for this Christ. So deserving of it. Even that would have been wrong. But do you understand what I'm saying? He's not right in how He's thinking about things. Also, there's another reason. Christ had been talking just before this about going to Jerusalem. In fact, on the mountain, He talks about what He's going to do at Jerusalem. And Peter is wanting to stay here. And Jesus had even said to Peter, you have to take up your cross and follow Me into suffering, shame and death. And Peter, like many of us, we want to stop that. We want to stand in the way. I want to stay here in our nice, cozy huddles. And I understand that, because I love it. I love it when the people of God meet together, and when the Lord Jesus Christ appears through His Word, and there's glory, glory, glory. I want to stay there. But Christ has said, onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war. There's a world out there that needs to hear. There's a life to be lived. And there's suffering to be endured. The Christian life is not about huddling together in little companies in which we have nice experiences, but it is to take the glory that God sees fit to give us and to make us to see, and with faces that have been brightened by the glory of Jesus Christ, to go into the darkest places of our world, where they need the light, the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe you found yourself doing that. You've had a good day. The Lord's come to you in reading devotions. You say, Lord, let's just stay right here. Lord, don't change this up. Don't let me go to work today. Don't let me face this trial. Don't let me go into that conflict. Lord, just right here. And the Lord says, you don't understand how I'm giving you this in order that you might shine at work and shine in that trial and shine in that calling that I've given you. You see glories for something. Our experiences are for something. Maybe someone says here now, I think you're being a little hard on Peter. And I thought that as well. I see a lot of myself in Peter. Maybe I'm being hard on him because I need to be hard on myself. But you know, the Bible is very clear here. Because the Bible tells us that Peter said this not knowing what he said. He wished not what he said. He just did what you and I so often do when there's nothing else to say. We just blurt something out unthinkingly. We don't even stop to think, what exactly am I saying here? You ever do that? Just blurt it out. And that's what Peter was. He didn't know what he was thinking and no one else was saying anything and so he just said something rashly and he didn't know what he was saying. The Bible tells us, Peter, you're talking foolishly. You're talking ignorantly. You don't know what to say and so you're just filling the air with something. Peter, if you don't know what to say, don't say anything. When you come into the house of God, when you're in the presence of God, keep silent. It's better to be silent than to offer the sacrifice of fools. By the way, that's good for us preachers to know. We're guilty of this probably more than anyone else. We feel the air. He whisks not what he said. And we also know that what Peter said wasn't quite right, because as he was speaking, in the middle of his sentence, something happens. It says, and a cloud came and overshadowed them. God the Father here sends a cloud, and then he begins speaking while Peter is still speaking. It's as if God enters into the scene here, and he interrupts Peter to save him from his own folly. Where would Peter have gone if he would have continued on speaking? And God, when He speaks, He doesn't say, Peter, you're right. Let's build three tabernacles. You know, when heaven speaks, you know what it says? Hear ye Him. That's it. Listen to Him. Stop talking and listen. Mouth shut and ears open. This is my beloved son. In fact, in a certain sense, what the Lord is saying here is you don't need three tabernacles because you have one tabernacle and that is the Son of God who tabernacled among us. That's what we read in John 1 verse 14. John, who was on this mountain, he said it. The Word was made flesh and tabernacled. among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No three tabernacles. One tabernacle. Jesus Christ is the tabernacle of God. God Himself is pitched, not man. And we need to hear Him. We need to listen to Him. We need to heed what He says. In church, this is the message God wants you to hear today. Listen to Jesus Christ. Listen to Him. In fact, the original says this. Him be hearing. And that says a couple of things. First of all, Him. It puts Him right up front. Jesus Christ in the center. Listen to Him. Him. All our attention, all our focus should be on Him, the Son of God. Among the clamor of voices of which our world is so full, Him be hearing. Don't listen so much to the world. Don't listen to the noise of our world. It's all going to die down one day. All of it. Sometimes I can't wait. I can't wait till that moment comes when all the noise of the nations will become still. And for one last time, the God of heaven and earth will say, ye nations, tremble. God is on the throne. Keep silence before him all ye earth. Him be hearing. That's not such an easy work in our day when technology is constantly bombarding us. You know about it and I know about it. There's scarcely a five minute section of a day in which we're not bombarded with text messages and phone calls and internet sites and news flashes and who knows what else. And over this all and through this all, heaven is saying, Him be hearing. And not just put Him in the focus there, Him be hearing. But be hearing, be listening to Him. Not just once. It isn't just hear Him once and then move on with your life. No, Him be hearing constantly. Be hearing, listening to Him. Listen to everything He has to say to you. Listen to His commands. Listen to His promises. Listen to how He speaks in His Word. Listen to how He speaks in Providence. Listen to what He says from the cross. Listen to what He says in the resurrection. Submit to Him. Submit yourself to His Word. There's glory in that, friends. There's glory in listening to Christ. Those of you who have been saved by the Lord, this is your life. You're listening to Him. You're like, you're a people who has their ear open to the voice of the Good Shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. They follow me and I give unto them eternal life. and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My sheep, hear my voice." Do you hear the voice of Jesus as He calls you today? Through His Word, through the pages of His glorious Word, the glory of the person of Christ, the glory of the work of Christ, and the glory of hearing Christ, He's calling you, church, today. Be hearing Him this week, tonight, and tomorrow. As you go to work, as you do your duties, as you live in your family, as you minister to the saints, as you endure afflictions and trials, as you seek to witness for Him, you stop your ears to the world and your ears are open to God. to your Christ, you listen to Him, you walk with Him, you talk with Him and He talks with you by life's way. Him be hearing. Lord forgive me for not hearing me better. Forgive me Lord for the times my ears have been shut To Thee, Lord, I haven't listened. I've been so quick to speak. I've been foolish, Lord. I've been ignorant. I've been like a great beast. Before Thee, Lord, silence my mouth and open my ears. My ears You have opened. And open them again, Lord, so that I might hear Thy voice, Thy Word, Him be hearing. That's your life if you're a child of God. You have your ear to this Word of God. You don't go very far and you say, I need to hear from my Savior. I need my Master's voice. I can't go far without Him. As a babe, you desire the sincere milk of the Word of God. If you're here today and the Word of God means little to nothing to you, maybe you have a routine of devotions. And that's good, but you never hear the voice of a good shepherd. It's just a duty that you do and nothing more. Christ is a name to you, but He's not a living person to you. He doesn't speak to you by name in His Word. You've never heard that still small voice that we heard of this morning in His Word, speaking peace to your soul. You don't hunger and thirst after Him. You can easily live. You're listening to the world. Your ears are open to the world. You're listening to that. You're listening to your own heart. The world says, follow your own heart. And most people have their ear to their heart. I tell you, that's the worst way to live because your heart is up to nothing good. Him be hearing. Oh, that God would come down and show you such glory in the Son of God, such glory in His work. He'd carve out your space in your heart and in your ears. that you'd hear His voice, and your friends that you're now listening to, they call you up tomorrow, and later this week, and they want to do stuff with you, and you say, listen, I'm listening to someone else. I'm hearing someone else. And you listen to Christ, and you obey Christ, and the world will give you over, but it's alright, because Christ is glorious. The world has no glory, but Jesus Christ has all the glory. And when the disciples did this, and with this I close congregation, when they did this, they found something. That when the voice was finished, these three looked up. And they felt a hand on their shoulders, we read in one of the Gospels, lifting them up. And it wasn't the hand of Moses. And it wasn't the hand of Elijah. because Jesus Christ was there and Him alone? Would they have been happy if they had opened their eyes and Moses was there and Elijah was there and Christ was gone? What would you have said? You can't live with Moses and Elijah, can you? I need Christ. I need Him more than I need life. Thy lovingkindness is better than life. But when they woke up, or when they looked up, I should say, when they looked up, they saw such a beautiful sight. This is what we read. They saw no man save Jesus, only with themselves. Oh, my friends, that's it. When we wake up and look up and we see no man save Jesus only. That's what I want in my life. I want to have my eyes single-focused. on Jesus Christ when all the stuff of this world and stuff around me that goes to the side and I'm looking with the center of my eyes, they're focused on the center of everything, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In the cross of Christ, I glory. I see my all in Him. You know, that's something I need to learn more and more in my life. When the Lord first converted me, I saw some beauty in Jesus Christ. He became my Lord and Master. He became my all-in-all. But as I've gone life's journey, the Lord is teaching me more and more Him be hearing, Him be hearing, Him be hearing. And the more I learn to listen to Him, the more glory I see in Him. And I need it. I need it more and more. Because so often still in my life, it's my feelings and Jesus. It's my experiences and Jesus. It's what I do and Jesus. But friends, I need Jesus only. And when I listen to Him, that's what it is. And I saw no man save Jesus only. You know, this beauty of Jesus Christ, it makes everything else look dim. Everything else look less attractive. When He is at the center of our gaze, He's everything. When He's our focal point, you know, then there's glory that comes from Him to me. And glory that can radiate out from me as the Lord sees fit. You know, friends, if you're here today, And you don't see any glory in Jesus Christ. You're asleep, my friend. You're asleep. And I would to God that you would wake up today. That you'd wake up. And like that mom or dad who flicks on the switch or opens the curtains, that in this place here in Kenton, Reformed Baptist Church, Grace Reformed Baptist Church, the lights would go on. that you begin to see what you've always been missing, and that is no man save Jesus only with themselves. I started by saying it was as if heaven came down and glory filled their soul. What will it be to be in heaven? I think it'll be like that, except perfect. No more sin, no more suffering, no more separation. but the Lamb will be the glory of Emmanuel's land. He the center. And like one poet said, when I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart. Then, Lord, shall I truly know, not till then, how much I owe. And then, friends, we'll be listening to Him throughout all eternity. And we'll be saying this, all who are there, glory, glory, glory. Eternal glory to the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Amen. Let's pray. Great God of heaven and of earth, we praise Thee and we lift Thy name high because there is none so beautiful, none so glorious as Jesus Christ. Forgive us, Lord, for all the times we haven't listened. Forgive us, Lord, for all the times that we've spoken and not listened to Jesus Christ. Open our eyes that we would see the glory of the person of Christ, the glory of the work of Christ, the glory of hearing Christ. And I pray especially, Lord, for those who have never seen any beauty any glory in Jesus Christ, whose hearts are wedded and welded to their sins, O God, shine brightly through Thy Word and break away their attention, Lord, from the things of this world and help them to see like never before in a fundamental way or in a fresh way, Lord, help us to see the glory of Emmanuel, that beautiful Savior, We ask this all in Jesus' name, alone. Amen.