WEBVTT 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.640 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:28.399 Good morning. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:44.799 I tell you what, as a as a just a just a guy, a lay guy, coming up here and speaking whenever I am privileged to do so, looking over there and seeing Pastor Vic there always kind of puts a shutter through my me. 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:49.200 Sure want to do this, uh do this right and do it well. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:55.280 Um a few weeks ago, Pastor Jason gave me a call and he asked me if I'd be willing to preach sometime in March. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:57.359 And I said I would. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:11.359 And uh as I began a couple of weeks later to start to think about what I was gonna preach on, uh he got that phone call, and he and Allison head off to Georgia, and I came home with a family of four, right? 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:20.319 And so his uh his schedule got really upended, and I was really having trouble figuring out what to preach that I could put into one sermon. 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:25.200 Because I was I was just, man, this is just this has been a tough one. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:32.239 It's I've been all over the map, and and so I ended up asking him very gingerly if I could have two services. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:34.000 And he said, yeah. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:44.319 And I don't know if it was out of his um uh sense of relief or his graciousness, but you're gonna get stuck with me today and next Sunday as well. 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:51.120 The scriptures that I want to read here, and usually pastors have scriptures read for them, right? 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:54.319 But I don't right? 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:55.439 No. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:02.799 And I've always wanted to say, Houston, it's page 867 in the Pew Bible or whatever. 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:05.359 Okay, we're going to Luke chapter 9. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:12.719 Luke chapter 9, and I am still kind of tied to my old New American standard, but I will read it out of the NIV. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:25.840 Luke chapter 9, we're gonna read verses uh 28 through 35, and then we'll hope to get a couple of uh of short verses uh from Paul's writings um in later. 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:33.199 But we're we're looking at eight uh at Luke's account of the Mount of Transfiguration experience. 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:43.599 So Luke 9, verse 28, about eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John, and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:51.520 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:58.400 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:04.080 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:12.960 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:18.080 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, Master, it's good for us to be here. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:22.719 Let us put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:24.800 He did not know what he was saying. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:31.840 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:37.599 A voice came from the cloud, saying, This is my son, whom I have chosen. 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:39.199 Listen to him. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:42.400 And I'm going to read two more passages also. 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:48.080 The first is Galatians 2.20, which Pastor Scott just read in a different translation. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:50.000 We probably know this by heart. 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:52.159 I have been crucified with Christ. 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:55.759 It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:03.439 And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith, by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:19.920 And then Romans 6, 6, which says, For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:26.480 I'm going to say that those probably seem like very strange bedfellows, those three passages of Scripture. 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:35.600 But I hope over the course of the rest of this morning and next week to show you how they do fit together and why they can be talked about together. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:41.519 And I will be the first to admit that my approach this morning is going to be pretty unorthodox. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:48.000 I'm going to talk about and make some observations about this passage regarding the Mount of Transfiguration. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:50.319 And then I'm going to introduce the sermon. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:50.800 Okay? 00:04:51.120 --> 00:05:02.000 And then we're going to move on to other things regarding our status as believers who were crucified with Christ on the cross and work from there into next week. 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:05.279 So that's kind of the schedule here, and it's a little unorthodox. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:14.240 I believe I have heard maybe two or three sermons in my lifetime preached on the Mount of Transfiguration episode. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:19.600 And I think each time the preacher has taken it as an opportunity to take a pot shot at Peter, right? 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:21.839 Because he says, I don't know what to do with this. 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:24.000 Let's build some tabernacles. 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:26.319 And he was apparently all wrong about that. 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:28.959 And that's what people have jumped on for Peter. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:38.240 You know, he speaks before he thinks, and people have preached about that and use Peter, and rightly so, and his mistakes as lessons. 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:41.519 But that's not where we're going to be heading this morning. 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:47.279 We're going to look at some other things that we can at least observe, and I believe this passage teaches. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:12.800 He has, for example, preached the Sermon on the Mount, he's cast out demons, he's healed lepers, he's taught in parables. 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:17.680 He's got a whole lot of people that have started to follow him around the countryside. 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:35.600 And in fact, about a week prior, if you just back up in the passage, you'll find that he took a basket from a little boy that had some fish and loaves in it, started passing out food, and we know that he passed out so much food from that one basket that more than 5,000 people went away fed. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:37.120 Incredible. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:44.959 And now a week later, occasionally Jesus would just say, I gotta go off, I gotta go off and pray. 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:48.560 And I don't know if it was in the morning or whatever, but he let's say it was. 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:51.839 He wakes up and he says, Hey, Peter, James, John, let's go. 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:53.439 We're going up the mountain. 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:54.800 I gotta pray. 00:06:55.439 --> 00:07:00.800 And boy, would you love to have been a mouse in the corner for that prayer meeting? 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:07.120 Jesus' face and even his garments, the Bible says, became radiant. 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:10.560 They started to sparkle like lightning. 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:15.120 And then two men appear out of nowhere. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:17.439 Moses and Elijah. 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:19.839 They're recognizable. 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:23.360 And they start talking with Jesus. 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:31.040 Peter, not knowing what to think, says, Let's build some tabernacles, and that didn't get a response. 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:37.519 And the cloud surrounds them, and then the voice comes out of heaven saying, This is my beloved son. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:39.360 Listen to him. 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:43.920 And then the cloud disappeared. 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:47.680 And there they were, alone again with Jesus. 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:53.600 Now, before I go any further, I want to ask you a question. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:56.160 Do you believe this? 00:07:58.800 --> 00:07:59.680 I mean really. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:03.120 I really mean to ask you, do you believe this? 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:07.600 Do you think Jesus' face really changed? 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:14.480 Sparkle. 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:24.160 Do you believe that two men from hundreds of years prior just all of a sudden show up and start talking with Jesus? 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:26.240 And they're understood? 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:29.199 Then a voice comes out of a cloud? 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:30.319 Come on. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:32.639 Do you believe that? 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:33.519 Really? 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:46.559 Or are we all too willing to hide behind the rationalistic, naturalistic thinking of our society and say, ah. 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:51.759 Told those stories to the kids in Sunday school. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:55.279 I don't know. 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:56.639 I don't know. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:01.279 Tell you what, that's what the Bible says happened. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:08.960 We need to believe that this is true recorded history because it is. 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:17.279 Now, I said I'm not going to preach on this passage, but there's some things I do want to just observe from it. 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:30.639 I think the first and most obvious is that Moses and Elijah, even though they weren't living, breathing members of that current society, apparently had not ceased to exist. 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:42.480 They had been part of the unseen world, but all of a sudden, bam, the Lord either gives them bodies again temporarily or gives us a vision of them in their bodies. 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:46.879 I don't know which it is, but they weren't, they weren't gone. 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:49.919 And they conversed with Jesus. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:56.799 They had simply been part of an unseen world that became seen for a time, and they spoke. 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:02.399 They conversed with Jesus and note, they conversed in a language that could be understood. 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:06.159 And Peter, James, and John could overhear them. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:09.279 Else, how could Luke have known this ever happened? 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:12.480 And then they vanished. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:14.879 They went back where they came from. 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:18.320 Now that's kind of spooky, isn't it? 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:26.000 Yeah, we got a society that just loves this out there stuff, and we got it right here. 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:28.000 And it really happened here. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:30.720 Make sense? 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:40.720 A second point is that on that mountain, there were represented, I'm going to just call it three classes of people. 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:46.720 We got Moses, he's an Old Testament saint, lived under the law, and then he died. 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:54.720 You've got Elijah, another Old Testament saint, lived under the law, got translated. 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:58.960 One of two people we know of that got translated, the other being Enoch. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.919 It wasn't my grandpa, although his name was Enoch. 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:16.879 And then you've got Peter, James, and John, disciples of the Lord Jesus, who lived prior to, during, and after the Lord's death and resurrection, and then they died. 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:19.120 Now think about that. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:29.279 With the exception of those of us who might be fortunate enough to be alive and remain when the Lord returns, everybody else that's ever lived is represented on that mountain. 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:31.919 Can you think of another thing that could have happened? 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.919 So there's something here for all of us. 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:45.919 A third point of interest, and this is in my mind by far the most important thing. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:48.080 Ask yourself this. 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:52.320 What did Jesus and Moses and Elijah talk about? 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:55.360 Luke was very careful to say. 00:11:55.919 --> 00:12:02.639 They talked about Jesus' coming departure that he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:04.720 In other words, what they talked about? 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:09.039 They talked about Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension. 00:12:10.559 --> 00:12:16.720 And the words that are used in the Gospel of Luke indicate that they talked about this at length. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:22.639 Now, why do you think that might be the topic of conversation? 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:30.720 Why couldn't Moses and Elijah just come down and happen to pop out and hey, Jesus, how are you doing? 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:34.559 Man, that was a cool miracle you performed last week. 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:37.120 That leper, he is doing so well. 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:37.679 No. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:42.480 They had something more serious than that to talk about, didn't they? 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:47.440 They talked about the coming death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:51.039 Why? 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:54.960 Because the death and resurrection of Jesus is the focal point of Scripture. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:59.279 In fact, I would say it's the hinge point of human history. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:03.919 It's the solution to the fall of humankind. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.080 It's the answer to our sin problem. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:11.679 It's the only hope we have of ever returning to the God who created us. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:20.960 And Moses and Elijah conversed with Jesus about it because they had an interest in it. 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:24.080 We've got an expression these days. 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:26.480 We say you've got skin in the game, right? 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:29.840 These guys had skin in this game. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:40.960 Because if Jesus did not continue on and die and be raised again, they too would have been without hope in this world. 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:47.279 You know, it's as if they were spectators from an unseen world. 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:59.440 Or, you know, I always use athletic, stupid athletic things like an old alumni coming back and getting to go in the locker room and cheering the new the new team on. 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:08.399 No, it's it's more than that, of course, but they got to come down and talk to Jesus and say, boy, we gotta go through with this. 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:11.039 Our lives depend on it. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:18.080 They knew that Jesus had to die. 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:20.320 They knew that he had to be raised. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:25.279 They needed Jesus to complete this journey. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:30.480 And you know, look where you will in Scripture. 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:37.120 You can go back to the Garden of Eden and think about the skins of animals that God provided for Adam and Eve. 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:38.480 Blood was shed. 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:41.120 You can move down a little further to Abraham. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.840 He had the knife above his son's throat. 00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:49.360 And a substitute was provided. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:58.000 Or you can, a few more pages, Isaiah, talking about there's this lamb that's gonna be led to slaughter. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:09.919 Or you can go a little farther, the last Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist, who sees Jesus out in the desert one day and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:14.559 Or Jesus himself, when he's visiting with Nicodemus, and he says, You know what? 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:16.960 The Son of Man's gonna have to be lifted up. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:20.159 Just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:31.919 Or you can go to the end of Scripture, and John, when he's talking about the beasts and the elders, let's leave it at that. 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:33.919 The elders who fall down. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:40.879 And they sing to the risen Christ, Thou art worthy to break the seal on that book. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:47.840 Because it was your blood that was shed, the purchase for the Lord, men from every tribe and tongue and nation. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.759 The life and death of resurrection goes cover to cover as the focal point of Scripture. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:00.080 You look where you will, it's the focal point. 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:04.480 And the lives of all that would be saved from the penalty of sin depend on it. 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:08.000 So no wonder Moses and Elijah wanted to talk about it. 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:11.279 Their lives, their eternities depended on it too. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:16.480 And I don't think that Peter, James, and John understood exactly all of what they heard at the time. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:24.399 Think about when they are holed up practically in the fetal position after the death of Christ, not knowing what to do. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:32.080 They had some learning to do yet, but I don't think they ever forgot what they heard, even if they hadn't understood it at the time. 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:46.799 In fact, when he writes his second epistle and talks about the fact that he's going to depart from his earthly dwelling real soon, Peter says he refers back to the time that he spent with the Lord Jesus on what he said was the holy mountain. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:49.200 How could he ever forget it? 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:55.440 And overhearing that conversation about the coming death and resurrection of Jesus. 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:09.920 One more point I want to, or just thing I want to observe about this passage, and that's it's a broader point, but it has to do with Scripture and our understanding of it. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:16.880 We need to know, and we need to understand that we are reading true recorded history. 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:26.880 We're reading about things that really did happen even when they seem to be out of the ordinary. 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:35.279 Luke has accurately recorded an event that really happened in time and space. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:41.359 Francis Schaefer, and oh, I hope that's a name or an author with whom you're familiar. 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:53.680 Francis Schaefer, when he comments on this passage, says, This happened on a particular mountain, on a particular day, at a particular time. 00:17:54.079 --> 00:18:01.440 He says, if the disciples had been wearing wristwatches, their watches would have continued to keep time. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:08.559 And the people down at the base of the mountain would have gone on with their day while the event transpired. 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:13.279 He says it wasn't until the next day that they came down. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:15.440 Time had transpired. 00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:34.720 In other words, Peter, James, and John and Jesus did not disappear into some philosophic other or some psychological dream outside of time and space for this to happen. 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:37.119 This was this really happened. 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:40.960 This is real true history. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:45.759 Now that's the observations. 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:49.920 Now let me talk through my introduction to my sermon. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:57.039 There are some things that really trouble me these days about our society. 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:06.799 We are tremendously influenced by both the behavior of our society and its opinions. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:14.000 And frankly, the vast majority of our society lives as if God doesn't exist, right? 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:22.799 Now, I'm going to hasten to say that that doesn't mean that our society is atheistic. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:24.880 Because it's not. 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:40.640 You press most every man or woman on the street, and they will admit that somewhere, deep, deep down, they have a sense that there's something else, or maybe even someone else, that's out there somewhere. 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:43.039 It's not the God of the Bible. 00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:48.400 But they've got this sense that there's something else out there. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:54.720 But unfortunately, our society has this thing so screwed up. 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:56.640 It's almost schizophrenic. 00:19:56.720 --> 00:19:59.680 Now let me let me try to explain what I mean by that. 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:14.559 We've got a society where our schools and our media aggressively teach, and it is now basically patently assumed that we are nothing more than the latest iteration of what? 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:19.440 Time plus chance. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:21.839 Matter plus time plus chance. 00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:29.359 And if they can't figure it out right now and make it and explain it away, they just tack on a couple billion more years, right? 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:32.960 With no proof whatsoever, frankly. 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:42.079 So we've got a society that says that's what we are, and it also says that's all there is. 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:58.319 And this naturalistic philosophy of reality, which is so different than what we just saw on the Mount of Transfiguration, has permeated our society. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:07.920 And it would scoff at Luke chapter 9, because there's way too much spooky stuff going on there, right? 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:21.119 And yet, when we look at that answer and we say time plus matter plus chance, we know deep within ourselves that is not true. 00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:23.599 We really do, don't we? 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:25.839 We don't have to think very long. 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:27.839 We are self-aware people. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.920 We know there is more to us than just our physical bodies. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:43.920 And hence, our society, ironically, also has an obsession with things of the spirit, small s, really small s. 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:56.000 Everything from Eastern mysticisms to Native American spiritualisms to New Age philosophies to Satan worship itself. 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:57.519 It's all out there. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.680 We're self-aware. 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:05.279 We know deep within ourselves that there's something more. 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:16.480 But our society, that part of our society that involves itself in those aforementioned practices, would also scoff at Luke 9. 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:28.799 Because you see, there is no such character as the incarnate Son of God who can enter his creation at will or even communicate. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:30.559 No, no, no, no. 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:35.599 That part of our society says, now leave that to us. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.799 We'll dream up our own God, right? 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.960 We'll dream up something more palatable. 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:48.079 So we've got a society that wants it both ways. 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:59.759 They want to say that there's a universe out there and a world around us that is time plus chance plus matter and nothing else, and yet at the same time they want to be spiritual, but they got that messed up too. 00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:07.599 How in the world can the man on the street know who he is or what he is? 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:14.480 How can he when he's getting wrong messages from both sources? 00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:17.039 And you know what? 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:21.599 I know I am belaboring this point, but it's just it just bugs me. 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:32.079 You know, you think about the difference between what we just looked at in Luke 9 versus what society wants us to believe. 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:40.559 Luke 9, you got you got matter plus time plus chance, but you got the spirit stuff and they don't fit together and they're both wrong on both counts. 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:47.920 Um there's there's absolutely no need for salvation because we make up our own God and we just do our best, right? 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:51.279 It's all it's it's all wrong. 00:23:51.519 --> 00:23:53.039 It's not reality. 00:23:53.440 --> 00:24:08.240 And then we have the sermon on the, or that sermon on the mount, the Mount of Transfiguration, which I admit doesn't go through every point by point by point that we just talked about, but you see that there is both a material and a spiritual, or a material and immaterial universe. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:11.599 You see that there's physical and spiritual beings. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:15.839 You understand from the conversation that took place that there's a need of a savior. 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:18.640 There's something wrong in the spirits of these people. 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:23.359 Boy, it's just a it's a whole different answer, isn't it? 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:26.880 It's entirely different than what the world tells us about. 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:32.799 And so we've got this tension from for this tension. 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:39.279 And um so what does this imply about the Word of God? 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:40.400 What about the Bible? 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:42.240 His revelation to us. 00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:46.480 This doesn't prove anything, but let me say this. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:58.640 To me, it means that when I read the scriptures, I should not be shaken or surprised when I see something that seems to be out of the ordinary. 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:00.480 I should expect it. 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:11.200 I've got a God who is spirit, who created the world, who can control it at all times, who can enter it whenever he wants to for his purposes. 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:19.680 Why wouldn't I expect to see something a little out of the ordinary at times? 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:23.359 Does that make some sense, or am I just on my own here? 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:34.880 Now, we're not going to convince a watching world of these truths through clever argument, right? 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:39.680 1 Corinthians 2, Paul says, Hey, I didn't come to you with clever speech. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:45.359 But it's got to be the Holy Spirit that convinces and convicts. 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:54.000 But I'll tell you what, that does not excuse us from being able to tell the truth as clearly as we can. 00:25:54.799 --> 00:26:00.720 We should be ready all the time to stand up for the Word of God and our Savior and our God. 00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:08.480 No, I'm going to have to move along here or else ask for a third Sunday. 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:09.200 No. 00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:17.279 I think that to me there's a question that should be asked here. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:29.279 So if uh if we understand that as spiritual beings, um we need to understand in our spiritual state, naturally, we're dead as doornails. 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:35.279 So let's forget that what the what the our society is telling us about ourselves. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:37.119 Let's look at what the word says about us. 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:45.279 We're spiritual beings and we are dead as doornails until we are given new life by God. 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:53.119 And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because we should all know this, but let's just go through the let's go through the drill here. 00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:54.799 Adam and Eve sinned. 00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:00.000 They begin to die physically, they die immediately spiritually, right? 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:05.200 And we inherit that. 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:09.839 It gets passed on down through every human being that's ever lived. 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:14.799 And by the way, we have sinned by choice too, so don't blame Adam, right? 00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:28.160 And so being spiritually dead without the blood of Christ covering our sin, we are separated from God, we are naturally inclined to do everything else but go to Him. 00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:41.599 But when we are led, when we are summoned, when we are what? 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:59.039 Drawn, I think is the word the scripture uses, by the Holy Spirit to the person and work of Christ, and through his aid come to faith in him, immediately our spirits become alive. 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:03.920 We are given spiritual life by the Lord. 00:28:05.279 --> 00:28:11.839 And also we know that at that same time the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us. 00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:15.039 Our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit. 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:22.240 Come on, can you the temple of the Holy Spirit in this thing? 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:24.000 Really? 00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:28.880 Man! See, he put up with a lot. 00:28:34.559 --> 00:28:49.039 We should be very, very familiar with the way that a man or a woman becomes justified and seen as sinless from God's perspective, because we and we know then that at that moment the Spirit takes up his dwelling within us. 00:28:49.119 --> 00:29:04.240 As opposed to society now, when you I'm trying to wrap this, my thoughts together, as opposed to what we'd have from society, who the man, the man on the street can't know who he is or what he is. 00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:04.720 We do. 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:06.799 We know who we are, we know what we are. 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:09.440 We are God's created beings. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:11.920 We are physical and spiritual beings. 00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:13.119 And who are we? 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:17.440 Well, for crying out loud, if I put my faith in Christ, I'm a child of the king. 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:21.759 What a difference. 00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:23.759 What a difference. 00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:31.119 So then we get to these other verses that I think they're in the bullet. 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:35.119 In Galatians 2.20 and Romans 6.6, I believe I read them, did I not? 00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:36.160 Or did I not? 00:29:36.319 --> 00:29:37.200 I can't remember. 00:29:39.440 --> 00:29:48.079 I've been crucified with Christ, no longer I who live, Christ lives in me, my old self was crucified, so that the body of sin might be done away with. 00:29:56.400 --> 00:29:57.519 I promise you. 00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:02.960 But I want to ask this. 00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:06.079 Okay, so so we're at this point where I know I've come to faith. 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:08.079 I know who I am, I know what I am. 00:30:08.319 --> 00:30:13.759 I know I've come to faith in Christ, and my eternal destiny is secure. 00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:14.960 I know it. 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:20.319 I've even got the Holy Spirit residing in me as the earnest of my inheritance. 00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:25.279 Well, like the third question in the title for the sermon, now what? 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:28.319 Who am I? 00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:29.359 What am I? 00:30:29.680 --> 00:30:30.720 Well, now what? 00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:34.079 And here's where I think the rubber meets the road. 00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:39.680 And boy, I tell you what, this is where I've been, whoo, the Lord's been teaching me. 00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:45.839 So I got it, I gotta figure out. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:53.359 I I you know, I know I'm saved by grace through faith, and I I I know how this movie is gonna end, right? 00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:55.759 What about between now and then? 00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:07.440 Am I just gonna, am I being led by, and am I empowered by the Holy Spirit of God? 00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:08.319 Really? 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:23.039 Or am I just kind of going with the flow, kind of blending in with society, kind of doing the best I can just to look good? 00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:28.079 You know, which is it? 00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:32.240 I know what the Lord would like. 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:42.400 So I think we need to ask ourselves the question: am I am I really reflecting the image of God as I should? 00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:47.039 That's why I was created, to love him and to reflect his image into the world. 00:31:47.200 --> 00:32:02.240 And if I say I'm doing that, then if I'm doing it wrongly, if I'm just putting out a good show, instead of being led by and filled by the Spirit of God, then let me tick off some things that are wrong with that. 00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:04.720 First of all, I'm not fooling God, am I? 00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:12.960 Secondly, I have them written down here. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:23.519 Um I'm not going to be effective in the spiritual battle, because this is a battle, this is a spiritual battle. 00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:26.160 It's being fought in the heavenly places, right? 00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:59.440 And I forgot my second one, but my third one is that if I um if I give the watching world around me the notion that to be a child of God is nothing more than just trying my best and trying to live a moral life and doing the best I can, even though I am saved, if I give them the mistaken impression that's uh that's all there is to it, you know what I do? 00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:03.440 Some medical people in here? 00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:05.920 I inoculate them. 00:33:09.519 --> 00:33:10.160 Right? 00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:12.319 I inoculate them. 00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:21.119 Because if I give them the impression that's all it takes, they end up thinking they're true believers too. 00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:25.920 And all they're doing is saying to me, you know, I can do as well as you. 00:33:26.079 --> 00:33:30.480 I got a list of things I should do and shouldn't do too. 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:33.279 And I bet I can keep my list just as good as you. 00:33:33.359 --> 00:33:33.920 And you know what? 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:35.359 Oftentimes they do. 00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:53.759 But if that's what they think there is to the Christian life and being a Christian, and I give them that message, I just inoculate them, and I actually make it more unlikely that they'll ever catch the true disease. 00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:56.000 That's pretty sobering. 00:34:01.279 --> 00:34:04.000 I can also grieve the Holy Spirit. 00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:13.280 If I just push him back into a deep dark corner of my life and just go on this thing, go after this thing on my own. 00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:16.320 I believe the Spirit's grieved. 00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:21.599 Now, how do how what's what's the way out of this? 00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:28.960 Well, let me just say this: that when we get together again next week, Lord willing, we're gonna start talking about. 00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:37.360 In fact, I've I'm tempted to call Val and say the sermon for next week will be titled, When Did You Die Most Recently? 00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:42.159 That ought to get him to come in here, right? 00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:44.880 Improve the attendance. 00:34:45.360 --> 00:34:54.239 No, but this is what we're gonna start talking about next week, is is how Paul in particular, but Jesus himself also. 00:34:54.719 --> 00:35:13.599 If you go back to a few verses prior to the Luke's account of the Mount of Transfiguration, you will find the Lord Jesus Christ saying that it was necessary for him to be rejected by men and to suffer and die and be raised again. 00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:21.440 And it isn't within more than two verses when he says that's the same thing that you're gonna have to do if you're my disciple. 00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:24.800 How about that? 00:35:25.519 --> 00:35:31.679 Now there's nothing redemptive about us dying to sin and to self. 00:35:31.760 --> 00:35:32.880 We'll talk about that. 00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:35.599 We don't get justified because of that. 00:35:35.840 --> 00:35:39.760 We get justified because we get to put on the righteousness of Christ. 00:35:40.559 --> 00:35:42.880 But Jesus said, You want to be my disciple? 00:35:43.119 --> 00:35:44.639 You want to follow me? 00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:46.960 You're gonna be rejected. 00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:49.840 You're gonna have to die to sin and to self. 00:35:50.079 --> 00:35:53.519 And he says, you know, how about once a year? 00:35:54.159 --> 00:35:55.760 No, what did he say? 00:35:57.679 --> 00:35:59.119 Every day, right? 00:36:00.559 --> 00:36:04.559 He wants us to die daily to sin and to self. 00:36:04.960 --> 00:36:10.480 And then we can talk about the second half of Galatians 2.20. 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:18.800 And living the resurrected life while we're still here on earth. 00:36:19.199 --> 00:36:26.800 Then we'll understand what the Bible truly means about having joy even in trials and being thankful all the time. 00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:35.920 And all those hard sayings start to make sense when we get filled with the Spirit and understand this stuff a little bit. 00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:39.360 Now, the clock is going. 00:36:39.920 --> 00:36:43.920 And I think I'll stop because I don't want to start something new here. 00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:56.639 But um we'll pick this up next week, and I hope that um maybe you'll even give some thoughts to this between now and then. 00:36:56.880 --> 00:36:58.159 Let's pray. 00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:03.599 That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:10.559 Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus. 00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:14.239 You can learn more by visiting the website at Faith Freedom.