In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of surrendering to Christ as He reveals Himself in different ways. He highlights various aspects of Christ, such as the potter, the smelter, the vine, and the bridegroom lover of our souls, and encourages listeners to surrender to each of these revelations. The speaker also emphasizes the need to see Jesus as the ultimate goal of Bible study, stating that everything the Bible teaches about family, stewardship, discipleship, and other topics is designed to turn our eyes to Jesus. The sermon concludes with a call to increase our vision of Christ and to have a present revelation of Him, allowing Him to transform our lives.

Well, good afternoon, brothers and sisters. Such a joy to be with the people of the Lord and the Lord whose people they are. Such a joy. As we come to the study of God's Word, I want to state again that principle is not only a principle of Bible study, but it's a principle of life that is absolutely indispensable, and that is total reliance upon God's Holy Spirit. I know you know that, and I know it, but how we need to be reminded constantly the Bible is like our Lord Jesus in the sense that there's a human side and a divine side. We need the laws of language. We need academics. We need to study to get the human side. But if all we have is the human side, we are a poor people. Only God can unveil His Son to our hearts. That necessary revelation, apart from which we will never be renewed in our mind, will never be changed. We need to see the Lord. We need to behold Him. He delights to unveil Himself. Far more than we desire to see Him, He wants to show Himself. There's a Bible verse, a couple of them I'd like to share before we go to prayer. Isaiah chapter 50 is a wonderful messianic chapter. There's no question that it's speaking about our Lord Jesus Christ. And in Isaiah chapter 50, verse 4, it says, "...the Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary with word. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple." That has its first application to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was awakened every day by His Holy Father God to have devotions. Every day, He awakens me day by day. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. If our Lord Jesus, the representative man, needed to have His ear awakened to listen as a disciple, may I suggest we are in a great need that God would awaken our ear to listen as a disciple. Now, this afternoon, I want to share a little bit on the transfiguration. And as I was studying that, this verse gripped my heart in a special way. Luke chapter 9, verse 32 says, "...when they were fully awake, they saw His glory." Well, we need to have our heart awakened. We need to have our heart fully awakened. Because when they were fully awake, that's when they saw the glory of the Lord. Can we pause a moment? Can we bow together and just ask the Lord to wake up our hearts that we might listen as disciples? Let's bow. Our Heavenly Father, how we do praise You this afternoon that we're not on our own as we come to this book. You have not required us to work up or create some attitude of childlikeness. But You have put it in us. Your life, Your Holy Spirit crying, Abba, Father. And we know that You've promised to reveal these things to babes. Enable us to come hungry. If there's any of Your inheritance that happens to be parched this afternoon, confirm Your inheritance, we pray. Rain water upon the thirsty. We know You'll not turn anyone hungry away. Meet us, we pray. Show us in a living way our Lord Jesus, and then grace us to appropriate that revelation. We thank You in advance that You're going to over-answer this prayer. Not because in any way we deserve the answer to our prayers, but because our Lord Jesus deserves it, and so for His sake we claim it in His name. Amen. Yesterday afternoon, when I had the opportunity to address you, I said the issue, the topic that was chosen for this weekend was a matter of life and death. I didn't realize how powerful that statement was. And the more I hear about what it means to have our minds transformed, it is a matter of life and death. It is a matter of life and death. So may God take us forward again this afternoon. When we closed yesterday afternoon, I called attention to Isaiah 26, verses 3 and 4. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Whose mind is stayed on Thee, spiritual-mindedness at its heart, a mind that is stayed on the Lord Jesus. I suggested in our two sessions together that we would meditate on that reality. The mind stayed on the Lord at all times, continually. Yesterday we looked at the mind stayed on the Lord no matter what in life. In every situation, every circumstance, there is a river. Our God is with us. The Lord of hosts is with us. This afternoon, I'd like us to look at what it means to have our minds stayed on the Lord in our study of the Bible, in our study of the Scripture. He's not only the teacher of that precious book, He's the curriculum, He's the subject, He's the theme. Ask the Lord, please, to open your heart as we meditate together on this. For years, as a believer, I didn't study the Bible to know the Lord. I studied the Bible to know the Bible, and I think there are many people that have not understood what it means to study the Bible to know the Lord. The illustration that I've chosen is the story of the transfiguration. That's not the point, that's the illustration, and it illustrates that very burden that's on my heart. We're going to be going back and forth between four passages, and it might be helpful if you desire to read along with us to mark those passages. One's in Matthew 16, the other is in Mark 9, and then Luke 9, and then 2 Peter chapter 1, those four chapters. Now each account in the Gospel is slightly different, and as we touch the precious principles, I'll attempt, by God's assistance, to pull the record together in order that we might have God's heart on this. Our Lord Jesus told the disciples after the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John, our Lord Jesus told them not to say anything about it until after He had risen from the dead. Well, He's alive now, and so the law of silence is not on our lips anymore. We can talk about it, and so this afternoon I want to proclaim it, this great revelation that He gave us, illustrated in the transfiguration. Now, in order to get this meaningfully to our hearts, I would like to underscore the importance of the transfiguration as it appears in the Bible record. Once again, we can read these things, la, la, la, and become experts on the letter and miss God's heart, miss the Lord, miss the spirit of the whole thing. The transfiguration is a strategic event in the history of redemption. One illustration of how strategic is where it comes in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Now, for the sake of illustration, let me give you just a broad general sweep. Don't nail this down right to the day or right to the week, but in a general way, this is true. Now, you know, the first thirty years of the life of our Lord Jesus were lived in relative obscurity. We know a couple of things, that's all. But His ministry, beginning with the baptism, we pretty much can trace that out. Commentators are pretty much agreed on this, that His ministry was divided into three parts. The first part they call His Judean and Samaritan ministry, and in rough terms, that was about one year. The second part was called His Galilean ministry, and in general terms, that was about two years. Now, you know, His ministry was three and a half years. And so if you take those first two, that's three years out of three and a half years. The last part, He turned again to Judea and Ad-Perea, and that was the last six months of His ministry, but that was qualitatively different. At the end of His Galilean ministry, at the end of three years, something happened. And it changed the ministry of our Lord Jesus from that day on. By the end of the Galilean ministry, He had given many of His discourses, Nicodemus, Woman at the Well, Sermon on the Mount. He had already done twenty-six miracles. He had already given twenty-two parables. His temptation in the wilderness was all over. The twelve had already been chosen, sent out, and returned. The seventy had already been chosen, sent out, returned. Ministry of John the Baptizer was finished. It had already been beheaded. Many conflicts with the scribes and the Pharisees. It had already been rejected two times in His hometown of Nazareth, only six months before the cross. But something happened after that third year. How did it end? What happened? Matthew, chapter 16, verse 13, records it. It was in Caesarea Philippi, chapter 16, verse 13. Who do people say that I am? Now, tie it into the context. After three years, after all that teaching, after all those miracles, after all those parables, after everything they've seen, does anybody know who I am? Who am I? Do they really know me? Do they really see me? Now, he's not talking about his enemies, not talking about those destructive critics and the scribes and the Pharisees. Their answer would have been, he's from the devil, bales of bull, that kind of thing. Now, he's talking about the general public. He's talking about the people. After three years of ministry, who do people say that I am? And you remember the answers. Some say John the Baptist, and some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, others, one of the prophets. And you remember the turning point. He looked at Peter in chapter 16, verse 15, and he said, who do you say that I am? That's when Peter gave his wonderful answer, you know, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Matthew 16, 17, our Lord Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And that was the turning point. In Matthew 16, 21, there's a change, and it says, from that day on, he began to tell them, and then there's a new direction about the cross and the suffering, and so on. It changed right there. Now, it's true, after a few minutes, Peter stumbled and opened his mouth again and had his heart and mind set on man's interests. But get this, brothers and sisters in Christ, for one moment, for one glorious moment, he got it right. For one glorious moment at the end of three years, he was spiritually minded. Flesh and blood has not revealed that to you. You hit something, Peter. You laid hold of something, Peter. Flesh and blood has not revealed it, but my Father in heaven. And right after that, in every gospel record, we have the story of the transfiguration. And so I suggest to you this record of the transfiguration. Very important. Because of where it comes in the record, right at the end of the Galilean ministry, after three years, when Peter finally got it right, and for that one moment, he was spiritually minded and God was pleased, and it was followed by the transfiguration. I'd hold that a moment. Let me tell you another reason why I think the transfiguration is very, very important. Transfiguration is important. And you can see that when you contrast it with every other revelation that God ever gave of His Son to that time. Notice I didn't say compare it. I said contrast it, because that's how great it was. The Lord Jesus had appeared many times in the Bible, in the bush, on Mount Sinai, in the cloud, in the temple, in the fiery furnace, in the lion's den, in the visions of the prophets, Ezekiel, Daniel, many revelations. But I'm suggesting to you that in four thousand years of human history, since Adam and Eve, from that time to this time, there was never a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ as glorious as this. Go through your Bible and try to find one. There was none. Not like this. What happened on that Mount of Transfiguration, when the Lord Jesus was metamorphosized, when He was transfigured, never before on the planet Earth had anything like that ever happened, and that before the eyes of man. Marvelous thing, this transfiguration. Now, what all that glory meant, that's up for discussion. Was that the glory of His deity? Was that the glory of His humanity? Was that a foretaste of some future glory? I'll leave that to you theologians. But it can't be denied, I don't believe, that since the beginning of time, there was never a vision like this of glorious revelation of Christ. And that becomes important because God is about to drop one of the most glorious truths. And in order for us to embrace that glorious truth, He gives this glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus. There's a third indication of how important this transfiguration is. As you know, on the level of Earth, there were three eyewitnesses to this glorious transfiguration of the Lord Jesus. Peter, James and John. The Apostle Peter was there. He saw it, he's the one that for that glorious moment had it right. He was spiritually minded for a moment. And so he lives on. Thirty years go by and I don't understand how all of that inspiration worked, but somehow God came to him and inspired him and said, I want you to write a letter. I'm talking about 2 Peter, his final letter. And I want you to write a letter and tell the saints how to grow. In the Lord Jesus, that's the message of 2 Peter. The last words in 2 Peter 3, 18, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. And so God guided Peter to write about how to grow in the Lord. And his letter, you ought to study it. It's marvelous. It's filled with all of the safeguards against everything that hinders growth. You want to learn how to grow, you read 2 Peter. You want to see all the things that hinder growth, mark them. They're all in 2 Peter. Marvelous book. It ends with grow in the Lord Jesus. That's how it ends. That's not how it starts. How does it begin? You see, 30 years have passed in his life. Peter looked back 30 years and he said, I remember an experience I had 30 years ago, and that taught me how to grow in Christ. I need to share that with you. 2 Peter chapter one, follow along, please, as I read verse 16 to 18. We did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were eyewitnesses of His majesty, for when He received honor and glory from God, the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the Holy Mount. What event is He talking about? Say it. 30 years later, he couldn't shake it. 30 years later, he looks back and he says, something happened that day and I'll never be the same. And for 30 years he lived with it. And now God says, write a book, tell them how to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, all right, in order to do that, I got to go back to the transfiguration. Brothers and sisters, don't just say, oh, the transfiguration, I know that. And they were there and Elijah, let Peter explain it. He was there. Let the witness speak. Let him tell us what it's all about. What is that transfiguration all about? What does it mean? Do you catch the wonder of this event? It's so climactic. It was right at the end of the Galilean part of his ministry. After three years, who do men say that I am? Who do you say? How did you know that? Where did you get it? Oh, God gave it to you. Let me show you something. The transfiguration. That was the key that Peter found, that God discovered to his heart on how to grow in the Lord Jesus. I'd like us to read not Matthew, Mark and Luke, but just one account. And I've selected Luke's account. So if you'll turn to Luke, please, and chapter nine. And I'd like us to read from 23 to 36 and so that you could save my voice a little. I'd like to ask several of you to stand up, read a few verses and someone else will continue. Just make sure you read loudly enough, please, so that every all the brothers and sisters can enter in. I know this is being taped and I don't know if your voices will carry to the tape. And so I suggest anyone listening by tape, shut it off, read the passage and then turn it back out. All right, here's the passage. Luke chapter nine, 23 through 36. Can we have some saints read that? All right. Thank you very much. Let me get straight to what I think is the heart of the message of the transfiguration. I'm sure, as in all scripture, there are many truths that we can glean, but there's a primary truth. There's a basic revelation here. Why did God choose this illustration? I think the truth is as glorious as the illustration. Let me put it in simple words and then try to develop it. And may God help us. The end of all Bible study is to see Jesus. That's what I think the message of the transfiguration. Peter is going to say that. He's going to say that if all you had was the gospel records. I doubt if we could have come to the conclusion that that's what the transfiguration was all about. Without Peter's explanation, I don't think we'd have gotten many things, but I think we would have missed the main thing. And the main thing is this, that I must study the Bible in order to behold the law. As I suggested earlier, it's not enough to study the Bible to know the Bible. To formulate creeds and to have doctrinal statements and all kinds, getting all these orthodox statements. There's a strange creedal idolatry these days. People are so locked into getting the words right and everything, and they're missing the Lord. If God would open our hearts to what Peter is saying, I think we'd be delivered from tons of Bible study methods that leave us sterile and cold and wear out the saints. All this systematic, get everything pigeonholed and get everything right and make sure you know all of the languages and the Greek and then get the background and the culture. And this happened there and this is the geography and tie it into this and get the right exegesis. And the flower doesn't belong to the botanist, belongs to the artist. Botanist knows more about it, but he destroys it. He takes it all apart and he can tell you all about it. And a lot of people have been studying that book like that. And when it's all done, they know all about it, but they've never seen it. Never come with the heart of an artist, just beheld the beauty of the Lord. That's what this is all about. Again, I say Peter was an eyewitness. If anyone knew the secret meaning of the experience, the transfiguration, Peter did. And so now let's allow him, by God's grace, to tell his story. 30 years later, he looks back. He said, I've got something to share with you. 2 Peter 1, 16 to 21 is God's commentary on Matthew 17, 1 to 9, Mark 9, 1 to 9 and Luke 9, 28 to 36. What I'd like to do so that we don't miss this life transforming reality, let me try to break it apart a little again. We'll go back and forth from the gospel record to Peter's. But here's what I'd like to suggest in the story. These are just the facts. First, there are three illustrations of this book. I'm just going to point them out. This illustrates the Bible, this illustrates the Bible, this illustrates the Bible. And then there are three illustrations of something beyond the book. We'll call one the revelation. We'll call the other the revelation of the revelation. You know where I'm going. We've got to have both. 2 Peter 1, 19, the first illustration of the Bible. We have the prophetic word. Stop. All right, look up here. You're done with that. That's the first description of the Bible. It's called the prophetic word. Now, why would Peter look back 30 years and say something happened back then and we have a prophetic word? All right, let's go back. Turn to Matthew. Chapter 16, please, verse 27 and 28. Here's what precedes the transfiguration. The Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his father with his angels. He'll repay every man according to his deeds. Truly, I say, some of you standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his glory. He says the same thing in Mark 8, 38 through chapter 9, verse 1. There are some of you standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God has come with power. Luke 9 says the same thing. The Son of Man will come in the glory of his father and his holy angels. And there are some of you standing here who will not taste death. That's a strange word to precede the transfiguration, but that's all it was. It was a word of prophecy, a prophetic word. I'm coming again. I'm coming in the glory of my father. I'm coming to establish a kingdom. And some of you will not die until you see that. That's all he had. A prophecy, a prophetic word, how that's interpreted, what that means. Again, the commentators go everywhere. Some say, well, 70 A.D., some of them lived to see that. And in some sense, that was a coming of the Lord. Others say it was fulfilled because in a flash. Right there, they saw the kingdom in miniature, they saw the Lamb of God in the center and they saw those who die in Christ, illustrated by Moses and those who are caught up together, illustrated by Elijah and also the Word of God, illustrated by Elijah. They saw the resurrection body. They saw the change. They saw in the three, the overcomers. They saw in the nine below those who weren't overcomers. They saw the Jews below. They saw the Gentiles down below the whole thing in miniature. They saw the kingdom, however you interpret it. We're going to come back to the simple thing. They had a word. He's coming in his glory. And some of you will not taste death until you see him come. If after Jesus gave that word and before the transfiguration. You went up to any of them. Peter, you believe Jesus is coming again? Oh, yeah, he gave me a prophetic word. He's coming in the glory of his father. He's going to set up his kingdom. And some of us will not die till we see it. They had the word. God said it, I believe it, that settles it. All right, hold on a moment. There's a second picture of the Bible. Mark 9, 4, Elijah appeared to them along with Moses and they were talking with Jesus. Only Luke tells us what they were talking about. Luke 9, 31, who appeared in glory, speaking with him of the departure he was to accomplish at Jerusalem. Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets. The Bible speaking about his death. That was the rock that Moses had smitten 3000 years. Before and now the reality that was the sacrifice that 2500 years earlier at three o'clock in the afternoon, Elijah laid on the altar. And now they're talking about the death. When our Lord Jesus appeared on the Emmaus Road to the two disciples. He said, oh, foolish men, Luke 24, slow of heart to believe. Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things, to enter into the glory beginning with Moses and the prophets? He explained the things concerning himself in all the scripture. And so Moses and Elijah, Moses, the law and the prophets, another illustration of the word of God. Hold that a moment, please. There's a third illustration, and it comes from 2 Peter chapter one, as he is reminiscing, as he's looking back, as he's talking about the Bible and something beyond the Bible. He has a title that he uses in verse 19. He calls the Bible a lamp shining in a dark place. And the Greek word dark is squalid place, dirty, filthy, foul. And that's not new. That's been used before. The Bible is a lamp. Psalm 119, 105, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. So I suggest that's the Bible. This is a prophetic word. This is Moses and Elijah. This is a lamp shining in a dark place. He also gives three illustrations of something beyond the word. This was the secret that was ringing in Peter's heart after 30 years that God had discovered to him. 2 Peter 1, 19. So we have the prophetic word made more sure. That's an interesting expression. The prophetic word, the Bible, not made more true. You can't make it more true. It's as true as true can be. It's the word of God. It's absolutely true. But there's a way Peter is beginning to say, I had the word. But all of a sudden something happened and I had it more sure, more vital, more alive. More real. What happened? What made the prophetic word, the prophetic word, more sure? And the answer is, once I had the word, he's coming again. And then I saw the Lord. And when I saw the Lord, the prophetic word became the prophetic word made more sure, became alive. I saw him as no man ever saw him. The countenance of his face was like the sun. His body was glowing and dazzling. Even his clothes radiated. It looked like lightning, says one of the gospel writers. And another said, so what wonder on earth could whiten them? In that glorious moment, Peter, James and John. They had the word and all of a sudden, when they saw Jesus, that word became alive. Back to 2 Peter, chapter one. The Bible is called a lamp shining in a squalid place. Verse 19, to which you do well to pay attention. As to a lamp and that shining in a dark place on till pay attention to this, the lamp until until what? Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. Are you getting this, brothers and sisters in Christ? Don't miss it until the day dawns. There's the lamp. And there's the day star. And it's not the same. The lamp is a book. The day star is a person. And his name, his name is Jesus, the day star three times in the New Testament, our Lord is referred to as the day star once here, once as a promise to the overcomer in Revelation 2 of give him the day star in the last time, the final title of our Lord Jesus in the New Testament. Revelation 22, 16, I, Jesus sent my angel to testify to you these things. I am the root, the offspring of David. I am the bright and morning star. That morning star in nature is the star that precedes day. It ends night, it starts today. If that star in nature could talk, here's what it would say. Goodbye, darkness. Hello, light. Goodbye, night. And hello, day. That's the morning star. God says, pay attention to this. Don't neglect it. It's your lamp. Pay attention to it until the day star rises in your heart. I think some have become experts on the lamp and they've never seen the day star. Peter says, I got to tell you how to grow. I remember 30 years ago, I had a prophetic word and something happened and I saw the Lord Jesus. And all of a sudden, the prophetic word became the prophetic word more sure. I had a lamp, only a lamp, and I paid attention to the lamp. And all of a sudden, the day star rose in my heart. That's what the transfiguration is all about. There's a third illustration. Second Peter 1, 17 and 18. When he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. We heard that utterance made from heaven when we were with Him in the holy mount. The third picture of that beyond the book is when that cloud came down and there was a special voice of God proclaiming the Lord Jesus and causing everything else. We got the prophetic word and the prophetic word made more sure. We've got the lamp and the day star rising in our hearts. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if we're going to ever grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus, we're going to have to see the Lord Jesus in that book. There's the prophetic word. There's Moses and Elijah. And then there's the reality, Christ himself. Now, through the years, I've noticed this, that if I or some other speaker speaks to a group and says, look to Jesus, everyone seems to respond to that. That's good. And even if you say, look to Jesus alone, they respond to that. Their heart says, yes, that's right. But I found that if I say, look to Jesus, not this, that there's some resistance. Because I think when you give somebody something to accept, they don't really know what you're talking about unless you give them something to reject. And if you give something to reject, then you understand what you're calling them to accept. And so if I say, look to Jesus, everyone says, amen. Look to Jesus, not missions. Go, wait a minute, wait a minute now. See, certain things have to disappear when you see Jesus alone. Mark chapter nine, verse seven and eight. The cloud formed, overshadowing them. A voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. At once they looked all around and saw no one anymore except Jesus alone. It looks like they were looking for Moses and Elijah. Where'd they go? They were here a minute ago. It's amazing. I read all my commentaries and everybody's talking about Moses and Elijah. The importance of their appearance. You know, the most important thing about the appearance of Moses and Elijah? The most important thing about the appearance of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration was their disappearance. Exactly right. Exactly right. They must disappear. They can point to him and point to his finished work, and then they've got to disappear. You say, well, aren't you saying that Moses and Elijah represent the Bible? Are you saying the Bible has to disappear? I didn't say it had to be annihilated. They weren't annihilated. They were still there. They just were out of sight. They just became invisible again. This isn't the first time that that happened. Remember when Moses was upon the mountain and he saw the Lord and his face began to glow? Exodus 34, he put a veil over his face. His skin began to glow. Why did he put that veil over his face? You say, well, it was so bright. And the children of Israel couldn't bear to look. It was such a bright glory. No, no, that's not why he did it. Second Corinthians tells you why he did it. Second Corinthians chapter 3. Not because it was so bright. It was because it was so dim. The Bible says that Moses covered his face because he did not want them to look at a glory that was fading away. Come to the Bible and you say, it says a lot about family. It says a lot about mission. It says a lot about stewardship. It says a lot about disciples. It says a lot about growing. It says a lot about spiritual gifts. It says a lot about fruit. Everything the Bible says about family is designed to turn your eyes to Jesus. Everything the Bible says about stewardship is designed to turn your eyes to Jesus. Everything the Bible says about discipleship is designed to turn your eyes to Jesus. Everything the Bible says about Antichrist is designed to show you Christ and the future and the tribulation and the millennium. It's a revelation of God's Son. It's a revelation of Christ. He's given that. And bless God for the messengers of pure grace who dare to put a veil over this book and say that's off-center. We're not going to study that unless we see the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, isn't discipleship glorious? Yeah, veil it. Elijah and Moses have to disappear. And the day star has to rise in our heart. We need to see the Lord. It's not that we're trying to deny you those other things. We just don't want you to have them apart from Christ. They're in Christ. And when you see Christ, then you're going to have those tremendous things. Our brother Stephen this morning with a passion was telling us how important it was to have our minds renewed and to present our bodies a sacrifice wholly acceptable unto the Lord, reasonable service in the light of all of His mercies. Yield. Surrender. My question. Surrender to what? Surrender to what? You say to Jesus. What if you're not seeing Him? I think the problem with most Christians is not surrender. I think most Christians are totally surrendered to a Christ that big. You surrender to one horsepower, you're going to do a lot of pushing. You surrender to 100 horsepower, you can do a lot of riding. You don't need more surrender. You need a larger revelation of Christ. For years, I was totally surrendered. But my vision of the Lord was only that He was the Lamb of God. I don't mean only the Lamb. Even in heaven, we'll never come to the end of that. In the Old Testament picture, the fire consumed the Lamb. In the reality, the Lamb consumes the fire. You'll never come to the end of that, the glory of the Lamb. But that's all I knew. And I was totally surrendered to that. I knew I was going to heaven. I knew my sins were forgiven. I knew God accepted me. I knew I wasn't going to hell. And I wanted everybody to know that. And I went out telling everybody that. But I had no victory over sin in my life. And someone said, surrender. I did. But I never saw Jesus as the end of the law. I never saw Him as my righteousness. You need to see the Lord. Pay attention to this book. Do you remember the first time you saw Jesus? The Lamb of God? Anything happen in your life? You were changed. And I'm suggesting every time you see Him, don't stop seeing Him. That's what it's all about. Seeing the Lord. Come back again and see Him again. And the more you see Him, the more you'll be changed. Our natural hearts have such a hard time letting go of the letter. We want to build a tabernacle. We want to encase it in a creedal statement. We want it locked up. We want to do some program or something like that. We want to retain it. God says, pay attention to the lamp until Christ shines in your heart. I can hear someone saying, you don't know my heart. I want so much to die to sell. There are some of you that will not taste death until you see the Lord in His glory. You say, I want to be changed. I want to be transfigured. That word is used, that same word, metamorphosized for the Christian. We come with an unveiled face to behold the glory of the Lord. And we're transfigured from one degree of glory to another. When the Lord is glorified, His body was glorified. And you are His body. We're glorified. Even His garments, usually material things, stand in the way of spiritual things. But when you see the Lord, even the material things are going to radiate His glory. You say, I want ministry. You watch what happened. We don't have time to develop it. But after the mountain, they went down. And it was ministry, wonderful ministry. Everything you need is by seeing Christ. Our brother said, surrender. And I'm saying, surrender to Christ as He's revealed. He shows Himself to you as the potter. You surrender to that. He shows Himself as the smelter. You surrender to that. He shows Himself as the vine. You surrender to that. He shows Himself as the bridegroom, lover of your soul. Surrender to that. And as you begin to see Him by God's light and God's revelation, you're changed. And your mind is renewed. Any change that comes in my life or yours in any other way than by beholding Jesus Christ in that book is unreal. It's not a real change. Oh, may God help us. So you say, all right, then that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to set my heart right now. And I'm going to start seeing Jesus every place. I'll study the 250 titles of Him in the Bible. I'll study all His names. Elohim, Jehovah, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Rama, Jehovah-Shamma, Jehovah-Raha, El Shaddai, Adonai, all of these wonderful titles. Then I'll look at all His attributes. Then I'll find Him in the parables, in the miracles, in the types, in the prophecy, in the history of redemption. No, that's not how it works. Did you know? Let's go back to 2 Peter and we'll wrap it up. 2 Peter 1. I used to think that Peter got off the subject here in verse 20 and 21. How could I lose my glasses? All right. 2 Peter 1. Not much place to go. Know this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. I thought he was saying, here's how to grow in Christ, and here's a proof text for inspiration. That's all that ever meant for me. And it's a wonderful proof text, by the way. But that's not what he's saying. What he's saying is, the Bible writers didn't wake up one morning. Ezekiel didn't say, think I'll write about dry bones. That's not how it happened. Isaiah didn't say, I think I should write a whole section on the servant. That's not how it happened. The Holy Spirit moved and carried along and bore these prophets. You cannot decide what revelation of Christ you're going to see. You can't decide, I think tomorrow I'll see him as the rock. And I'll take rock and trace it through a concordance. And I'll look up rock in every place it's used. And now I've seen Jesus as the rock. You can't decide, Monday potter, Tuesday smelter, Wednesday husbandman, Thursday vine, Friday shepherd, Saturday the God of all comfort. You can't decide that. God knows the revelation of Christ that you need. And just like he carried along these men that inspired the Word of God, it never came by the will of man. And God says, you just pay attention to this book. God's doing two things in your life and two things in mine. He's either showing you Christ or he's getting you ready to see him. That's what he's doing. You just pay attention to this book. God knows the revelation you need. You don't know. I don't know. And as you just study this book and you pour over this book, the day star will rise in your heart and you will be changed. Renewing of the mind. You've got to surrender. Every day. But you've got to have a Christ to surrender to. May God help us to ask the Lord to increase our vision of him, to grow in him, to have the prophetic word made more sure by a present revelation of the Lord Jesus. Have the lamp, amen, for the lamp. Until the day star rises in our heart, saying goodbye to darkness and hello to light. Until the cloud comes over us and the only voice we hear, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. Everything else passes away and there's Jesus only. Oh, may God help us. Now, what happened back then will probably happen now. Only a remnant, only a remnant will lay hold of it. Some of us, no doubt, are going to go back and study the Bible to know the Bible. Become experts in theology and be able to answer all the questions. Some of us are going to say, Lord, Lord, we want to know you. You've given us this book that we might know you. You gave that great transfiguration to teach us how to know you. To have this and to have this. Blessed are you, Simon, because flesh and blood didn't reveal it. But my father who's in heaven. Let's pray. Our father, how we praise you this afternoon for your truth. Once again, not the little bit we think we know, but everything you've put in your Bible. Work it in our hearts, write it indelibly in us. Cause us to be serious about spiritual mindedness. Give us a heart to know the Lord. Give us a desire to see Jesus revealed in the book. And we know when we see him, we'll be like him. In Jesus name.