Well, let us turn to God's Word,
and I want to direct you to the words that we have at the end
of 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy 3, 16. I often think
it's quite remarkable how many times throughout the Scriptures
we see some significance in those numbers, chapter 3 and verse
16. And that's certainly the case
in the two letters to Timothy, these words that we have in the
first epistle, and then again the words that we have in verse
16 and chapter 3 of the second epistle. But it's here in 1 Timothy chapter
3 and verse 16 that I want to direct your attention for a while. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed only in the world, received up into glory. And what we have here is surely
a compendium of theology. In these few words, this one
verse, we might say we have the very sum and substance of the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I direct your attention to
it because last Lord's Day evening we were considering the previous
verse, verse 15. And I thought then to say something
with regards to the doctrine of the Church and thinking of
the Church as the pillar and ground of the truth. The pillar and ground of the
truth. And the apostle speaks of it,
doesn't he, as the house of God. If I tell you long that thou
mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house
of God, which is the church. of the living God, the pillar
and ground of the truth. And we certainly said something
with regards to the significance of the pillar. I remarked, amongst
other things, that in ancient times pillars were a significant
part of public buildings and old ancient Kings and emperors
would often post their edicts upon those pillars, so that the
people might see the various proclamations that were being
made. Now, when we come to the New Testament, we see that the
apostles are spoken of as pillars. In Galatians 2.9, James, Cephas
and John, Paul says, seem to be pillars. They were pillars
in the church. The church is built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. But when we think of the apostles,
not so much as the foundation of the New Testament church,
but when we think of them as pillars, we can think of their
ministry. What were they to do? They were
to hold forth the word of truth. That was their principal ministry. In Acts chapter 6, for example,
where there was that dispute concerning the ministering to
the widows, dispute between the Grecians, the Gentiles, and the
Jews, Well the apostles being the only
functionaries they were having to deal with that matter and
they realized that it would be good to have some others who
might attend to such service and so we have in Acts 6 the
origin of what we now know as the office of the deacon. Those
seven men who were chosen to deal with that matter of distributing
the the relief that was to be ministered
to those various widows. And what were the apostles to
do? We will give ourselves, they say, continually to prayer and
to the ministry of the word. That was their principal business,
to pray and to preach, to be holding forth the word of truth. In that sense they were pillars
to the church, proclaiming God's word. And it's interesting, isn't
it, that after speaking of the church in that fashion here in
verse 15, the house of God, the church of the living gods, the
pillar and ground of the truth, the apostle then goes on to make
this remarkable statement in the words that I just read for
our text, verse 16. And I'm minded, in some ways,
to go through each of the clauses of the verse in the coming weeks,
we'll see. I know some years ago we did
look at this verse, but there's so much in this passage of Scripture,
and tonight I just want to concentrate your attention on the opening
clause. Without controversy, Paul says,
Great is the mystery of godliness. Nassim is the mystery. of godliness
the mystery of godliness remember how as we said last time in the
former part of the chapter Paul speaks of the two standing offices
in the church that of the overseers we have the word bishop in our
authorized version it literally means an overseer and those who
were the overseers were also on other occasions referred to
as pastors and then we have the other office of the deacon. And in verse 9, as he's saying
something with regards to the qualifications of those who might
hold that office, the deacon is to be one holding the mystery
of the faith in a pure conscience. The mystery of the faith. Then here, the word that I want
to concentrate on tonight, the mystery of godliness. What are we to understand? What
are we to understand by this word godliness? Well, in a sense we can look at it
in two different ways. We can consider it in a sort
of limited sense and think of it simply in terms of a certain
grace of the Holy Spirit and it's used in that fashion later
in the epistle In chapter 6 and verse 11, Paul says to Timothy,
Though a man of God flee these things and follow after righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. So he speaks of various
graces and amongst them we have the grace of godliness. And we
can understand the word then in that very limited sense we
find Peter using it in a similar fashion when he writes in the
opening chapter of his second epistle and he speaks of giving
diligence to add to your faith virtue and then he speaks of
knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and so
forth He lists a number of graces, just as Paul does there to Timothy,
and amongst them he speaks of godliness. It is then a certain
grace of the Spirit of God, just as patience or endurance might
be said to be such a grace of the Spirit of God. It can be
used in that sense, but also it has a much wider meaning. And we certainly see that again
in the way he uses it elsewhere in this epistle in chapter 4. And there at verses 7 and 8 he
says, Refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself
rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth
little, But godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise
of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." And
there, surely, he is using the word godliness in a much wider
and broader sense. He's using godliness, we might
say, in the sense of the whole work of the grace of God in the
soul of a sinner. This is what God produces in
the soul of the sinner by the work of his Spirit. Godliness. We might understand it in terms
of that that we might describe as real religion. Godliness is
real religion. He says in chapter 6 and verse
6, Godliness with contentment is great gain. And there, surely, godliness
is to be understood in terms of that which is something wrought
by the Spirit of God, a yielding to divine sovereignty, a bowing
to the will of God, godliness with contentment. And that is
the way it's being used here. Great is the mystery of godliness.
Great is the mystery of real religion. the mystery of the
life of God in the soul of the sinner so he uses the word godliness
and then he also uses his word mystery what are we to make of
the word mystery well it's interesting to compare scripture
with scripture of course that's always the best way to understand
any part of God's word the analogy of faith we We look at a verse,
and we look at it in its context, but we also look at that passage
in the context of the whole of the Word of God. In that sense
the Bible interprets itself. And we think of the words of
the Lord Jesus when he speaks to his disciples concerning the
nature of his ministry. His ministry in the man was parabolic.
Time and again in the Gospels we read of the parables of the
Lord Jesus, and he explains to the disciples why he preaches
and ministers in that way. "...Unto you it is given to know
the mystery of the kingdom of God," he says, "...but unto those
that are without these things are done in parables, that seeing
they may see and not understand." There's a sense in which the
parable is concealing the truth from some, whilst there is the
revealing of the truth to others. And Paul is very concerned when
he comes to his own ministry that he might have the prayers
of the saints, that he might make known the mystery. When
he writes to the Ephesians, there at the end of Ephesians in chapter
6, he speaks of the various parts of the believer's armor, that
that God has provided for the good fight of faith, and then
we come to the end of that and he speaks of the necessity of
them to be a prayerful people. The Old Hymn says, concerning
the armor, each piece put on with prayer. But then he goes
on and says something more, he wants them to pray for him. Ephesians
6.19, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel. All he wants to be making known
then is that mystery. The mystery of the Gospel. It's the same when he writes
to the Colossians. He says, with all praying for me also that
I may open my mouth to speak the mystery of Christ. He calls it the mystery of Christ
there in Colossians 4. whereas in Ephesians he speaks
of the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of Christ, the mystery
of the gospel. And of course, we see that the great mystery
of the faith very much centers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so here in the text he says, great is the mystery of godliness,
and then he goes on to speak principally of the Lord Jesus. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in true glory. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ is
that One in whom we have all the sum and substance of the
salvation that God has provided for sinners. The church is built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That's the New
Testament prophets. But Jesus Christ himself, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone of the foundation,
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And Peter's confession there
at Caesarea Caesarea Philippi, where he confesses, thou art
the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And the Lord says, upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. He has nothing to do with Peter's
own person. That, of course, is the foolish
teaching of the Roman Church. They make the claim that Peter
was the first bishop of Rome. There's no evidence anywhere
that he was ever even in Rome. But they like to imagine that
he was the first bishop of Rome. And then they say, you see, that
their whole system is built upon Peter, the chief of the apostles. But Peter's confession was what
the Lord was referring to. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. No other foundation can be laid
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ the Lord. Well, let us come to the text
without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. And I want to deal really with
two simple basic points. First of all, to say how that
what we have here is a religion that is distinguished from all
false religion. It's distinguished from all false
religion. And then I want us to look in
the second place at how it is defined for us here in the Word
of God, the mystery of godliness. Interesting, isn't it? Immediately
after making this statement in verse 16, we come over to chapter
4 And of course, as I'm sure you will recall many a time,
I've said that what we know in terms of chapters and verses
is not part of the original inspired text of Scripture. These divisions, which are very
helpful and useful, I'm not decrying them in any sense, they're good.
It helps us to find our way around the Bible. But these epistles
why they stand complete. We don't have a break between
chapter 3 and 4. There's a connection between
the verses, there's a connection between the chapters, and it's
significant. Because immediately after speaking of the mystery
of godliness, he says, "...Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, Speaking
lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot
iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats,
which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of
them which believe and know the truth." He immediately begins
then to speak of what we might say is false religion. And when we read those words
we see here, I believe, so clearly that he is referring principally
to some of the teachings of the Church of Rome. Speaking lies
in hypocrisy, he says, forbidding to marry, vows of celibacy, commanding
to abstain from mates, and so on. He is very much aware, he's
the apostle, of what will come in the last times. The Spirit
speaketh expressly. In the latter times there'll
be a solemn departure from the faith. He's writing of course
under the inspiration of the Spirit. So in that sense he has
the same ministry as the Old Testament prophets. These men
were able to speak of things to come. And I think we have
a remarkable example in what the Apostle writes in the second
chapter of the second epistle to the Thessalonians. What a
passage is that from chapter 2 and verse 3 in 2 Thessalonians. Let no man deceive you by any
means, for that day, that is the day of the Lord's return,
shall not come except their comer falling away first, and that
man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped,
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was
yet with you I told you these things, and now ye know what
withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time? for the
mystery of iniquity does already work. Only he who now letteth
will let, until he be taken out of the way." And it's a fact
that the Protestant Reformers and the Puritans after them,
with regard to this portion, said it is speaking quite specifically
of the coming of the Church of Rome, apostate Christianity.
and there was that that was preventing its manifestation immediately. There was something in the way
withholding that full revelation. What was it? It was the might
of imperial Rome. But once imperial Rome fell,
then the papacy assumes the role that was there, and of course through the Middle
Ages. papal Rome was as influential,
probably more influential than ever imperial Rome was until
the time of the Reformation came. I remember a little book that was
published, I don't know if it's still in print, it was published
some years ago and it was a piece of exegesis of those verses and
an exposition of those verses by Christopher Wordsworth. He was the nephew of the poet
William Wordsworth. Christopher Wordsworth was actually
a Bishop in the Church of England back in the 19th century, Bishop
of Lincoln. He wrote quite a remarkable piece
on those verses there in 2 Thessalonians 2, establishing, I would say,
so clearly that the Apostle is speaking of the Church of Rome
the great apostasy. We know that there's, in a sense,
nothing mysterious about open sin or aggressive atheism, there's
nothing mysterious about humanism or false religions, nothing mysterious
about militant Islam and its denial of the deity of Christ,
but what a mystery! What a mystery is the Church
of Rome. And that expression is used,
isn't it, in those verses there in that second chapter. He says,
the mystery of iniquity does already work. Only he who now
letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. What was
preventing the manifestation of that mystery of iniquity,
as I said, was was imperial Rome, but Rome would fall, it would
be taken out of the way, and then the rising up of papal Rome,
and the man of sin, the son of perdition, who exalts himself
above all that is called God, and sits in the temple of God,
making himself out to be God. It's a great mystery. It's a
great mystery because in many ways Rome is so orthodox. Its doctrine is Trinitarian. It doesn't deny the deity of
the Lord Jesus Christ like the cults do. It embraces all the
ancient creeds of the Church, the Apostles' Creed, and the
Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. It seems to be in many
ways so orthodox, and yet, it persecutes the true people of
God and we see that we see that so clearly in the book of the
Revelation and there in the 17th chapter in Revelation 17 3 John says concerning the angel
he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw
the woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast full of names of
blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns and the woman was
arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and
precious stones and pearls having a golden cup in her hand full
of abomination and filthiness of her fornication and upon her
forehead was the name written Mystery Babylon the great, the
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth and I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus and when I saw her I wondered with great
admiration you see, papal Rome has persecuted Christian believers
more than ever Imperial Rome persecuted. There were many martyrs,
of course, in the early church who suffered at the hands of
Imperial Rome. But when we come, of course,
to later periods, the time of the Reformation, and the witness
of the martyrs, how Rome would persecute the true people of
God, it is a mystery. In our text we have the mystery
of godliness. But the devil has his masterpiece,
and the devil's masterpiece is the mystery of iniquity. The
mystery of iniquity, how he would ape the works of God. But you know, we need to be careful. John Newton says he read of many
evil popes. But he said the worst pope of
all was Pope South. Pope South. Now we have to examine
ourselves, improve ourselves and know ourselves. What is our
religion? Is our religion true religion? Or is our religion
false religion? We're all religious. We come
to services like this. There are those who have made
an open profession of their faith. They've identified themselves
with the Lord Jesus Christ. They've passed through the waters
of baptism. But we're all looked upon by those outsiders being
religious people. But what religion is our religion? When you think of the Church
of Rome, well I would say, I don't know, maybe you won't agree with
me, but I think aesthetically there is something rather appealing
in the Church of Rome There's something that appeals to the
senses. All the ritual and the ceremony,
it's so impressive. So impressive. It's all, in that
sense, a wonderful show. But is that what our religion
is? We need to be aware of a religion
that is only on the outside. An external religion. And now, time and again, we read
the Word of God and we see that that sort of religion is exposed. It's exposed. Here in chapter 4 and verse 8,
doesn't foresay bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness
is profitable unto all things. Now you can say it's true that
he's he's contrasting the exercise of the body and that's good it's
good to look after our bodies and to do exercise it's profitable
for a little time but he says that godliness that's spiritual
religion something in the soul is profitable unto all things
having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to
come that's what he's saying but I think also we can think
of some people whose religion is nothing more than bodily exercise
it's going through the motions as it were making a fair show in the flesh
that's another expression that Paul uses to when he's addressing
the Galatians those who want to make a fair show in the flesh. Or to the Corinthians he might
speak of fleshly wisdom. People want to make a show of
their religion. That was the religion of the
scribes and the Pharisees, wasn't it? They would make long prayers
in public places. They want to do things to be
seen of men. It's all display. Again, the apostle speaks of
some who indulge in what he calls voluntary humility. They're puffed up. Their religion
is something vain, even their humility. It's a Uriah Heap type of religion,
you know. I'm very humble, very humble. All these things you see that
are done simply to make an impression amongst men, abstaining from
meats. That's what he says here, isn't
it, in the opening verses of this fourth chapter. Forbidding
to marry, commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created
to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know
the truth. He goes on when he writes to
the Galatians of those who make a thing of observing dies. There
are certain dies, I say, which you should be observing and they
frown upon those who refuse to indulge in such things. There in Galatians 4 and verse
10 Or verse 9 he says, But now after
that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, out turn ye
again to the weak and beggary elements, whereunto ye desire
again to be in bondage. Ye observe days, and months,
and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labour in vain. Will God preserve us then from
a religion that is merely an outward thing? seeking to impress others, the
religion of human contrivances, something that's merely on the
outside. The Lord Jesus himself tells
us quite plainly in the gospel, the kingdom of God cometh not
with observation. It's interesting there in Luke
17 20 we have a marginal reading, the kingdom of God cometh not
without which show. It comes not with observation,
neither shall they say lo here or lo there. For behold, he says,
the kingdom of God is within you." God's kingdom is an inward
kingdom. God's kingdom is something established
in the souls of man. It's the reign of grace in the
heart of a sinner. That's what we need, God to come
and visit us and to subdue every wicked thing within us. Here
then, he makes it quite clear that there is something different,
something that distinguishes this mystery of godliness, this
mystery of real religion from that which is simply what men
have created for themselves and called it religion. But what
is this real religion, this true religion that he is speaking
of? Well, two things. First of all, it's a revealed
religion. And that's the significance of
the word mystery. Without controversy, great is
the mystery. There's something of a mystery
about this godliness. And one looks at the commentators
to get some help, and it's interesting what's said. Matthew Poole simply
says, a mystery signifies a thing sacred and secret. A mystery
signifies a thing sacred and secret. And then another commentator
says, a mystery is a revealed secret. a revealed secret. A mystery isn't something obscure,
ridiculous. We're not to think of mystery
like that. What the mystery is, it is that that only the Lord
God himself can reveal. If we've got anything real in
our souls, any real religion, it's not anything of our own
doing or our own making. If we've got anything that is
real, it must be the work of God and the work of the Spirit
of God. When Paul writes to the Ephesians,
he says to them, having made known, or having revealed unto
himself really, that's what he's saying, having made known unto
me the mystery of his will, God had revealed something. to the Apostle and I read those
passages in Ephesians 3 and again at the end of Colossians chapter
1 because there's a great mystery that was very much made known
to the Apostle Paul because he was called to a very specific
ministry amongst all the Apostles he was to be the Apostle to the
Gentiles And that was a mystery that had
been hidden from all the generations until after the coming of Christ,
and after Christ had accomplished his work, made the great sin-atoning
sacrifice, and then raised again from the dead, he
had ascended on high, and of course on the day of Pentecost
he had shed abroad the Holy Ghost. And The apostles are to exercise
a ministry beginning at Jerusalem, and then Judea, and then Samaria,
and then to the ends of the earth. This gospel is to go out not
simply to God's ancient covenant people, the Jew, it's to go to
the ends of the earth. And who is the man who is called
to convey that message to the Gentiles? Well, that's what Paul
is writing about in that portion that we were reading in Ephesians
chapter 3. There at verse 3 it says, It
was by revelation that God made known unto me the mystery, as
I wrote afore in few words, whereby when ye read ye may understand
my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was
not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed
unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles
should be fellow-heirs unto the same body, and partakers of his
promise in Christ by the gospel." Here is the great mystery that
has been revealed then. It's the calling of the Gentiles. The calling of the Gentiles.
And he goes on, doesn't he? And he says, "...if ye have heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you,
towards you, Ephesians." The idea there, of course, the
dispensation, as reference really to the management, the stewardship,
What is Paul to do? He is to convey this message. Centering in the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is to convey it to the Gentile
nations. And so we find him throughout
the Acts of the Apostles traveling all over the Roman world. And
yes, when he goes to certain cities, he will go first to the
synagogues, he will begin there, But then when the Jews are rejecting,
he will shake the dust off his feet and he'll go to the Gentiles.
That's what he says he'll do, and he does that very thing.
His ministry amongst the Gentiles is to open up God's dealings,
the way in which God deals with the souls of men. His ministry
is very much an experimental ministry. He declares the kingdom
of God, he says he's not in words, but in power how that gospel is to be proclaimed
the administration the distribution making all men see what is the
fellowship of the gospel he says he wants them to understand how
God works in the souls of sinners it's a revealed religion and
that was very much his own experience of course when he's addressing
the Galatian churches. He's having really to defend
his own ministry because there are those false teachers who
come in and we might say that they're Judaizers. What they
want to do is they want to bring these Gentile Christians. These Gentiles have been converted
to the Lord Jesus Christ and they're looking to him as the
promised Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of sinners. But there
are those who are requiring that the Gentiles submit to the right
of circumcision. They've got to come under the
Old Testament law and so forth. And Paul says quite plainly,
if you're circumcised you're a debtor to do the whole law.
But all of that has been fulfilled in Christ. he was made of a woman,
he was made under the law and he came to redeem men from all
the condemning power of that law of God now he makes it so
clear to those believers amongst the Galatians that they're not
in any way to look to Old Testament religion and the ways of the
Jews. This is that way of salvation that is the fulfillment of all
that was set forth there in the Old Testament only in types and
figures and shadows. But it's all a gracious work
of God in the soul of the sinner. It was so with Paul as he defends
himself. and defends his own apostleship.
How did he receive the Gospels? It wasn't something that he learned
of men. You know the passage there in the very opening section
of the Galatian Epistle. He immediately says he's an apostle,
Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus
Christ and God the Father. who raised him from the dead.
There's his authority. He's not received it of men.
How did he receive it? Well, he tells us later. Verse
11, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And how was that? Well, he says
later, verse 15, it pleased God. It was God's good pleasure. It
pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called
me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach
Him among the heathen, among the Gentiles. Immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them
which were apostles before me, But I went into Arabia and returned
again unto Damascus." His ministry, you see, is God-given.
And it's a divine revelation to his soul. And there's a principle
there, because this is the same man who, writing here to Timothy,
reminds us that he is a pattern to them who should afterward
believe. Here in chapter 1, remember those
words at the end of verse 16, that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. What is he saying? He uses the word tupos, type. He's the typical believer. We're
not all going to have the same depth of experience as that man
had, because he was called to do a most peculiar work, a special
work, the great apostle to the Gentiles. But there are principles
that we can draw from the experience of that man. And as you know,
in the various epistles, he doesn't just deal with doctrine, he does
that. The first part of his epistles in the main are of any doctrinal
profound doctrine. And in the latter part of his
epistles he works out the implication of all those great truths. The
practical part is normally at the end of the epistle when he
begins to give exhortation to these churches with regards to
how they are to conduct themselves. But also throughout the epistles
Time and again we find those passages where he becomes very
personal, he has to defend himself, and so he does speak in some
measure of his own experiences and the Lord's dealing with him.
And all of this is under the sovereign hand of God, he is
the pattern of what it means to be a true believer, to be
in possession of a real religion. And what is that knowledge that
this man has? it wasn't just a matter of the intellect it
was experimental, it was salvation it was the Lord Jesus Christ
known and felt in the soul of a sinner all the words that he often uses
how he speaks of the coming of the gospel those words that we
have there We read them in Colossians 1 and verse 27, "...to whom God
would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Well, there it is. That's the sum of it. It's Christ
dwelling in the soul of the sinner. It's the life of God in the soul
of a man. That's the mystery of godliness
and it's without all controversy there's no disputing it that
is what real religion is wasn't it William Tiptoft he was quite
famous for his aphorisms those short pithy statements and I
think I've seen Pamphus with the aphorisms of Tiptoft he was
prone to make such pity statement in the course of his preaching.
And one of them was this. It's quite simple really. He would say that true religion
is personal. True religion is personal. It's the Lord God and the individual. Now, that doesn't mean there's
no place for the corporate. there is such a truth as the
fellowship of the saints and we know we're not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together says Paul as the manner of some
is God does set the solitary in families but ultimately the
question is me and God or you and God it's so personal you
see Paul knew it he pleased God He says to reveal his Son not
to me. That's not the preposition is
it that he uses there in Galatians 1. He doesn't say please God
to reveal his Son to me. He did reveal his Son to him.
But under the inspiration of the Spirit he uses the preposition
in. It was an inward revelation.
It was an inward revelation. The Kingdom of God is within
you, says the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we know? Do we know anything
of that Reign of Grace? Do we feel to need it? If we
feel to need it, I would say we already have it. We need it
because we know that our hearts are full of all manner of sin
and iniquity. And we cannot deliver ourselves
from what we are in our fallen nature we need the Lord God himself
to come and to cast out all those buyers and sellers and to cleanse
our wicked hearts to rid us of all our doubts and all our fears
and all our wanton ways and all our wicked ways all without controversy
it's a great mystery it's the mystery of godliness it's the
mystery of real religion But thank God it all leads us ultimately
to look to one outside of ourselves. We might examine ourselves, we
might look to ourselves, but it was dear Robert McShane, wasn't
it, who said, one look at self, ten, a hundred, a thousand looks
to Christ. We're not to be always pouring
upon ourselves. We're to look to Him who is spoken
of here in what follows in the text. It's all about Christ,
God, manifest in the flesh, God, justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up in to glory. It's the glories that belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ and it is there and there alone that
we will find all that fullness of salvation. O the Lord grant
that we might know it, that it might be our blessed experience
to have entered in some measure into the great mystery of godliness. May the Lord bless His Word to
us. We're going to sing as our concluding praise the hymn number 74 The Tunis
Harrington, 155. But few among the carnal wise, but
few of noble race, obtain the favour of thy eyes, almighty
King of Grace. He takes the men of meanest name,
for sons and heirs of God, and thus he pours abundant shame
on honorable blood. The hymn number 74, the tune
155.