He had a frowning face, he had
a smiling face. His percussions were bright and
fast, unfolding every hour. The Lord may have a visit day,
The sweet will be the flower, blind, unbeading, it's sure to
wear. And skin in blood, in veins,
God is its own interpreter. And he will make it plain. That's just a wonderful hymn.
The last verse, blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his
work in vain. That is to say, look at things
by reason, or according to our own finite knowledge, and not
understand. God is his own interpreter. And
he will make it plain. Good, he's a great hymn. All
right, Ephesians chapter 3. We're going to continue as I proposed, preaching through the book of
Ephesians the next several Wednesdays, perhaps Sunday, whenever we'd
be allowed to do so. There's so much dealt with in
this chapter, or this book of Ephesians, I know you enjoyed
chapter one, and no one who could deal with it more ably than Brother
Henry Mahan, but there's so much dealt with in this book, the
book of Ephesians. The Ephesians are Gentile. And
anyway, the gospel is the theme, as with every book. the gospel
of Christ. There are many, many exhortations
to believers, to the church, beginning with chapter 4 and
onward. The Lord, yes, the Lord through
Paul deals with many things like marriage and so forth. So this
is a good book, and I look forward to going through it with you.
Ephesians chapter 3 tonight, the apostle tells about his call
to the ministry of the gospel to the Gentiles in the first
part of this chapter, and then he ends this chapter with a prayer. And we'll deal with that prayer,
verses 14 to 21, next Wednesday night. A wonderful prayer. The key verse here Look at verse
9. This is key verse and the subject
and title of this message, Sam, the fellowship of the mystery.
Verse 9, Paul says his purpose is to make all, that is not just
Jews but Gentiles, all see what is the fellowship of the mystery. Fellowship of the Mystery. Now,
six different epistles in the New Testament, in six different
letters, Paul speaks of this mystery. Six different letters
he brings it up. The mystery. In this epistle
alone, he talks about it six times. The mystery. The mystery. And we're going to talk more
about that in a moment. Alright, verse 1. Paul says,
for this cause, I, Paul, now you remember chapter 2, he was
talking about how that wall was torn down, that wall between
the Jew and the Gentiles, and how that we that were strangers
from the commonwealth of Israel are now fellow citizens with
the saints of the household of God. We're sons of Abraham, Gentiles. And he says, for this cause,
verse 1, I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. He says, I'm a prisoner. Paul was in jail when he wrote
this epistle. There are several epistles he
wrote from jail. And he says, I'm in jail, that
is, for the preaching of the gospel, but it's for you Gentiles. As for us, we're Gentiles. Gentiles
being non-Jews, national Jews. We are Gentiles. Paul was put
in jail that you and I might have the gospel. Now this is
according to the purpose of God. Paul was in jail to write the
epistles. He didn't know that when he was
put in jail. He appealed to Caesar. human
being. Paul being a man, he's not infallible. Everything Paul did was not infallible. He made some mistakes, like we
did. But the Lord, his purpose for
Paul was for him to go to jail. Now you'd think the word would
stop. He put the leading apostle in
jail, but that would put an end to the spreading of the gospel.
Oh, no. As I said, so many epistles were
written from a jail cell in Rome. And we have it. We have the gospel. We have these epistles because
the Lord put Paul in jail. God moved. This is not the way
we would do it. We'd have him travel all over
the world, but God moves, the song says, in a mysterious way.
Listen to the words again. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense. I'm quoting Cooper's hymn. Judge
not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace.
Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His
purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have
a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Count on it, people,
every one of us. Count on it. Whatever we're called
to endure, God purposed it, and it will have a good end. All things work together. That's
not just a verse to quote. That's our hope. All things work
together according to God's purpose for our good, those that love
God. Paul's in jail. He's suffering.
It's on purpose. He said in verse 13, look down
there in verse 13, and he's comforting the people. Paul is comforting the people.
He's the one in jail, but he's the one that's giving them comfort.
Verse 13, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you. It's for your glory, he said. It's for your glory, it's for
your salvation, that is. And so is every tribulation every
believer is called to endure. It's for our glory, that is eternal
glory. Our Lord said you must through
much tribulation enter the kingdom. So it's according to his purpose.
Verse 2. Now Paul said to the, he's writing
to the Ephesians, many of which had not met him or didn't, well,
did not hear from him personally when he went through there. The
Lord added to the church, Timothy was the pastor later. And he
said, now, if you've heard of the dispensation, verse two,
of the grace of God, which has given me to you worth, that is
that he's the apostle to the Gentiles. If you've heard of
that, verse 3, how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery. As I wrote before, in a few words,
that God by revelation made known unto me this mystery. Where did
He write this before? Chapter 1, go back there. Chapter
1, verse 8 and 9, He said briefly, in a few words, He said, God
hath abounded toward us. in all wisdom and prudence, having
made known unto us the mystery of his will." So he says, you
need to understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, that
God made this known unto me, my revelation. Now, the gospel
is a revelation to whomever, whoever hears it, whoever believes
it. They receive it by grace. Paul
said that about himself, the dispensation of the grace of
God by revelation. It's the same with us. You know
that? If we know this gospel, it's by revelation because it's
a mystery. A mystery must be revealed. If
it's a mystery, and he says this many times, and we're going to
deal with it. in depth in a moment. But if something's a mystery,
and he said in verse 9, hid in God, that means men can't figure
it out, doesn't it? Huh? If it's a mystery, hid with
God, hid in God, that means people can't figure it out on their
own. It has to be revealed. All right? And it's by grace. That's by grace. God reveals
it to whom he will. He gives this revelation of the
mystery to whom he will. If you understand something of
the mystery, it's by God's grace and it's he revealed it to you.
All right. Now, there's no mystery to let
me just say this in passing. There's no mystery to this so-called
gospel today. There's nothing to it at all,
people. There's nothing to it at all. There's no mystery to
this. They make it to be just a little simple 1, 2, 3, A plus
B equals C plan, you know, and all you got to do is accept it.
Some general facts. They've reduced it to just some
historical facts. Jesus died, you believe He died,
buried, rose again, don't you? And you're a sinner, yeah, well,
why don't you accept Him? Accept that God's offering this
to you. There's nothing to it. Nothing
to it. And there's no mystery to that
at all. No mystery. But now, you know
better. And Paul talks about this mystery. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He explains it a little more
fully to us. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. If you
know anything about the gospel, it's not because you figured
it out, it's because God revealed it to you. Here it is, 1 Corinthians
2 verse 7, he says, We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world
unto our glory. Now that's right there something
that the world doesn't believe. That doesn't even enter into
this so-called gospel of death. the foreordination of God before
the world began. All right, verses 10 through
14. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Holy Spirit. Modern religion bypasses the
Holy Spirit, Dan. All the Holy Spirit's good for
today, the so-called Holy Spirit, is making people talk like idiots. Right? They totally bypassed the Holy
Spirit because it's up to man to just accept this little offer.
The Holy Spirit has nothing to do with teaching anybody, revealing,
convincing, convicting, all that the Scripture says that the Holy
Spirit does. Jeanette, what's the purpose of the Holy Spirit
today? Well, we're going to see. He reveals this mystery to us. God hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God." The things of God are deep. That word that
I have so hard a time pronouncing, unfathomable. I'll never be able
to say that word very fast. That means it's the ocean. The fathoms, that is, the depth
of the ocean is measured in fathoms, not feet. And you know there
are depths in the ocean higher than Mount Everest? There are
places in the ocean deeper than Mount Everest. Unfathomable. And the things of God are deep.
Past finding out. Men don't even know God is God
until he reveals that. God hath revealed them unto us,
the deep things of God. Not all things. The secret things
belong to God, but the revealed things, he said, to us and our
children. Not everybody. The whole world
doesn't. But God's people. Verse 11. What man, now here
it is, if you have a secret, if something is a secret with
you, How's anybody going to find out about it unless you tell
them? All right, here it is, verse 11. What man knoweth the
things of man, say the spirit of a man which is in him. That
is, you don't know, if I've got something a secret and I haven't
revealed it, you don't know what I'm thinking until I tell you.
Even so. The things of God knoweth no
man but the Spirit of God, that is, by the Spirit of God. Now,
we have received, not the spirit of this world, not the foolishness,
he said in chapter 1, the wisdom of this world, foolishness, but
the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. Given. And which things we speak,
not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost
teaches. He's the great teacher. And we
compare, look at verse 13, we don't compare spiritual things
with earthly things, with spiritual things. This book is spiritual. It's understood spiritually.
It must be revealed. The natural, look at this, and
here's another thing. The natural man doesn't even
receive the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness unto
him. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually understood. All right, you see that? Now
go back to our text. Go back to our text. No man knows but the Spirit and
to whom He reveals this mystery, the deep things of God. We're going to open up the mystery
as we know it in a moment. But it's the fact, isn't it,
that the gospel is a mystery until revealed. The gospel. The real gospel. The true gospel.
God's gospel. From the scriptures. Not this
stuff out there today. There's no mystery to that. It's
as shallow as a... It's not even ankle deep. There's
nothing to... It's false. Verse 7. Verse 6. He said, now... The
Gentiles are going to be our fellow heirs of the same body,
partakers of his promise, God's promise, in Christ by the gospel. There's a little key, the promise
in Christ by the gospel. The gospel is not an offer, people.
The gospel is not an offer. It's a promise. It's a purpose
of God, a promise of God to the people of God. It's not an offer. Now, there's a little key to
this mystery. Are you with me? Patrick, you know this. People
DMW work with don't. They think it's some little statement
of facts. You just accept it. That's all
there is to it. No, sir, it has something to
do with the eternal purpose of God, the promise of God, which
can't fail to the people of God in Christ. It's not an offer.
It's not an offer. Verse seven, he said, I made
a minister. I made a minister of this gospel
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of God's power. Paul says, I'm a minister
of the gospel by God's power. Paul didn't apply for the job.
Paul didn't go to seminary to learn this gospel. No man does. No man has ever learned this
gospel in a seminary. No sir. It's not biblical. Paul is the only man in scripture
who had any formal religious training. And that was before
he was saved. And after he was saved, he said,
it's all cow manure. That's what he said, dung. He said in one place, he said,
we have this treasure in earthen vessels, this glorious mystery
in earthen vessels, that is, plain, ordinary men, that the
excellency of the power might be of God and not of man, that
men might see who this Who it is that's preaching these mysteries
in such profundity coming out of the mouths of fishermen? And they did, too. The Pharisees,
the doctors, the lawyers heard these fishermen that they knew.
They saw them down on the banks of the ocean. Peter, James, and
John. They probably bought some fish
off of Peter, James, and John. Old, rough, gruff fishermen.
At the time they were purchasing fish off Peter, James, and John.
Those fellas didn't have but about a twelve-word vocabulary. And eight of them were curse
words. And a little while later, here
they are standing up, confounding the doctors and lawyers with
the deep things of God and the mysteries that nobody could withstand
their wisdom. And they said that. They said,
from which cometh this wisdom in these fellas? These are unlearned
men. They've never learned letters.
They've never been to school. It's according to the effectual
working of his power. That's how. The effectual working
of his power. It's a gift of the grace of God.
It's a calling. It's a calling. A calling. And Paul said, I made
a minister. I didn't apply for it, I made
a minister. Verse 8, he said, Under me, who am less than the
least of all saints, is this grace given? Me! Paul couldn't
believe that he was included. He said, I'm not fit to be called
a disciple. I persecuted the church. He said,
I'm less than the least. I'm not fit to be called. But
that's who the Lord uses. Men who consider themselves less
than the least, God makes the greatest. Uh-huh. Those men who Say, with John,
I must decrease. He must increase, but I must
decrease. That's who God uses, because He's not going to share
His glory. And the man who's willing to be totally anonymous,
they came to John and said, Who are you? Where are you from?
Where did you go to school? He said, I wouldn't even tell his name,
Nancy. He wouldn't even speak his name.
He said, I'm just a voice. He silenced me. God will raise
up other voices. He doesn't need me. Just a voice. He said, there comes one mightier
than I. I'm not worthy to tie his shoes.
But you know, Christ said that John was the greatest man born. Matthew Henry said, God made
everything out of nothing. And so, those he uses must be
nothing. God gets all the glory. The greatest
hymns we read, the greatest hymns that we, the greatest hymns that
we sing are written by a fellow named Anonymous. Go through the
book. He's written a lot of them, and
they're great. Paul said, I'm less than the
least, but I'm, and here's why. Eight, that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. If you're going
down to some poor, miserable people to preach to them, to
tell them about somebody glorious like, well, Abraham's servant. Here's a good illustration. Abraham's
servant was sent by Abraham to find a bride for Isaac. Who'd
he send? His most handsome, robust, tall,
dark and handsome fellow with just a glorious suit of armor
and riding up on a white steed to get Rebecca to fall in love
with him? Well, she'd have fallen in love with him. You see what
I mean? So he sent his oldest but most
faithful servant. And what he did was just tell
Rebecca about Isaac and about Abraham. He wanted her to fall
in love with Isaac, not him. So Paul said, that's what I'm
doing. I want to preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ. And they're unsearchable. And
to make all, not just Gentiles, but all men, all types of men,
see what is the fellowship of the mystery. The fellowship of
the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in
God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. All right. The fellowship of the mystery.
Let's get into this a little bit. Let me read on before we
do. Let's read on. He says in verse
10, to the intent, or for this purpose now, that principalities
and powers in heavenly places, it might be known by the church,
the manifold wisdom of God. Now here's something amazing,
that angels, according to this, and according to Peter, In 2
Peter 1, or 1 Peter 1, verse 12, it says which things the
angels desire to look into. According to this, even the angels
don't know, didn't know, what earthlings knew about the gospel
until the gospels started being preached. Isn't that amazing? It says here
that they know now, through the preaching of the gospel, that
angels are hearing the same wisdom of God through the preaching
of the gospel, through the subject to these things. Ain't that amazing,
Barton? That's amazing, isn't it? So
in other words, there are a multitude of angels listening. I've always thought how the angels
must be amazed that human beings aren't interested in this gospel.
It doesn't apply to them, but they're totally amazed at God's
wisdom in the gospel. Yet human beings who need it
are in itch. But according to this, it's such
a mystery even angels don't know and can't figure it out until
they hear the gospel preach in the church. That's what they're
saying. That's a mystery. And he says
this mystery has been hid in God. It's been hid in God, and
it's still hid from the wise and prudent. That's what our
Lord said. He's hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto babe. And it says in
verse 9, who created all things by Jesus Christ. I don't know
why he said that, except just to give Christ the glory there
for creation. Very few really believe that
Christ is God. Well, verse 11 and 12, it's all
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus,
our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of Him. Now, here's the mystery. It's
right there in those two verses. Did you see it? All right, let's
read it again. This mystery is in verse 11 and
12. According to the eternal purpose,
purpose, verse 12, access by faith of Him, of Christ. It's all right there. This is
the mystery that's been revealed to us and our children even.
Young people. Do you know people don't believe
what they can't reason? It's just human nature. People
do not believe what they can't reason out. And so they reject
the truth as it is. Let me give you an example. God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. That God purposed all things,
predestined all things, elected, chose, and yet human beings must
believe. They can't reason that out. How
that everyone whom God purposed to save will be saved. All whom
God elected to save will be saved. But human beings must believe.
They believe. They can't reconcile that. They
can't reason that out. So they don't believe that. What
do they reject? They reject God's purpose and
God's sovereignty. and make God to know more than
we are, making a plan, offering it to people and hope they accept
it. And oh, everything's riding on man doing the choosing. And
we know that in God's purpose, turn to Ezekiel chapter 37, Ezekiel
37, quickly. Here's a sermon within a sermon.
Ezekiel 36, sermon within a sermon. You remember us looking at this.
I will and you shall. That's what this whole chapter
is about. It's talking about what God purposed to do for his
people. Ezekiel 36. You have it? Verse
21, he said, I have pity for my holy name. And verse 22, I
don't do this for your sake, but for my holy name. See that? The whole purpose. And the sake
for which salvation is done is not man's sake. God's holy name. You know that,
Nancy Parks. The world doesn't know that.
They don't believe that. They don't understand that. Verse
23, I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned.
They'll know I'm the Lord. Verse 24, I'll take you from
among the heathen. I'll gather you, bring you. Verse
25, I'll sprinkle clean water on you. You'll be clean from
your filthiness, from your idols. I will cleanse you. Verse 26,
a new heart I'll give you, a new spirit I'll put within you. I'll
take away the stony heart, give you a heart of flesh. Verse 27,
I'll put my spirit. He doesn't ask anybody anything
about this whole chapter. In verse 27, I will put my spirit
in you. You will keep my judgments. Verse
28, you shall dwell in the land. Verse 29, I will save you from
all your uncleanliness. I'll call for the corn and increase
it. Verse 30, I'll multiply the fruit. You shall receive no more
reproach. You shall remember your evil
ways and loathe yourself. Verse 32, I'm not doing it for
your sakes. You'd be ashamed of yourself. I'm doing it for
my sake. Verse 33, I'll cause you to dwell
in the cities. Verse 34, the desolate land shall
be tilled and laid desolate. Verse 36, the heathen around
about you shall know that I, the Lord, built it, planted it,
I have spoken it, I'll do it. Now look at verse 37. God just
told everything he will do. And it's a certain. And he said,
Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel. You're
going to ask me to do it. Now explain that. It's a mystery. Explain it. God said, I'm going
to do it. I've purposed it. I've spoken it. He said, I've
spoken it. I will do it. I've purposed it. Nothing can stop it. You can't
stop it. But you're going to ask me to
do it. What if they don't ask? They will ask. Thy people shall
be willing in the day of His power. Every one of God's people
are willing, but they don't have a free will. That's a mystery. You can't reason
it, but it's... Well, you can. We can. We know
why. We will, for it is God that worketh
in us both to will, Philippians 2.13, to will and do of his good
pleasure. That's a mystery to most people.
They read it, and they can read that very verse and not see it
and not believe. They can't reject it, thumbs
down, because they can't figure it out. So they say, that's for
family, that's high doctrine, I don't want any of that, I don't
believe. So they don't believe what they
can't reason. Now, people, I've said this before.
Now, go with me to 1 Timothy 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. I quoted
Spurgeon to you before when he said, Spurgeon said, I don't
want a God I can figure out. You remember me saying that?
He said, I don't want a God that I can figure out. That means
He's no higher than I am. I don't want a God that I can
reason and figure out. That means he's no better than
a man. He's searching, he's stretching his head too. Like Elijah. I love that story of Elijah on
Mount Carmel, was it? The prophets of Baal. And he
told them, you call on your God and I'll call on mine. We'll
see who answers. And whoever answers by fire is God. So all
those prophets of Baal got together, and it looked just like a modern
Pentecostal so-called meeting. They jumped and shouted, and
they all prayed together, and finally they resorted to cutting
themselves. They jumped on the altar, jumping up and down, carrying
on. They did this for hours and hours,
all day long. And old Elijah was just standing
back there just laughing at them. And he was mocking him. Remember?
Elijah was mocking him. He said, what's wrong? Won't
he hear you? Is that the reason everybody's
shouting? Maybe he's hard of hearing. He
hasn't got his hearing aids in. That's what Elijah was saying.
Elijah said, maybe he's asleep. That's it, he's asleep. Gotta
wake him up. Your God's asleep. Then he finally said, maybe he's
gone somewhere. He's doing his business. He actually
said that. He had called the nature to tend
to. He'll be back. And Elijah's prayer takes about
20 seconds to pray. And God sent the fire down and
burnt everything. I love that story. You're getting
all kinds of free sermons tonight. 1 Timothy 3, here's the mystery. Paul goes in detail, chapter
3, verse 16. He says, now without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. Godliness means how a human being
can be like God. Basically that's what that means.
How a human being can get to God. how we, how human beings,
can someday dwell with God. It's a mystery. Now here it is
revealed. This is the verse. God was manifest in the flesh. Right there tells us the heart
and soul of the mystery of John. Man can't get to God. Man can't
get to God. Man can't see God, know God,
hear God, believe God, can't know anything about God. God
has to come to man. Right? Right there is the heart
and soul of the mystery. Man is a dead, dead spiritually. He can't see, he doesn't even
think there is a God. That's how ignorant and foolish
man is. He doesn't even think there is
a God. As complex, as marvelous, as amazing, and yes, mysterious
is everything about planet Earth, especially this human body, yet
man believes it came from truth. Happen-chance. It just happened. That's the most utterly ridiculous
notion It's imbecilic, is what that is. It's blind, willful
unbelief, is what it is. Because the heavens declare it,
and we're firmly sure of this handiwork. We're fearfully and
wonderfully made. These things, the invisible things
of God, are clearly saying they're without excuse, Romans 1. Man doesn't even think there's
a God. Man doesn't want a God, number one. in the true sense
of the word. But he can't hear from God. God's
a spirit. He hollers at God and God doesn't
answer him out loud. He can't see God. God's a spirit.
He can't get to God. He doesn't know the way to God.
He doesn't know what. He's just helpless about the
realm of God, the things of God. But God came down to this earth. God was manifest in the past.
Christ said, I am come to reveal the Father. No man knoweth the
Father, he said, but the Son. And no man knoweth the Son, save
he to whom. And no man knoweth the Son, save
the Father. And no man knoweth the Father,
save the Son. And he to whom the Son will reveal Him. Isn't that right? God came down here. Now, most people don't believe
this. There are whole denominations
denied completely. They're building one of these
whorehouses right over here on the corner, but at Church of
so-called Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I'm calling it what it
is, the church in the scriptures is the great whore, and the house
where they meet is a whorehouse. I may be frank, but that's what
this book calls false religion. Okay? Completely the deity of
Jesus Christ. That's anti-Christ, John said,
didn't he? The Russellites, so-called Jehovah's Witnesses, deny it
completely. Make no bones about it. Don't
do that. They make no bones about it.
They do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth is God. I mean the
Creator, the Sovereign, the Father. They don't believe that. But I'm here to tell you that
modern religion, just Arminian religion across the board, doesn't
believe in God. They deny Him in doctrine. He's standing outside everybody's
heart's door like some helpless man in the rain, nobody will
let Him in. God, who created the universe, in a word, God,
who said, let there be light in that huge ball of hydrogen. God, who created man with the
word. God! That's why, that's why Paul said
that in Ephesians 3, when he created all things by him. It's
a mystery. That one that walked this planet
created that planet he's walking on. He has all things in his divine
power and control, but men see Jesus. And they're still talking
about Jesus. But you know the mystery. You're
in on the mystery. This fellowship. We're fellows
like those fellows in that ship. When Christ woke up and went
to the bow of the ship and told a raging ocean, hush! They realized, this is what,
what manner of man? He's not a man. He's not a mass. God, only God could do that. And modern Armenian religion,
though they say they believe he's God, deny it in their doctrine. They say his blood really wasn't
effectual. His righteousness, you can work your own up. That
he came without a clue who he was going to save. Tried all
he could do. Failed. Went back. Now he's running
around everybody's hearts door, knocking on, hoping somebody
will let him in. It doesn't sound like God to me. You know what
the fist of God would do to your heart door? If he's knocking
on your heart door? God was manifesting that way.
It's a mystery. People can't figure it out, so
they don't believe it. How can you be? That's what the
Pharisees said. You're just a man. You make yourself
God. No? No, you've got that all wrong. You got it backwards
like everything you believe is backwards. I'm God, and I made
myself a man. You see that? You're just a man,
you make it... No, you've got it all wrong.
Everything man believes is 180 degrees backwards. I'm God, and
I made myself a body to inhabit. And because that's all you see,
you don't believe. Oh, but blessed are those who
believe. What the hell does that mean? God manifest in the flesh. I wish I had another 30 minutes
on that. I look at the next thing. He
said this is the mystery. He's justified in the Spirit.
Justified in the Spirit, that is, by the Holy Spirit, in the
revelation of the Spirit. Justified, that is, declared
to be the Son of God by the Holy Spirit. declared to be the Son
of God by the Holy Spirit. He said in Romans 1, declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness
and by the resurrection of the dead. The Holy Spirit came. John said, John the Baptist said,
the Lord God told me that whom you see the Spirit descending
like a dove, that's him. And he did. Everybody else just
saw a dove land on his shoulder. Oh, isn't that sweet? The Holy
Spirit was disguised also, but revealed unto us. And the Holy
Spirit we see. Do we not see the mystery? Vicki,
the mystery of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship we have in this
mystery, is the Holy Spirit always bears witness of Jesus Christ. He doesn't speak of himself.
When Christ was baptized, the Holy Spirit landed on his shoulder,
as if to say, this is Him. And all the world is talking
about the Spirit, devoid of Christ. The Spirit
as separated from Christ. The whole purpose of it. May
I say that? Is it alright to say that? The
mission, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness of
Jesus Christ. completely. Those who have the
Spirit of God are those who believe and look to and know Jesus Christ. Look to him only, not the Spirit.
You understand? Justified in the Spirit. Verse
16, scene of angels. Now, these angels are not only
angelic or seraphs, cherubs, the, you know, angels in another
realm, he calls his preachers angels. That's what he calls
them there, doesn't he, in Romans and Revelation? The angels, the
spirits. James, John, and Peter, they're
angels right now. James, John, and Peter, though,
were angels of God's mercy, and they saw him. Who? They saw his blog. Peter said, whoever wrote Hebrews,
we see Jesus, but now we see him crowned with glory and honor.
John said, we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father.
Peter said, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We were on the
mountain when he was transfigured. scene of angels, chosen ones,
to reveal, again, to show forth Christ's glory. Verse 16, preached
unto the Gentiles. Here's the mystery, people. Preaching. We're going to deal with it Sunday
morning in Romans 10. We didn't get to it last Sunday.
I think we're going to. We're going to try to get to it. Preaching,
the role of preaching. It pleased God, 1 Corinthians
121, pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Why does he call it foolishness? There's nothing
foolish about what I'm doing right now, is there? I'm not
making a fool out of myself. I'm not preaching foolishness.
I'm not preaching to a bunch of fools. We're not acting like
fools around here. We're all sitting quietly, studying
God's Word, looking into the deep things, the mysteries of
God, the wisdom of God. I don't look like a fool. I'm
not acting like a fool, I'm not saying foolish things off the
top of my head, only from what God says. Why is it called foolishness? Well, if you look around at what
goes on under the name of preaching, it's utter foolishness. And it's
what the world calls foolishness. To the Greek, to the learned,
it's foolishness. All these so-called, most so-called
churches today have put preaching to the side because they think
it's foolish. You don't need to preach to them.
Don't preach to me, they say. Let's share. Let's have this. Let's have that program. Let's
make it a little social club and all. We don't need all that
old fashion. Sure, don't talk about hell or
sin and all that old stuff. That's foolishness. That's for
old, unlearned, backward, ignorant, mountain people. It's foolishness. Please God, by the foolishness
of preaching, to save them that believe. Preached unto the Gentile. Preached unto the Gentile. This
mystery is known through preaching. Everyone in here, that's how
you heard it, didn't you? Sure did. Preaching. How'd you
get here? Were you just dying to get here? Ah, it's a mystery. A mystery. Look at the next thing, preached
on and believed on. Believed on. We have some intelligent
people in here. We do have some people in here
with some education. And yet you believe this, what
the world calls foolishness. You believe it. I mean, you believe
it with all your heart. believed on in the world. You
believe somebody you've never seen, you've never heard. Something that happened over
nearly 2,000 years ago. Something happened. You have
vested everything, your life in this. Something happened all
the way over the ocean, I mean all the way across the Atlantic
Ocean, across Europe, in that little two-bit nation, in the
middle of that dusty, messy, quagmire stuff, Arab, little
old Israel, 2,000 years ago, you're completely taken up with
that. A man, a man walking around in
sandals, he only lived 33 years. It's a mystery. A mystery. And now all the way over here
in Rocky Mountain, here we are at the foot of the Blue Ridge
Mountains, a group of people meeting together tonight to talk
about that. It's a mystery. Believe not. Believe not. And verse 16, I close with this.
It says, this mystery was received up into glory. Received up into
glory. Now this is a mystery, where
the angel said to the disciples, you men of Israel, why stand
ye gazing into the heavens? For the same Jesus whom you have
seen go, shall so come in like manner." The same Jesus. Yet, it's not the same. He's not meek and lowly like
he was the first time. He's crowned with glory and honor
now. Yet he's a man. Look at that description of him
in Revelation 1. We're going to have to be glorified,
John, to behold him, aren't we? He's received up into glory. That's a mystery, but he did.
He just received up into heaven. And most say they believe that,
but And most of the world grudgingly believes it. Look at the calendar.
They have to, every time they look at the calendar. But if
they really believed it, if men and women really believed it,
it would create a fear of the Lord. But this one just rose
and vanished, and he said, I'm coming again. Coming again. Now this is a mystery. And we
are in this fellowship of the mystery, he said. to make us
see was the fellowship of the mystery. And we only had 40 minutes to just
scratch the surface. Like I said, I'd like to have
30 minutes, another hour on the first point of that God manifesting
effect. Why? Nobody in the world is asking
why. All right, why? Why did he come
down here? If it's just up to man, just
finally come down, finally die. But we just scratched the surface,
just waded ankle deep in an ocean. Like something my dad said the
other day about, somebody said about the ocean,
they were looking at the ocean, they said, that ocean sure is
vast, isn't it? And the other fellow said, yeah,
and that's just the top of it. We can just see the top surface,
and it's five miles deep. Okay, stand with me. You're part of it, fellowship.
Our Lord, thank you for including us. We thank you. Left to ourselves,
we would be these simple fools. But the Lord saved us the simple.
And we thank you. You've made known unto us the
mystery, even the deep things of God. Not all of it. We know
in part. We preach in part. We do thank
you for what we know. And we do acknowledge it is a
great mystery. And we thank you for what knowledge
we do have, and ask that you would cause us to grow in grace
and the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, that we may know these
things that are past, fine, and apt. Thank you, Lord, for your word.
Without it, we wouldn't know these things. Thank you. Use
it further for your people. In Christ's name, amen. I have to go to bed. I have to go to bed. I have to go to bed. I love you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I
don't know. I had a dream last night that
we were together. I had a dream that my heart was
in love with you. I had a dream that we were together. I had a dream that we were together. I had a dream that we were together. I had a dream that we were together. I had a dream that we were together. I had a dream that we were together. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. OK.