I'm not used to all this formality. The pastor is back in the chief seats. I can barely see him. But it dawned on me sitting over
there that since these shirts have an ideal place to clip the
mic, they were obviously meant to be preaching. It's good to see each one again
this morning, and I want you to turn back to 1 Timothy chapter
3, and I want us to continue to looking at this 16th verse. where Paul says, 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 on in the world. received up into
glory. Now, last night we tried to look
at that first statement that makes up this mystery of godliness,
and that was the fact that God was manifest in the flesh. But Paul doesn't stop there,
he also continues with this second statement, and he says of this
one who was manifest in the flesh, God manifest in the flesh, he
says justified in the Spirit. Now, I think if we have any liberty to believe the Scriptures. I think that this verse clearly
shows, since it speaks of Christ, that justification does not have
to do with moral, personal improvement. This is said of the perfect,
sinless Lord Jesus Christ. It obviously does not have to
do with us being made personally holy, because it refers to, he
says this concerning, the Lord Jesus Christ. One definition of justify is
to vindicate or approve. And certainly in that light,
the Spirit of God bore witness to his claims of being the Son
of God. the Spirit of God witnessed to
that before his birth, at his birth, and also after his birth. It says that that which was conceived
of Mary was of the Holy Ghost. And also, if you remember, whenever
Elizabeth, who was bearing John the Baptist in her womb, when she confronted Mary, the
Bible says this in Luke chapter 1. It says, and it came to pass
that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, The babe
leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. Why? What was the witness of
God's Spirit to just simply Mary coming into the presence of Elizabeth? It was the witness that she was
bearing the Christ of God. And then also we find that same
confirmation or approval, if you would, at his baptism. Because when Christ was baptized
of John the Baptist, it says, Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were
opened unto him, And he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and lighting upon him. And that was one of the confirmations
that John the Baptist had been told that this one that he would
be the forerunner of, this one that would be the Christ of God,
he would be identified by the Spirit of God descending upon
him in the form and fashion of a dove. And this was always the
case, not only in those times, but over the whole course of
his ministry among men. In John chapter 3 it says, For
he whom God hath sent speaks the words of God, for God giveth
not the Spirit by measure upon him and to him. He had not the Spirit in measure,
but in its fullness. And then also when he himself
stood, if you remember there in the synagogue at Nazareth,
And he read and said that this very thing that he read was fulfilled
before them on that occasion. He said, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord." He said, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me to do all these things. and to usher in this age of grace,
this acceptable year of the Lord. And then also, if you remember
at Pentecost, on the day of Pentecost, when Peter and those other men
stood up to preach, There was a witness, a presence, a manifestation
of the Spirit of God, and it says in Acts 2 that they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. They began to speak. with other
languages preaching the gospel of Christ to that multitude of
people who were there. And I've often wondered to myself,
was the miracle there in them being able to speak it in other
languages, or whether it was the Spirit of God enabling these
various countries in hearing the gospel. But also, we have this same witness,
if you will, when each and every one of God's Spirit are born,
each and every one of God's elect are born of His Spirit, and by
that birth, the Spirit of God throughout all their days bears
this witness. the Lord Jesus Christ, saying
that the Spirit of truth, when he is come, will guide you unto
all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, for whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to
come. he shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." The Spirit of God
taking the gospel of God that is preached revealing it to God's
people, enabling them to believe, giving them understanding, taking
this knowledge, and revealing Christ not only to them, but
in them. And therefore, in that sense,
approving of Christ. It is the Spirit himself that
bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. But although all these things
are true and in that sense could be said of all these things and
on all these occasions, it seems to me that this reference has
to do with something different, something that has to do concerning
Jesus Christ having died and risen again. You see, the word justify. Now, I've looked at a lot of
different definitions. You know, whatever you're looking
for, you can find. But there are a lot of definitions
given, a lot of commentaries given wherein men said, well,
he wasn't using the word justified on this occasion and in this
instance in the same way he does it in other places. If that's the case, I sure wish
the Lord would have said that. But the truth is, the word that
he uses here, this word justify, is the same word that he uses
concerning God's believing people. Same word. And if you turn back
over to Romans, the eighth chapter, You'll find one of those instances
where he uses this very same word, but it doesn't have something
to do with Christ here. He's talking about what is done
for us. Look down, if you would, first
of all, in Romans chapter 8 and verse 30. He says, whom he did predestinate, them
he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. And then if you look just a little
bit farther in that 33rd verse, he says, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us." Well, he uses the same word,
and I don't believe there's any difficulty in us viewing this
in the same way if we have some understanding of what justification
is. As a matter of fact, if you hold
your place here and turn back to Isaiah chapter 50, Isaiah chapter 50, and look here
in Isaiah 50, beginning in verse 8. And if you remember, what we
find so oftentimes again and again are all these expressions
that are given by the Spirit of God to the prophet that are
really the expressions of the Christ that's to come. So look at what he says in verse
8. He says, he is near that justify
me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they all shall wax old as
a garment, the moth shall eat them up." Now, what does that mean? Well, what he's simply saying
there is all these who would seek to condemn me, all these
who would seek in any way to bring up a charge against me,
he said they will simply just all wax old like a garment, the
moth shall eat them, and they'll never be able to do it. And when you read what he says
here in Isaiah 50 and verses 8 and 9, it has an amazing similarity
to just exactly what you find there in Romans 8 concerning
God's people. He says, it is God that justifies. And this is important because
if you stop and think about it, the Lord Jesus Christ, though
he had no sin of himself, though he never in any way sinned, but when he died, he died as
a public person. having all the sins of all God's
people of all time charged to his account, and as Scripture
says, laid on him, or made to me altogether on his head. He died as the one responsible
for every one of their sin for all time, the great mass of all
their sin, he had taken responsibility for as their surety before the
world ever was. And so when he hung on that cross,
and when he died what is called the death of the cross, When
God dealt with him as if he had sinned. When God dealt with him
as a just God, just like he had to, his being responsible for
the sins of his people. When he went to that cross, he
died. And not only did he die, but
he was laid in that grave, and for that time laid there in that
grave. And as it was said, would be
said of him in the Old Testament, they said, he's laid in the grave
and he won't be coming out. But he did. He did. And the scripture says that God
raised him from the dead. Now, I've thought now, if you
stop, you know, you get to this logical thinking sometimes which
gets you in a lot of trouble, you know. It says that he is
God, absolutely. And sometimes people get in trouble
in trying to understand the scripture, because on the one hand he says,
I and my father are one, and then a little bit later he says,
my father is greater than I. But when he says, my father is
greater than I, he speaks as Jehovah's servant. who has submitted
himself unto the hand of the Father and especially the hand
of the justice of the Father, when he stands there as the substitute
and representative of his people and he bears their sins in his
own body to the extent that he dies on that cross and is laid
in a tomb. And so the Bible says, God raised him from the dead. And I believe when it says, as
it does in our text, that he was justified in the Spirit,
he is justified in the Spirit in that God took this one who
stood and bore the sins of his people, bore them in his own
body unto death, he in his justification of him publicly raised him from
the dead, because The real definition,
the best one that I ever find, the one that seems most obvious,
the term that in that first century would have been a commonly understood
legal term, a term of the court to justify means to declare one
righteous. And that's why I think sometimes
a lot of folks run into a lot of problems because more and
more they make it to become something that is a change in one in that
they are made personally better somehow. No. It is the act of God alone. I remember years ago that I said in a message, I told
somebody in that very text that Richard was preaching on yesterday
morning, one of them. When it says there that all things,
old things are passed away, and all things are become new or
made new. I just simply in a message just
stated, you know, the truth of the matter is, if Paul is talking
about regeneration there, if that's what regeneration means,
old things are passed away, all these old things are passed away
and all things are become new, I just said, I missed it. I'm not regenerate, because I
can't say that. I can't say that all the old
things concerning me personally, concerning what I think, concerning
what I do, concerning what I say, I can't say that they're all
passed away and now they're all become you. Can you say that? I can't say that. But the truth there is he's not
talking about regeneration. He's talking, as Richard said,
about reconciliation. He's not talking about what I
am in my person. He's talking about what I am
in Christ. And he said, if any man's in
Christ, All those old things, everything that he was, everything
that he became in Adam, all those old things in him, they're passed
away. And in Christ, everything is
become new. Well, you know, you've got to
be careful what you preach these days. Somebody will hear it somewhere. You put it out on the Internet,
somebody will find it out there. And all of a sudden, I got an
email in the mail, and that man, he just simply said, by virtue
of what you said, you're not a regenerate man. Well, I was right glad that he
wasn't the one to decide that, determine that. But that's right. That's exactly right. I just,
I can't say that. I cannot say that. But the scripture says that God
has justified his people by virtue of what Christ has done, which
is, as obviously has to be the case here in this justification,
and that is that God has declared his people righteous. Now, he declares us righteous
in Christ. But my friends, when he raised
his son from the dead, when he took this one who had
just stood three days before, before his judgment, as the surety,
the representative of a people who in themselves were nothing
but sin when he called upon God the Father voluntarily to deal
with him as that he would have to deal with me and with all
he saves. What happened? God killed him. And he went the way that we have to go as sinners, which
is to die. He went to that grave. He went
to that tomb. But the Scripture says, but God
raised him from the dead. And in the resurrection, when
God raised him from the dead, he raised him, and in that resurrection
he is justified in the Spirit. That is, this one who not long
before bore in his body all the sins of his people, He raised
him up, and he declared him in his person righteous. And that's why, like we just
said a little while ago, he said, brethren, if any man sin,
or when you sin, sin not. That's always the requirement,
that's always the standard, that's always the command, right into
your little children, that you sin not. But when any man sins,
he has an advocate. Who is that? Jesus Christ the
righteous. And you see, the whole picture
here is, that when God publicly justified His Son in His raising
Him from the dead, He publicly showed, He publicly declared
Him righteous and revealed the way that He justifies every one
of His people in Christ. And you think about this, because
I believe it's the same picture. Here in the Old Testament is
this Old Testament priest. That time has come. And he is as the great high priest
of God, as the representative of that people, he is one more
time to go back into that Holy of Holies, and he is to take
the blood of that sacrifice into that holy place, and he is to
sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat. He is engaged in that work
where no man can see. You know, a part of the priestly
garment was that little golden bells were sewn in the hem of
his garment. And so, as long as it could be
heard a little shuffling of those bells around from in that holy
place, they'd know he was at least alive. But how were men and women to
know whether or not the sacrifice that he offered, the atonement
that he made, the work that he was carrying out there, how were
they to know whether or not God accepted it, whether or not God
was pleased with it or not? If he came out alive, if he came out alive, if the
representative of that people, who took that blood into that
holy place where God dwelt between the cherubim and sprinkled that
blood on that mercy seat, if he came out alive, God accepted his work, his sacrifice. And when God raised his Son from
the dead, when he came out of that tomb.
It's no wonder. When Paul said, if there's no
resurrection, then there's no hope. If there's no resurrection,
he said, we've found false prophets or preachers, and you're yet
in your sin. But God raised our substitute,
our representative, our surety, the one who carried our sins,
the one to whom the Lord imputed all our sins and laid on him,
the one who in every way that priestly garment It had a clear
representation not only of the humanity and of the deity of
Christ, our priest, but had his identification with us in that
the names of those tribes were written on those plates in his
shoulder, those stones engraved in the breastplate that he wore,
all representing his people. Somebody said that the twofold
bearing of Christ concerning His people was this, He bore
the weight of us on His shoulders and He bore the love of us in
His heart. But when God raised Him from
the dead, when He justified Him in the
Spirit, When he declared this one who not long before had been
made sin, when he declared him righteous, what did that mean? That the sins he bore, they were no more. They had been
put away. They had been finished. They
had been made an end of. And here's this representative
man. He's standing there alive. He's
standing there, the one that died. He has no sins. He's Jesus Christ the righteous. He's Jesus Christ the righteous. Do you realize how important
it is? that God justify this one who was made
sin. The greatest, as far as we're
concerned, is for our sake that we might know it. Because if
he's still the one who carried my sin, if he still had them,
we'd be in trouble. And that's why, like Paul says,
he's going to appear a second time. How's he going to appear? Without sin under salvation. Because you see, sin that is
put away by the perfect death, the perfect blood shedding, Which,
by the way, is righteousness. Is no more. Is no more. He made an end of sins. And so, Paul says this. Turn over to Romans chapter 4. Look at that last verse. He said the Lord has imputed
our sins to him. And it says in that last verse,
who was delivered for our offenses. And was raised again. For our
justification. Young's literal translation,
which is a worthy one sometimes for you to read a verse in, gives that verse in this way,
who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised up because of
our being declared righteous. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit. how essential it is for us to
know and believe that the one who stood in our place, the one
who God dealt with in justice in the matter of our sins, they
are so put away. And we know it because God raised
him from the dead. He's justified in the Spirit. I know there is a lot to be said
about that, but I believe that's basically the gist of that. Because
it won't work any other way. God bless you. you.