In first Timothy chapter three,
the apostle after instructing Timothy in some very, what we
call practical issues. I really don't like to use that
term a lot of times. You know, they always look at
the epistles and they'll say, well, this half the epistle is
doctrinal and this half is practical. Well, I don't like that division
so much because I think the doctrine is practical. I mean, we're to
put into practice all that we believe and think and know. and
just recognizing the Lord God in every way that he reveals
himself in the word. And that's what these verses
are about concerning what we might call the heart of the gospel.
Frank and I were talking earlier and I told him, I was, you know,
I wished that everybody, and we've been thinking about this
because of the death of this man who was shot, and it's been
a very religious thing, and I would love to think that every person
who claims to be a Christian was truly a Christian. I'd love
to think that, but I don't because of the scriptures. There's plenty,
you know, Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 1, you know, he dealt with that,
you know, with those who were false Christians, and he mentioned
some by name. And John, in 1 John, I'm going
to preach from 1 John chapter 2 today, you know, he talked
about those who were of us but went out from us. And the idea
there is they apostatized from the faith. Now, what is it to
apostatize from the faith? That's not a believer who gets
into trouble, which we can all do, sinfully, just like King
David, just like others in the Bible, even Peter, you know,
it's apostle Peter. And we can go on and on and on, just like
us, you know. We can all, as believers, we
can all make bad decisions. We can all sin against the Lord. We're going to talk about that
in 1 John 2, you know, and if any man sin. That's not just
in case you do sin or just in case you don't sin. We're sinners
saved by grace. We're imperfect people. Mark it down. The only perfection
we can claim is what we're going to read right here in these verses,
which is Christ. His blood to wash away our sins
and His righteousness to cover us. And we can claim no other
perfection in our lives. Now, some people will argue.
They'll say, well, you have the Holy Spirit abiding in you and
He's perfect. That's true. The Holy Spirit
is perfect. He's God the Spirit, the third
person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father and the Son in
every attribute of deity. And He does indwell us by giving
us a new heart, a new spirit, and by writing the word on our
hearts, giving us faith and repentance and perseverance, He does indwell
us, but we are not Him and He's not us. You understand? There's
a distinction there that needs to be made. And if for nothing
else, well, I won't say for nothing else, if not only for truth,
I gotta tell the truth. And I'm not gonna lie to you,
and I know you guys won't do this, but I don't want you to
put me up on a pedestal because I'm the preacher. I'm a sinner
saved by grace. And I have bad times and bad
thoughts and all of that. And I ask the question, why did
you take Bill Pennington and not me? But that's just human
groveling. That's all it is. It's just being
a human, and I can't get above that. That's what Paul wrote
in Romans 7, 14 through 25. I want to do good. I want to
strive for. conformity to Christ, but I'm
not going to make it. That's what he meant in Philippians
3 when he said, not as though I already attained. Now he said
he attained righteousness, but only in Christ, but he hadn't
attained it in himself yet. And we won't be perfect in ourselves
until we leave this earth and God takes us from this earth
and causes us to be with him. And then all we'll wait for then
is the union of our spirits with the new body, which is perfect. I don't know what it's gonna
look like, but I know it'll be perfect. And so we won't have
any thoughts of sin. So anyway, when we look at passages
like this, look at verse 14 of chapter three. Paul says, these
things write I unto you, unto thee, hoping to come unto thee
shortly. Paul wanted to go back to Ephesus
and help Timothy and help the people there. Somebody asked
me, did he ever get to go back? And I don't think so, but I'm
not sure about that. I know we have the Ephesian letter,
which is a beautiful letter concerning the basics of salvation by grace. But he wrote this letter just
in case he didn't get to go back to Ephesus, but this is all by
inspiration of the Spirit, isn't it? This letter was intended
by God to be where it is, where we can read it and glean from
it. So he says in verse 15, if I
tarry long, if it's a longer time than I desire or expect
or plan, 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 truth. In other words, I'm teaching
you how people ought to behave when they come to worship. That's
what it is. That's why he dealt with the
issues of women and what they wear and how they act and the
authority of the men and what a pastor or a bishop or an elder
should be, what a deacon should be. These are the things that
ought to be promoted within the body of believers, especially
when we're met together like we are today. Worshiping the
Lord. What are we here for? To glorify
God. That's what we're here for. Not
to glorify ourselves, not to brag on ourselves, but to glorify
God in Christ. To preach Christ. And we preach
Christ and Him crucified. And here's how he identifies
the church. He calls it the house of God.
He's not talking about this building, you all know that. You see all
these great and grand cathedrals that these people have sunk so
much money in. And I'm not just talking, you
know the ornate ones. I think Randy and Susan, you
all been to Italy and you've seen the Vatican and all that
stuff, just historically. They didn't go there to worship.
I know that. But you know how it is. I'll
never forget when I made a trip to Mexico to visit a missionary
down there, You go into these little towns, they call them
Pueblos, and usually we think of Pueblos being a house, but
they call the towns of Pueblo. And I mean, it was awful. I mean,
it was poverty. And you go into a house, there'd
be dirt floors and things like that. And in the middle of that
little town, you'd see an ornate Catholic cathedral. And those
poor people had put their money into that because they were afraid
if they didn't, what would happen? They'd go to hell or end up in
purgatory. Well, see, that's a lie. But
these buildings aren't the house of God. The house of God is the
family of God. It's the people. It's the elect
of God who have been brought to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works. It's the redeemed of the Lord. The Bible says in Acts chapter
20, I think it is, when Paul was talking to the elders at
Ephesus, he talked about the church which Christ redeemed
with his own blood. It's his sheep brought into the
pasture of the shepherd. That's what the church is, it's
the house of God. And just like when John, over
in 2 John, well there's only one chapter
in 2 John, When he says this, you know, he says in verse nine
of 2 John, he says, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ, and that's talking about the gospel,
of which the heart is the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ. If you go too far and abide not
in the doctrine of Christ, you don't have God. You don't have
God as your Savior, as your Lord. Your confession of Christianity
is a sham if you don't abide in the doctrine of Christ. And
that's why I say, you know, so many people who claim to be Christian,
you'd love to believe that, but I'll tell you what, you know,
and I've been in this thing for 40 years now, and it seems to
me, it started out there was very few, and it seems like it's
getting to be fewer. Because so many people are in
churches called Christian where they don't preach the true gospel.
And I'm not saying it to be mean or just to be a critical or be
a judge, I'm not. I hear what I hear. And you do
too. And if I hear somebody preaching
things about God that are untrue, which are revealed in scripture,
then what am I to think? Things about Christ or things
about salvation? that aren't true. And I know
this is not popular now. This is not a popularity contest. I wanna know what the Bible says.
I wanna know what God says about himself and what he says about
Christ and what he says about me and salvation. So look here,
it says in verse 10, or it says in verse nine, he that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. And then he says, if there come any unto you and bring not
this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid
him God's speed. For he that biddeth him God's
speed is a partaker, a fellowshiper of his evil deeds. Now that's
pretty plain. Now the house there, that doesn't
mean your house that you live in. It means the house of God. And what that means, We invite
unbelievers to come in here and hear the gospel, but we don't
receive them as part of our spiritual family. That's what John means
there. Don't receive them into your
house. You know, when an unbeliever comes, somebody that you know
is an unbeliever, now I know people can fool, they can fool
me, they can fool you, and I take people at their word. You know,
I ask people, I say, do you believe what we preach here? And they
say, yes, and that's fine for me. But if they say, no, I don't
believe that God chose a people and gave them to Christ. I believe
that God looked down through a telescope of time and reacted. Well, that's not the God of this
book. And so I would say, no, you're welcome here. We want
you to come. We want you to hear the gospel.
But you're not part of our spiritual family yet. You see, now a lot
of people think I'm too hard there, but I believe it's just
strictly scriptural. And that's what he's saying,
don't receive them into your house, in your household, and
recognize them. You know, a lot of churches,
their own goal is to just see how many people they can get
down the aisle, however they can do it, and get them into
the baptistry, and put their name on the row, and usually
they give them a job, because that'll help keep them. Now y'all
been there, haven't you? I've been there. I've seen churches
where they would cause a person, you know, through their emotionalism,
get people down the aisle, get them into baptistry, and then
make them a Sunday school teacher. I've seen that in my years. And that's a travesty. You remember
what we read back in 1 Timothy chapter 3 about elders and deacons? Not a novice. Not a new, if they
are newborn Christians, newly born believers, you don't put
them in a position of teaching. They gotta be seasoned, you know,
gotta grow in grace and in knowledge. Gotta grow up, you know. I don't
let my little granddaughter run the household, I think. You know,
she doesn't do the cooking and make the decisions, she's a baby.
So, go by that. He says, it's the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, not a dead God. I had professors
in the seminary I attended who did not believe in the literal
resurrection of Christ, and they claimed to be Christian, but
they denied the literal resurrection, that Christ came out of the grave
in that body. Now what am I to do with that?
Am I to say, well, you know, they're Christians, they just,
no! We talk about the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. They didn't even believe in the
literal virgin birth. I had professors at seminary
who were teaching the Bible, and they knew what the Bible
said. They just openly denied it and said, well, it's just
wrong there. And they called themselves Christian. Well, we
believe, we believe in God, the living God. The God who lives,
he is risen, and we're gonna talk about this in the next message.
He is ascended unto the Father as God-man, and he's seated at
the right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession
for all of his people whom he saved. That's what we believe. Not a dead God, not an idol,
not a piece of stone or a piece of wood, or a God of their own
imagination. Always remember that about idolatry.
Idolatry begins here. And if they carve it out of stone
or wood or gold or whatever, it's just as much idolatry if
it stayed right in their head. Because it's wrong thoughts about
God. And I'm talking about thoughts
that God has revealed about himself in his word. We can take them
to scripture. But those same professors I had,
they didn't believe that the Bible was the inerrant inspired
word of God either. And they called themselves Christian.
But they just believed the word of God is not, the Bible's not
the word of God, it's just in there and we gotta extract it
out. And really what they came out
with was not the gospel, it was just an improvement of man in
this life as far as morality and sincerity and that was it. Redemption by the blood? I had
a New Testament survey professor who was going through the book
of Romans and he called Paul. He said, Paul went too far here.
He said, you know the idea of a substitutionary atonement is,
the word that he used was, is repulsive to me. And that time,
I didn't know any either. I was lost. So I just thought,
well, he's smarter than me. He's got a PhD and a PhD and
all that. He knew Greek. Yeah. It's OK if you want to learn
Greek. Just don't speak it to me, because I don't understand
it. All right? I know some Greek words. I'm
going to talk to you about one next message. But you see, it's
the church of the living God. We've got to know who God is.
And then he says, it's the pillar and ground of what? truth. You know, this man that got shot
is Charlie Kirk. Politically, economically, practically
in everyday life, I pretty much agreed with him, don't you? He
told some truth. That was his problem. He told
the truth and people don't like the truth even in those areas.
Now he claimed to be a Christian, and people say he was a Christian,
but I don't know if he told the truth there, because I don't
know the man's religion. I've become a little bit skeptical,
because after 40 years of doing this, I'm finding that there's
fewer and fewer who really believe the truth. But the thing about
it is, we're in this position. We're living in this day. And
it's a day of apostasy. It's a day of where there's a
lot of churches, but not much truth. Now that's the day we
live in. And if you want to be associated with people who call
everybody and anybody Christian, this is not the place for you.
I'm serious. I want to know the truth. I want
to know what God's word says about God, about me, about Christ,
about salvation. I don't want to play religion.
I don't want to act like I'm what I'm not. I don't want to
claim to believe the Bible when I don't. Just like I told you
one time about the guy who called me up after watching a TV program
where I mentioned predestination. And he said, I want you to know,
I don't believe in that predestination. And I said, really? He said,
no, I don't believe that. I said, so you don't believe
the Bible? And he said, oh, I believe every word of it. Really? I said, well, let me show you
some words that equal out to predestination. I don't want
to hear it. Now, you see what I'm saying?
They shut their eyes and close their ears lest they be converted.
If I showed him in the Bible, he could not rightly deny it,
so I don't want to see it. Remember, that's what the Pharisees
did when Christ talked to them. Why do you speak in parables,
Lord? Because they seeing, see not, and hearing, hear not, And
they've closed their ears and shut their eyes lest they be
converted. Because they cannot deny what
I'm telling them justly. They just rather not see. So
that's what I call ostrich Christianity. Stick your head in the sand or
in the hole. And you know, I've never been
able to do that and I know why. Because of the Lord. The Lord
gave me that inquisitive mind. to ask preachers and witnesses,
tell me why you believe what you believe. Show me in the Bible.
Well, this is the pillar and ground of truth. Now, getting
to the meat of the message, verse 16. Now, here's a summary of
gospel truth, showing the heart of the gospel. And let me just
tell you, the heart of the gospel revolves solely around the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. to save those who
are sinful and don't deserve salvation by his obedience unto
death on the cross. And the first thing he starts
off with in verse 16, and without controversy. Now what he's saying
there is this is something that true believers don't argue with. We don't differ here. Now there's
some things we can differ on. I'm not gonna talk about that,
because there's a myriad of things. But when it comes to the gospel
truth of the person and work of Christ, all right, how God
saves sinners, how God justifies the ungodly, it's without controversy. You've heard passages where Paul,
I think there's one in 1 Timothy or 2 Timothy, or maybe both,
where he says this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. That's what he's talking about.
This is a true saying and worthy to be accepted by all true believers. Not arguing about it. We don't
have, you know, you all have heard the term Arminianism, free
willism. You've heard the term Calvinism.
This is not a debate between Calvinists and Arminians. This
is just plain simple truth. And every believer holds to it. And so he says, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. What is a mystery? A mystery
is not something that we have to figure out, like Sherlock
Holmes finding clues, or a detective in a murder case trying to find
the clues. A mystery in the Bible is something that you're not
going to see it, know it, and believe it until God reveals
it. And here's the truth. I can preach
the gospel to you every day from now on until doomsday, and you're
not going to see it, know it, and believe it unless God opens
your eyes and gives you faith to believe it. Gives you an understanding. And that's God's business. It's
not my business. Now, I can plead with you, I
can try to persuade you. Some preachers say, well, we're
not in the persuading business. Yes, we are. We try to, you know,
when I witness to people, when I preach, I'm trying to persuade
you, but I realize that I am limited in my power, and that's
nothing at all, to give you a new heart, new eyes, new ears. I
can't save you. I can't birth you again. I can't
even do that for myself. That's God's work. God opened
Lydia's heart, not Paul, but Paul went and preached to her.
God revealed himself to the disciples and all of that. Every true believer
is the product of God's work, not the preacher's. We are his
workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not by
God works, not by good works, but unto good works, which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So when
we're born again, we're born of God, not of the preacher.
The Holy Spirit uses the word to open our eyes. Somebody said,
well, he can give you life without telling you the truth. Well,
how do you know you have life without the truth? Paul said
we worship God in spirit and in truth. No, it's by the truth,
and that's what he's saying here. Great is the mystery of godliness.
What is godliness? It's simply being a child of
God, following God, resting in Christ. All right, glorifying
him, seeking to be conformed. That's what godliness is. Some
may say, well, it's obedience. Well, but it's obedience that's
motivated not by law and threats of punishment and promises of
earned reward, but it's obedience motivated by grace, love, gratitude. That's godliness, okay? What motivates you to come to
church? Well, I'm afraid if I miss one Sunday, I'm gonna lose my
reward in heaven. Well, that's legalism. Now, should we come to church
when the people of God are met together? Yes, that's not an
issue. We're not arguing about that,
but the motive here, is what godliness is, that's part of
it. Why should I worship God publicly, corporately, in fellowship
with my brothers and sisters in Christ? Why should I do that? Because he's given me everything
concerning salvation and eternal life and righteousness, and I
didn't deserve or earn any of it. That's why. Thank you, Lord. That's what
motivates the believer. And that's why, Tim, we talked
about that works-based assurance. My assurance is based on how
well I'm doing. Well, I've never had that. Even
when I could probably say I've done well, that's not where my
assurance comes from. Should we try to do well? Of
course we should. Not to be assured of our salvation.
Where do we get our assurance? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. My eyes are fixed. Isaiah, I
think it's 32, said that the effect of righteousness is peace
and security. Where am I going to find righteousness?
Not in me. I find it in Christ. all said
that I may know him and be found in him not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law but that which is through the faith of
or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ the righteousness of God
by faith we receive it by faith but God has already imputed it
to us charged us with it so he says the mystery of godliness
now look at what he says number one God was manifest in the flesh
Who's that talking about? That's talking about the incarnation
of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God,
man. Now those who deny any facet
of that, they're leaving godliness. The mystery of godliness is revealed
first in the person of Christ as both God and man in one person. with no mixture of the nature
of deity and the nature of humanity, but the perfect God-man, Jesus
Christ. And the reason that's important
is because that's what it took, the glory of his person, to save
us from our sins. If he was only God, the only
thing he could do was condemn us, because there'd be no satisfaction
to his law and justice. in order to gain satisfaction
to His law and justice, He had to become a sinlessly perfect
man so that He could die on the cross. And all that, listen,
you all know that's all through the Bible. Without the shedding
of blood, no remission. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. And He's not talking about your
blood, talking about the blood of the lamb. That Passover lamb
was a picture of our lamb, Jesus Christ. So great is the mystery
of godliness, it begins with his person as God made, and then
look at the next one, number two, justified in the spirit. Christ himself, and I believe
before the foundation of the world, was made our surety, the
surety of the covenant, meaning that God chose a people, gave
them to Christ, that's why he says, all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, gave them to Christ, and put the debt of
the sins of his people, which had not happened yet, but it
was gonna happen, God ordained it, put the sins of his people
charged upon the person of Christ, imputed to him is what the Bible
says. In other words, he didn't impute
their sins to them, he imputed them to Christ. Christ was made
their surety. He was purposed to be our substitute,
come to earth and take into union with his deity a sinless human
nature. And as our substitute, he walked
in perfect obedience under the law and went to the cross to
pay the penalty. And this is what I'm gonna talk
about in the next message on propitiation. Christ shed his
blood unto death as the complete full payment of all the sins
of all whom the father gave to him before the world began. And
when it says he's justified in the spirit, he was declared to
be so by the father and the stamp on it was his resurrection from
the dead. And the Holy Spirit had a part
in that, just like the Father. So he himself was justified in
that sense, that the sins that were charged him, he was not
made a sinner now, and he was not contaminated with our sins. They were not put in him, as
some wanna say today. Oh, he suffered now. He suffered
greatly. He felt the feelings of our infirmities
without sin. But he suffered based upon the
sins of God's chosen people charged to him. That charge was so real
that he went under the law. God made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. And he suffered.
Oh, he suffered. We can't even imagine the pain
and the anguish, soul anguish, mental anguish that he went through.
And it was all based upon sin imputed to him, not sin shoved
into him or imbued to him or imparted to him or contaminated.
No, sin charged to him. And so he was justified in the
spirit, declared to be so. And we're made righteous in the
same way. His people were made righteous,
justified, meaning this, that our sins were totally forgiven,
in Christ, based upon his blood shed, the penalty being paid,
in full, and based upon his righteousness, which is the result of his death,
his obedience unto death, being imputed to us. And that's what
2 Corinthians 5.21 says. God made him to be sin, Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. So that's the mystery of godliness
right there. You can't be godly and be condemned. You see that? You have to be
justified, made righteous. He was seen of angels. Now there's
a little bit of controversy over this, but I believe what it's
talking about, mainly it's talking about in his death, burial, and
resurrection, he was attended with the godly angels, the heavenly
angels, who bore him up in his humanity. Some say that angels,
and the word angel just does, it means messenger. I've got
to hurry, I'm running out of time. It means messenger, so
he's talking about his people. That could be, but I believe
he's talking about the heavenly angels. Preached unto the Gentiles,
that was prophesied in the Old Testament, that he would say,
God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
Jew and Gentile, believed on in the world. That's a miracle.
That anybody in the world would believe on him, that's a miracle
of grace. And it's the product of his obedience unto death as
our surety, substitute, and redeemer, and received up unto glory. He
ascended on high. The disciples watched him go
up. The angel said, he'll come again. And where is he now? He's at the right hand of the
Father, ever living, to make intercession for us. Okay.