Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 33 from your spiral hymn book, number
33. Let's all stand together. I come, our Savior said, the
Savior promised long. I come to do thy will, O God,
and thus our hope was born. Behold, the Virgin has conceived
and born His name is called Emmanuel. God dwells in human flesh. The angels left their hide of
hope to see this mystery. Is Is His spotless life of righteousness
and sin-atoning death fulfilled his father's holy will and satisfied
his wrath. Our glad Hosannas, Prince of
Peace, your glory Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to the book of Revelation, chapter 1. Revelation, chapter
1. The message I want to try to
bring tonight from 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, I've titled The
Revelation of Jesus Christ. And the good news for the believer
is that the Lord delights in revealing himself to the hearts
of his children. When the disciples asked the
Lord, Lord, why do you speak to them in parables? And the
Lord said, because it's for you to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. For them, it's just a parable,
but for you, the mystery is revealed. And I'm so very thankful that
our Lord is pleased to reveal himself. Let's read together
here, Revelation chapter one, verse one, the revelation of
Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants
things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent, and signified
it by his angel unto his servant John, who bear record of the
word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things
that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein, for the time is at hand. John to the seven churches. Now you know the word, the number
seven is a number of completeness. It's a number of rests. It's
the seventh day, the Sabbath. And so the seven churches is
not just the seven churches that are identified here in Revelation
1, 2, and 3, but all the churches of all generations, the whole
church. John to the seven churches which
are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace from
him which is and which was and which is to come. And from the
seven spirits which are before the throne of God, a glen, the
perfect, complete revelation of God made by the Spirit of
God to the hearts of God's people. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead, reference
to his resurrection being the promise of our resurrection,
and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we come before thy holy presence
in the name of thy dear son, And we ask Lord humbly that you
would be pleased this hour, as you promised to do, meet with
us and reveal Christ to our hearts. Lord, enable us to speak of him
rightly, enable us to lift him up. Lord, we pray that you would
open what no man can shut, open our hearts, open your word, open
the windows of heaven. Lord, draw us to Christ and Lord,
cause us to set our affections on Him. And Lord, that we would
know more of who He really is and all that He accomplished
on behalf of His church. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 84. 84 in the hardback timbrel. 84. expected Jesus, born to set thy
people free. From our fears and sins release
us, let us find our rest in thee. ? Israel's strength and consolation
? ? Hope of all the earth, our home ? ? Dear desire of every nation ? ? Joy
of every nation ? Please be seated. I trust the Lord will do that. Raise us to his glorious throne. the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We saw Sunday morning from Colossians chapter one, that the Lord Jesus
Christ himself is the mystery of the gospel. He is the one
that must be revealed. And he is the one that the father
is pleased to reveal to the hearts of his people. Our responsibility
is to preach Him, to lift Him up, to seek Him in His Word. And the Spirit of God makes Him
known and draws us into His presence and gives us hope in Him. He is the hidden treasure. He
is the pearl of great price. He himself is the dark sayings
of scripture, as Solomon speaks in the book of Proverbs. These
secret sayings, these mysteries reveal Christ. Salvation is coming to a person. It's coming to a person. And
in order for us to come to him, God must reveal himself to us. It's not coming to a doctrine.
It's not coming to some religion. It's not coming to a reformed
life. It's coming to Christ. And the Lord said, if I be lifted
up, I will draw all men to me. In Galatians chapter four, Paul,
likens himself to a woman giving birth to a child, and he says,
I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you. Until Christ
be formed in you. When he speaks of his own conversion,
he says, when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, to reveal Christ in me. Call me by his grace. That is
the mystery of the gospel, Christ revealed in us and to us. Men will come to the law for
salvation because they think that it gives them something
to boast in. They'll come to a doctrine, they'll come to a
religious persuasion, but they won't come to Christ. The Lord
said, you will not come to me that you might have life. Turn with me to Hebrews 12. This
will be our first text tonight. We're gonna end up in 1 Timothy
3, but to prepare for that, let's look at Hebrews 12, and we'll
begin reading at verse 18. For you, you, brethren, are not
come to the mount that might be touched. That mountain of the law is something
you could actually physically touch. If you did, it would kill
you, but you could touch it. It was physically there. It was
something you could see. You've not come to a mountain
that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness
and darkness and tempest. and the sound of trumpets and
the voice of words, which voice that heard it, entreated that
they should not be spoken to them anymore. They pleaded with
Moses to go deal with this law himself, that all that the mountain
threatened to do to them, they didn't want any part of it. But
they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much
as a beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned and thrust
through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." Oh, do we not
see a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross, bearing
our sins and fearing God, quaking as a result of being forsaken
of his father and becoming the object of God's wrath. Moses
went up on that mountain, fearing and quaking. The Lord Jesus Christ
went to the cross in the same manner. But you don't go to a mountain that
can be touched. You don't go to the law for the
hope of your salvation. You are common to Mount Zion
and unto the city of the living God, the holy Jerusalem, and
to an innumerable company of angels. These things cannot be
seen. People travel to Jerusalem in
order to go to Golgotha as if something special is going to
happen to them there. No, that's missing the whole
point. Coming to Mount Zion and coming to company of saints and
coming to a holy Jerusalem is not something physical, is it?
And to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven and to God, the judge of all and
to the spirits of just men made perfect. And to Jesus. the mediator of the new covenant
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
able. Coming unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross and despised its shame. That's
who we come to. We come to a person The Lord
Jesus Christ is the hidden mystery of the gospel. As I mentioned before, when the
disciples asked the Lord, why do you speak to them in parables? The Lord said, because unto you,
it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But unto
them, everything's a parable. That's all it is. They don't
understand it. And this happened when the Lord
had given them the parable of the soils, you know, the four
different soils and the seed that was scattered. And so I'm
sure when the Lord said to the disciples, because to you, it
is given that you might know the mystery of the kingdom of
God, that you might know me and who I am and what I've come to
do, but unto them, it's nothing but a parable. It's a mystery. It remains hidden. I can feel what the disciples
are feeling because none of them knew what the mystery, none of
them knew what the parable meant. They didn't know what it meant. And so they asked the Lord. They
said, well, Lord, you're going to have to explain this parable
to us in order for us to understand it. And the Lord said to them,
He said, you don't understand this, the first of all parables. If you don't understand this
parable, you won't understand any of them. And He went on to
explain that the seed was the gospel, was the Word of God,
and it was scattered among the people and some of it fell on
rocky roadside soil and some on rocky soil and some on thorny
soil and some on good soil. That soil, those hearts that
have been prepared and the ones that fell on good soil produced,
it produced fruit. Some 30, some 60, some 100 fold. We don't, we don't compare our
fruit to one another, do we? We just pray the Lord will will
toil the fallow ground of our own hearts and that the seed
of the gospel will take root and that the fruit of righteousness
will be our faith in looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for
the hope of our salvation. He's the mystery of the gospel.
That's what we read Sunday in Colossians chapter one. Christ
in you. And that word in you can also
be understood that Christ among you, Christ among you, where
two or three are gathered together. There I am in the midst of them.
And so Christ here with us, revealing himself by his word and revealing
himself to our hearts in us. He is that mystery. He is the revelation of God and
the truth of the gospel. Men will come to anything but
Christ. They'll come to religion, they'll
come to a law, they'll substitute the Lord Jesus Christ with anything
and everything. Turn with me to John chapter
five, John chapter five. We often quote verse 39, the
Lord speaking to these self-righteous religious men who had spent their
lives studying the Bible. And he says to them in verse
39, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. and they are they which testify
of me. You will not come to me that you might have life. I receive
not honor from men, but I know you." Now the Lord's going to
explain, going to tell us right here in these next couple of
verses, why men won't come to him, and why these Pharisees
would not come to him, and why they weren't interested in knowing
the revelation of God. He's gonna tell us why, and I
hope that the Lord will separate us from this spirit of self-righteousness
and man-pleasing pride. Look what he says, but I know
you, that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in my
Father's name, and you receive me not. If another shall come
in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe
which receive honor one from another and seek not the honor
that cometh from God? Coming to Christ gives to the
Lord Jesus Christ and to the Father all the glory for salvation. Men won't come to Christ. They'll
come to everything else and they'll listen to anything and everybody
else because they want the praise of men. They love the praise
of men. They want the acknowledgement of their own righteousness and
their own godliness. And so the Lord said, you won't
come to me. Why? How can you come to me? You that
love the praise of men. You receive me not because you
want honor that comes from men. We want the honor that comes
from God. How can that be? To be found in Christ. To be
looking to the same one that the father's looking to. And
to be resting in and trusting in and relying upon and glorying
in and loving the same one that the father's glorying in and
resting in and trusting in. And this is contrary to all man-made
religion. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 5, the
Lord speaks of men who are destitute of the truth. They are of corrupt
minds and they love to dispute with one another. He said, from
such, withdraw yourself. For these men suppose, they suppose
that gain is godliness. That same thing the Lord is saying
to these Pharisees. Men supposing that if they gain
advantage over their peers by their own outward righteousness
or by their knowledge or by their spiritual, religious accomplishments
or by their possessions for that matter. They suppose that gain
equals godliness. That the evidence of God's blessings
is the manifestation of the gain that I'm experiencing, that I'm
showing in my life. The Lord said they're destitute
of the truth. They dispute with one another. Withdraw yourself
from such men. It is not the gain of knowledge. It is not the outward conformity
to the law. It is not religious activity
or the esteem of men that we seek to gain. He goes on to say
that godliness With contentment is great gain. Godliness with
contentment is great gain. Now, what is godliness? What is godliness? Is that some
hidden secret formula that has to be followed in order to achieve
some level of Godly living? Is it an obscure code that has
to be deciphered? Is that what godliness is? Is
it a dark mystery that is brought out of the shadows of some sort
of spirituality or what is? Godliness with contentment is
great gain. That's what the Lord is telling
us. That all of the, this is why men won't come to me. Now,
we'll go to our text. 1 Timothy 3. 1 Timothy 3. Verse
16. And without controversy, without any dispute, without
any discussion, without any debate, without controversy. This is agreed on by all believers. Great is the mystery of godliness. And you would expect, if you
were thinking like the natural man thinks, that now the Lord
is going to tell us what the real mystery of godliness is. He's already said godliness with
contentment is great gain. Now the Lord's gonna tell us
what the mystery of godliness is. And notice that it's not,
it doesn't have anything to do with what we do. The religious man thinks that
godliness has something to do with how he lives his life. Do we wanna live our lives in
such a way as to honor the Lord? Of course, of course. Do we pray the Lord to restrain
our flesh lest we become a reproach to the gospel of his grace? Of
course. Do we love him and want to follow
him and obey him? Of course. But we're looking
at what God says godliness is. He's already said that men of
dispute minds think that gain is godliness. They think achieving
more knowledge and more religiosity and more esteem among their religious
peers. Paul said, I excelled all of
my peers in religion, in the pharisaical religion. I was a
Pharisee of Pharisees. And boy, he and everybody around
him thought he was godly. Because men who don't know God,
who don't know Christ, that's how they interpret godliness.
Godliness with contentment is great gain. Gain is not godliness. Great is the mystery of godliness. This is without controversy.
And six statements are made in this verse, not about how we
need to live our lives in order to measure up to the mystery
of godliness, but rather who is the mystery of godliness?
Who is the hidden mystery of the gospel? The Lord Jesus Christ, six glorious
statements made about him that are in agreement with all believers. And if the Lord's pleased to
reveal himself to us, we will rejoice in these things that
are told us about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we will be content
with him as our salvation. We won't try to add anything
to what He's done and who He is. Godliness with contentment
is great gain. Men just get it backwards, don't
they? They get it backwards. You see, the Lord says, you won't
come to Me because you love the honor of men. You love the praise
of men. You want to get some glory. You
want to get some credit. But if you have Christ and you're
content with Him, then you have the mystery of the gospel. God was manifested in the flesh. God was revealed. God himself
was made known to men in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The fullness of the Godhead.
resides in him bodily. When the Lord told the disciples
in John chapter 14, he said, I go to prepare a place for you. And the place that I go, you
know, and where I'm going. And Thomas said, Lord, we don't
know where you're going. We don't know what you're talking
about. You don't have to show us. The Lord said, I'm going
to my father. And then Philip speaks up and
he says, oh Lord, that's what we want. Just show us the Father.
And that's suffice of us. We just want to see God. We want
to know who he is. Oh, Philip, do you not know by
now that if you've seen me, you've seen the Father? I and the Father
are one. I am the manifestation of God. I am the revelation. The mystery
of the gospel is in the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is himself the fullness of God in the body of a man. The Lord told The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
in John chapter 17, speaking to his father, said, father,
I've, I've glorified you upon the earth. I've glorified you. I've shown them who you are. And now Lord, it's glorify me,
glorify me by resurrecting me and raising me from the dead
and honoring what I'm about to do to accomplish the salvation
of your people. John 1, verse 18 says, no man
hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Here's the mystery of godliness
that is without controversy. God Almighty was made known in
the flesh. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners, spake unto our fathers by the prophets,
hath spoken unto us by His Son, who is the express image of His
person, the fullness of His glory. God is manifested in the flesh.
What you and I are going to know about God, we're going to find
in Christ and only in Christ. And so God being manifested in
the flesh, not only reveals who God is, but reveals what God
has done to save sinners. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. This is godliness. Godliness is Christ and having
Christ is having the mystery of the gospel. Christ in you,
Christ among you, the hope of glory. This is the great mystery. He is the hidden treasure. He
is the pearl of great price. He is the one we must know, believe
on and trust and rest in. Hebrews chapter 10, we'll begin
reading. At verse five, wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he sayeth, sacrifice and offerings
thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared me. A body
thou hast prepared me. The Lord Jesus Christ is born
in the likeness of sinful flesh, born of a woman, born under the
law, conceived of the spirit of God. This is the manifestation
of the mystery that God was manifested in the flesh. In burnt offerings
and sacrifice for sin, thou had no pleasure. Here's why the self-righteous
won't come to Christ. Because it takes away the glory
that they have for their offerings. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, sacrifice
and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither had pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first. He
fulfilled the law. that he might establish the second,
the law of grace, by the which will we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. God was
manifested in the flesh. He had to be made in a body.
And in his body, he reveals the fullness of the character of
God, and he reveals how it is that God Save sinners. How it is that God remits our
sins. He put them in the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He bore in his body upon that
tree our sins and suffered the full wrath of God's justice.
Put them away by the sacrifice of himself once and for all in
his body. God manifested in the flesh. Secondly, the mystery of godliness. We're back in our text now in
1 Timothy 3, verse 16. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. This is the mystery of the gospel,
the Lord Jesus himself. And here's our hope. He delights
in revealing himself to the hearts of his people. Well, how do I
know? Because I delight in a gospel that gives
the Lord Jesus Christ all the credit and all the glory and
all the praise and all the honor. I don't want a salvation that
depends upon me to do something, a sacrifice, an offering to be
made. I have no interest in a salvation
that gives to me some false hope and false glory among men. I want the honor that comes from
God. The honor that comes from God comes in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ who he is himself the mystery of godliness. God
was manifested in the flesh. Secondly, he was justified by
the Spirit. Now this word justified means
to show or to exhibit or to give evidence of that which is righteous.
to give evidence of that which is righteous, to declare and
to pronounce one to be just before God. Now the Lord's telling us
here that God was manifested in the flesh and justified, justified
by the Spirit. When was the Lord Jesus Christ
justified by the Spirit? Well, the scripture says that
when the prophets spoke, when Moses wrote the Pentateuch, when
David wrote the Psalms, when Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel
and Habakkuk wrote the prophecies, that no man wrote by private
interpretation, but they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So when did the Holy Spirit justify
or give evidence or proof or declaration that the Lord Jesus
Christ was righteous? Well, first and foremost, in
the writing of the scriptures. In the writing of the scriptures.
We don't call into question the scriptures. We bow to what God
has said. We rejoice in believing on Christ
revealed in the scriptures. So this is the first place where
the Lord was justified by the Spirit. Did not all the writers
of the Old Testament point to the Messiah? Did they not all
point to the coming Christ? Did they all not reveal Him and
write about Him, justified by the Spirit of God? These men,
I think I just said writers of the Old Testament, they weren't
writers, they were penmen. They were just penmen. They were
holding the pen and God was moving their hearts to write the things
that, it's the Word of God, written by the Spirit of God. Secondly,
justified by the Holy Spirit in his conception. It was the
Holy Spirit that caused Mary to conceive of that holy thing,
as the scripture says, in her womb. It was the Spirit of God
that planted the seed of God in the womb of a woman, justified
by the Spirit of God. He had to be born that way. He
had to be conceived that way. He had to be conceived without
sin. He couldn't be born after the
seed of Adam. Thirdly, the Holy Ghost justified
the Lord Jesus Christ when He began His public ministry at
His baptism. John baptized me. Oh no, Lord,
I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy to unlatch your
sandals. Lord, you need to be baptizing
me. No, that all righteousness might be fulfilled. We're going
to do this now. And when he came up out of the
water, the scripture says, and the Holy Ghost, like a dove,
lighted upon him. I don't know what all that means,
but I know the Holy Spirit was justifying was declaring the
Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the Savior of sinners,
as godliness. Here's the Spirit of God, not
only in the scriptures, justifying the Lord Jesus Christ as godliness,
not only in the conception of Mary, but now beginning His public
ministry, coming out of the water, the Spirit of God coming upon
Him. Pentecost. All those 120 disciples huddled
in the upper room fearful that the Romans were going to come
and do to them what they had done to their Lord. And then
the Holy Spirit comes as a mighty rushing wind. The Spirit of God
comes upon them and fills them and now they're filled with boldness
and they go out and It doesn't matter now, they may arrest us
and kill us, but we're not gonna, we're not gonna shut up. We're
going to, why? Because the spirit of God had justified the Lord
Jesus Christ as godliness. And they had godliness with contentment
and they were of great gain. And this is true of every believer. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
anointed one. He is the Christ. The Messiah. He came, he was, the scripture
says he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.
We have an anointing of the Spirit of God. You remember when Moses
anointed Aaron, he poured the oil, the anointing oil on his
head and the scripture said it ran down his beard and down his,
and it dripped off the skirt of his garment. Well, there's
what we are like that poor woman with the issue of blood. If I
could just touch the hem of his garment, if I could get one drop
of that oil, just a drop, just a little bit of it. He's got
it. He's got the fullness of it.
He's got, he's the anointed one. He's my high priest. This is
godliness. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. Godliness is God manifested in
the flesh, justified by the Spirit. Turn with me to John chapter
16. John chapter 16. Because this justification of
the Spirit of God is still happening. It's still happening. I hope
it's happening right now. I hope it will happen afresh
and anew for some lost sheep that the Spirit of God will come
and open their heart and anoint them
with some understanding of who Christ is and contentment and
resting the hope of their salvation in who He is. John chapter 16
at verse At verse 13, how be it when he,
the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth,
for he shall not speak of himself, but 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
is still at work right now. Godliness, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the mystery of the gospel is still being justified by the
Spirit of God. As the Spirit of God takes the
Word of God and applies it to the hearts of God's people, the
Lord Jesus Christ is being justified to us. The truth is justified of her
children. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ as the truth being justified
in the hearts of His people. Thirdly, what is this great mystery
of godliness that is without controversy? It's Christ. It's
Christ. Who is He? He's manifested in
the flesh. God manifested in the flesh.
He's justified by the Spirit. He's seen of angels. scene of
angels. Oh, we, we see this at his birth,
when the angel came to that shepherd and said unto you is born this
day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And
then with that angels came a whole multitude of heavenly hosts,
singing and praising God and saying glory to God on I. We're on earth. There's goodwill
toward men. The goodness of God revealed
in Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
out of the wilderness, the scripture says the angels came and ministered
unto him. 40 days and 40 nights of fasting. and the angels came and ministered
unto him. When our Lord was about to go
to the cross, he told the disciples, he said, I could call 12 legions
of angels. Now, I added that up. It's real simple to do. I think
it's about 86,000 angels. The Lord said I could have called
86,000 angels to come and deliver me. And I can just imagine the
angels on the precipice of glory with swords drawn. In the Old
Testament, when God brought destruction, he would send one angel and destroy
a whole country, whole nation, tens of thousands of people,
one angel. And the Lord said, I could have sent 86,000 angels. They're all standing there waiting
for me to say come. Jealous for His glory. I'm sure
experiencing righteous indignation over what they were seeing, not
understanding all of what was happening. Not needing themselves
to be redeemed, for they knew no sin. But ready to deliver their Lord
at His command, the angels were watching. At his resurrection, it was an
angel that met Mary at the tomb and said, why seek ye the living
among the dead? At his ascension into glory,
it was the angels that came and spoke to the disciples and said,
why stand ye here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which
has been taken up from you, will come again in like manner. And
whatever it means, I don't know. But the scripture says that angels
are ministering spirits that minister to us right now. The
Lord Jesus Christ in us is our hope of glory. He's the mystery
of the gospel. He's godliness. And the angels
take notice of Him. They're still ministering to
Him in His body. I suppose we could interpret
that as it is in the book of Revelation interpreted, that
an angel is a messenger. And the Lord identifies the pastors
of the seven churches of Asia as angels. And so anytime a messenger from
God stands and declares the message of the gospel, the angels are
ministering to us. Are they not? Are they not? The Lord Jesus Christ was seen
of angels. He was justified by the Spirit
of God. He's God manifested in the flesh.
Fourthly, the scripture says that He was preached unto the
Gentiles. Now a Gentile was a nation that
had never received a revelation from God. They had just been
left to themselves to come to whatever conclusions they might
come to on their own about a creator and how to be right
with that creator. All men know that there's a God
and all men, you know, try to, that's what the variety of religions
are all about. And the Gentiles were men that
were nations that God had left to themselves. Israel was the
only nation that had been given the revelation of God, the law
of God, the word of God. And now the mystery of godliness
is that Christ was gonna go to the Gentiles. He was going to
reveal himself to the Gentiles in the preaching of the gospel.
What a glorious thing. You see, that's us. If the Lord
left us to ourselves, we would be left to our own devices as
to who God is and how to be right with him. And you can be sure
that we'd come to all the wrong conclusions. But, He's preached
the gospel to the Gentiles, to those who by nature have no access
to the word of God. They have no right to his word. They have no knowledge of his
word, no understanding of who he is, that he would come and
preach the gospel to them. He shall bring forth, the scripture
says in Isaiah chapter 42, judgment unto the Gentiles. And in verse
six, he said in Isaiah 42, it says, he shall be a light unto
the Gentiles. And here's the miracle of miracles
that the Lord Jesus Christ would be believed on in the world.
that this preaching would actually become effectual, that the message
of the gospel would be irresistible, and the Gentiles would actually
believe God. Here's godliness. God manifested
in the flesh. God justified by the Spirit. God seen of angels. God preached
among the Gentiles. God believed on in the world. The gospel, for you to believe
the gospel, for a dead sinner to be made
alive, for one who by nature hates God to all of a sudden
love him, to one who would by nature rest in their own righteousness,
loathe themselves and come to the conclusion of saying, behold,
I am vile. Oh Lord, if you don't give me
your righteousness, I'll have none. How could that, how could
that happen? That's, that's a miracle of godliness. That one unwilling would be made
willing, that a blind person would see, that a deaf person
would hear, a dead person would be raised from the dead. This
is, this is godliness. This is the miracle of the gospel
and the miracle of faith. And sixthly, sixthly, The revelation
of Jesus Christ is that he was received back into glory. He was received back into glory.
This is godliness that we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He's seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high. God is making those who are by
nature at enmity with Him to come and sit at His footstool
and listen to Him and hear Him and love Him and believe on Him.
This is the mystery of godliness. That He would stand as our perfect
representative, our perfect substitute, If we would be in the heavenly
places in Christ right now, that God's Word did not return unto
Him void, the Father received Him back into glory. Sit thou here at my right hand.
Oh, godliness with contentment is great gain. Great is the mystery
of godliness. This is without controversy.
God himself made known, revealed as the mystery of the gospel
in the body of flesh. God. God seen of angels. God justified by the Spirit of
God. God. preached to the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, and received up into glory. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is the mystery of the Gospel. And God's people are content
with Him. They're content. Our Heavenly
Father, bless Your Word to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's
name, Amen. Number 18 in the Sproul hymn,
let's stand together. We'll sing the refrain as if
it was just the second verse. is is A book of Christ, it only speaks
of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. is the great the land, the Baptist said, the
sin but only one. As it was long, as long before,
God's Son as man has come. Our substitute obeyed the law
and died and rose again. And in his word our Savior said,
Rejoice, I come again. you