Well, let us turn again to God's
Word as we continue on Lord's Day evenings to consider the
content of that last verse in 1 Timothy 3. This little theological
gem, as it might be called, and what is found in these few words
that we have here in 1 Timothy 3.16. and I want us tonight to
consider the words preached unto the Gentiles. It all centers
of course in the mystery of godliness and that mystery is really the
incarnation, the person and then subsequently the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Reading the verse through 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. We've been considering then each
of the clauses here, and as I said, we come now to these words. these four words preached unto
the Gentiles. And you might observe, as we've
gone through these particular clauses, there is in some ways
a sort of descending scale. It all begins with the wonder
of the incarnation, the virgin birth, the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ, God was manifest in the flesh. and so in what
follows we're really reading of Him and of His experiences. God was manifest in the flesh
and firstly He was justified in the Spirit and in considering
those words we said something about the ministry of the Holy
Ghost in the course of the life of the Lord Jesus here upon the
earth. the humility of that life that
he lived because it was a life in which he was utterly dependent
upon the Holy Spirit. How was he conceived? He was
conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary. How did he minister? ministered by the blessed anointing
of the Spirit when he begins his public ministry, at his baptizing,
how the Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove. He whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God, says John, for God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. And then subsequently, of course,
We find him there in the synagogue in Nazareth reading the words
of Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has
anointed me to preach the gospel and so forth. All the eyes are
upon him. And this day, he says, his scripture
is fulfilled in your ears. As we read through the gospels,
we can see then how time and again he is justified in the
Spirit, the ministry of God, the Holy Ghost. And then, as we were considering
last time, we have the ministry of the angels, the ministry of
the Holy Spirit, but then descending now to the ministry of angels. He was seen of angels, and though
they didn't only see Him and behold Him, but they served Him.
They served Him. Are they not ministering spirits
sent forth to be the ministers to those who are the heirs of
salvation? They minister to those who are
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, sinners of mankind who are saved
by the grace of God. There is a ministry of the angels
to us and how Christ is identified with His people. as the angels
ministered to his body, so they ministered to him as that one
who is the head of the body, the church. And we see it right
at the beginning, after his temptations there in the wilderness, 40 days
and 40 nights in the wilderness, tempted of the devil. And we're
told in Matthew's account, the devil leaveth him, and behold,
angels came and ministered unto him. He receives the ministry of the
angels. He so humbles himself. He's identified
all together with his people, the heirs of salvation. The angels
minister to them, they minister to the Lord Jesus. And not only
at the beginning of his ministry here, but when we come to the
very end of that ministry and we see him in all the agonies
of his soul as he is found in the garden of Gethsemane, And we're told, aren't we, how
there appeared an angel from heaven comforting him. As he agonises in his prayers,
his very sweat has drops of blood falling to the ground, his whole
body bathed. in a bloody sweat, such was the
agony that he was feeling in the depths of his human soul,
and an angel is dispatched from heaven and comes to minister
to him. Oh, the humility. The hymn writer
says, dispatched from heaven, an angel stood, amazed to find
him bathed in blood, adored by angels and obeyed, but lower
now, than angels made. The ministry of the Holy Spirit,
the ministry of the angels. And now really we come to the
ministry of man in a sense. He is preached unto the Gentiles. Preached unto the Gentiles. When
he comes to the end of his life, having made the great sin-atoning
sacrifice, risen again from the dead, before he returns to heaven,
he gives that commission to his disciples, go ye into all the
worlds and preach the gospel to every creature. That commission
is not committed to the angels, it's committed to men. to go forth and to preach that
Word. As the Psalmist says in Psalm
68, the Lord gave the Word. Great was the company of them
that published it. And what does the Apostle say?
The great Apostle Paul, that man who exercised such a remarkable
ministry, as we have it recorded throughout the Acts and all those
churches that were established as a consequence of his preaching.
Writing to the Corinthians he says we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the glory may be of God and not of men. Poor men are those who are to
proclaim this glorious message. We have this wondrous treasure
in these earthen vessels the treasure of the gospel to be
proclaimed unto the ends of the world. And how is this gospel
to be proclaimed? Well, it's not the excellency
of speech or of wisdom. It's not oratory and human reasonings. Remember how Paul describes something
of his own preaching there when he writes in 1 Corinthians chapter
2. the opening verses of that chapter and I brethren when I
came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring
unto you the testimony of God for I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified and
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling
and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing Or as the
margin says, persuadable words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and the power that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. All this ministry then is committed
to the hands of poor, weak men who often times come and stumble
out of word and speak in off sentences. But the Kingdom of
God is not in word. God's Kingdom is in power in
the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Well, let us come to consider
these words that I've read for our text. preached on to the
Gentiles. And I want to deal with some
three headings as we consider the words for a while this evening.
First of all, to say something with regards to the mystery of
preaching, the mystery of preaching, and then in the second place
we'll consider the foolishness of preaching, and then finally
to say something with regards to the authority. of preaching. First of all, the mystery. Great
is the mystery of godliness. Great is the mystery of preaching
unto the Gentiles. There is a mystery here. And
of course, the whole matter of the calling of the Gentiles is
certainly a mystery. Did we not read those words? We've read them many times before
in Ephesians 3 concerning the calling of the Gentiles. That's
what Paul is dealing with there in the first part of that third
chapter of the Ephesian epistle. He was called to be the apostle
to the Gentiles. And what does he say? Well, he speaks of the mystery.
Now that by revelation God made known unto me the mystery. And
then we have that parenthesis through verses, the end of verse
3, verse 4. As I wrote afore in few words
whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ. What is this mystery? Well read,
read from verse 3 following and omit that little bracketed parenthesis. how that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery which in other ages was not made known
unto the sons of men. As it is now revealed unto his
holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles
should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers
of his promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof I was made a
minister according to the gift of the grace of God, he says.
He is speaking quite clearly then of the gospel being preached
not just to the Jew but also to the Gentiles. And there is
something very similar also in those other words that we were
reading at the end of Colossians chapter 1. Remember what he says
there at verse 25? He says, Whereof I am made a
minister according to the dispensation of God which is given me for
you, that is, for the church of Colossae, a Gentile church,
to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid
from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory. How remarkable all of this is. Utterly remarkable, really, that
the Gospel should go to the Gentiles. How was it in the Old Testament?
The great distinction there between Jew and Gentile. Those who were
the physical descendants of Abraham. those who were of Abraham and
Isaac and of Jacob. You only have I known of all
the families of the earth, He says. He showeth His word unto Jacob,
His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt
so with any nation as for His judgments they have not known
when we read at the end of the 147th Psalm. But what is the
point and purpose of all the Old Testament Scriptures? All
the history that we have there in the Old Testament concerning
Israel? All that we read in the Prophets?
What is the point of it? It all points to the advent of
the Lord Jesus Christ and I was taught recently in reading a
sermon And I want to just read an extract
from the sermon concerning this matter of the Jews and the point
and purpose of what God was doing in the Old Testament and what
it is all leading up to. The purpose of divine love towards
the Jews is closely and inseparably connected with the incarnation,
obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we shall
not understand what we have termed the key to their history nor
be able to make any use of it in explaining its details unless
we carry along with us these important facts. The Jews were
often brought apparently to the very brink of destruction and
were repeatedly in danger of being mixed up and confounded
with the surrounding nations. But the providence of God, which
watched over them, said, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in
it, even the blessed seed, who was to be a light to lighten
the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel." The whole
of the Old Testament then is there to bring us to the New
Testament and to him who is the true seed of Abraham, which is
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's completely contrary, of
course, to what the dispensationalists say. The dispensationalists speak
of the church of the New Testament as a sort of afterthought on
the part of God, because the Messiah comes and the Jews do
not receive him. And so God has a second thought,
as it were. And you'll say, sinners of the
Gentiles, but really, ultimately, his great purpose still centers
in Israel. And so at the end of time, Israel
will be converted, as it were, in mass, and the temple will
be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Well, that completely misses
the true significance of what we have in the Old Testament. It's all pointing forward to
the coming of Christ. and that salvation that is to
go out to the ends of the world. And this is the mystery. That
this gospel that centers in Messiah is to be preached onto the Gentiles. Well, that's the great mystery
of the preaching. But there's a mystery also, of
course, when we think of the content. The content of this
message As I say it centers in a person,
it centers in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. But who is Jesus
of Nazareth? He is God manifest in the flesh. He is God and yet he is man. There is all the mystery of the
incarnation. There is all the miracle of the virgin birth. This man is the Lord from heaven. That's the last Adam, isn't it?
The first man is of the earth, earthly. The second man is the
Lord, from heaven. And how he comes, he's conceived
by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin's womb. She's a sinful woman, we
know that. She rejoices in God, her Saviour. And yet, such is the mystery
of what is happening there, that this sinful woman is with child,
but that child is the eternal son of God who is now taking
to himself a human nature that holy thing that holy thing that
shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God it's a
mystery the beginning of his human life what a mystery it
is the content of the message we preach Christ says the apostle
and him crucified the person and the work. And what is the work? It's his
obedience and his obedience unto death, even the death of the
cross. And what a mystery there! What a mystery in his dying!
How could he die? There was no cause of death in
him. The sword that sinneth it shall die. The weight is of sin
is death. He's sinless. He's holy. He's
harmless. He's undefiled. He's separate
from all sinners. How can he die? Well, it's the
mystery of substitutionary atonement. He dies in the place of others. He dies bearing the punishment
of not his own sins, but those sins of his people reckoned to
his account, imputed to him. And how he dies. He is God. God-man. And yet, in dying, oh,
he cries out in all the agony of soul, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? How could he be forsaken? There
could be no division in God, in the Godhead. God is one. God
is undivided. God is indivisible. There is
a mystery, you see, when he dies there upon the cross. The content
of this message All the mystery of the preaching, the calling
of the Gentiles, the preaching of the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and then the outcome of all that preaching,
the conversion of sinners. He's preached on to the Gentiles,
it says. He's believed on in the world. There is something about the
preaching. Faith cometh by preaching, we're told. This is what God
himself has appointed. And you know that tremendous
passage that we have there in the 10th chapter of Romans. Look at the words there at verse
14. O then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed,
and as shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard.
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Verse 17, So then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the words of God. All faith comes. How does faith
come? It comes by the operation of God, we're told in Colossians
2.12. God owns the words. God makes that word that he's
preached to be an effectual word. And here we have this man, the
Apostle Paul. What a preacher is this! He says,
doesn't he, in that passage that we were reading in Ephesians
3, Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and make all men see what is the fellowship
of the mystery. He preaches the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and the intent is to make all men see what is
the fellowship of the mystery. What is the fellowship of the
mystery? Well, we have it in Colossians 1.27, it's Christ
in you. The hope of glory. This is the ministry that Paul
is exercising. the language that he uses in
those passages that we read in Ephesians 3 and the end of Colossians
1 again there in the passage in Ephesians there in chapter
3 at verse 2 he says if you have heard of the dispensation of
the grace of God which is given me to you would He speaks of
the dispensation, and the margin tells us that the word literally
means the administration. You have heard of the administration
of the grace of God. There's the mystery, you see,
of the way in which God works in the souls of men. It's not preaching offers of
grace, but really preaching operations of grace. Paul would do that. how the spirit of God works in
the soul of a man what we might term experiential or experimental
preaching how that word of God that is
being handled and preached is quick and powerful sharper than
the two-edged sword that pierces to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit and of the joints and marrow it's a discerner of
the thoughts and the intents of the hearts And we can read
some of the testimonies of people, and they'll often say, you know,
they're invited to go to some place of worship, and they sit
under the ministry of the Word, and they hear what's being said,
and they come away, and they say, how could that man speak
like that? He was telling me all about myself. He was telling something of those
sins that are taking place in the depths of my soul. These
people, you see, who are under exercise, who are under conviction
and they hear the word and they feel that the preacher is addressing
them in particular as if no one else is there in the congregation
we think of that woman that the Lord deals with in John chapter
4 where he must needs go through Samaria and I like that, he must
needs go through he went through Samaria for a purpose, he would
sit there at the well at Syca and he would speak to that woman
and that woman had a history and the Lord speaks with her
and remember what we're told as she goes back into the town
and she tells him come see a man which told me all things that
ever I did is not this the Christ? You have heard of the administration
of the grace of God, which is given me to you." Christ, the
Prince of all preachers, how he could open up those things
and the woman knew that this was the Christ. You know, it
was said of Martin Luther at times that he would preach as
if he had been in the heart of a man. He would preach as if
he'd been in the heart of a man. Such was the Lord's dealings
with him. that when he preached, people felt there was an authority,
he was saying things, it was almost as if it was the voice
of one of the Old Testament prophets, telling the people all about
themselves. Well, that's the mystery, is
it not, of the preaching. To make the men, the women, to
understand what is the fellowship of the mystery, to be in that
secret, the life of God coming into the soul of a man. There's a mystery then. There's
a mystery here with regards to the preaching, the mystery of
the calling of the Gentiles and it was a mystery. And now it's
stumbled so many of the Jews and I suppose it does until this
very day. The Orthodox Jews are stumbled
by it. That there's a salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ that is for sinners of the Gentiles, there
is the mystery, but then also this mystery of the preaching. But in the second place, to say
something with regards to the foolishness of preaching. We're
told, aren't we, again by the Apostle, the preaching of the
cross is unto them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved it is the power of God. Oh, how discriminating is
the Word of God! To those that believe it's the
power of God! To the unbelievers it's foolishness,
it's foolishness. But Paul says also, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. That expression, the foolishness
of preaching, we need to be careful, it doesn't really refer to the
act of preaching. We might say there's some reference
to that, but principally, it's not a reference to the act, but
to the message that is being proclaimed. That's the foolishness
of preaching. It's the content. It's the content
of the gospel. And we've already made some reference
to that. What is the content? Well, it
concerns this man Jesus of Nazareth. It concerns the mystery of the
incarnation, the miracle of the virgin birth. It concerns a life
that is full of miracles. And then, after his death, the
greatest of all the miracles. It concerns the resurrection.
the resurrection of Christ from the dead. And that was surely
the great message that was being proclaimed by the apostles, the
disciples throughout the Acts of the Apostle. They were forever
preaching the resurrection of Christ. And our men scoffed at it, ridiculed
it. when we see Paul there at Athens
in Acts 17 and all the great philosophers and the Stoics and
the like. Oh, this is some strange God
that he's speaking of. He's preaching Jesus and the
resurrection. Men reject it as foolishness. The word that we have in Isaiah,
Isaiah 59, 15, "...he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey,"
it says. But the margin, interestingly,
gives another rendering, and maybe a more literal rendering
of the Hebrew, "...he that departeth from evil is accounted mad." They said that the Lord Jesus
was mad. And doubtless they say that we're mad, because we believe
this message. The foolishness, you see, the
foolishness of preaching. They account us to be mad people. Out of touch. We don't move with the times. But we know, don't we, the reason
for it. The carnal mind is enmity against God. And it's not subject to the Lord
of God. Neither, indeed, can it be. The carnal mind, that's the natural
mind. The mind that we all possess when we're born into this world.
We have a natural mind, a carnal mind. And that's why we have
to be born again, born of the Spirit. We have to become partakers
of a new nature. If any man is in Christ Jesus,
he's a new creature, a new creation. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him.
Neither can he know them because they are spiritually disturbed. And so the natural man dismisses
preaching as following. The understanding is darkened,
they're alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance
that's in them. Because of the blindness, the
hardness of their hearts, that's their condition. And how foolish
it is of those who profess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and call themselves Christians and say now, well, preaching
his old hat. We don't want that. We've got
to find some new and better way of communicating this message
to men in the early years of the 21st century. No, no. We have to follow what he said
before us in the scriptures and we're to stand in the old paths
and contend for that old way and not to depart from it. In
spite of men rejecting the Word of God and pouring scorn upon
the preaching of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, it pleased
God. It's God's good pleasure to save.
How does God save sinners? By the foolishness of preaching. and that preaching that centers
all together in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ and Him crucified. But then, finally tonight, the
authority of the preaching. The authority of the preaching. Look at what we have at the end
of the verse. preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. The last thing mentioned here
is the ascension of the Lord Jesus. God was manifest in the
flesh. He descended into this world. The very person of the Eternal Son of God took to Himself
a human nature in the womb of the Virgin. But then at the end,
after His resurrection, He ascended into Heaven. He ascended from
whence He had come. But now there's difference, of
course, because now He is clothed in a glorified human body. But that's the order that we
have here. preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. That's the historical order,
isn't it? He gives a commission to his
disciples at the end of the gospel and then after giving the commission
he ascends into heaven. We see quite clearly in the final
verses of Mark's Gospel, for example. There in Mark 16, right at the end of the Gospel,
what do we read? Verse 15, He said unto them,
Go ye into all the worlds and preach the Gospel to every
creature. preached unto the Gentiles, the gospel going to the ends
of the earth. And then right at the end, verse
19, so then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received
up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. And they went
forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and
confirming the word with signs following. Amen. So the Lord gives the commission
in verse 15 and then he is received up into heaven he ascends, that's
the historic order but in a sense the theological order we might
say is somewhat different and we see that really in the
language that we have in Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 4 verse
8 we read of the Ascension. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended
upon high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men, now
that he ascended, what is it, but that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. So here we read of
His ascension. The One who descended, as I said,
He descended into the womb of the Virgin, and there He takes
to Him a human nature, But now we read of him ascending upon
high. When he ascended upon high, he
led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And what are
the gifts? Well, he gives apostles and prophets
and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the perfecting of
the faiths. It's the ascended Christ. It's
the ascended Christ who makes that ministry that he had
committed into the hands of his apostles, makes that ministry
effectual, close that ministry with authority. He is the one
who sends the Holy Spirit, being by the right hand of God, exalted,
having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,
he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear," says Peter
on the day of Pentecost. There is a theological order.
It's the ascended Christ who bestows gifts upon men, who clothes
the Word of God with all authority, all power, all authority is given
to him in heaven and in earth. And so, as the Word is preached,
so it's believed on. Because in the preaching there
is the authority of the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. How shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? We read those words in Romans
10, 14. How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not
heard? It's argued by some that that
word of is quite redundant really. It literally says, how shall
they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? It's not so much in the preaching
that they're hearing of the Lord Jesus, but in that preaching
where He is the sum and substance of it, they're not just hearing
of Him, they're hearing Him. He speaks. He speaks. And how Paul reminds the Ephesians
how he'd come to them and spoken to them. Yes, Paul was there.
Paul was doing the preaching. But he says, Ye have not so learned
Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and been taught by
him, as the truth is in Jesus. The Lord Jesus was never in Ephesus. Yet they heard him. And they
were taught by him. How could that be? Through the preaching. That's
the authority. The Lord owns the preached word. He addresses his people. He addresses
them as his sheep. His sheep hear his voice. They
know him. He knows them. They follow him. He gives to them eternal life,
they shall never perish. He has the authority. It's not
vested in any man. It's not vested in the preacher.
It's here, it's in the words that the preacher is to handle,
and is to be careful therefore rightly to divide the word of
truth, that the people might be hearing the voice of the Lord
Jesus. this is the words that we have in scripture Christ himself
of course is that word incarnate but the scriptures and the Lord
bear one tremendous name and the written and incarnate words
in all things are the same or do we come under the sound of
God's word in the reading of it the preaching of it and come
to hear that voice that speaks with such authority where the
voice of the Kingis, that he is the King of Kings, he is the
Lord of Lords, where the voice of the King is, there is power.
Preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world. Well, the Lord
willing we'll go on to consider the next clause That faith, that
faith that is so necessary, of course, to salvation, to believe
these things. Oh, the Lord God, be pleased
then to bless His truth to us even this day. Amen.