I invite your attention to 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. We are blessed to be here tonight. For the past few weeks we've
been blessed to travel over 1,000 miles a week. just the two of us, and we're
blessed to be here tonight. And then we're going to go spend
a few days with our children and our grandchildren, and then
I'll return to St. Croix, God willing, on Thursday.
We appreciate your friendship, fellowship, and all your kindnesses
to us for these many years. 1984 was the first time I came
here, 35 years ago. And you've been so kind to us,
and we appreciate every kindness, every generosity, and your fellowship. And we're blessed to be here
with you tonight. My text is in verse number 16. I'm gonna speak to you, God willing,
on the subject of God was manifested in the flesh. But I'm going to
begin reading in 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse number 14. Paul says, these things I write
to you. You may ask, well, what things
does he refer to? Well, if you look back in chapter
2, he dealt with prayers being offered. In verse 8, he deals
with men leading the church in prayer. He deals in verse number
9 and the verses following with women in their apparel and conduct
in the worship services. In chapter 3, verses 1 through
7, he deals with the conduct of the bishop or the overseer
of the church. in verse 8 of chapter 3 he deals
with deacons and their conduct and then in verse 11 of chapter
3 he deals with the wives of deacons in their conduct and
Then he says in verse 14, these things, what he had just written,
I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly, but if
I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to
conduct yourself in the house of God. That's what he has just
described, how we ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God.
He identifies the house of God as the church of the living God
and he identifies this house and this church as the pillar
and ground of the truth and then we come to my text and without
controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested
in the flesh justified in the spirit seen by angels, preached
among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up
in glory. The first point that I would
have you to note by means of introduction is the fact that
our text begins with that conjunction and. Verse 16 is vitally connected
to verse number 15. Verse 15 ended with the statement
regarding the truth. Verse 16 speaks about the truth
and describes it as the mystery of godliness. This truth is Jesus
Christ. He is the very embodiment of
truth. He says, I am the truth. He's full of truth. In him is
nothing but truth. In him is no lie. No deceit was
found on his lips. No guile was found in his heart. He is truth, pure truth, and
unadulterated truth. And in this truth that the church
upholds, there is a mystery. It is the mystery of godliness.
This mystery, what does it mean? This word mystery means a truth
formerly concealed but now revealed. This mystery is not a whodunit
in the modern sense of that word mystery. We know what was done
and we know who did it. And it is revealed unto us, great
is the mystery. This is a truth that was formerly
concealed, but now revealed. Paul wrote of the mystery which
has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has
been revealed to his saints. There was a great mystery regarding
Jesus Christ in Old Testament times. Even the prophets searched
their own writings, the scriptures declared to us, in order to learn
something of what it was that they wrote. And you can understand,
perhaps, they knew that when Messiah came, he would be a king,
he would be glorious. But you can imagine that day
when the Lord told Isaiah to take his pen and quill and take
a piece of parchment. I've got something for you to
write. And you're going to be writing about Messiah. You're
going to be writing about the Lord when he comes. And you can
imagine the thought that was going through Isaiah's mind when
when he reads or when he is told, inspired by the Spirit, that
Messiah shall be stricken and smitten and afflicted by God. And you can imagine he perhaps
lifts his eyes and that's what you want me to write. Yes, write
it, write it. Messiah will be stricken and
smitten and afflicted by God. Yes, write it. You can imagine
how that Isaiah must look down at the page and the words he's
written and say, well, this is very mysterious to me. How can
this be? And he did not understand. The
prophets searched their own writings trying to discern, what is it
I just wrote? It's mysterious to me. but this
mystery is now revealed. We understand, we should understand
quite perfectly this mystery that was hidden in ages in the
past. Paul wrote of the revelation
of the mystery which has been kept secret since the world began
but now has been made manifest. He dealt with a number of these
mysteries but We're going to look at just this one tonight,
this mystery of godliness. What is this mystery of godliness? It is not the godliness of conduct
of members. Paul has just written concerning
the conduct of men and women and overseers and deacons and
their wives. This is not their godliness. This is the godliness of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This Godliness is Jesus Christ
himself. We find that in this mystery
of godliness there are six points and they are that God was manifested
in the flesh. God was justified in the spirit. God was seen by angels. God was preached among the Gentiles. God was believed on in the world,
and God was received up in glory. At the first reading of some
of that, you may say, yeah, that is a little mysterious. But Paul
has let us know that this mystery is here said to be great. That
should not surprise us. The Greek word here, great, is
megas, M-E-G-A-S. You know of something that is
a mega mystery? Now this is the mega mystery. This is the great mystery. This
mystery is so great that people do not understand it. People
outside the walls of this building, people in the world, you can
read this to them and say, I got no idea what that means. That
is as it should be. It has not been revealed to them.
But to us, to whom this mystery has been revealed, it makes good
sense once you understand what it is. It took a great deal of
revelation. It is a mega-mystery. You do
not understand it apart from divine aid. and considerable
amount of divine aid is required. Paul says that this mystery of
godliness is without controversy. Well, out there it is. It is
very controversial out there, but in here, there's no controversy
about this, is there not? Without controversy, it is interesting
that that there is a sect identifying themselves as the witnesses of
Jehovah, and you read this statement to them that God was manifested
in the flesh, and they say, impossible, cannot be. It's a controversy
to them, which just lets us know that they are not what Paul here
describes as the house of God, the church of God, the pillar
and ground of the truth. But to us, to whom this revelation
has been given, This mystery has been revealed. We look at
it and we say, there's no controversy about this. I can come to you
from hundreds of miles to the southeast. I can walk into your
pulpit tonight and talk about this controversy and I can We
can believe this down in the Virgin Islands and preach it
to you, and you say, well, there's no controversy here. We believe
it just like you do. That's the way it is when God
has revealed this mystery to you. Great is this mystery of
godliness. I'm going to briefly describe
the points of this mystery, and then I'm gonna come back to the
first point, that God was manifested in the flesh. He was justified
in the spirit. God being manifested in the flesh
denotes his humanity, and God being justified in the spirit
denotes his deity. This is the God-man. This is
God manifested in the flesh. You may ask, well now, why would
God have to be justified? It's not because he sinned. It's
not because he had sinned. Rather, he had to be vindicated.
Blasphemous charges were made against Jesus Christ. When he
said, I and my father are one, they took up stones to stone
him to death. He was vindicated. That's what
the word justified means. He was vindicated in the spirit
of what he did. His words vindicated him. Men sent to arrest him said,
no man ever spoke like this man. This is no ordinary man. God
vindicated him when God boomed from heaven and said, this is
my son in whom I am well pleased, hear him. Men vilified him, God
justified him. He was seen by angels, seen by
angels from the time they were created. Seen by angels on the
day when he laid aside his heavenly glory, seen by angels when he
was conceived in the womb of a virgin, an angel was sent to
both the mother and her husband to explain what had happened.
Seen by angels on the day he was born, when the angels witnessed
it and then went and told the shepherds, today is born to you
in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Seen
by angels evidently during every step he took, Satan said, cast
yourself off this pinnacle. It is written that God will give
his angels charge over you. Angels were attending Jesus Christ
every step he took. Angels were there when he was
crucified. He said I could call for right
now twelve legions of angels and they would come and ready
they were all around him. Men could not see them but he
could and they saw him seen by angels preached among the Gentiles. He did not have to be preached
to the angels. They knew. They saw the truth
concerning him. They knew and saw the truth concerning
God manifested in the flesh, but this had to be preached among
the Gentiles who were farthest from God. He was believed on
in the world. Think about it. God has followers
on the seven continents and the islands of the seven seas. Jews
and Gentiles alike have believed in him and received up in glory,
received up in glory. What a day that was. Those angels
who were there when he was crucified, beholding men who maltreated
him, beheld him as they crucified him. beheld his lifeless body
being laid into a tomb. Must have been some great degree
of joy when they saw him rise from that tomb. Had to have been
some great relief when they witnessed him walking upon this earth for
40 days after his resurrection. They watched him. And then on
that 40th day following his resurrection, God said, go fetch my son. And the angels went down. We're
told that Jesus was walking with his apostles and angels appeared
unto them and Jesus began to ascend into the heavens and a
cloud Evidently a cloud of angels had been sent to fetch him and
fetch him they did They escorted to Jesus the glory the psalm
the psalmist declares that that as he ascended in the glory They
said open up ye gates the Lord of glory is coming in and the
and that gates of heaven were opened you can imagine the reception
in heaven when God the Father received his son and when the
angels rejoiced when they saw him taking his throne. You can
imagine the reception that was given by the 24 elders, the church
in aggregate around God's throne, the saints, Elijah and Moses
and the prophets and the kings and all the rest of the followers
of King Jesus welcoming him home. What a reception that must have
been. Oh, that we would receive him
like that now. But I want to go to that first
point. God was manifested in the flesh. Folks, that is stupendous. That is awesome. That is glorious. That is beyond mortal comprehension
unless the mystery has been revealed to you. God was manifested in
the flesh. God, who is pure spirit and cannot
be seen. The God who cannot be seen was
seen. Sounds contradictory, doesn't
it? It does, unless this mystery has been revealed to you. God
was manifested. John writes of this in the introduction
to his gospel. He says that in the beginning
was the Word and the Word was God and the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us. God was manifested in the person
of Jesus Christ. God himself laid aside his heavenly
glory and came to this earth and took on our humanity. God was seen. coming from the
womb of a virgin. God was seen nursing on her breasts. God was seen being raised in
the home of a carpenter. God was seen in the temple at
the age of 12 talking with the elders in Jerusalem. God was
seen healing the sick. God was seen preaching the gospel. God was seen teaching the multitudes,
performing miracles. God was manifested in the flesh. What a thought. God was manifested
in the flesh. Rightly is he named Emmanuel. The word literal means with us
is God. The last two letters, L, that's
God's name, the great one. With us is God. If Christ is
with you, God is with you. For his very name is God with
us. We find many proofs of his deity. We find many proofs God being
manifested in the flesh when you consider the life of Jesus
Christ upon this earth Take a look at him Look at him. He's got
a body It's a body just like yours and
mine folks it is a body in which There is blood bone flesh sinew
It is a body that has a heart and lungs and organs just like
yours and mine. He has taken on our humanity. God is walking on this earth
in the person of Jesus Christ in a body just like yours and
mine. Except it had divine ability. You would
expect that. This is God manifested in the
flesh. This is not Moose Parks manifested
in the flesh. This is God manifested in the
flesh. He therefore does things that
you and I cannot do. Take a look at his body for just
a moment. Look at his hands. His hands. They're just like yours and mine,
except that They probably had more calluses upon them. He was
a working man, son of a carpenter, evidently made furniture, built
this, built that. He had calloused hands. He knew
the roughness of work. And just look at, but other than,
his hands are just like yours and mine, except that his hands
had divine ability. He could touch a leper and not
become unclean. No other mortal could do that.
Lepers were untouchables. You dared not touch a leper.
It was a moral uncleanness, but the moment you touch the leper,
you became as unclean as the leper. Jesus walked up to lepers
and touched them and was never defiled. His hands, human hands,
divine ability to not be defiled by coming in contact with leprous
sinners like you and me. He could cure people with his
hands. He walks into the house, Peter's
house. His mother-in-law was there sick
with the fever and Jesus just walked over and touched her and
the fever went away. Can you do that? No. But then
again, you're not God manifested in the flesh. Your hands are
not his hands. With just a mere touch of his
hands, he could make the fever go away. He could restore sight
to the blind. He could restore an ear that
had been cut off, as he did with Marcus, the servant of the priest. Someone took a sword and Went
for the man's head, caught his ear, cut it right off. Jesus
picked up the ear, put it back on. Folks, his hands look just
like mine. His hands are just like mine.
But he had power that we do not have because he is God, manifested
in the flesh. He came to restore people. He came to cure them of their
fever. He came to restore the sight
to the blind. He looks one day. There are thousands
of people around him. And they're hungry. He says,
let's feed them. And I, Lord, all we have are
a couple of pieces of bread and a couple of fish. I bring it
to me. Lord, there are thousands of people out here. I know, bring
me the couple of pieces of bread and a couple of pieces of fish.
Bring them to me. They bring them. He takes that
piece of bread, breaks it in half, puts it into a basket,
and the half becomes a piece big enough to satisfy the hunger
of a grown man, and he still has a whole piece in his hand.
He breaks it in half, puts the broken half into the basket.
It is enough to feed and satisfy the hunger of a grown man, and
he still has a whole piece in his hand. He breaks, he breaks,
he breaks a few thousand times. He breaks and from a couple of
pieces of bread and a couple of pieces of fish he's fed the
thousands and then he said go gather up the fragments because
there was some left over. Now can you do that with your
hands? No, but then again you're not God manifested in the flesh.
His hands were human hands with divine ability. His feet were
human feet, just like yours and mine, probably had more calluses
on them because he walked in sandals or barefoot. Ordinary feet, they look like
yours, they look like mine, except that his feet could walk on the
water in the middle of a tempestuous storm. His disciples saw it, and they
thought they had seen an apparition or a ghost. No, it is me. It is I. I have come. You're
walking on the water? Yes. Must be God manifested in
the flesh, for none of us can do that. He could. He could walk
anywhere he wanted to. He had that divine ability. His
eyes were human eyes. Just like yours and mine. Probably
brown in color. His eyes were human eyes, but
they had divine ability. He had the omnipresent ability
to see a man in a far off place sitting under a fig tree. He's
out of sight to you and me, but not to Jesus. Jesus is talking
with a man and the man is thoroughly impressed. We have found Messiah. He goes miles away. there is
his friend sitting under a fig tree and he tells him we have
found him we have found him of whom the prophet spoke and so
this man gets up from underneath the fig tree having been told
comes down to Jesus and Jesus said haha I saw you when you
were sitting under the fig tree and How could you? That was many
miles away. I saw you. How could he see? These eyes were human eyes, but
they had divine ability. He had the omniscient ability
to look into men's hearts and know their thoughts. That's scary. My wife says she can know my
thoughts. I'm convinced sometimes she does.
I'm glad she does not know them all. I'm glad none of you do,
and I don't want to know your thoughts. But he knows. He knows. We may speak words to someone
of one nature, and our thoughts concerning that one are completely
different. I might fool you and you might
fool me, but none of us fools him. His eyes look right into
your heart when you speak with him. He knows what's in your
heart. Human eyes with divine ability. There's a woman, he speaks with
her one day by the well in Samaria. First time he ever saw him. and
he tells her all her history. Told her of present circumstance,
how many times she'd been married. He knew it all. She goes back
into the town and said, come see a man who told me everything
I ever did. How could he do that? human eyes,
but divine ability. This is God manifested in the
flesh. His ears were human ears, just
like yours and mine, but they had divine ability. He could
hear people in their private conversations when they were
out of earshot of him. His ears could still hear. He
hears every conversation going on. We will be going tonight
to our separate homes, some of us many miles away. He'll be
listening to every conversation that every one of us will be
having. His ears have that ability. His ears had that ability when
he was here on this earth. He can hear the prayers of his
people, though they be many miles away. He can bend his ear from
heaven's throne and hear the prayer of all the thousands and
thousands of his people, though they pray at one time, he hears
them all. These ears are human ears with
divine ability. He may be seated there on his
throne and he may say, I must go. Where are you going? I just
heard one of my sheep that is lost. I've heard the sheep crying
for help. I'm going to get it. He hears
his sheep crying, though they be many miles away. His ears
are human ears with divine ability. He hears things that you and
I do not hear, but then again, you and I are not God manifested
in the flesh. His mouth was a human mouth,
but it had divine and omnipotent ability. Through the power of
his words, he pronounced the man forgiven of his sins, a deed
which only God can do. He told a bedridden paralytic
to rise up and walk. He cleansed the leper by simply
telling the leper, you are cleansed. Deaf and speech impaired men
both heard and spoke well when Jesus spoke to them. Demons were
driven from those whom they had possessed and oppressed by the
mere word from his mouth. Dead people, dead people, lying in their beds and lifeless,
would rise up in life when he would say, arise Lazarus in his
tomb dead for three days by now he stinks Jesus is Lazarus come
forth and he comes he comes those are the words of Jesus Christ
he speaks to dead sinners like you and me and we live he speaks
to paralytics like you and me and we come He speaks to lepers
like you and me and we are cleansed because he's God manifested in
the flesh. Human words from a human mouth
with divine ability. But I close with one more. I
believe this is the most glorious. His body was a human body. but
divine power was in it. A human body. He walks through
a village and a woman says, if I can but touch the hem of his
garment, I'll be cleansed. Spent all her livelihood on worthless
possessions. None of them could help her.
If I can but touch the hem of his garment, there's a press
of people many have gathered Jesus is walking through the
village and this woman very timidly comes up and just touches the
hem of his garment from behind as he walks by and he stopped
and turned around he said who touched me? His disciples said
who touched you? Everybody's touched you. Look,
you're having contact with everyone here. He says, no, no, no, no,
no. Someone touched me, and I felt the power leave my body. What
kind of power is that? No one ever touched me and was
healed by my power. But then again, I am not God
manifested in the flesh. There was power in that body,
a power that could heal people and greatly reward them for their
faith in him but there was something else in that body something else
in that body it was blood in that body blood like yours and
mine when they plowed his back asunder
with that cat of nine tails. In the barracks of the Roman
soldiers, blood like yours and mine flowed from his back. When
they crushed that crown of thorns into his holy brow, blood flowed
from it, blood like yours and mine. When they plucked the beard
from his face, Blood gushed forth, blood like yours and mine. When
they nailed his hands to the tree, blood flowed forth, blood
like yours and mine. Did the same to his feet. When
that soldier took that spear and drove it into the side of
Jesus Christ, out flowed blood and water. Blood from a heart
just like yours and mine. It was human blood, folks. It
was human blood. But it had divine ability. Paul exhorts preachers to shepherd
the church of God. the flock of God, which is the
church of God, which he purchased, notice, which God purchased. Preach to God's church, the church
that God purchased with God's own blood. Whenever did God have
blood? God is not flesh and blood, but
he is in the person of Jesus Christ. That blood that flowed
from Calvary's cross is the blood of the God, man, Jesus Christ,
God manifested in the flesh. Blood that looked like yours
and mine, common ordinary blood, it looked like it, but that was
the blood that redeemed God's people. That was the blood that
washed them from their sins. That was the blood that made
propitiation before God. That was the blood that justified
them, sanctified them, cleansed them, healed them. This is the
blood of God manifested in the flesh. What a stupendous thought. How glorious, how awesome. And I hope that with every one
of us here tonight, it is without controversy. Let there be no
controversy about this, folks. God was manifested in the flesh,
and because of that, justified in the spirit, seen
by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the
world and received up in glory and may he be received this night.