Under his wing, if you will take
your Bibles and turn me back to First Timothy, chapter three.
First Timothy, chapter three. This morning, our text will be
found in verses 15 and 16. The title of the message this
morning. The great mystery. The great. Mystery. Verse 15 says, But if I tarry
long. 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 the
truth. 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. A great mystery. Paul having
declared to this young preacher, Timothy, that he is to preach
no other doctrine than the doctrine of God's grace, of God's mercy
and love that only comes through faith in Jesus Christ. He is told not to bear with those
who teach any other doctrine. any other doctrine. The sound
doctrine of the gospel is found in this one faithful saying. Go back to 1 Timothy 1. And here
is the faithful saying that this man Timothy is charged with,
that he is to preach. And it is this. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. This is a faithful
saying. This is how every preacher of
the gospel is to behave himself in the church of God. This is
how I ought to behave myself in the church of God. Preach
the gospel. Preach the gospel. to faithfully
declare that Christ came into the world, not to save the righteous. He is the great physician, and
only the sick are in need of a physician, not they that are
whole. You see, I didn't come to preach
to righteous, self-righteous people. I came to preach to sinners
the gospel of God's grace. And here it is. It's a faithful
saying. It's worthy of your acceptation. It's worthy of your faith to
believe it. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Sinners. This is how every preacher is
to behave himself, is to preach the good news. This is the good
news of the gospel. This is good news to sinners,
isn't it? You see, am I preaching to sinners? Well, if I am, that's
good news, isn't it? That God Himself came to save
sinners of whom I am chief. Paul says, I'm the chief. Surely
He can save anyone else. Surely He can save the worst
among you because He saved me. Christ Jesus came to save sinners.
To those without hope and righteousness and no atonement in themselves
for their sin, this is good news. This is a great message. People
always talk about positive messages. Friends, there is no more positive
message than this. Christ came to save the most
wicked and vile and hopeless, helpless sinners on the face
of God's earth. The man of God is to preach this. Whom is he to preach it to? Look
at that. How thou mayest behave thyself
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.
Who is he to preach to? Well, sinners. Who are the sinners? The church of God. Those who
are of the church of God, you know what? Only God's people
know who they are. Only God's people know who they
are. Only God's people know what they are by nature. Sinners,
by nature. Sinners in need of great mercy. The church. The church of God. Now, what is the church of God? Let me tell you, it is not this
building. We have a nice building. I'm
thankful for it. I'm thankful for this place that
we can come in out of the weather, and we can enjoy the worship
of God together without being in the rain. It's raining, and
it'd be just miserable, wouldn't it? It'd be outside, and I'd
be trying to preach, and you'd be not just trying to put a poncho
over your head. That's how some men had to preach.
Some men weren't given a building. But I'll tell you what, they
were still preaching to God's church. They were still in the
house of God when they were preaching to God's saints. Church is not
a building. False religion believes the church
is a building. And I'll tell you, their buildings
are just as dead as their false gods. Their buildings are just
as dead. And the people who worship in
them are just as dead as their idols are too. They're just as
dead. They're lifeless. They have no
life. But God says His church is living. His church is living. This is
the church of the living God. And because our God is living,
so is His church a living entity. It's a living thing, a living
thing. Go to first Peter real quick.
Chapter two. First Peter, chapter two. Look at verse. For. First, Peter, chapter two and
verse four, to whom coming, coming to Christ as living as a living
stone. Disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious. This is speaking of Christ. Ye
also are living stones. Are built upon a spiritual house.
A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, also it is contained
in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded." Friends, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of His Church. On Christ Jesus alone rests the
weight of all the Scriptures. The Gospel that His people believe,
is founded alone on Jesus Christ. Founded alone on Him. It holds
all the weight. You see, if Christ is a liar,
the whole Gospel and the whole Word of God is a lie. But we
know this, we who believe, He is the cornerstone, yes, rejected
of men, but precious and said of God. God set Him to be the
cornerstone. of His church, and the foundation
on which this cornerstone is built is the Word of God, the
Word of the Apostles and Prophets. They rest on Him, and we rest
on them. We rest on the Word of God. This
is the sum and substance of our faith, is from the Word of God. You know, you can't separate
the Gospel from Christ. You can't. They're the same. They're the same. The gospel of Jesus Christ, His
church rests on His Word. And throughout the Scriptures,
God has done nothing but testify over and over of His Son, throughout
the Word of God, from the beginning. You know, I can preach the Gospel
from Genesis 1-1. I can preach the Gospel. I can
show you Christ in the beginning. I can show you that. We've preached
there many times before. But God testified of His Son
all the way through the Scriptures. And so He is the cornerstone. And believer, we are a living
church that worship a living Savior. We praise God for the death and
burial of our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise God for His righteous
life and His righteous death. We praise God that He has taken
away our sins. But when he was put in the tomb,
that was not it. He rose again from the dead. And we serve a living Savior. We're not here to worship some
ideal or principle. We are here to worship a person,
a living person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is alive. And because
He lives, we live. Because He's alive, we're alive. And because he's seated on the
throne of God, we are accepted of God in him. We are a living church. We believe in a living gospel. This Gospel is alive. The Word
of God says that the Scripture is powerful. It's a living and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. The Word of
God is living. It's alive. You know, God sends this Word
wherever He wills and saves whom He wills with it. Nothing but a living Word could
do that. See, the Spirit gives life to
the Word. And He gives it to us. He gives
life to us. Now, this salvation, this gospel
message that His church believes, it is from the living God and
it is the pillar and ground of all truth. There is no truth
apart from this Word. Anything that is opposed to the
Word of God is a lie. And all truth stems from God through His Word. The only thing I know about salvation,
the only thing I know about God, the only thing I know about hope,
Forgiveness and pardon is found in God's Word. And the scripture
says, let God be true and every man a liar. Why? How can we believe this and accept
this so readily? How is it that we know this to
be the truth? Acts chapter 15 verse 18 says,
Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.
You see, I know this is true because God is truth. God has
known the work of salvation from the beginning. You see, He's
not making it up as He goes along. Who does that? Who makes things
up if you go along? Sometimes you just kind of wing
it, don't you? Where does that get us? It usually
gets us in trouble when we wing it. God doesn't do that. This matter of salvation is something
God has known from eternity. Something God has purposed and
planned and accomplished. And no doubt will bring it to
pass. It is God's purpose to save a
people that He chose from eternity. That's God's purpose. And known
unto God is that work from all eternity. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified,
all of which are in past tense." Now, some of you are getting
on in years, but I know you weren't there when they wrote this. I know you weren't there when
Paul wrote this. Guess what? Paul wasn't there
when God wrote it. in eternity. God knew it. He
had already purposed to save whom He would save. He had already
called them. He had already chosen them, redeemed
them in Christ according to His own purpose. And no part of salvation
belongs to any of the elect of God. No part. No part of our
salvation belongs to us. It is the work God and it is
known only unto God from all eternity. This salvation of God, when God
created Adam, did Adam know of the grace of God when he was
made? Did he know anything of the grace of God in salvation? No. The only thing he knew was
his obedience. He knew this, that his salvation
depended upon his obedience. And it was only after Adam fell
that God manifest, God revealed His original eternal plan of
salvation in the person and work of His Son. The seed of the woman
shall crush the head of the serpent. And then he killed that animal
to give them a visual type of how it is that Christ would come
and redeem his people. You see, God, this wasn't plan
B. Our salvation by grace is not
plan B. It's always been plan A. But
if Adam didn't know it in his original state, how much less
does man know it now being dead in trespasses and sins? All men by nature are born in
darkness and without understanding of this truth. And all men by nature, to them the gospel is a great
mystery. Look at our text. Without controversy. Paul says, I'm not going to debate
this with you. This is just the plain facts
of the matter. Here it is. Great is the mystery
of godliness, righteousness, salvation. Great is the mystery
of salvation. Here's the mystery of the gospel.
I'm going to put it to you as Job did. I know it is so of a
truth, but how should man be just with God? Is that not the
mystery of salvation? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? If a man can answer that question,
if a man can truly know the answer to that question, He has been
given the answer to the greatest mystery that has plagued mankind
from the beginning. How it is that God could be just
and justify the ungodly. This is why the scripture in
many places refers to the gospel as a mystery. As a mystery. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look at verse 6. Howbeit we speak wisdom among
them that are mature. Yet not the wisdom of this world,
nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught. But we speak
the wisdom of God. What? A mystery. A mystery. Even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. Hidden mystery. The wisdom of
this world and the lie of false religion is that the gospel is
easily understood. That's the lie. Is that any man
could by his own wisdom know the gospel. That if a man just apply himself,
If you just pick up the Bible and start reading yourself, you
will be able to come to the wisdom of God. You'll be able to understand
salvation if you just read it all yourself. You don't need
anybody to tell it to you or preach it to you. Just take it
yourself. We'll have some educational classes, and then at the end,
you can make a decision for Jesus, because it's so easy. It's not
a mystery. Paul said, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. But see, to false religion, it's
not so big a mystery. If you will just do this, if
you will just do this, then you can understand the great mystery.
Be baptized, join the church, follow the law as best you can,
and then you'll know the mystery. No. No. Man, by wisdom, by earthly
wisdom cannot know God. Now, you can be educated in Calvinism. You can take a course, go to
seminary, and you can get a lot of courses on Calvinism if you
want to, and you could be up to date on all that Calvin said
and Luther said, and you can be up to date on all these theological
terminologies and things, but you can still have not a clue
about this mystery. You can be just as blind as someone
in Arminianism. You see, you can't understand
the gospel by natural understanding. It must be given by the Spirit
of God. God must reveal this mystery.
How is this mystery revealed? Only by the revelation of God. Look at 1 Corinthians 2 and verse
14. Down a couple of verses. But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. Lost men cannot know
the gospel because they are depraved. They're dead. This morning, if
you don't understand the gospel, it's because you're dead. You're
dead. You have no life. And friends, I freely declare
unto you Jesus Christ, named crucified. I declare that God
in grace has chosen a people, appointed the time for Christ
to come. He came and redeemed them. And I say, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Without hesitation. All who believe on Christ shall
be saved. But this faith in Christ is not
something natural. It's not something you can generate
in yourself. It is something that God must
give you Himself. He must reveal this to you. The Holy Spirit must come and
resurrect a soul, not give an education. Friends, we don't have discussion
groups for a reason. I'm not here to discuss anything.
I'm just here to declare something. I'm here to declare what God
says. You cannot know God unless God reveals Himself to you. And
we who know God know this to be true. The gospel we sat under
for years was a mystery. We had no interest in it. There
was no love for it. But now, that we've been given
life, we want it! We know it! And we understand it. Because
of revelation. He revealed it to us. You see,
man only knows the things of man. He can't know the things
of God. Only the Spirit knows the things
of God. And only by the Spirit is anyone ever made aware or
know the answer to the question of the ages. How can God be just
and justify the ungodly? To you who know, it's simple.
To you who know, it is plain. But we know this. I can't make
anyone understand it. I can't make anyone see it. I
can tell it to you. I can try to make it as plain
as I possibly can. But that's not going to reveal
it to you. You need God. You need God Himself to reach
His hand down from heaven and perform a miracle of resurrection. See, salvation is not something
that's easy. It's something that takes the
power of God. It takes the power of God for
us to know the gospel. It is a sovereign act of God
to reveal his eternal purpose. We who have been made sensible
of our need of salvation, we who have seen the holiness and
wrath of God against sin, we have turned to Christ alone because
of the great grace of God to reveal it to us. There was no
other way that we would ever know the gospel. The mystery of the gospel is
this. The answer to this mystery is
only, there's only one answer. That's good. I don't like multiple
choice. I like when the answer is given.
Don't you? When God comes in the power of
his spirit, he gives us only one answer to the question of
salvation, the mystery of salvation. The answer is Jesus Christ. The
answer is Jesus Christ alone. Only in the person and work of
Christ is the mystery of godliness revealed. Without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. This is a great mystery that
is not to be argued or debated, but just declared, not to be
understood by natural wisdom, but by the revelation of God.
Salvation comes only by the God-man mediator, Jesus Christ, and no
other. No other. He who is the eternal Son of
God came to be a man. And this is vital to our faith.
This is vital to our salvation. It's vital to our understanding
of the mystery of the Gospel. How that God can be just and
justify the ungodly. Because it was man that brought
sin into the world. It was man that by man sin entered
into the world. And death by sin. So death passed
upon all men. Therefore, even so, it must be
by man that righteousness come. It must be by man that sin is
atoned for. This is why the Almighty God
came to be a man. And Jesus Christ was just as
much a man as we are. He was God. He is God of very God. Divine
in all His attributes, but He was also man of very man. He
hurt, He suffered just like we do, only without sin. You know, when something happens
to you and you deserve it, you know, well, it doesn't, you know,
I did it, I deserve something like that. He never deserved
anything. He never deserved any mistreatment
or pain. And yet He bore all of it as a man, so that He might provide
the righteousness of God for us. You see, there was no part
of this that was us. We could not provide for ourselves. We could not provide the righteousness
we needed. But it must be a man that provides
it. We could not atone for our sins. Though we spent ten million
eternities in hell, we could not pay for one of our sins.
But Christ, after He had offered Himself once, once perfected
us forever. And it's only by this God-man
that God is revealed. You could not know God but by
Christ. You can't see God but by Christ.
You can't know the nature of God but by Christ. Why is it that men hated Him
so much? If He went around doing good, you figure men, they were
really just kind of like Him, you know? This guy's healing
people. This guy's doing good. Listen to what He says. He sounds
so wonderful. Why is it that men hated Him?
Because he did nothing wrong. I'll tell you what, when I was
a kid, you'd be around a person that is always a do-gooder and
looks better than you. You don't want to be around him,
do you? You're always mad at that guy
because he's telling on you all the time. My kids don't like
it. Yeah, he tattles. Well, he didn't
do anything wrong. You did! You're trying to blame
him. Don't blame him. Just because
he told on you? But imagine Christ being perfect
in everything. He was perfect in everything
and because He was, men's sins were revealed. They were exposed. They were exposed. The natural
man can't stand that, to be exposed. He said, if I had not come, they
had not known sin. They had not known their sin.
They had not known the holy nature of God. You don't know the holy
nature of God unless you know Christ. Do you know Christ? I
didn't say, did you know about Christ? I said, do you know Christ?
Has He revealed Himself to you? Only then can you know the holiness
of God in your sinful condition. And I'll tell you what, we didn't
know sin until we'd seen the cross. You know, Mount Sinai
was nothing compared to the cross. Nothing. It's in the cross we see the
justice of God revealed. We see how God views all sin. That even when He found sin in
His most beloved and precious Son, He still executed justice. That's how strict God is in justice. You'd not known that had you
not seen the cross. You'd not known that you'd been
accepted. had Christ not rise from the
dead. You know what? If He was still
on the ground, none of us would be sure of anything. We'd have
no assurance at all. Did God accept Him or didn't
He? I don't know. He's still dead. No, He's alive. God accepted Him. He accepted
His one offering. And by His resurrection, we know
this, we are accepted in Him. We are accepted in Him. Jesus Christ was God manifest
in the flesh. And no man can know God but to
know Christ. Jesus said, No man can come unto
Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. And I will
raise him up at the last day as it is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me."
You see, this is a spiritual education. Being born again is
a spiritual matter. And all who are born again are
taught, of men, but of God. You see, you who believe, you
testify to what I'm saying because you've been taught of God. Not
me. I'm just declaring something that you know. You know the mystery
of godliness. You know that it is in Christ
alone you are saved. How did you know that? The same
way I know that. God taught me. God taught me. You see, if I teach you and you
are learning of me, then somebody else come along smarter than
I am and teach you something different. But if you're taught
of God, you'll go nowhere else. You'll go nowhere else but where
the truth is preached. You'll accept no other doctrine
but this. And this mystery is to be preached. In the portals of eternity, God
chose a people for himself, unknown to anybody but God. In time, God revealed a little
more concerning this matter of salvation, the salvation of His
elect. He brought in pictures and types
and shadows and things like that. But now, the day is dawn. Christ is fully revealed. That which was in types and shadows
is now made open and clear. And we believe it because God
by grace has saved us and revealed the mystery of salvation, even
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Preach it. Declare it. This is the responsibility of
everyone who knows it. To declare it. This message is
preached on. This message is to be preached. How many of you who witness are
at times frustrated? I mean, you lay it out there.
It's one, two, three. To you, it is plain. It's simple. You have light. You have understanding. And they look at you with this
questioning look. Like, what in the world is this
person talking about? This person has lost his mind. He is nuts. Don't be angry at them. They just don't understand the
mystery. To them, it's a mystery. to them
is foolishness. You mean salvation's free? I
don't have to do anything for it? I have no part in it? Nope. Well, that just don't make
any sense. Surely I've got to do something.
Surely I've got to add something to the work of Christ. Surely
He didn't do everything. Believe on Him. Well, I'm just
not going to do that. I think that you have to make
your decision. I think He made it possible, but you really have
to exercise your will. I think He made it possible,
but you just need to be baptized. You have to do that. No. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Christ said, it is finished.
The work is accomplished. Rest in me. Trust in me. Well,
surely I have to obey the law and do all these good things.
No. No. God will work in you His will
and good pleasure. All those good works, He's ordained
that you do them, but none of them count. None of them count. Huh? Man, that don't make any
sense. Does to me. Does to me. Does it to you? If it does, it's
by grace. It's by grace that you understand
the mystery. And if they ever understand the
mystery, it'll be by grace. Not because you explained it
well enough. I pray that God blesses to your
heart. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed in prayer.