1 Timothy chapter 3. Now, Henry,
you're going to think that I copied this down, what you said, and
studied, but I didn't. I already had it written down. My opening comments, Brother
Henry practically quoted them. and utter foolishness the way
our religious generation talks about the simple plan of salvation. Complete and utter foolishness.
The simple plan of salvation. God calls what God calls nearly
two dozen times a mystery. This religious world has it simplified
in four or five easy steps. It's a mark of a fool to pretend
to know everything about anything. And it's the mark of an unregenerate
heart to profess to know anything, or much of anything, about God. That's what we studied last Sunday
morning, remember? No man knoweth. No man knoweth
the Father save the Son. And no man knoweth sons, they
the father, and he to whom the son will reveal him, and vice
versa." That's a mark of an unregenerate heart to profess to know much
of anything about God. Now when Paul, when we say with
Paul over there in 2 Corinthians 11, 3, Paul talks about the simplicity
that's in Christ, you know the verse. The simplicity that's
in Christ, he feared, blessed Satan by his subtlety, how he
would beguile us and confuse us and so forth from the simplicity
that's in Christ. What we're saying there, what
Paul is saying there, he's saying the conclusion of the matter
of salvation is that it's all in Christ. It's simply, that's
what you were saying, it's simply, it's simply put, it's in Christ.
Simply put. Far from being simple. When you
say that, you said a mouthful. In Christ. In him dwelleth all
the fulness of Godhead bodily." That's a mouthful. Explain that. But it's a simple statement. That's what Paul said. Simplicity
that's in Christ. The singularity of how salvation
is singularly in one place, one way, one truth, one faith, one
Lord, one gospel, and so forth. It's a simple statement, but
it's a profound mystery. And the minute you hear a man
say this, any of these statements. Well, this is how to be saved.
Write him off. Well, I got a book here, how
to be born again. Don't send for it. This is what you need to do in
order to stop right there. I want to preach to you the simple
gospel. Oh, wait a minute. What do you
mean by that? You see, this whole thing is
in the infinitely wise, eternal, unfathomably deep mind and will
of God Almighty. And it's completely in his own
sovereign power and his discretion. And our text here in verse 16
says, without controversy, without argument, without further ado,
it is a great mystery. First Timothy 3, 16, a great
mystery, and it's without controversy. I heard a tale of a man one time
who was going to preach in a church he'd never preached at before,
and a pastor was getting a little worried, and he said, let's preach
something that's not controversial. The fellow took this as a task. Without controversy, gray is
the mystery of Godliness. It's a great mystery. from any
reason, but I wrote this down. It's great because it's about
the great one. It's about the great God in heaven.
Listen, think about this. Scripture says, Christ said,
God has hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babes, right? It says that out of the mouths
of babes and sucklings, Christ said this, he has perfected praise. It's quoted two or three different
ways. Christ said that. He said, Out of the mouths of
babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. Perfected praise. You remember this childhood song?
Or no, it's a prayer, isn't it? Childhood prayer that starts
out like this. God is great. God is good. So much span on that first line.
We pass that off as being very simplistic, don't we? God is
great. Let's stop right there. Oh, expound
on that, will you? The greatness of God. Out of
the mouths of babes and sucklings, thou hast perfected praise. I don't hear much of that from
the average adult so-called Christian, do you? God is great. I hear
about the greatness of man. little babies start out saying
it like it ought to be said, don't they? God is great, and
only God is good, not me. And we ought to thank him for
our food, shouldn't we? It's great because it's about
God. It's great because it's about God's dealings with man.
Oh, how great it is. Great mercy. Great grace. Great condescension. It's about
God's dealings with man is concerning man, and what a great mystery,
because look at this. The guy starts out, he says,
it's a mystery of godliness, or that which pertaineth to God,
because God was manifest in the flesh. God became a man. This right
here is where I'd like to just sit down. Let's just all just
quietly ponder this for a minute. God was manifest in the flesh. David said this, he said, when
he got to thinking about man, that's what Brother Ed prayed,
David said, what is man that God would even think on him?
What is this pile of worms wriggling maggots writhing around on the
earth that God should even think about it. God would pause to
even think about it. Why didn't he destroy this thing
a long time ago? What is man that thou art mindful
of him? Here's the wonder of our wonders.
That that great God of heaven, it's a wonder of wonders that
he even thinks upon man, but especially in our sinful state.
I looked at man that was creating his own image, Adam. He said
that's good, he could have fellowship with man in such a high state.
But once man became an animal, and that's what man is right
now, an animal. Bunyan said with apologies to
the beasts. Animals don't pollute the environment.
Animals don't eat more than they need. They don't throw away garbage. Animals don't ruin this earth.
Animals are fairly—the ox knows his owner, the ass knows his
master's crib. Man doesn't, does he? Apologize to the animals.
They're a little bit better. But the mystery of all mysteries—and
that's the wonder of wonders, that God would think upon these
sinful, wicked, rebellious creatures. He'd think about them and not
just destroy them. Here's the mystery of all mysteries. God
came down in this mess. What is man that thou art mindful
of him, but what but an assent of man that thou?" This is him. It would be less of a mystery for me to become
an ant than for God Almighty to become a man. Listen to these things. Nancy
and I talked about that after this morning's Bible study. Talking
about Christ becoming obedient. That's a mystery, isn't it? It's
a mystery that Christ made himself, had to make himself this way.
The infinite became an infant. What was he like when he was
in the body of that baby? Was he fully aware? It's a mystery, isn't it? The author of life became a fetus
in the womb. What was he doing then? The glorious
God became a gooing baby. It's no wonder the angels by
the thousands hovered around that little stall. What is this? And the holy angels
couldn't say anything, but this is holy. This is holy. Holy thing
here. They all hovered around that
stall to get a glimpse of this. And not only at his birth, it's
a great mystery that his birth, the incarnation, the Son of God,
but his whole life. Think about these things. Think
about it. The God of miracles became a man of misery. Miserable
in this environment. God, whose all things are at
his disposal, became a man miserable. Miserable man. Son of the Highest.
The Son of the Highest became a man very lowly. The provider
of the universe. Think about this, Nancy. The
provider of the universe, the one who made the waters, all
the ocean, the firmament, makes it rain, all this, had to ask
somebody for a drink. It's a mystery, isn't it? The one
who commanded the winds and the waves that obeyed him, yet he
was tempted in all points. The one who cast out devils and
crushed the power of evil was taunted and tempted by these
powers. Think about that. and most especially a mystery.
This is a mystery, a great mystery. It's most especially a mystery
because the judge of the universe, before whom all men will someday
stand and be judged, permitted himself to be judged at the hands
of this kangaroo court, and didn't open his mouth. If he had, he'd
have consumed them, wouldn't he? He could have Just by saying the word, couldn't
he? Don't you know I could call twelve
legions of angels down here in the levelest place? But he didn't. Mystery in it. The one with the
keys of death and hell. The one who decides who goes
to hell. was condemned to die. You're not worthy to live, they
said. You're guilty of blasphemy. You're going to die. Terry, think
of their, think of these people, the horror on their face when
they finally saw this one that day. Some, by His grace at Pentecost,
they saw it, didn't they? Before it was too late, didn't
they? Oh, we crucified the Lord. before whom we're going to stand,
he's going to, oh my. The Lord of life, and this is
it, the Lord of life was put to death. Mystery, great mystery. God was
manifest in the flesh. Why? Why was it? We say this
over and over again, but why was God manifest? Why did he
come? Man needed somebody to save him. Man needed saving and he just
couldn't save himself. He just couldn't save himself.
This is a very simplistic illustration. It doesn't really surprise us.
But suppose you were out cutting your grass and riding along or
pushing your lawnmower along and all of a sudden you come
to an anthill and they're all scurrying and making their home
in a pile of sand, you know. Slightest little wind come along,
blow away everything they own. And you're going to run right
over the top of that anthill. You're just going to wipe her
out. You're cutting, you're mowing her all down. And you stop. Now, you should have stopped.
But what if you did? What if you stopped? You stopped
and had mercy and compassion upon those ants. What would you
do then? Answer! Now y'all better get
out of the way, or get over on the other side and say, come
on, come on, come on. I'll take the first step and y'all follow
me. You're not going to do that.
They won't even hear you. But just suppose that you, what
if you actually became one of them? Now, I'm going to have
to go down there on their level and talk to them and tell them
and say, listen, I'm going to mow this place down. See, I'm
the one cutting the grass and I'm going to mow her down. I'm
going to wipe this place out. Now, you better, you better ask
me for help. That's about the size of it.
That's about the size of it. It's much deeper than that, though.
Much deeper than that. Man rebelled. You remember that
illustration about the ants getting my lunch? Well, man's messed
up God's earth. And the price of sin is death. God said they're going to die.
And Christ came down here to live a perfect life so God could
look on a maggot, could look on a worm with favor. And somehow,
supernaturally, could make a bunch of them appear
to be just like him, impute that favor, that righteousness. And
then he himself was killed in their place, was mown down by
the wrath of God. Killed, getting what we deserve
in order to bring us to God. And deeper still, he creates
a new nature within us, a God-likeness. It's a great mystery. No man
can illustrate it all. You just can't do it. Can't do
it. It's a great mystery. God manifests in the flesh. That's
all Paul says about it, isn't it? It's a great mystery. God
became a man. Secondly, Spurgeon called this
sermon, or this text, a hexaplot. A hexaplot. That means it's a
text with six parts. Six. There are six parts to this
text, this mystery of godliness concerning God. God was manifest
in the flesh, and secondly, he was justified in the Spirit. Now listen, that is, he was testified
of, he was proven to be, he was declared to be by the Holy Spirit,
declared to be the Son of God with power. declared the Holy
Spirit's primary mission was to witness of Jesus Christ, to
reveal Christ to some people, to testify of Christ to a chosen
few. It was the Holy Spirit, now listen,
he was justified in the Spirit, the scripture says, that he was
declared by the Holy Spirit to be who he was. It was the Holy
Spirit who formed the body in Mary's womb. It was the Holy
Spirit that did this. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. Listen to this verse. The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee. This is the angel talking to
Mary. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and power of the high
shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God, he
declared at his birth there. It was the Holy Spirit who descended
upon Christ at his baptism to declare who he was. Listen to
this. I saw, John said, I saw the Spirit
descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode on Christ, lit right
on him. And I knew him not. But he that
sent me to baptize, that is God, said unto me, Upon whom you see,
upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining. on
him." The same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw,
John said in bare record, that this is he, the Son of God. The Holy Spirit justified him
or declared him. It was the Spirit that raised
him from the grave. It was the Spirit that bore record
of his resurrection. He was declared to be the Son
of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by resurrection
from the dead. It was the Holy Ghost, the Holy
Spirit, that bore witness of all those things. Now listen,
it's still the Holy Spirit that bears witness now with us. Many in here have had the Spirit
bear witness with your spirit of who Christ is, like we preached
about this morning. God's people hear his voice.
Why? It's a gift of the Holy Spirit. Christ said that comfort
will come. He'll take the things of mine
and show them unto you, reveal them unto you. You'll hear my
voice. Why? The Spirit justifies it to you. It's sealed. It bears witness
with our spirit, Terry. It's the Son of God, Terry. That's what the Spirit said.
He's your only hope, Terry. And you believe, right? He does
it by conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He draws us to
cry. It's the work of the Holy Spirit,
and it's a mystery. Great is this mystery of Godliness
justified in the Spirit. It's a mystery because the work
of the Holy Spirit is a mystery because it's sovereign. The Scripture
says, the wind blows where it lists it. And I never can get
over the absurdity of these people talking about Revivals and so
forth. Charles, it takes the Holy Spirit
of God to bring revival, doesn't it? To revive me. People say,
we're going to have a revival tonight at 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock? You better be here. You might
miss it. Oh, wait a minute. I think I read where it said
that spirit blows where it lifted, and you cannot tell a sound thereof.
Did Peter say, now, y'all be sure to be at Pentecost at 7
p.m.? A spirit's going to be there.
Doesn't mean no one was a spirit, did they? That's how ridiculous our generation
has become, isn't it? It's a mystery because it's sovereign. The Holy Spirit is sovereign,
too. He blows where he lists. I can preach a message, or any
man can preach a message, and maybe Perhaps a certain person
will hear it over here, and it'll be somewhere over here. A man can preach a message and
think, well, I just failed miserably. And somebody says, greatest message
I've ever heard. It's just what I need. God spoke
to my heart. Or he can preach the greatest message ever, he
thinks. Greatest message ever was, and nobody say anything. It's a sovereign work. It's a
mystery. The work of the Holy Spirit.
And it's unpredictable. Scripture says God moves in mysterious
ways his wonders to perform. You can't put, you can't decide
what God's going to do. Look at this third message. Mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest. He became a man. He was, Christ
was justified in the Spirit. This, now look at this. It all
speaks of Christ, doesn't it? The whole passage speaks of Christ. justified in the Spirit's seeing
of angels. Seeing of angels. Those mysterious,
mystical, heavenly creatures called angels, called cherubs,
seraphs, seraphims and other places, they were everywhere
to be found while Christ was on the earth. Everywhere. Everywhere Christ was. During
God's stay on earth, they're his minister. And the scriptures
say they ministered before his throne day and night. And while
he walked on this earth, they were everywhere to be found,
doing this, doing that, preparing the way. Angels. They were at
his birth. They appeared to the shepherds
on the hillside. They were at his birth. They
were the first ones to herald this coming. And believe you
me, they heralded it. Oh, boy, don't you know what
they said? Yo, hurry, come see this. Oh, glad tidings. Y'all better come see this. God's
come to you. They hovered, like I said, over
that cow stall, hovered and looked on in amazement, didn't they? At his birth, at his temptation,
you think about this. Satan tempting their Lord. Think about that. Tempting their
God. Don't you know the angels? Why
didn't he call us? Why didn't he do something? They
watched him, and finally, when it was all over, the Father said,
Go to him. Boom! And they ministered to
him. In the garden, when he prayed,
they ministered to him after that. On the cross, they watched
in wonder. Don't you know? They had no idea. They had no
idea. At his death? What about that?
They see him lay, they see his body found, he'll hang his head,
and they see him lay his body in a tomb, and they just... We're talking a mystery here. At the resurrection, two of them
were highly favored. Two of them were highly favored,
John. God said, you two, you go down there and tell them he's
not dead, he's alive. And they appeared to Mary and
a couple of them, he's not here. He's not here, he's resurrected,
he told you. Well, they didn't. But he told
you, our Lord's not here. We just saw him on the throne. At his ascension, about when
he went back finally to heaven, after he stayed here another
forty days, he went back to heaven. John, there's a standing ovation
in heaven, buddy. Here he comes. Our Lord. We don't understand what he's
done here, but it's marvelous in our eyes. It's a mystery,
a scene of angels. Think about this, think about
this. Paul mentions this great mystery,
a scene of angels. Think about this. In spite of
the greatest events throughout history, think about this, Sherry,
all the great discoveries, all of the great inventions, all
of the great events to take place in the history and the course
of mankind, all the great happenings and so forth, none of them merited
the attention of angels. Big deal, right? They knew, listen, they knew
the mysteries of geology, of the history of man, they saw
God create man. They knew the inner workings
of some of the universe and so forth. They knew astrology. They
knew all these things. They knew it like a child knows
his ABCs. Right? If you'd ask the angels
about whatever, biology, they could quote it like a child,
A, B, C, D, E, F, G. No big deal. I mean, it's a wonderful
work of God, but we can see it. We can see it. But this, buddy,
concerning this incarnate God? Mystery. You see that? You see what I'm saying? Peter
said these things now the angel decided to look into. These things. What things? Geology? The things
that man are taken up with? Huh? Evolution as opposed to
creation? No! These things. Gospel. Gospel. It's a mystery. Mystery. He said in another place, though,
it's revealed unto us by the Church, revealed unto us in the
Church. Fourthly, preached unto the Gentiles. Great mystery, God came down,
seen, proven, declared to be the Son of God with power by
the Holy Spirit, by the spirit of resurrection, seen of the
angels, great mystery, the angels desire to look into it, and Christ
was preached unto the Gentiles. Now, is preaching such a mystery? Turn over to Ephesians chapter
2 with me. Is preaching a mysterious wonder? Oh, yes. Most certainly. Most certainly. Ephesians chapter
2. It's a great mystery. Preached
unto the Gentiles, it said. Preached unto the Gentiles. Now,
think about this. Angels were the nearest to God,
the nearest to God Almighty. What was the farthest thing from
God Almighty? Gentiles. We see this here in
Ephesians 2. Gentiles were the farthest thing
from God because of an enmity against God, their hatred, their
pagan and wicked ways, and that Christ was preached to us is
a wonder. It's a wonder of wonders. Look
at verse 11. At the time you were without
Christ, that's just talking about us. You were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, you weren't God's people, you didn't have a Bible,
you didn't have nothing, just talking about Gentiles. Aliens,
strangers from the covenant of promise, you didn't even know
there was a promise, a tabernacle, any of these things. No hope
without God in the world but now. In Christ Jesus, you who
sometimes were way off, how far? Far, far off, you're made nigh
by the blood of Christ. And he is our peace, who made
both one, Jew and Gentile, broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, and abolished in his flesh, Christ's flesh, the
enmity The Law of Commandments contains an ordinance as to making
himself of two, one new man, and so making peace." Now think
about this. Gentiles, like our modern Gentile
world, we talk about Gentiles, we talk about anybody other than
Jews. Jews, Paul said it to you in Romans chapter 2, chapter
3. What advantage then does a Jew
have? Many. Many. The Jews had the promises.
The Jews had the law. The Jews had the ordinances,
ceremonies, tabernacle. God gave all these things to
the Jews. They had some outward temporal advantages over Gentiles.
Gentiles didn't. So what are Gentiles like by
nature? They're like animals. All over
the world, Gentiles are vice-ridden, animalistic, groveling creatures. No true spiritual faith or religion.
You take the Romans. Take all the pagan peoples throughout,
all their sexual vices and all of their, the Greeks with all
their animal gods and so forth, the Indians hang one another
up by the skin, you know, and Africans that go through all
the, you know. Men are worse than beasts, aren't
they? Gentiles. Gentiles, that's us.