Thank you. I can always rest
assured that the song that they choose will be absolutely scriptural. The words are so great. Thank you so much for the reading
and praying for us, Brother Allen, and for that message and song. If you would, I want you to open
your Bibles this evening to 1 Timothy, the third chapter. Go to the
first epistle, first letter to Timothy, and the third chapter. Some of you who are historians might recognize the name of Joseph
Priestley. He was a great philosopher, educator, theologian. He lived in England. He was born
in England in 1733. Toward the end of his life, he
moved to outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then he died
in 1804. Joseph Priestley grew up under
the gospel. His father and mother and the
church that he attended taught what we typically call tulips. I think it's total depravity,
unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace,
and perseverance of the saints. He was a very learned man, had
tremendous intellect. He was a chemist. He created
carbonation. He was quite close to Benjamin
Franklin because he had a great interest in electricity. He was
a scientist. He was a writer. But as he grew
older, he forsook the teaching that his parents and his church
had taught and he became a universalist preacher. Universalist preachers
and universalism denied the Trinity, believed that Jesus Christ was
only a man and not the Son of God. Universalists then and now,
and of course Joseph Priestley denied the the fact of the death
of Christ being a satisfaction and a sacrifice to put away sin, he believed and universalists
believed that the things of God pertaining
to the resurrection were not true, and he denied the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was very close through correspondence,
very close with Thomas Jefferson. And they wrote back and forth. Even when Priestley was still
in England, they corresponded quite often. And in 1773, Thomas
Jefferson He made a listing of books that
he recommended. And on that list of books that
he recommended was the theology of Joseph Priestley. He felt
that everybody ought to have a copy of that. And the book
was Corruption in Christianity. Well, Joseph Priestley, being
a universalist preacher, pastored a fairly good-sized church outside
of Philadelphia, but he had a younger brother, and his name was Timothy.
And Timothy believed and preached the sovereign grace of God. And the older Dr. Priestley, Joseph, He loved his
brother, Timothy, and he asked him to preach for him. And Timothy said he would be
glad to come and preach for his older brother. But the more famous
priestly brother, that is Joseph, said, I want you to preach for
me, but with this one provision. It's the only thing I ask of
you. He said, would you promise me that you won't preach on anything
controversial? And young Timothy said, I promise
you, I will not preach on anything controversial. And so on that
Sunday morning, he got up. He said, I promised my brother
that I wouldn't preach on anything controversial this morning. And he said, I want to speak
to you from the book of 1 Timothy, the third chapter, and verse
16. And he read, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in or by the Spirit. He was seen of angels. He was
preached under the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and
received up into glory. My subject tonight is a non-controversial
message. That's what I want to preach
to you about. A non-controversial message. There is no controversy
among the people of God as to the truthfulness of this verse
of scripture and of the gospel of the grace of God to sinners
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And really, in these words that
I read to you, here is a summary. Here's a summary of the great
truths of the gospel. For here we have the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we have substitution. Here
we have the resurrection. Here we have the declaration
of the gospel of redeeming grace to sinners. Here we have the
reception of the gospel of Christ by God's people. And here we
have the exaltation of the Son of God. From the incarnation
of Christ that begins this listing, without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. From the incarnation of our Lord
Jesus Christ to his exaltation, the last phrase of verse 16,
received up into glory. This verse of scripture is just
full of the grace of God to sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ
and it is in summary all of the great doctrines concerning our
salvation. Now by godliness is meant the
whole body, the entire body of the truth of God. A little earlier
in this chapter we read of the mystery of the truth of the gospel,
the faith of the gospel. And by the word faith, so often
in the word of God, that word stands for the whole compass
of divine truth that is set forth by God and his great salvation
to sinners through the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus
Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit. He says back
in verse nine, holding the mystery of the faith, the mystery of
the faith, the faith of God's elect, those things that are
surely believed among us. And when we get down to verse
number 16, we find that there is no controversy among the people
of God concerning these great truths, no matter where you go
in this world. When you come across people who
are truly God's people, you will find this is what they all believe. This is what we all have in common,
the very truth of the gospel of the grace of God. What a striking
statement. All of these things put together,
they're like a cluster of grapes. And they're full of the wine
of the gospel. And each of these is delightful
to all of the children of God. As I look through the Word of
God, I find many things that are not controversial or they're
non-controversial to the people of God. The reality of the Trinity,
contrary to what Joseph priestly taught and preached and believed,
We acknowledge the reality of the Trinity, the Father, the
Father who is said to be the author of salvation. The Father
who is generally, to Him generally is attributed creation, though
the Son and the Spirit were involved as well. But the Father is one
who elected a people unto salvation. We believe in the reality of
God the Father. We believe in the reality of
God the Son, one with the Father, co-equal, co-eternal. co-powerful
with the Father. He's the one who took into union
with Himself human flesh. I said this morning, He had a
real soul and body. He became likened to one of us
because it was a man who got us in this mess of sin to begin
with. It's going to take another man
to get us out of it. The Son of God, but He had to
be more than the Son of Man. He had to be the Son of God because
He had to know and understand thoroughly all the requirements
of the Godhead pertaining to the reality of the salvation
of sinners. He had to understand that, and
He did because He was God. God over all, glorious forever.
And then the Trinity consists of the Holy Ghost, Co-eternal
with the Father and the Son. Co-powerful, all three of them. Involved in election, all three
of them. Involved in redemption, though
redemption is attributed to the Son of God, it's the Father who
ordained it and the Spirit of God who reveals it. The Trinity
is totally involved in the salvation of a people beloved from all
eternity. The Spirit of God reveals Christ
Jesus the Savior. Gives us an understanding of
what the truth of the gospel is. You see, one of the key truths
of the Word of God is this. Salvation is of the Lord. If
you don't get that, you just miss everything. It's never attributed
to the sinner, not to the will of the sinner or the worth of
the sinner or the works of the sinner. Salvation's of God and
it's of grace. Grace in the beginning and Zacharias
says grace will crown it in the end. Throughout this matter of
salvation from its origin until its consummation in glory, it's
all of grace. Amazing grace is what John Newton
said, and I know his hymn is sung throughout most of the English-speaking
nations, but few people understand just how amazing that grace is. But Newton had some understanding
of it, and loved to sing of and write of the grace of God. We believe in the reality of
the Trinity. We believe in the sinfulness
of the human race. All of us came forth from the
womb speaking lies. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, and sin, when it's finished, bringeth
forth death. Christ said, it's not man's will
that does anything any good for him, because he said to sinners,
he said, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life.
Those who insist upon the freedom of man's will know nothing of
the free grace of God. Salvation is due to God's will,
not your will. In fact, I would even put it
this way. Salvation not only is not due to man's will, it's
in spite of man's will. God's will conquers us. Oh, to
be conquered by invincible grace. by the spirit of truth using
the word of the gospel. All men are infected by the disease
of sin which we inherited from our father Adam. The Bible says
there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. Man at his best state, at his
best state, is altogether vanity. And there's no controversy among
the people of God regarding these things. There's no debate. We have a conviction. These things
are true. We believe the Trinity. We believe
the sinfulness of the human race. We believe in salvation by grace
and grace alone. And we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and his substitutionary justice satisfying death. We
love to sing about that. We love to preach about that.
We love to meditate upon that. We're saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ and his sacrificial death. There's no controversy among
the people of God on that. Churches that do not insist upon
and preach of the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
was, listen, a triumphant death. Now he didn't fail. Isaiah tells
us, Isaiah 42, he shall not fail. He didn't attempt to save sinners,
he did save sinners by his sacrifice at the cross of Calvary. And
that salvation that he merited for us by his blood shedding
and by putting away our sins, that salvation, God gives it
to us, it is forever. If salvation is the work of God,
and we know it is, then it has to be forever. Ecclesiastes Solomon said in
314, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, and nothing can be taken away
from it. And God doeth it. Oh, hear that
God doeth it. That men should fear before Him,
that we should worship Him. Worship God who is the author
of salvation, the worker of salvation, the perfecter of salvation, the
one who applies salvation to us, the one who reveals salvation
to us. It's all of God and nothing can
be added to the work that God does. These truths are non-controversial
to the people of God, and I would say if you have trouble with
any of these, you better take that up with God, and ask God
to reveal to you the truth. And he does that through regeneration,
that's the new birth, and revelation. Lord, reveal the truth to my
heart. These truths are not frivolous. They're not secondary in importance. When it comes to the gospel of
God's free grace to sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ, there
is no room for indifference. There is no room for compromise. And I've had people say this
to me. Well, Jim, you believe you're right and everybody else
is wrong. Well, I'd say anybody who preaches anything different
from this is wrong. I don't have any problems saying
that. I once believed wrong, but now I believe this gospel
that gives God all the glory. And here's the test. Here's the
test, and I'd say put any preacher you're listening to, doesn't
matter whether it's this man or that man or this man or that
man back there, whoever's preaching from this pulpit or on the television
you happen to be watching or the radio, put them to this test. To whom does he give all the
glory? And you'll find out whether that
man is preaching the gospel of God's grace. If he brings it
down to you make the difference, he's a false prophet. He's lying
to you because you do not make the difference. I do not make
the difference. This salvation is of God and
of God only. You're free to disagree with
me, but if you disagree with me and what I'm preaching is
coming forth from the word of God, ultimately, you're not disagreeing
with me at all. You're disagreeing with God.
Do you know more than God? You smarter than God? You got
some kind of message that gives man the glory? Well, then it's
not the message that comes from God. Look at these statements here.
It's a non-controversial message, and I'm not trying to be controversial. And if you're one of God's people,
you'll just say in your heart, Amen. Amen. It begins with the incarnation. God was manifest in the flesh. The greatest mystery in all the
world is the mystery of the incarnation. It was a miraculous, supernatural
work of God. And you see, that which is supernatural,
it cannot be explained by the laws of nature. Any more than that which is spiritual
can be explained by the law of physics. When the apostle writes to Timothy
and says, God was manifest in the flesh, he is declaring that
God the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, who in the
covenant of grace volunteered to take upon himself the work
of saving his people from their sins, that he became man so he
could accomplish that great work. When he came, he did not cease
to be God, not for a second. He was still then and still is
now. God over all, blessed forever,
infinite, eternal, incomprehensible, omnipotent, and omnipresent. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, John said, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Savior said, no man, no man hath seen God at any time. The
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath
declared him. Our Redeemer had to be a man,
for man hath sinned, and man must suffer. And as I've already
said, he had to be God. Otherwise, that which he suffered
will be of no benefit to anybody else. As you read about the crucifixion
of our Lord Jesus Christ, he was not a martyr dying for a
cause. He's a savior dying that God
might be just and the justifier of all who believe on Jesus.
That's what the scripture says. The sufferings of this God-man
were successful to the salvation of all those in whose stead he
died. That's when our sins were put
away. That's when we were forgiven. That's when we're declared to
be righteous through Christ. That's where God's justice was
fully satisfied. God was manifest in the flesh.
And secondly, he was justified in or by the Spirit. His earthly
body was formed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit descended upon
him when he was baptized. The Lord told John the Baptist,
he upon whom the Holy Spirit descends like a dove, that's
the Son of God. That's the Son of God. And he
was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. And
the Holy Spirit reveals Christ Jesus. You don't just, by accident,
come to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it isn't
of you that you believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This
is where the work of the Holy Spirit comes in. Somebody who knows how God saves
sinners tells you about the blessed Savior and the Spirit of God
miraculously. And there's no controversy about
this now among the people of God. The Spirit of God takes
the preached word, just like I'm preaching right now, And
He works in the hearts of chosen sinners, and all of a sudden,
the things that you're hearing make sense to you. And the gospel
becomes real to you, and you find yourself rejoicing, whereas
other times you found yourself quite bored. and wondering, is
my watch slowed down here? When is he going to quit? And
then the Spirit of God reveals the truth to you and you fall
in love with the Lord Jesus Christ and you see that by his sacrifice
on the cross, that's when God saved you. You just find out
about it in the new birth and regeneration. And then you come
to be happy about it. And then you can sing with all
your might of the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
justified in the Spirit, in the Spirit. And then it says he was
seen of angels, angels, present at his birth, as I said this
morning, present in the wilderness that came to strengthen him,
present with him in his agonies in the garden, present at his death, present
at his resurrection, present at his ascension, present as
of his second coming. You see, those angels, they were
all present when he created all things. They sang for joy. But when he came to this earth,
they sang a different song. Praising God and I'll tell you
what the angels rejoiced when he was resurrected from the dead
and When he ascended to heaven Angels said to the disciples
why stand you here gazing up into heaven as if you'll never
see him again This same Jesus This same Jesus
who laid down his life for us, this same Jesus, not somebody
else, this same Jesus, there's only one, shall so come again
in like manner, he said, as you've seen him go. And I'll tell you what, when
he comes back the second time, guess what, they gonna be with
him then. Oh, he was, Scene of angels,
visited by angels. And then he was preached unto
the Gentiles. What a declaration. Is this significant? Absolutely. Because you gotta
hear the preaching of the gospel. How thrilling that the Lord Jesus
Christ should be preached and revealed to us heathens. That's what we are, we're heathens. Somebody said this, one of the
writers, I read quite a bit in preparation for this message,
but one writer said, the nearest thing to God would be the angels. I don't have a problem with that,
do you? The nearest thing to God, because they're at the throne
of God, worshiping the Lord, folding their wings, Isaiah chapter
six, and shouting, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
The nearest thing to heaven would be the angels, and the furthest
thing from God would be us Gentile dogs. The furthest thing from
God. And God sent the gospel of his
redeeming grace to us dogs. The gospel of God's great salvation
and redeeming grace, how marvelous it would be preached to us. Preached to you and preached
to me. That's a great mystery. That's a great mystery. It is
mysterious that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. It's a mystery that he would send his gospel
to me. Mired up in false religion, thought
I was doing God's service. Every time I talked somebody
into a decision, that was another notch on my soul-winning gun. And then I found out everything
I'd been preaching was of no worth whatsoever. And I have thanked God ever since
he taught me the gospel of his saving grace in Christ. I've
thanked God ever since. that all of the error that I
used to preach did not affect the eternal purpose of God one
iota. He will save his people and he'll
use the truth of the gospel to do it. And then Here's the reception
believed on in the world. Is this a mystery? It really
is. Because you see, nobody would
believe apart from being gifted with faith. You can preach to people, talk
to people about the horrors of hell. They're not going to believe
on Christ. not in and of themselves. And
you can preach to people about the wonders and the beauties
and the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ and tell people who he
is and what he did and where he is now and the reason that
he did what he did. They're not gonna believe on
him. They're not gonna believe on
him apart from the work of the Holy Spirit causing them to welcome,
welcome the message. Be glad to hear it. And every once in a while, somebody
will come up to me and say, thank you for telling us the truth.
You're welcome. It is my privilege. Ain't that
right, Alan? That's the way it is. Thank you
for telling us the truth. Thank you for getting up here
and telling the truth, Ron, when you preach for me and Bill. When
you stand before eternity-bound sinners and brag on the Savior,
thank you. That's what you're supposed to
do. And we won't give you any glory. We'll give the glory to
the Lord who taught you the truth. and gifted you to preach the
gospel. Who will believe on Christ in
this world? Well, Acts 13, 48 says, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life, guess what they did? Believed. And if you have believed this
gospel, if you are believing this gospel, I can tell you the
reason. because you were ordained to
believe it. We're not gonna hug your neck
and congratulate you on finally coming to your good senses. No. No congratulation is ever due
to a sinner. Oh God, thank you for the revelation
of your grace. And then the last thing here
is, Received up in the glory. Oh, this was mysterious. But
this is incontroversial and uncontroversial in itself, that he was received
up to glory. And you see, the fact that he
was received up to glory, here's what that tells me. He finished
the work that he came to do. He was raised by the power of
God. And 40 days later, he ascended back to heaven, and the father
said, sit here at my right hand. You're exalted. You're the king
of kings and the Lord of lords. And God said, you just sit right
there. You're the king. And I'm gonna make all of your
enemies your footstool. And someday every knee's gonna
bow to you. And every tongue shall confess, you're the Lord, you're the Lord. Brother Barnard said, acknowledging
that Jesus Christ is Lord, that's salvation in this life. You acknowledge
who he is and what he did. But if you don't acknowledge
and worship Him for who He is in this life, I promise you,
you will bow at the judgment. Because every knee's gonna bow
to Him. Hey, I bow now, don't you? I bow in my heart. You're the King, you're the Lord!
I say with Thomas, And I have my doubts a lot of times about
things myself. You talk about doubting Thomas,
sometimes there's doubting Jim too. And I suspect it's doubting
you every once in a while too. But I say in my heart of hearts,
my Lord and my God, that's Christ Jesus the Savior. These things are not controversial
to me. Are they to you? I don't find
them to be controversial. I say that's the truth of God.
He's revealed the truth to us. And we're thankful that he's
still revealing himself to us. And we're seeing more of the
glories of our God and King, the Lord Jesus. Get your psalm
books.