as to what would be a good song
for her to sing. And I thought since we can't
have congregational singing, I thought it'd be good if she
just sang one right out of the songbook, and it was a blessing. What a sweet and precious song. exalting our Lord Jesus. We've got two individuals of
our congregation, neither one of them are here this morning,
that have lost their mothers just in the last few days. Alexis Williams, her mother passed
away. just a young lady, early 50s,
and they're having a service, a graveside service at 1 today. Actually, they're not even having
a service, they're just meeting together as a family, and she
will be buried. And if I may say this to you,
If you're interested in helping with the expenses of the burial,
they have no money. And the family is pretty much
destitute. And it's a real need. And they've tried to cut corners
where they could. And if you're interested in helping
with the expenses of this and the death of Alexis' mother,
just let me know. And if you want to put a check in
or whatever in the offering, just mark it for the burial. And we'll know what it's for.
But I want to mention that to you. And then also Cody Hutchinson,
his mother died this week. Both of these moms died of cancer. And she was a young woman, too,
about 50. And I'll have the graveside service
tomorrow afternoon. So you'll be remembering especially
these two, Alexis and Cody. and of course his wife, Megan.
And we ask that God would give comfort to them during this time
of sorrow. Well, I want you to open your
Bibles for my message this morning to the book of 1 Timothy chapter
3. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 3. I have one verse for you this
morning, and we'll address this issue that I think God has given
to me, this message that God has given to me. We'll do that
after we ask God to bless in the service. We thank you, Father,
for the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. we enter into the words
of the great apostle who said, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Lord, give us a love and a faith
and a confidence in this one that you gave to us and the one
that you gave over to divine justice for us, our substitute. We bow before you in thanksgiving out of love for us to be true
to your own justice and righteousness. you commission your son to enter
into this world and join himself to our flesh and then as the
God-man meet every demand that the law had for us and then to
die as the penalty for our sins and then to be raised again and
to be seated upon his throne of glory. We thank you. We bless
you. Lord, we recognize there are
many people who will acknowledge the birth of Jesus of Nazareth
in just a few days. And yet, Most don't know who
He is. They don't understand the reason
for His coming. They fail to comprehend the necessity
of His death, that God might be just and justify the ungodly. And while they give some token
appreciation for His resurrection, we understand He was raised again
because He established righteousness for His people. And indeed, He
ever lives in order to make intercession for us. Where shall thanks enough
be found? to give grateful praise to you,
Father, for the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. Enable us this
morning to worship, to focus upon this one who is life, who
is light, this one who is our salvation. And bless these families
that grieve And your infinite will, according
to your purpose established in old eternity, these two ladies
lived exactly the number of days that you appointed for them.
And now the children are heavy-hearted. We ask that you would be to them
a comforter, Lord, we know that which you use to comfort your
people is the word of grace, the word of God. Speak to us this morning. We're
not deserving to hear any good news from you. We're only deserving
of hearing words of wrath and judgment. But Lord, we read in
this book that You're plenteous in mercy to those that call upon
You. Lord, we beseech You to look
on us with pity and see us in Your beloved Son, for with Him
You're well pleased. And may it be true of all of
us and of everyone who is watching this broadcast, this service,
may it be true that we believe on the Lord Jesus as our Savior,
as our Redeemer, as our Lord. We have no other confidence but
this one who is the rock of our salvation. Bless all of your
dear people today. Minister to us from the word
of God. For Jesus' sake I ask these things. Amen. Now, first Timothy chapter
3, and I'll read the last verse of the chapter. And without controversy, That
is by the universal consent of all of God's people. He's not
saying that there isn't controversy about the gospel. There is controversy
about the gospel. A lot of discussion as to what
the gospel is. There are many people who actually
say there is no gospel. There is no good news. There
is no God. There is no savior. But when
we think of God's people, there is no controversy among us. We
have no arguments with the scripture. We bow to the word of God without
controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. Great is the mystery, great is
the secret of godliness of real religion. real reverence of God, real worship,
without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness,
and here he makes these magnificent statements. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, And
then he says he was seen of angels. And then he says he was preached
unto the Gentiles and then believed on in this world. And then finally he was received,
he was taken up to glory. Here's what I want to talk to
you about for a few minutes this morning, the mystery of true
religion. The mystery of true religion. The subject about which I want
to speak to you about, this is not a trivial thing. You know,
there are a lot of things in the world that we give our attention
to and we're absorbed with, we read about, and we think about,
we mull some things over. There are a lot of things that
we consider that really are of no real significance. Oh, maybe in this world, they
may have a little bit of importance, but a good many things that most
people are taken up with are just trivial issues. Well, that which we deal with
from this pulpit and that which we read of in this word, these
are not trivial things. There are a lot of things that
if you're wrong about, you're okay, it's all right. But if you're wrong about the
mystery of true religion, if you're wrong about the mystery
of godliness, that's an era that will cost you forever. We don't want to be wrong about
this. Be wrong about other things, OK, and oftentimes we are. But
we don't want to be wrong about this. And we don't want to be
indifferent about this. We don't want to treat this as
something that is of really no great value. importance. We don't want to treat it that
way. Listen, you have in your hands the Word of God. Those
of you who are watching by way of the internet, I hope you have
your Bible. That's the Word of God. It's
not trivial things. We may still have that game,
Trivial Pursuit. We bought it many years ago and
we hadn't played it in a long time. It's just trivia. Who was it? Well, one preacher,
I believe it was Jay Wimberly used to say he was a walking
encyclopedia of trivia, of nonsensical things. And a lot of times we
do, we commit to our memory and we're taken up with inconsequential
things. And that's okay to a degree,
I understand that. But these things are not inconsequential. about what I'm talking about,
what this book is about, God, who God is, in the essence of
his being, in his eternality, in his infinity, as that one
who knows all things, who has the power to do all things, that
one who governs all things, That one in whose hand the heart of
the king is as the rivers of water, he turns it whithersoever
he will, that God. The study of God and the knowledge
of God is vital. This is not an insignificant
thing. Study of your creator. that one who preserves you, that
one who gives you everything you've got. This is a necessary
study to know God. In fact, our Lord Jesus in His
high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, He said, this is
eternal life. And I said, what is it, Lord? If you're going to tell me what
eternal life is, then I'm going to be all ears. I'm going to
listen. He said, this is eternal life. What, Lord? To know Thee, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. That's eternal
life. Do you know God? Boy, that's
a vital question. Do you know God? Not just know
about God. You say, well, preacher, I believe
in God. Well, the devils believe, and
they go further than that. They tremble. That's more than
most people do. The devils have some idea, some
concept of the omnipotence of God, the all-powerful God. They have a better understanding
of Him than we do. It's not enough to just believe
that there's a God. I believe there's a God out there
somewhere, well, good for you. Do you know Him? And not just
know that He exists, and not just know about Him, but to know
Him. To know Him. And do you know
yourself? Do you understand what the Scriptures
have to say about you? That's not insignificant either.
The Bible never builds man up, it always takes man down. It
abases us. It tells us what we are by nature
of our guilt, our sinfulness, our wretchedness, our neediness. It tells us we have a spiritual
disease, leprosy. We're sinful. We're sinful. As Isaiah says in chapter one,
from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, there's no
soundness in us. There's no goodness in us. We're
all just wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, runny, stinking
sores. That's what we are by nature.
See, this is a significant thing. Because it's only as we have
some concept of God, right ideas about God, only in the light
of who he is, will we see ourselves as what we are. And then do you know the Savior?
Well, he's the answer to the riddle of how can God be just
and justify the ungodly. through the person and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a trivial matter.
This is not something that you can afford to be wrong about. If you're wrong about who God
is, if you're wrong about your natural condition, your sinful
dilemma. And if you're wrong about who
the Savior is and that he saved sinners by his death upon the
cross of Calvary, if you're wrong about those things, you're gonna
be wrong forever. We deal with way too matters. Way too matters. We're talking
about salvation and condemnation. We're talking about heaven and
hell. Everlasting life and everlasting
death. Now this is no inconsequential
matter. This is not an insignificant
thing that we're talking about. So whenever preach to you or
any preacher of the gospel, when he endeavors to preach to you,
we wanna do, here's what we're, first of all, we've got to preach
to the mind and to the heart. One of the things wrong with
modern religion today is that it seems all geared toward the
heart, that is toward the emotions. And you watch religion on television,
and I do every once in a while, as long as I can stand it. I
don't have to cut it off. But you watch it on television,
and so much of it is a whoop-de-doo religion. It's emotion, it's
all to the heart. The stories that preachers tell,
the music, is all geared toward the emotions, either to make
you really happy or really sad. And preachers appeal to the emotions
they preach to the heart. Now, I want to be a heart preacher,
don't misunderstand me. But the way to the heart gate
is through the mind gate. You see, there's got to be one
thing, truth. There's got to be truth. And
the way we come to feel in our hearts is based upon what the
mind has absorbed and then what God the Spirit has made an application
of to our hearts. Now we don't want to be so heady,
so intellectual, so mentally absorbed that we speak in ways
that people can't understand us. Now that happens with some
preachers. I was just reading a little bit
the other day on the internet and the argument was about infralapsarianism
and sublapsarianism and supralapsarianism. You say, preacher, I don't even
know what any of them words mean. You don't need to know those
words. What does that have to do with anything? Even sometimes
as preachers, we have to be very careful. We'll say, well, you
know, they accused me of being an antinomian, but, and then
just go on. I don't even know why we have
to use words like that. Antinomian against God's law
or no law. We don't wanna be so intellectual
that we can't reach the understanding of the person in the pew. It's like Spurgeon told the story
of a 10-year-old boy, Saturday night, got time to go to bed.
His mother said to him, Johnny, it's bedtime. I'll follow you
to your room and let's you and me pray together. And he said,
okay. So they went to Johnny's bedroom. They both got down on their knees
beside the bed. He's 10 years old. And he said,
Mama, I want to pray tonight. And she said, OK. And he prayed. He said, Lord, when we go to
church in the morning, please help the preacher say something
I can understand. That's good prayer. Ten-year-old
boy, please help him to say something I can understand. I want the youngest person in
this congregation to the oldest person in this congregation to
understand what I'm saying. What's the use in getting up
here if people don't understand what you're talking about? We're
not going to give out. This isn't a challenge of the
intellect here. Another story I read was of a
man who has a doctor's degree, had been to seminary and got
all the education. Real heady fellow. Wrote his
manuscripts out. used lengthy words. He had been
pastor of this church for 25 or 30 years and a lot of people
had left because it was just dry lectures. He had his notes,
he prepared his manuscripts, and he just read one page after
another, one page after another. One Sunday morning he had prepared
his notes, had his manuscript up on the pulpit, Before anybody
got there, he went up there and just got them just right, you
know. There's his papers there. And he began to read. He first
of all read his text, and then he stopped and prayed. And after
he had finished praying, he looked up and he had lost his sight. This is a true story. He couldn't
see, he was blind. And he told the congregation,
he said, I can't see, I'm blind. But he said, let me just talk
to you about the Savior. And he preached for about 20
or 25 minutes, and then he closed. Still couldn't see. Two deacons
went up and helped him down from the platform. And as they helped
the old preacher out, Somebody in the congregation was overheard
to say, after hearing that message that brought tears to the preacher's
eyes and tears to the eyes of the people as he spoke about
the Savior and how much he meant to him, one of the church members
was overheard to say, isn't it sad that he didn't go blind 25
years ago? I've got to present truth to
you. but I also want to do so preaching
to your heart. You see, the Bible says, with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. I will administer to the whole
person, to the mind and to the heart. and after giving you the
very truth of God, and I've already kind of encapsulated the truth
in the identity of God and the identity of ourselves and the
identity of our Savior and His great work of redemption, having
presented to you already the truth of God, then I therefore
appeal to your heart, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This
preaching is not just a matter of giving out facts. It is giving
out facts. It is giving out truth. But then
it is also appealing to you to believe this Savior and come
to Him for salvation. Here's what the apostle said
in Acts chapter 16 to the Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shall be saved in thy house. He said to the
Corinthians, knowing therefore the judgment, the terror of the
Lord, we persuade men. I don't want you to perish. I
don't want you to go to hell. I want you to live forever and
enjoy the Lord Jesus. I want you to believe Him, believe
who He is in His Godhead and in His real humanity. And I want
you to believe the reason He came into this world was because
we were in a mess that we could not get ourselves out of. I want
you to believe who God is and that the only way to this God
for us sinful people is through the Lord Jesus Christ. I do care
whether you believe. I actually heard a Sovereign
Grace preacher one time say, I don't care whether you believe
this or not. Well, I care. I think he just kind of got maybe
in the flesh a little bit there. But I care whether you believe. Because you see it says in the
book of Hebrews, to submit to those who have the authority
over you in the Word of God. For they watch for your souls.
that we may give a good account, a happy account, a joyful account
in the day of judgment. I don't know how that's going
to be, but somehow or another, God's going to bring preachers
of the gospel before people who've heard the gospel. And in some
way, either these men will rejoice or they'll just testify against
you and say, Lord, I preached the gospel to them. They didn't
believe. I want to be able to give a good
account when it comes to you. Lord, I told them the truth and
they believe this word. Look over at, hold your place
there. I'll get to that text in a minute.
But look at Acts chapter, I believe it's 26. Look at Acts chapter
26. I tell you, it mattered to this
great apostle as to whether people believed his message or not. Look at Acts 26, and then I'll
go back to my text. Look at verse 22. He's preaching
now before King Agrippa, Acts chapter 26. Look at verse, well, I'll start
at 22. Having therefore obtained help
of God, I continue unto this day witnessing both the small
and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets
and Moses did say should come. that Christ should suffer and
that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and
should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. And as he
thus spake for himself, Festus, he said with a loud voice, he
said, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee
mad. You're not in your right mind.
But Paul said, I'm not mad, most noble Festus. But speak forth
the word of truth, the words of truth and soberness, serious
things. Look at verse 26, for the King
knoweth, King Agrippa, for the King knoweth of these sayings
before whom also I speak freely, boldly, with confidence, for
I'm persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For
this thing, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross
of Calvary, it wasn't done in a corner, it wasn't done in secret. It was witnessed to many people.
Now look at verse 27, King Agrippa, believest thou the, Do you believe the prophets?
I know you believe, surely you believe the prophets, he says.
And then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to
be a Christian. And verse 29, Paul said, I would
to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day
were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. Well, what are you, Paul, by
the grace of God? I am what I am. That's what he
said in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want you to be saved. I want you to know God. I want
everything to be right between you and the Lord, our righteousness. Well, go back to our text. These are magnificent statements
here that are made, and I'm just going to You've heard this preached
on before. I'm sure you've even heard it
preached from me. But I'll just touch on them a little bit. These
are so, this is like all the gospel just summarized into six
statements. This is really magnificent. And
the way the Spirit of God had this to be written is, well,
it's beautiful. There's so many contrasts in
this. For instance, he says, God was
manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit. Flesh
and spirit. Boy, that's a big contrast, isn't
it? Flesh and spirit. And then he says, He's seen of
angels and then preached under the Gentiles. Well, you're talking
about opposites there. That's like North Pole, South
Pole. Angels next to the very throne of God. Angels ministering
spirits sent forth to those who shall be the heirs of God's salvation. Angels and then Gentiles. Dogs. What a contrast. And then believed
on in the world, received up into glory. Notice the parallelism. The first
two stanzas deal with the revealing of the Lord Jesus. Without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. and then justified in the Spirit. The next two, he was seen of
angels and then preached unto the Gentiles. What a twofold reception then
is also set forth in the last two. So this is just, these six
statements are just extraordinary. Let me give them to you briefly.
Great is the mystery of godliness. By the way, the Bible's full
of mysteries. Secrets. What is a mystery? That which was previously hidden,
but it has to be revealed. That's what the Lord does. He
reveals to us mysteries. Hidden mysteries. Well, here's
the first statement. God was manifest in the flesh.
Manifest, made visible. made known." God's invisible,
right? God's spirit, John 4. God's spirit, they that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. But this invisible
God, this infinite God, this all-powerful God, this God who
is omniscient, everything's open before Him. It's like an open
book. This God who's everywhere, all
at one time. This God was manifest in flesh
like this. That's what it says. Manifest, made known. Now, if he doesn't make himself
known, we can't ever know him. I said this is eternal life or
this is life eternal, John 17, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, in Jesus Christ whom God has sent. If God doesn't
make Himself known, we can't know Him. We won't know Him.
He's stranger to us. He's beyond our comprehension
and beyond our grasp of what we consider reality. because
God is Spirit and He's everywhere. He fills everything. That's why
David said, whither shall I go from the presence of the Lord?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. And if I go down to
the depths of hell, behold, thou art there. He's everywhere. You
can't comprehend a God like that. But this God, has manifested
himself in our flesh. And that one who
walked the streets of Jerusalem and the other cities and towns
in Judah, that one who spent time around the Sea of Galilee,
and we back all the way up, that one who was born in Bethlehem's
manger, that's God. That's God. As God he wasn't
born, but as man he was born. And that youngster at eight days
old being circumcised, that's God. That little infant held in the
arms of Simeon, and he said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. He's looking in the face of God. Who can see God's face and live? but they saw God's face and lived.
It's the only face God's got, is the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When he was 12 years old, he's
in the temple. Who is that 12-year-old boy talking
in the temple to the doctors and the lawyers? Who is that
12-year-old boy? I'll tell you who he is, that's
God. And that man going out there
in the wilderness, led by the Spirit of God, directing his
path, the Spirit of God, sent him out into the wilderness where
Satan would tempt him 40 days and 40 nights. Who is that out
there with the devil? That's God. That's God. Who is that seated
at Jacob's well, thirsty, needing a drink of water? That's God. Who is that man who performed
all those miracles? God manifest in the flesh. All this is a great mystery.
And I know today, in this season of the year, there are people
who will read that account like you read in Luke chapter 2, and
they'll read Matthew chapter 1, and other portions of Scripture
that talk about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. They'll
read it as if they're reading Mary Had a Little Lamb. Fleece
as white as snow. That's about all it means. It's just another story. Just
another story. This is infinitely more than
another story. Great is the mystery of godliness. And this is great God. Great
God was manifest in the flesh. That's no Mary had a little lamb
story. That's a story that's beyond
your ability to comprehend. You can't even begin to commence
to get started to understanding that. how God could be joined
to man. Unto us a child is born. Isaiah 9, 6. He's born. Born
like any other baby. Born of a virgin. But as far
as his entrance into this world, born like any other mom. He's talking about moms a while
ago. Just like you moms gave birth to your children, Mary
gave birth to one and called his name Jesus. Just a natural
birth. But that one who is Jesus born
to Mary, that was conceived by the very power of the Spirit
of God. And that's God. She's looking
in the face of God. And when He hung on that tree,
hands nailed, feet nailed, crown of thorns, and people looked
at Him, walked by and mocked Him, They're mocking God. That's who they're mocking. Earlier
when they spit in his face, blindfolded him and said, and spit in his
face, said, now who spit in your face? Who slapped you? They're
slapping God. Can you imagine God standing
before men and men slapping him in the face? Spitting on him? Why did He endure all of this? Why did He endure all the shame
of the cross and then all the hell that God the Father put
Him through on the cross? Why did He endure the judgment,
the wrath of God, to save us? That's what justice demanded.
That's what He gave justice. God was manifest in the flesh.
Mystery of mysteries. It's no little thing. I tell
you what, this is such a great mystery. It's going to take more
than one day a year to remember this. It takes every day of the
year to remember this. And we're not going to sing happy
birthday, Jesus, because he's the eternal God who has no birthdays. We'll worship him. Oh, come let
us adore him. Who is he? Christ the Lord. God
was manifest in the flesh. Then he says this, justified
in or by the spirit. Justified. His ministry and his
person was validated and verified by the spirit of God. The scripture
says he had the spirit without measure. He had upon him the
spirit of wisdom, the spirit of knowledge. And we know that
the Spirit of God justified him. The Spirit of God validated who
he was at his baptism. Because the Spirit of God took
a form of a dove and rested upon Jesus of Nazareth. And then the
voice of the Father pierced through the silence. This is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. It was by the Spirit of God he
was conceived. is by the Spirit of God that
his steps were directed. Every step he took as the man
Christ Jesus was directed by the Spirit of God. I was talking
about his temptation out there in the wilderness, 40 days, 40
nights. Spirit of God took him out there. Oh yeah, forced him out there,
directed every step out there. The Spirit of God. And he who
died upon the cross of Calvary was raised again by the Spirit
of God. The Spirit of God validated who
he was and what he did. He raised him from the dead.
And the Spirit of God has been sent to deal with those sinners
that he died for, Christ died for, to reveal the gospel to
them. He's the comforter who comes
and he doesn't speak of himself. He speaks of Christ the Lord.
Look, the next statement. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels. Angels of God saw
him in his pre-incarnate glory. And they were informed, I believe,
of the covenant of grace and made aware of the Savior's intentions
of coming into this world. And they escorted him. And they
filled the skies at Bethlehem's manger. And an angel revealed
to the shepherds, as you read, who he was. Unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, a Savior, Christ the
Lord. When he entered into this world,
he was seen of angels. The whole sky was filled with
angels who proclaimed his greatness. But for one brief night, there
at Bethlehem, God turned a cow stable into a temple of glory. And there's a trough, a trough,
where the cattle would eat straw or hay or grain or something. Oh, that became a throne for
the Son of God. Who is that? Who is that baby? That's God's Son. That's God's
Son. And angels were there. They were
with Him in the wilderness of temptation. They were with Him
in the garden of Gethsemane. They were with Him at His resurrection. One of them rolled stone away.
And they were with Him. Two angels were with Him when
He ascended back to glory. And the angels of God, Romans,
or Psalm 24, the angels of God, opened the gates of the city
of God, and the glorious, successful Redeemer came home. And then
fourthly, he's preached unto the Gentiles. My, what a mystery
this is, that us dogs should hear the gospel. And how shall
we hear it? This is mysterious. By preaching. By preaching. They please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. all our churches need. I can
tell every so-called church in this city and in this country
what they need, is to preach these six statements. Because this is a summary of
true religion. This tells us who God is. It
tells us who Christ is. It tells us why He came. The
necessity for His coming. And that's what we do, we preach.
We preach to the Gentiles. It's the method God has ordained. Oh, how we need preachers to
set him forth. This is the trumpet of heaven.
This is our battering ram, preaching of the gospel. And then you think about who
it is that God uses in preaching the gospel. People like me. He uses nobodies to preach somebody
to everybody. That's what he does. That's not
the way men would have done it. They had to pick the most powerful,
the most eloquent. And that's what men do. That's
what churches do. Most influential. One's got the
most charisma. God uses fools like me. Just plain old men preaching
as clear as we can a glorious gospel of grace. And a lot of other men just like
me. And then preached on the Gentiles, believed on in the
world. Is this mysterious? Yes, it is
because faith is foreign to us. It's a gift. that God has to
give. Faith is a result of the operation
of God. And then finally received up
into glory. Why was he received up into glory? Because his work was done. He
finished the work that God gave him to do. The heavens opened,
come home. The Savior ascended back and
took his seat upon the throne of glory. This is the mystery
of true religion. And our goal here, and I'm going
to go into this more tonight because I'm actually going to
go back up to verse 15 tonight. But our goal here is to just
stick to this truth of God. And you know that. And I pray
that God will bless His Word to the good of all of you and
everybody who listens. And first and foremost, though,
I hope this has glorified God. That's what we want to do. That's
the desire of every person in here who knows God. And you who
know God at your house there or wherever it is that you're
watching, that's your goal too, isn't it? You want to glorify
God, magnify His name. Lord, we thank you for the gospel
of your grace. This is indeed good news to us. The mysteries, the mystery of
true religion. These are secrets that have to
be revealed. Oh God, reveal to us the truth.
Bless our hearts and give us understanding of the things that
we hear and then give us faith in the heart to believe and receive
and rejoice in him who is our everlasting life. These things
we ask in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.