I'll read these two verses here,
verses 15 and 16, and you'll see why I read what I read this
morning. The apostles talking to Timothy,
he was a preacher. got converted under Paul, Paul
was his spiritual father, but he said, if I tarry long, if
I wait very long, that thou mayest know how thou ought 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, priest unto the Gentiles,
and received up into glory." There are six things in that
verse 16 that gives us a summary, a summary
of the gospel, a summary of real, true religion that God gives
to His people. Now when we gather to worship,
the first thing we're interested in is the glory of God. We want
God to be glorified. We're here for His glory, not
for ourselves, not for anything to draw any attention to ourselves
whatsoever. And we're here to hear the truth
of the Word, not our opinions of the Word, not what we think
about what the Word says, but what God Himself says. Paul told
the Ephesians, he said, I've not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God. And all the counsel of God, all
the will of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And we're
here not to make church members. We're not here to make church
members, not to get somebody to make a decision and walk an
aisle. We're here praying and preaching the gospel that God
would really, really save somebody by His grace and there'd be a
true conversion, a true conversion, not just a perfection, a true,
true conversion. And then here's another reason
why we're out here. We're here to hear the simplicity
of the gospel, the singularity of the gospel. You know, we can't
make men believe, we can't, I can't make men believe, none of us
can. But we can certainly make our message plain, make it simple,
make it understandable. We can certainly do that. And
here in this verse of Scripture, The message is that to all men
that we have the opportunity to preach to is that God, God
came down in flesh. It contains a clear, clear declaration
of the mystery of godliness. Here we have six things that
shows us what true religion is based on. The church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth. This verse of scripture
here doesn't deal with trivial matters. We're not dealing with
trivial things when we gather around the word of God. And oh
no, it deals with the greatest, greatest theme that we can ever
possibly think of. I remember asking Henry Mahan
one time, what's the greatest mystery in the world, in the
Bible? He said, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
And then another time I asked Scott Richardson, they both are
gone now. But I asked him, what's the greatest
mystery that you ever heard of in the Bible? He said, the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
That's the greatest mystery in all the universe. There's not
a greater mystery. How that God who is eternal,
God who is pure spirit, God who has no hands, no eyes, no feet,
no... He's pure spirit. That God himself,
who is eternal, would come down and inhabit a body. Now you think about that. God
Almighty in a body. Huh? And you know, there's nothing
complicated about it. A fellow told me the other day
his son's dating this girl and they're in school and she wanted
to watch this documentary on Catholicism. And they was watching
it and he got to laughing. She said, what's so funny? What
are you laughing about? She said, that's so, he said, that's so
complicated. How can anybody understand that?
Everything's complicated. So complicated. There's nothing
complicated about this. Nothing complicated about the
gospel. Nothing whatsoever. Oh, no, nothing whatsoever. And he says here, there's no,
you know, he says, without controversy, there's no arguments here. There's
no argument here over laws. There's no regulations here.
There's no rules here. He's talking about a person coming
to this earth, not a system of doctrine. The coming of a person
to this world. It's not a rule book that we're
looking at here. The gospel of a living God. The gospel of the glory of God
in Jesus Christ. It's not just old logic, a dead
letter. And I'll tell you something else
you don't see here in this verse of scripture. You don't see no
speculation about prophecy. Men are always worried about
prophecy. Always worried about, you know,
when's this going to happen, that's going to happen, and we're
going on God's time clock, this, that, and we're down to the last
few seconds of it. There's none of that here. No,
no. There's no effect here to predict
what's going to happen. It's a declaration of what already
has happened. A declaration of what has taken
place. And that's what is it. God was
manifest in the flesh. Without argument, without debate,
without controversy, here's the most amazing truth ever, ever
declared. It's the greatest, most astounding,
blessed thing that you'll ever hear, or else it's the greatest
deception ever put on the human race. And it's nothing that you
can, you're either gonna believe it or doubt it. And you can't debate over this
thing here. And I tell you what, if it's
true, I wanna believe it. If it's not true, I wanna know
it. And oh my. Let me give you six statements
right out of this verse of scripture if I can. The first one was,
God was manifest in the flesh. I just read it to you over there
in John. In the beginning was the word. In the beginning, God said, let. How did he do that? He'd done
it by that word. That word was God. That's what we're talking about
here. The same was in the beginning with God. And then that Word
was made flesh, manifested, and we beheld as He was made flesh,
the glory of God Almighty. And our Lord Jesus Christ, it
says, you know, that He was born of a virgin, that thou shalt
call His, the angel came and told Mary, he said, Mary, you're
gonna call His name Jesus. Why? Because He's gonna save
His people from their sins. And this was written, that it
might be fulfilled by the prophet, behold a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son. And thou shalt call his name,
what? Immanuel. What does that mean? God come
with us. God's come down with us. And
I tell you, beloved, won't you look in John 14. Look over in
John 14. John's gospel chapter 14. Look
at this verse, these scriptures here. And oh my, here we go, I tell
you, here's what it says in John 14,
8. Our Lord's fiction to leave,
and in verse 8 of John 14, Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us
the Father. Show us, let us look into heaven,
let us see the Father. And that'll satisfy us, that'll
be sufficient for us. And our Lord said unto him, have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. And how sayest thou then, show
me the Father? He said, you know, said, the
Father, everything he is, I am. Everything he did, I do. Everything
he said, I say. Everything he wills, I will.
Everything he purposed is our purpose. He said, when you look
at me, you're looking at God Almighty. You're looking at the
Father, by whom the worlds were created and upheld. And that's
what John said. He says, you know, we know that
the Son of God has come and given us an understanding that we might
know Him that is true. And this is the true God, even
Jesus Christ. who came into the world. And
you know he come into this world and all that he did, and this
is why he came, and all that he did for sinners, all that
he did for sinners, for me and you, all that he did for sinners
depends absolutely on who he is. Now if he was just a man, he
couldn't possibly save us from our sins. But if he was God,
He could save us. Huh? Oh my. Let me tell you, that manger
in Bethlehem, where our Lord Jesus was born, held Almighty
God, the God of glory, in human flesh. When He came forth from
Mary's womb, Mary understood that this baby that I just had,
God said, I'm going to come and you're going to bear a child.
And he gonna be my son, the son of the highest. And then when
that carpenter shop where our Lord Jesus Christ labored until
he entered the ministry at 30 years old, that was the home
where God himself lived. How could he, whose eternity,
without space and time, inhabit one little house and live in
it? And that son of the highest,
who is also called the man of sorrows, the man of sorrows. He's called the highest, higher
than the heavens, and yet, yet made lower than the angels. How
could that be? He is the king of kings. king
of kings, and then come here and took on the form of a servant,
even stooped so low to wash his disciples' feet. Oh my. In him was life, and yet he died on a cross. That man that was made of a woman,
made of a woman, He himself was the one who made woman in the
Garden of Eden. Now, we're talking about God. And then look what it says here
again over in our text. You're talking about, you know
John said, we handled him. He was the word of life. We handled him, we touched him. The Word of Life itself, the
flesh. Then look what it says here,
not only was God manifested in the flesh, but justified in the
Spirit. Now what does that mean? See
how that word Spirit's capitalized, talking about the Holy Spirit.
And this means the Holy Spirit of God, that means He was vindicated. The Holy Spirit justified every
claim He made. Our Lord made some claims, some
incredible claims. Now look with me, now you keep
1 Timothy in your left hand or right hand, look with me over
in John chapter 5 and verse 31. Look over here with me. You know,
the Holy Spirit vindicated him, proved him to be who he said
he was. You know what, Steve Vinson was
coming back from Lexington last week and he got coming out of
Harrodsburg and he come by the bypass there and there were three
men hanging on crosses. And the man in the middle had
on a crown of thorns and a little cloth around him. Do you know how blasphemous that
is? I wonder which one of them decided
he was going to be the thief that would be saved and the other
one that would go to hell. And he told me this morning,
Dirk did, that he saw a sign up here that Jesus is our big
toe. So what I'm telling you is, is
that we have got to have the truth. Our souls depend on the
truth. Our relationship with God himself
depends on the gospel. Our relationship of our heart
and souls in eternity depends on what we believe. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, he said he was God. I believe he is God. Only God had the power to save
me. Only God has the power to keep
me. Only God has the power to take
me to glory. So I know that he was manifested
in the flesh and he had to be God or he couldn't save nobody.
And then look what it said, justified in the spirit. Oh, he made some
claims. Look what it said here in verse
31. John 5. If I bear witness of myself,
my witness is not true. He said, if all I do is talk
about myself, talk about who I am, he said, don't even pay
attention to me. But look what he says. But there's
another that bears witness of me. You know, when we get somebody
on a stand, you know, they get them in a court of law and they
say, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing
but the truth, and they call you up to be a witness. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I've got some people that make witness of me. They witness to
me, witness of me. And look what he says. And I
know the witness in verse 32, which you witness of me is true.
You sinned under John. Well, he's the first one to bear
witness under the truth. He said, are you the Christ?
Nope. I ain't even worthy that you
lay loose and slapped him in his shoe. He said, I see more,
I see walking, there's the Lamb of God that's gonna take away
the sin of the world. Said, he was before I am and
he'll be after I'm gone. John said, this is the Christ,
this is the Savior, this is the Lamb, this is the Son of God.
Then look what else he said. Then he said in verse 34, but
I received not testimony from man. Now he's not talking about
John, he's talking about just any man. But these things I say
that you might be saved. I want you to understand the
truth that you might be saved. Said, John was a burning and
a shining light, and you were ruined for a season to rejoice
in his light. But I have even a greater witness
of John, For the works, oh, you seen my works? You seen the works
I've done? I turned water into wine. I gave a blind man who's born
blind, I gave him his sight. As a leper come to me, and he
said, if you will, I can be made clean. He said, I will be clean. Just spoke the word and that
leper was clean. Oh, listen, Lazarus, he's dead,
he stinks, he's been dead four days. Come out of there, Lazarus. Now comes the dead come out.
Oh my, his works, and I'll tell you what, I'll bear witness to
him because I'm one of his works. Will you bear witness to him?
You're one of his works? Listen to what else he goes on
to say. The works that I do bear witness of me. And all my, the
works which the Father gave me to finish, and he said, I'm going
to stay with it until it's done. And all this, and then look up,
so that's three witnesses already. And then look at the Father.
And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness
of me. When did he bear witness? I'll
show you that in a minute. Yet you need have heard his voice
at any time to have seen his shape. And then look what he
said. And here's another witness. He
said, the scriptures witness of me. Verse 39. Search the scriptures. In them you think you have an
eternal life. And now if you'd read them and
search them, you'd find out they're talking about me. The scriptures
themselves. All right. And let me tell you
something, John the Baptist, the Father of Scriptures, and
the Scriptures, they all bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, our Lord Jesus was formed, formed, that his body
was formed in the womb of that virgin by the Holy Spirit. God said, the Spirit of God will
come upon you. That's how He said, the Spirit
of God come upon you. And she had a baby. That baby
was the Son of God. And you know the Spirit, when
our Lord Jesus was being baptized, when John was baptizing Him,
and when our Lord Jesus come up out of the water, there was
this dove that descended down on Him. And there was a voice
that said from heaven, this This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm
well pleased. The Spirit of God descended on
Him and He's baptized. And He was raised from the dead
by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit raised Him from
the dead. The Scriptures tells us in Romans
4, He was quickened by the Spirit, raised from the dead, justified
in the Spirit. And I tell you, His disciples,
on the day of Pentecost were filled with the Holy Spirit. To do what? They stood up and
began to preach that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, being delivered
by the determinate counsel of God, was taken by wicked hands
and crucified and slain, and that this same Jesus is made
both Lord and Christ. So is what must we do? Believe,
believe, believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be
baptized. Oh my, that's how salvation is.
And I tell you, they was called to preach the gospel. And our
Lord Jesus, the Spirit, you know what the Holy Spirit does? You
know how you can tell if the Holy Spirit's in a place? Not
by people speaking in tongues. Not by people dancing in the
aisles. Not by people putting hands on
people and supposed to be doing miracles. You know, the only
way you can tell that the Holy Spirit is working in a place,
working in a place, if what they preach witnesses of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Scriptures tells us that
when He, the Spirit has come, our Lord said, He'll take the
things of mine, things that belong to me. And you know what He'll
do? He'll show them to you. He'll take the things of mine.
He'll say, I'll show you that. I'm going to show you this. And
I'm going to show you that. I'm going to show you something else. Just like
today, we're showing you that the Holy Spirit is showing us
things. Oh, and if He don't show us,
we're not going to get to see. Isn't that right? And I, Lord
Jesus Christ, everywhere He went, the Holy Spirit, God gave Him,
the only person on this earth that He ever gave Him the Spirit
without measure was the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit, the Holy
Ghost was with Him at all times and justified everything that
He did. God's with Him, God's with Him,
God's with Him. And then look what it says again over here
in 1 Timothy. Look at this now. Manifest in
the flesh, God was. Justified in the Spirit. Listen
to this. Scene of angels. Scene of angels. You know, we
see people all the time, religion going on, all the religious
doings that men have today. But it's never honored of God.
It's not honored of God. God doesn't recognize it. It doesn't attract the attention
of heaven, the things that men do. What they do today is they
promote themselves. Promote themselves. I'm somebody. I see preachers You know, that's the greatest
preacher there ever was. There's no such thing as a great
preacher. There really ain't. There's a great truth that they
preach. Get over this idea that this preacher's great and that
preacher's great. They all got one message. But these fellows
that promote themselves. Our Lord Jesus said, if a man
comes, if I come in my own name, you won't believe me. But if
another comes in his own name, you will receive. How can you
believe but to receive honor, one of another? Men promote themselves, and then
they'll say, we're gonna have all these wonderful preachers,
and these great preachers, and these mighty men of God, they're
gonna come in here. Ain't no mighty men of God. We're
clay pots. Ain't that what it says about
us? Clay pots. It's the treasure. The pot ain't
worth nothing. It's the treasure in the pot.
Ain't that right? Oh my. And oh boy, listen. They got all their organizations
and they had their telethons. You gotta have so much money.
Oh, we can't make it without your money. I tell you, you send
me this money and I'll tell you what. Listen, you be a seed sower. That's what you do. You send
me some money and you'll sow some seed. And you give me $10
and God will bless you and you'll get 100. Well, listen, if I could
put $10 in the bank and get the $100 back, I'd do that in a heartbeat. But I tell you, these lying,
God-dishonoring, wretched, wretched men that dishonor God, oh, it's
awful, awful. And they go around, and they
begging, selling, building. I read this morning that God
needs a million dollars. Gotta have a million dollars.
to do something. And they have their organizations,
and they're begging, and they're selling, and having pie suppers,
and selling doughnuts, and doing car washes. Why in the world
does anybody in a church need to have a car wash to raise money?
Well, they need to beg to raise money. Is not God got a heaven
full of money? Is not God got a heaven full
of glory? Is not God got a big enough treasury
to take care of his people on this earth? One thing we'll never do, we're
not going to beg. Listen, but that's what they
do. Oh, we're going to sell all these
cookies and all these cupcakes, we're going to do all this stuff,
because our church needs to raise some money. I guess God went out of business.
Huh? Oh my, huh? Listen, nothing they
do seems to be supplied from heaven. Oh, nothing they do seems to
be honored by heaven, honored by God. But let me tell you this,
everything our Lord Jesus Christ did, God honored it. God honored
it. Oh, didn't He honor it? Huh?
Oh, God recognized Him from heaven. You know what? Do you know His
scene of angels? The night our Lord Jesus was born, the angels
started singing. What was they saying? Glory to
God in the highest. For unto us, unto us, sinners
like us unto us, is born this night in the city of David. Who is he? A Savior. Our Savior. Our Savior. Born this night in the city of
David. Oh my. And then when our Lord Jesus
went into the temptation in the wilderness and was tempted of
the devil 40 days and 40 nights. When he got over that, and do
you know the scripture says the angels came and ministered unto
him, strengthened him, comforted him, helped him. And I tell you at the tomb, you
know, Mary and Magdalene and another Mary, they came to the
tomb to get the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and anoint it and
take care of it. When they got there, you know
what they saw? Two angels sitting there. Said, what are you looking for?
We're looking for the Lord Jesus. Said, why in the world are you
looking here where the dead is, where the dead's supposed to
be, and he's, you know, the dead's not here, he's alive. And you
know, guess what, where he's at? He's over in Galilee, waiting
on you fellas to get over there. Oh, the angels talked about him.
And you know when our Lord Jesus Christ, after he had been on
earth 40 days after he has resurrected from the dead, he was standing
on the Mount Olive and all his disciples was gathered around.
And he told them, he said, you stay in Jerusalem until I send
the Holy Spirit, until I send you some power. And about that
time, his feet started lifting off the ground. And up he started
going. And up he went, and went right
up into the clouds. And then all of a sudden, two
men were standing there. And he said, you men of Israel, why
stand ye gazing up into the heavens? This same Jesus that you've seen
go, he gonna come back just the way he went. So angels, angels. And you know what? When he's coming back, do you
know what the first thing we're gonna hear? said he shall descend
with a shout, the voice of an archangel. Oh my, let me show you this now,
let me go back over here and do something else. Then it says, not only is God
manifest in the flesh, justified in the being of angels, but listen
to this, preached unto the Gentiles. Now let me tell you something
about Gentiles. You know the fact that the grace
of God and the Lord Jesus died for Gentiles, people like us,
was a mystery, it was a miracle. The Jew says the nearest thing
to God is an angel and the lowest thing and farthest thing from
God is a Gentile dog. Now you keep Timothy there and
look with me over here in Acts chapter 10. I want you to see
this and then this will explain everything. You remember the
woman that came to the Syrophoenician woman that came to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And she said, Lord help me, my
daughter's grievously vexed of a devil. Well, our Lord Jesus
told her, he just ignored her. He said, it's not fit that we
should take the children's bread and give it unto a dog. That's
what they thought about Gentiles. She was a Gentile. You're a dog. You're a dog. You know what she
said? Yes, Lord, I believe that. But
even a dog gets a crunch from the master's table. But look what he said over here
in Acts chapter 10. Now Peter was gonna go to preach
to the first Gentiles that was ever preached to. There was Gentiles
saved in the Old Testament, Ruth and Rahab. But anyway, look what
it says here. Peter saw he was going to go
preach to the Gentiles over to... And then it says here, it said,
He became very hungry, in verse 10, he was up on the housetop,
about the sixth hour, and he fell into a trance. Certain vessel
descended, heaven opened, and a vessel descending upon him,
as it had been great sheet at the four corners let down to
the earth. Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the
earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
And then it says, there came a voice to him, rise, Peter,
kill and eat. But Peter said, not so, Lord.
Oh no, Lord, not me. I've never eaten anything common
or unclean. Now that happened three times.
Now look what happens down here now. In verse 28, going to Cornelius'
house. And he got in the house and everybody's
there to hear him preach and this is what he said. Verse 28. And he said unto them, you know
how, that it is an unlawful thing, an unlawful thing for a man that
is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation. But God hath showed me that I
could not call anything common or unclean. So I tell you what,
that was really something that they done that. So the fact that
they would go preach to Gentiles, And that's why our Lord Jesus,
you know. And the fact is, it was a great mystery that God
saved us. God saved us. It was something
that was already foretold, but nobody knew. And then let me
give you this. Now, back over in our text. And then see the next thing.
Preached unto the Gentiles. You know, Paul, he told them
that he preached to the Gentiles, and everywhere he went, Oh, the
Jews would just berate him. They had him put in prison and
everything else because he's not supposed to go to Gentiles.
Not supposed to do that. But he was an apostle to the
Gentiles. Then look what it says here.
And I love this right here. Believed on in the world. Believed on in the world. Saving
faith is a miracle. If you've got saving faith right
now, that's a miracle. An absolute miracle. If a soul
has been brought to truly and really believe the gospel of
the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, to where he's brought
that he's a true disciple, he's a disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ in soul, in body, in his whole being, it's a miracle. It's an absolute miracle. And
you know it took a miracle to put the stars in place. It took
a miracle to hang the world in space, but when it saved my soul,
cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and grace. A miracle. You know, people are
religious by nature, but they're only saved by grace. You don't have to do much to
get a fellow to be religious. You don't have to do much to
get him to be religious. I was religious all my life, well,
when I was a young man, you know, in my early 20s, late teens,
early 20s, until God saved me. I was religious. I read a Bible.
I was religious, but oh, when God came, saved me by his grace,
you know, Men know, almost everybody will acknowledge God's existence.
You know, in the 12-step program, the thing is, you know, you've
got to depend upon a higher power. That's what they say, a higher
power. And then, you know, they say, well, God exists. Oh, they
say, if He exists, He ought to do this, that, and the other.
But men may know of God's existence, but you'll never see His glory
until it's revealed to you. Huh? Man can know and talk about
God's works. God's works. Open the side of
the blind, cleansing lepers, doing that. But if you ever know
anything about His will, if you ever see anything about His wisdom,
you're gonna have to see it in Christ and it's gotta be revealed
to you. Gotta be revealed to you. And they can know about
God's miracles. But I tell you what, if you ever
see His sovereign mercy, He's going to show it to you. Ain't
that right? Man may know of God's judgments.
I heard a fellow say one time he had sinned away. He said he
had made so many professions and went back in professions
until he just gave up hope of ever being saved. He said, I
guess I'll just go to hell. I've had people tell me, he said,
you know, I reckon I'll just go to hell. You know, and people
glory in that thing. They said, well, I'm not afraid
to face the judgment. I'll be all right. I heard a
guy that was popular on television for about 35 or 40 years. He said, in all the things that
I've done, he said, all this and this, here's all the things
that I've done. So when I get up there to Heaven's
Gate, he said, they're going to take all the bad that I've
done, and all the good that I've done, and all the good that I've
done is going to far outweigh what I've done bad. But oh, if you ever want to know
how God is just, a just God, and how the just God can take
sinners like us, and justify us, and put away our sin, and
give us life at the same time, that's a revelation. That's got to be shown to you. Oh my. And I tell you, true conversion
and salvation is more than just deciding. I'm going to decide
for Jesus today. I'm going to make a decision
today. What are you going to decide to do? I'm going to decide
to become a Christian. You know, I'll tell the preacher.
I'm going to join the church. I'm going to become a Christian. Well, I tell you what, I'm going
to accept the facts that you've told me, and I'm going to accept
the doctrine you've told me. But I tell you what faith is,
is a living union, joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's being
made, and that's a miracle. I tell you, it's being made a
new creature in Christ. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. And then let me close with this one. Go back over here
to our text. Oh, without any argument or debate,
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
God was justified in the spirit. But then it says there in the
last line, received up into glory. He left glory and he came to
earth, lived here 33 years, and we're right back where we started.
We're right back to glory. We're right back to glory. Oh my. That man who was born
of a woman, who lived among us in the flesh, a man who was born
under the law, and was tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin, a man who actually died And they took him down from
the cross and put him in a tomb. He was raised from the dead by the Spirit of God. And God
accepted all of his life and all of his work. And he says,
Thou my son, come and sit at my right hand. and enter into your glory, sit
down right here by the majesty of the right hand of God. And
I tell you what, he was received up into glory and there he sat. And you know what, once he took
this human flesh on him, this body on him, he took that same
body into heaven. Glorified body. And there's a
man, sat at the right hand of God. After he by himself purged
our sins, he sat down. Why did he sit down? He ain't
got nothing else to do. It's all done. All done. Huh? Oh my. No wonder it's called great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified by the Holy Spirit, priest unto Gentiles, believed
on in the world, received up into glory. This is the pillar
and ground of the truth of the Church of the Living God. And
you know what the Church of the Living God is? It's us. It's
not this building. It's us. It's us. That kind of sums it up, don't
it? That kind of sums it up. That
kind of sums it up. I pray that the Lord would cause
it to be effectual today. Our Father in the precious name,
oh glorious name, and name that's above every name, the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you and bless your holy
name for allowing us to meet here today, for allowing us once
again to hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord,
I thank you for this glorious treasure. I thank you that you
revealed Christ to me, saved me by your grace, made me utter
and absolutely dependent upon you for all my salvation, in
the past, in the present, and all in the future is utterly
dependent upon you. And Lord, I'm thankful that it
depends on you, not on anything I've said or done or will ever
will do, that my salvation is by the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him alone. My righteousness is His alone. And Lord, I thank you. God bless
this word. Lord, drive it home to hearts
Turn that light on in the mind, in the understanding that's darkened,
and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to 327
in the hymn book, and let's sing this.