Psalm 31. This is the Psalm of
David, Psalm 31. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver
me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be thou
my strong rock, for in house of defense to save me. For thou
art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy name's sake,
lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they
have laid probably for me. For thou art my strength. And
to thine hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth. I have hated them that regard
lying vanities. but I trust in the Lord. I will
be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered my trouble.
Thou hast known my soul in adversity, and hast not shut me up into
the hand of the enemy. Thou hast set my feet in a large
room. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am in trouble. Mine eye is consumed with grief,
Yea, my soul and my belly, for my life is spent with grief and
my years with sighing. My strength faileth because of
mine iniquity and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among
all mine enemies, but especially among mine neighbors, and a fear
to mine acquaintance. They that did see me without
fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man
out of mind. I am like a broken vessel, for
I have heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side. While
they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away
my life. But I trusted in Thee, O Lord,
I said. Thou art my God. My times are
in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of mine
enemies, and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon
thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake.
Let me not be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon thee.
Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievous
things proudly and contemptously against the righteous. Oh, how
great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that
fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before
the sons of men. Thou shalt hide them in the secret
of thy presence from the pride of man. Thou shalt keep them
secretly in a pavilion from the stripe of tongues. Blessed be
the Lord, for he hath showed me his marvelous kindness in
a strong city. For I have said in my haste,
I am cut off from before thine eyes. Nevertheless, thou heardest
the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. O love
the Lord, all ye his saints. For the Lord preserveth the faithful,
and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the
Lord. 1 Timothy Chapter 3 1 Timothy Chapter
3 And while you're turning, let me mention Peggy's, I told you
about her, she's gonna have surgery tomorrow and you know she's,
she has an awful time breathing and I'm not gonna put her to
sleep, gonna give her one of those injections in her back.
Please remember her in your prayers. And also the work schedule for
the conference will be on the table out there tonight. The
ladies your work schedule if you want to find out where you're
supposed to be and what you're supposed to be doing during the meeting Schedules
back there on the table Look here in verse 16 First Timothy 3 16 and without controversy great
is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh, justified
in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, and received up into glory. Now there's a
word in that verse that says mystery. And I want to talk about
three great mysteries this evening. The scriptures use this word
mystery or mysteries several times. And I'll read just a few
of them to you and show you where, you know, you don't have to read
them with me, but the word mystery and mysteries are used often
in the scriptures. And Paul talked about in Ephesians
1, 9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. Now his will for us tomorrow
is what he has for our lives in this world. We don't know
what it is. But we know His mystery of His will concerning salvation
in Christ. We know the mystery of His will
that He hears and hears from a lot of people and reveals among
us. We know the mystery of His will.
And that's what He says. And He did it according to the
good pleasure of His will which He hath purposed in Himself.
And then He also said in Ephesians 3.3, and I'll read this to you.
He said, He hath by revelation made known unto me the mystery. The mystery. What mystery? The
mystery of the Gentiles being converted. And then he talked
about in a marriage, he says, you know, when he talked about
a marriage between a man and a woman, he said, I'm talking
about a mystery. I'm talking about the mystery
of the union between the believer and Christ. That's what a marriage
is about. So there's mysteries. And Paul
says we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery. In a mystery. Now I'm going to tell you something
about what it means a scriptural mystery. A mystery is something
that is hidden and unknown. And the only way it can be understood
is for somebody to reveal it to you. To let you in on the
mystery. Now this is what the mystery
is and this is the answer to the mystery. And let me show
you what I mean in Luke chapter 8 and verse 10. Luke chapter
8 and verse 10. You know it is a mystery. There
are still things that are mysteries. The Bible is a mystery to most
people. The things that I am going to
talk about is a mystery to most people. But they are not mysteries
to us. God revealed them to us. And
look what He has told His disciples here in Luke chapter 8 and verse
10. And He said, unto you it is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom, the kingdom of God. But in others it is parables,
that seeing they may not see and hearing they might understand. Now He makes a distinction of
those that hear and have this mystery revealed to them and
those that don't. And so I've got three mysteries
tonight I want to talk about. And the first one here is in
1 Timothy 3.16. The mystery of godliness. The
mystery of godliness. And here's what he says. There's
no debate about it. We're not going to argue about
it. I'm not going to fuss or fight with anybody about it.
And the great mystery, without controversy, great is the mystery
of godliness. What is the mystery of godliness?
God. What is that mystery of God Himself? And he says, here's the first
thing about this mystery of God that God made. He has to reveal
this to a man. He can't know it in Himself.
God. was manifested in the flesh.
That's the first thing in this mystery that he talks about.
God was manifested in the flesh. God became a man. Now in mythology,
men become gods. But in the scriptures, God became
a man. And that's what he says. Let
me show you something. You keep I Timothy and look in
Matthew 1.18. Look in Matthew 1.18. talking about why people ridicule
the supernatural and they ridicule the things of God and the things
of the Scriptures and the virgin birth. But there was a reason
why God was manifested in the flesh. There was a reason why
our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. Because He could
not be related to any son of Adam. He had to be the seed of
the woman because God said He would be the seed of the woman
in Genesis chapter 3. And so he had to be the seed
of a woman and as the seed of a woman. And women don't have
seed. But this woman did. She is a woman that had a child
without a man. Supernaturally. And the reason
it had to be that way is because He could not be related to us
in any way. He had to be different from us. He had to be sinless from us.
He had to be a man. And He had to be God who was
a man. He had to be a man who didn't
cease to be God once He became a man. Now look what He said
here in Matthew 1.18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this wise or in this way. When as his mother, Mary, was
espoused to Joseph, they were engaged. Before they came together,
she was found with child, now listen to this, of the Holy Ghost.
Then Joseph, her husband being just, and he didn't want to make
a willing example of her and shame her and embarrass her,
was minded and said, well, we'll just forget this marriage. But
oh, listen, while he thought on these things, The angel of
the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou
son of David. Christ had to come through the
son of David. He had to be a descendant of
David. And, O listen, and fear not to
take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. and she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, that means Jehovah Savior,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this
was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord
by the prophet. Behold, a virgin shall be with
child, and they shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his
name Immanuel, what does that mean? God with us. God with us. Oh my. And it says he was manifest in
the flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory. So Christ, God, this is one of
the great mysteries. And I think that's the greatest
mystery that there is in all this universe that God became
a man. Of all the mysteries, people,
you hear these people talk about the Big Bang Theory, people coming
out of the ooze, and all these things. But I'm telling you that
God who inhabited eternity, that no man has seen at any time,
who dwells in a light that no man can approach unto. He came
down here in the person of His Son, came through the womb of
a woman who never knew a man. And she had a child, the Holy
Ghost came over her and put in the seed of God Himself in her
by the Holy Ghost. He came from her womb and he
was get that baby that was held in her arms was God God came down here God became
a man a Man that could be touched with the feelings of our infirmities
a man that could get tired a man that needed sleep a A man that had to sit and rest. A man that got hungry. A man
that got thirsty. But also a man who was God. Who could control the elements
and tell the storms to be peace. Could cause dead men out of the
grave. Could give sight to a man born
blind. Man can't do that. God can. But
man gets tired. God don't. And oh listen, then
back over here in our text, not only is great is the mystery
of Godliness, God became a man. But look what else it says, justified
in the Spirit. Now let me say something about
this. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't need to be justified in any way.
So when it talks about Him being justified in the Spirit, that
means the Spirit laid evidence, gave proof that He was who He
said He was. that justified, it justified
all of his claims, justified all of his power, justified all
of his miracles, and showed men that they was indeed who he said
he was. And the scriptures tells us that
the Holy Spirit was given to him without measure. Everybody
else gets just a measure. God gave Christ the Holy Spirit
without measure. And then the Holy Spirit descended
upon him at his baptism. And God spoke from heaven and
says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And
it testified that He was the Son of God. When our Lord Jesus
Christ performed miracles, how many times did He say, my works
do testify of me. My works tell you that I'm God. My works tell you that my Father's
with me here. The Spirit justified Him in the
miracles that He performed. And it just went on the day of
Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down upon all the disciples
on the day of Pentecost and came down on them like cloven tongues
of fire and they all began to speak in other tongues. That
justified, they said this has come, this is the promise that
Christ gave us that the Holy Spirit would come upon us. And
then it justified him by raising him from the dead. And why did
he raise him from the dead? because payment was made for
our sin, justice was satisfied, and that's the next thing. Oh,
He ascended into glory, bless His name. So the Holy Spirit
gave evidence that He was who He said He was. Look what else
it says about it. This mystery of godliness. God
was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels. Oh my, seen of angels. You know,
it was an angel that came to announce his birth. Gabriel came
and told Mary, you're going to have a child. And it was an angel
that came and told David, I mean, Joseph, you know, she's going
to have a child. And then when he was born, the
angels gathered around. And they sang glory to God and
on earth, peace and goodwill toward men. They began to sing
glory to God. They began to praise him and
manifested themselves in the heavens so people could see him.
And I'll tell you, angels came to our Lord Jesus Christ after
he was tempted in the wilderness, when he spent 40 days and 40
nights in the wilderness. And he was tempted of the devil.
It says the angels came and strengthened him. And when he went into the
Garden of Gethsemane, and he was there praying in agony until
his sweat became as it were great drops of blood, angels came and
ministered unto him and strengthened him. He said himself, he said,
Oh, you think it's something because I seen you, Nathaniel,
sitting under that tree. Wait till you see the angels
of God ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. And I tell you
what, and the angels appeared at His resurrection. They came
to see where the Lord Jesus Christ was at His resurrection. There's
two angels sitting there. One up where His head was, one
where His feet was. Who are you looking for? Jesus
of Nazareth. He's not here. Where's He at?
He's risen. He's not here. He's going to
meet you over in Galilee. He's going to meet you over in
Galilee. And then the angels, the scene of angels, the day
after 40 days after He had appeared unto His disciples, after he
had comforted them and strengthened them and encouraged them, after
40 days he was standing on the Mount of Olives. And as he was
standing on the Mount of Olives and his disciples were gathered
around, our Lord Jesus began to lose gravity and he began
to ascend into heaven. And those fellows, Peter, James,
and John and all them disciples were watching him, And then all
of a sudden two angels stand there and said, you men of Galilee,
why stand you here gazing? This same Jesus who you see go
up, he's coming back the same way. And so they left and went
on about their business. So the angels, scene of angels. And look what else it says here
now. This is a great mystery right here. And I'm going to
show you that. Priest unto the Gentiles. Now that was a mystery. that the Jews couldn't stand,
they couldn't bear. Now I want you to look with me
over here in Ephesians chapter 3. Look with me in Ephesians
chapter 3. I'm going to show you what a
mystery it was for the Gentiles to be preached to. Gentiles were
considered dogs. Gentiles were considered unclean.
Gentiles, they had a special place that they could go but
they couldn't The only way they can become a Jew is to be proselytized
and go under the Jewish law and do everything that the Jews did.
But if you wasn't a Jewish proselyte, you was just a dog. You was a
filthy, miserable wretch. But look what Paul said here
in Ephesians 3. God gave me grace to preach. He said, how be it
that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery. Now look
down at verse 5, leave the italics out of it. How that by revelation
He made known unto me the mystery, which in other ages was not made
known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy
apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And here is the mystery
that was revealed, the mystery that had been hid, that the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers
of the promise in Christ by the gospel. Now you think folks wasn't
upset about that? Now look in Acts chapter 13.
Now Paul said this is a mystery. Now, we didn't know that the
Gentiles were going to be preached to. We didn't know God was going
to save the Gentiles. We didn't know God was going
to make Gentiles of the same body as us. We didn't know God
was going to take Gentiles and put them into the body of Christ
and save them by grace. That's what Peter said when he
went and preached to Cornelius. He said, I say unto you that
they got on to him about going priest to Cornelius, that Roman
Gentile, that Roman centurion. And Peter said, I see that we
shall be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, even as
they were. He said, you get mad because
I went over and priested them Gentiles over there. He said,
if we're going to be saved, us Jews, we're going to be saved
by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like he saved them
Gentiles over there. Now look here in Acts 13 verse
45, But when the Jews saw the multitudes,
they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which
were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word
of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing you
put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
Lo, listen to this, we turn to the Gentiles. We're going to
quit preaching to you Jews, we're going to start preaching to the
Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have
set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest
be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles
heard this, They were glad. I'm glad. I'm glad that they
started preaching the gospel to people like us. And glorified
the word of the Lord. And listen to this. And as many
as were ordained to eternal life, they believed. Who? Gentiles. All right. Back over here. Let
me give you another one. Oh my. Priest unto the Gentiles. Priest unto the Gentiles. And
then look what else it says. down there, not only priesthood
Gentiles believed on in the world. Oh my, he was actually believed
on. People actually believed that
God came. Christ was God manifested in
the flesh. People actually believed that
he worked miracles. People actually believed that
he was raised from the dead. People actually believe that
he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. People actually believe
that they're saved from their sins by this man. And that's
why they say he was believed on in the world. And I'll tell
you in this world right now, there's people that believe.
What is it to believe? that Christ in His flesh, why
He came into this world, was to bear our sins in His own body
and dying as our substitute and being punished for our sins.
Punished for our sins. Bearing the wrath of God for
us. Enduring and satisfying the law that we so broke and justified
the justice of God. Satisfied it. And He was punished
for our sins and He put them away once and for all. I believe
that. I believe. And because He was
Christ, God manifested in the flesh, it took God to put my
sin away. And oh, listen, and that He arose
for our justification. And I tell you what, the only
justification I have before God is Christ Himself. That Christ
came, that Christ lived, that Christ died for my sins, that
Christ was buried, and He bore my sins away, and He raised from
the dead, and He ascended up to glory, and He sat down at
the right hand of God. And that's the only hope when
I face God that will be the only justification I have. I've got
no works that I can tell Him about. I've got no merit that
I can claim before Him. I've got no worth in myself. All I've got is my only thing
that I've got that belongs to me, lock, stock and barrel, is
my sin. And had He not put that away,
I would be forever lost. There are some people who believe
on that and there are some people who believe that. Do you believe
that? Oh my! And not only did He raise
for our justification, but He ever lives to see that we ever
live. And that He entered once into
the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for us. And our salvation
is eternal as He is. and that He Himself is our righteousness. Our righteousness. Now listen
to me. Listen to me. The only way He
could bear our sin was to die. To die to bear our sin was to
become a man. The only way He could put sin
away once and for all was to be God. As man, he could die. As God,
he could bear God's judgment and justice and put our sins
away. And then look what else it says
there in the last. Oh, this is mysteries now. And God made us
to understand these mysteries and believe these mysteries.
They're not here to us anymore. And look what he says, and received
up into glory. Where's that glory? God said,
sit right over here at my right hand. This place of honor, this
place of privilege, this place of power, this place of glory,
sit right here. And everything you do, it's in
your hands. Amen. Let me give you another
one. Look over here in Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter
one. Let me show you another mystery. Colossians chapter 1 verse 25.
I told you three. The ones of mystery of Godliness.
Here is another mystery. Here is another mystery. Start
here in verse 25. This is Paul the Apostle. This
is the Word of God. He says, Whereof I am made a
minister. according to the dispensation
which is given to me for God." God gave him a certain amount
of grace and power and dispensation of the Word and the Gospel, which
is given to me. Who did He give it to him for?
For you. For people that he preaches to.
To fulfill the Word of God or fully preach the Word of God.
And here is the thing, the mystery. Fully preach the mystery. which
has been hid from ages and generations, but now look who it's made manifest
to. Not everybody, but it's made manifest now to His saints. To
whom God, He's going to make His saints know this, to whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery. Oh, it's rich and it's glorious.
Of this mystery among the Gentiles, and what is it? Christ in you. He said that mystery has been
in and I am preaching the Gospel, preaching the Word, fully preaching
it that you might know this mystery and be made manifest unto you
that Christ in you is your hope of glory. He is in glory, your
hope of glory is Christ in you. And what is Christ in you? Well
Christ in you is the new birth. It is the new birth, that is
what it is. It is to be begotten of the seed of Christ put in
us by the Holy Spirit. You know, He said, we are begotten
by the Word of Truth. And He says, you know, and said,
being born again, not by corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the
Word of Christ, which liveth and abideth forever. And so look
over here in 1 John 3 with me. Just look over here in 1 John
3. Here's what our Lord says. Now,
this is one of them mysteries that folks have trouble with.
And you just have to believe it. We do believe it. But the
new birth, Christ in you is the new birth, the seed of Christ
in you, begotten of the seed of Christ. Look what He says
in verse 8, 1 John 3.8. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works
of the devil. Now listen to this. Whosoever
is born of God doeth not commit sin. Oh my! Well, who's born of God? Look
in chapter 5 and verse 1. And I'll go back over there and
show you this in a minute. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Now, over here, back in verse
9 of chapter 3, Whosoever is born of God doeth not commit
sin. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Do you all see it? It says there
we don't. Who is that that don't? Christ
in you. Christ in you the hope of glory,
Christ in you the seed, Christ in you that incorruptible seed,
that's the one that don't sin. And you know you never ever had
a problem with sin until Christ was formed in you, until the
seed of Christ was put in you. You had no problem with sin until
you got converted. Did you? And then after you got
converted, then sin became a burden to you. Sin became a grief to
you. Sin becomes a problem to you. Sin becomes something you
weep over and groan over and just feel miserable over. And
yet that man in us, Christ in us, he cannot sin. Now watch
what he says. And why? Because His seed remaineth
in Him. We are eternally saved. When we get to glory, we want
to take His flesh with us. But Christ will still be in us. Now watch this. And He cannot
sin because He is born of God. Oh my. There it is. Now that's a mystery. But that's
true. So you see, it says with new
birth, not only is Christ in you would mean the new birth,
but it's a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. And it's not a reformation. No,
no, it's regeneration. It's not cleaning up the outside.
What it is, this mystery of Christ in you, it's a work of God in
the soul. It's the work of God coming,
a supernatural work of God. He works, He goes upon and works
upon a soul. And He puts Christ the seed in
a man's soul, and that seed germinates, and then that seed germinates,
life comes from that seed. Let me show you that in Mark
chapter 2. It's a quickening is what it says. Look in Mark
chapter 2. I think you'll enjoy this. This
explains He explains it very well, Mark 2.21. Boy, we're a
new creation. It's a work of God in the soul. It's God Himself doing a work
in a man's heart and a man's soul. And look what it says here
in Mark 2.21. No man also soweth a piece of
new cloth on an old garment. You get an old garment, it's
rotten, it's fallen apart, you don't go out here and buy a new
piece of cloth and put on it. Because if you do, the new piece
that filleth up take away from the old and the rinse made worse
than it was. And look what else he said. And
no man puts new wine into old bottles. God, He's not just going
to clean us up. No, no, he don't take an old
piece of garment and put something new to it, make it look a little
better. He don't take some old wine and put it in new bottles. He puts new wine in new bottles
and he makes new clothes with what we wear. Everything he does,
he don't put. So I tell you what, it's not
a reformation, it's a regency, it's a work of God in a man's
heart. It's a work of God in a man's
soul. And it's a change. It's a change
from death to life, from darkness to light. It's from going to being a natural
man to becoming a spiritual man. And all of my comes from going
from sin to being righteous. And Christ cannot and will not
dwell in an unclean temple. And that's why He says that He's
going to present Himself a church without spot, without wrinkle,
and without blame before Himself in love. That's what He said
He's going to do. And I'll tell you what, and it's
personal. This Christ in you is personal.
Paul said it like this. He said, I'm crucified with Christ.
I died with Christ. When Christ was crucified, I
died with him. But nevertheless, I live. And
the life I live right now, in this flesh, I live by the faith. Not my faith, the faith of the
Son of God. That faith gotta be perfect,
and we ain't got perfect faith. So Christ in us, Christ Himself,
it's His faith, He has faith. I believe Him, I trust Him. But
my faith's not what saved me, Christ saves me. Because I have
enough unbelief to damn the whole world and myself at times. But
here's what I'm telling you. He said, Christ, the life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. I'm living by the faith
of the Son of God, the Christ in me. And I tell you what, one
thing you don't do with grace, you can't turn it off and you can't turn it on. is something that God gives us,
works in us, and keeps giving it grace for grace for grace
for grace. And He ain't never gonna leave
us to ourselves. You know why? Because He's in
us. That's why this idea that a man
can be lost again that a man can be saved and if he don't
live right, if he don't live up to the church's expectations
or his own expectations, that's why to be lost again and to go
back out into the world and be lost again, that's as contrary
as it possibly be. You can't undo your birth! And
this is the birth, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. You
may, you're gonna die, but they're gonna put on there that you was
born, that you lived, that you was born on such and such a day
and you die on such and such a day. You can't undo that life.
And that's the way it is, Christ in you, you can't undo this life. And who in the world would want
to? This is the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me. Ain't
it you? Oh, Christ in you, the hope of
glory. And then let me give you one
other. I hope I don't take, I hope I'm not taking too long, but
let me give you another. Here's the third mystery. Here's
the third mystery over in 1 John 3. Here's the third thing I want
you to see. You know, and what this is, Christ
became a man, raised the mystery of God in us. The mystery of
Christ in you. And now, man, Christ became a
man. Christ in you, and then man becoming
like Christ. Oh my! Look what He said here in 1 John
3. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, that we should be called the sons of God, Oh, called sons
of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not. And that's these mysteries we're
talking about, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we
the sons of God, and it doeth not yet appear what we shall
be. Do we know this right here? We do know this, that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. Romans 8.29 says, For whom He
did foreknow, them He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. Now listen, in the order of intention,
God wills the end before He ever starts the beginning. In an order of intention, God
wills the end first. What He wants to end up at, that's
what He wills first. But to get there, He starts over
here. His intentions take you there.
That's the end of it. We're going to be conformed to
the image of Christ. But He starts over here. First He starts by
choosing us in Christ for the foundation of the world. Then
we grow up and we're full of sin and corruption and darkness
and death. So He sends the Holy Spirit to
us and quickens us and teaches us and brings us to Christ. And
He saves us by His grace. And why did He do that? He foreknew
us. He didn't predestinate us. So
we will eventually, and it's all said and done, be exactly
like His blessed Son. Now we won't look like Him. I
still have the same you look like you did on this earth, but
I'll tell you what what he means is that we'll be sinless We'll
be perfectly obedient We will love with a perfect love and
we'll worship God with a perfect wheel and a perfect heart and
a penless Everything about us will be absolutely sinless and
we'll be able to worship and praise God and worship Christ
as Christ did his father on this earth But then also we see His
intention wills the end first and then the means. We see the
means before we'll ever see the end. Ain't that right? And being just like Him is the
ultimate end of God's decrees for us. Our Lord said, I restored that
which I took not away. And what it is, it's the Spirit's
great work in us is to conform us to the image of Christ. It's
God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
pleasure. Look in John 6, 28. Look in John
6, 28. Here's you a good verse of Scripture
that we've read many a time and let's look at it again. John
6, 28. Oh, see it's the Spirit's great
work in us. Oh, these fellows came to our
Lord Jesus Christ And they said unto him, What shall we do that
we might work the works of God? Oh, we want to go to work for
God. We want to go to work for Jesus. We want to serve the Lord.
Look what our Lord answered. This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. Now wait a minute. You mean it's a work on our part
to believe? That's not what that's saying.
What that's saying is, it's God's work that you believe. He which
hath begun a good work in you, what does it say? He shall perform
it unto that day. Huh? It's God which worketh in
you both to will and to do. And no man comes unto the Father. No man comes unto me except the
Father which sent me drawing. And as it is written, they shall
all be taught of God. And our Lord, they wanted to
do a work. And our Lord says, it's God's work. If you ever
believe on God, He said it will be God's work in you to do that.
That's why all them disciples turned and walked away. And they
all turned, you know, all these disciples turned and walked away
when He started telling them what it was to believe on Him.
And He looked at the twelve. And he said, are you also going
to go away? And you know why they left? Because
he said, as I said unto you, no man can come unto me except
the Spirit which sent me drawing. So they left him, saw his miracles,
followed him around. Then he looked at 12. Will you
also go away? Where are we going to go? You
have the words. Words, not the work, the words
of eternal life. And I tell you, it's God's work
in you. and we regain in Christ what we lost in Adam and all
much, much more. We are now in Christ, not in
Adam anymore. He had the natural power of his
own free will and stood in his own strength. We now stand in
Christ, kept by spiritual union and supernatural God's work in
us, a supernatural work of God in us. And I tell you, Adam had
no promise of preservation. We do. I give unto them eternal
life and they ain't never gonna perish. And he said if he started
to work in us, you know what he said he'll do with it? He
said, I'm gonna finish it. I'm gonna finish it. You know,
there's some people that start half a dozen things and absolutely
finish none of them. I know a fella that's been living
in his house for over 25 years, and he's got rock all the way
around it, except one little old corner, and he's got three
rocks put in it, and he ain't put them three rocks in there
all these years. You know, work never is finished. But one thing
about God, when He starts a work, He'll finish it. It's as good
as done. Ain't that what it says, who
be glorified? And on he stood, Adam stood before
God, dependent upon his own righteousness. And when he lost that righteousness,
he lost all blessings to go with it. Now, Christ is our righteousness. Jehovah's a kid in you. We stand
before God in another's righteousness, and that righteousness can't
be lost. We didn't do anything to become lost. It was born that
way. And we can't do anything to become
righteous. It's God that has to work in
you. Huh? And righteousness is imputed
and charged to us and we're covered with it. You don't earn it. And
Adam stood in his self. We stand in Christ. He stood
on do and live. We stand on done. Huh? We did nothing to become sinners
and we did nothing to become righteous. Let me give you one
verse of scripture in closing. Ephesians 6. Let me close with
this verse of scripture. Ephesians 6. All three great
mysteries. Mystery of godliness, mystery
of Christ in you, and the mystery of man becoming like Christ. Look in Ephesians 6.19. And I'll
close with this. Talking about pray. Pray for me, he says, that utterance
may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make
known the mystery of the gospel. And you know when it ceases to
be a mystery? When God opened your heart. It's
not a mystery anymore. There's a time it's a mystery
to us, but it ain't anymore. our most gracious Father in Heaven,
and our Lord Jesus Christ. Your Word, indeed, is life-giving,
life-producing, quickening. It puts fire in our soul, fire
in our bones, hope in our hearts, assurance before You. It's Your Word. It's not us,
O Lord, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name be glory forever
and ever. Amen. God bless and keep your
people. Strengthen and encourage the
weak. Bless those who are having the great trials. Strengthen
them, encourage them, give them peace. Give them rest. Pray for those whose bodies are
still weak that you'd strengthen them. Especially pray for Peggy
tomorrow. And I know she'll be restless
tonight and worried. Lord, let her sleep good. Let
her rest in her spirit and her soul. And may things go well
tomorrow to your good and their glory. To your glory and their
glory. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.