Blessing to be here today. And
surely the Lord has blessed us with His presence. Going to be
looking in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. And I was blessed
with what Brother Thomas read and commented upon. And that is quite a segue, I
would say, into our passage of scripture here. In fact, let
me read those few verses to you again. In 1 Peter 2, verse seven. Oh, let's go to verse six. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect
Precious, he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And so, Paul goes into his, sums up that
which he has been speaking to Timothy about in verse 16. And he says, 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, received up into glory. And without controversy, We live in a world full of controversy,
do we not? I mean, all you gotta do is turn
on the computer or look at the news on TV and there's nothing
but controversy. And it's amazing to me how that
people can look at the same thing and one see one thing and one
see another and be no meeting in the middle about it. Well,
that's a sad thing when men cannot find a place, you know, of compromise
with one another in most things. That, you know, it's not a good
thing to, in political things, to be without compromise because
there's no moving forward in that realm if there's not some
give and take. And we seem to have lost that
skill, you know, in our politicians. Not that I would desire to be
one, but in any event, What we're talking about here though, there
is no place of compromise. There's no equivocation. Because
this is the declaration of God. Now men don't know anything.
We think we do. And so it's foolish when we get
to, we fall out with one another over something we know in the
flesh because tomorrow we'll either find out that what we
knew really wasn't the way it was. But whenever we go to the
Word of God, we don't have to worry about that. Because the
things that we find there don't change. Because the one who is
the author and the subject of this book does not change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Same in all ages. Now, I know
that we live in a day and age when men think that the Lord
has somehow changed. He's a little bit, you know,
as when they look, a lot of people say, well, you know, you look
at the Old Testament and you see God, He was a God of wrath
and fire and brimstone and all of that, and then He kind of
mellowed out. And that's ignorance, because
the same God that was in the beginning, in the book of Genesis
is the same one who comes in flaming fire taking vengeance
on them that know not God in the end. And so it is that Paul
writes here to Timothy without controversy. There's no disputing
this. It's not up to dispute. It doesn't
make any difference if men do dispute it. And great religions
in the earth, you know the world is a religious place. And you
can pick and choose just about any religion you want. I mean,
you can believe anything you want to and find somebody somewhere
that believes the same thing. And that's a great comfort to
some folks. They're looking for somebody that they can get together
with that believes what they do. Well, brethren, that's a
poor thing to be looking for. You don't need to be looking
for somebody that thinks the same way you do or believes the
same thing you believe because you believe it. You need to be
looking for somebody that believes the word of God. And whether
they understand it or have any clear vision about it or not,
they do not move from it. It is what it is. And without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Now, most people
don't really think about the gospel as being a mystery because
they think of it as something that they've read about and they
figured out and they've got the answers. that everybody needs. And they feel like that because
they are people with great intellect and because they have a free
will to choose whatever they want to, they can just pick up
this Bible and they can read it and they can say, well I'm
going to believe that. That satisfies most people. Most
people are pretty happy with that idea. And most preachers
today preach a message that kind of goes along those lines. You
know, they say, well, here the Lord has done all these things
for sinners. He's done everything He can do. And now it's all up to you. You've
got to make a decision. In fact, I saw a little sign
today, or it wasn't today, but yesterday, out in front of a
little place where folks gather up to meet and said, heaven or
hell, the choice is yours. That sounds good, doesn't it?
Because that puts man right in the driver's seat, does it not?
Heaven or hell, it's up to you. I saw a sign going up to Georgia
the other day. Big letter says, get right with
God. Sounds good, doesn't it? Sounds
good to men. The problem with that is, That when a man is brought to
the place to realize what the scripture says about the condition
of man, he's not in a position to get right with God. He better
be hoping that God gets right with him. Because you see, he's
not gonna find a way that he's gonna reach out to God. Because the Lord, the scripture
says, he dwells in the light to which no man can approach. Well that, why, that's just terrible. Isn't it? I mean, in thinking
of many it is. Why, I never heard such a thing
in my life. I mean, isn't God just sitting
around waiting on us to do something? Isn't he hoping that we'll just,
you know, let him have his way with us? I've heard preachers
say that, let the Lord have his way with you. Well, listen to
me. When the Lord gets ready to have his way with you, he'll
have his way with you. The apostle Paul found that out,
did he not? When he was going to Damascus,
his soul of Tarsus, breathing out threatenings and slaughters
against God. And the Lord had his way with him. And he said,
because of God's mercy. He brought me out of the darkness
and into the light. And dear brethren, that's the
place that men find themselves today. That's the place every
one of us in here is by nature. We're in darkness, except that
the Lord in his mercy brings us out of that. Now that's what
Peter was writing about there. He said he brought us out of
the darkness and into the light. the glorious light of Christ.
But how did we? We didn't discover the light.
Paul didn't find the light out of me. He was going along fine,
was he not? And he said that a light brighter
than the brightness of the noonday sun shone upon him. And he thought,
you see, he wasn't in the dark when he was riding or when he
was walking along that pathway, was he? I mean, he could see
good enough, but a light shone, and then he could really see,
could he not? Because the Lord took away his sight, but he could
see. He said, Lord, who art thou? Oh, what a merciful God he is
to visit men. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. Now it's a mystery because you
see a mystery is something that's hidden. And the scripture tells
us that the gospel was hid from the world until such time as
the Lord saw fit to reveal it. Now when the Lord gave the law
to Moses on Mount Sinai, he revealed something to Moses in a fashion
that had not been revealed before. Now, the law did not come into
being when the Lord spoke it to Moses, but the covenant that
he made with Israel did at that point in time. And it was a conditional
covenant, was it not? He said, do this and live. And
they said, we'll do it. Remember when we read there,
or Brother Al read about those The children of Israel, they
said, we'll follow the Lord. Well, did they? Oh, by man's standard, they did.
But see, by the Lord's standard, they did not. Because He didn't
mean, will you try to do it? He said, do it. And they didn't
do it. And they broke the law. Because
He that has broken the law in one point has broken the whole
thing. And so they shattered the covenant. They could not keep it. They
could not do it. But fortunately, when the Lord
created the world, He did not create the world in order to
deal with His people, which He had chosen in Christ from before
the foundation of that world. He did not choose to deal with
them upon a conditional covenant. but it was a covenant that was
sure and true and steadfast and was built upon better promises
because the covenant that he made is built in Jesus Christ. And our foundation and our hope
is in Christ, in Christ alone. It's not in what we do, but it's
in what Christ has done for us. And this is a mystery. And without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Now, men don't
like that. You'd think they would. I mean,
a man that's a sinner, he thinks it's a pretty good thing. See,
a man that knows he can't keep the law, he likes the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ has come and kept the law. But the man
that thinks he can keep the law and thinks that by keeping the
law he can make himself pleasing in the eyes of God, He doesn't
like that, because it takes all the power from his hand. Now, he doesn't have any power
at all anyway, but he thinks he does. The Pharisees, they
thought they had plenty of power, did they not? They were happy
to serve God. In fact, they accused the Lord
Jesus Christ, who did no sin, neither was God found in his
mouth. They accused him of being a sinner. They said, he's not
like us. And they were right. He was not
like them. And so it is that religious men
today, they think themselves to be something when they are
nothing. The Lord came to save sinners.
That's a mystery. Is it not? I mean, if you were
going to design a world, wouldn't you, and you were going to deliver
some folks out of it, wouldn't you pick out the best folks you
could find? It just makes sense, does it
not? I mean, there's a lot of people who even go around and
tell you that God helps those that help themselves. I mean,
that makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, you know if a man's over
here and he's a lazy on no count sinner, and then you got this
man over here that's a fine upright citizen and he goes about doing
things right every day and he goes about helping people and
doing all these things, wouldn't you think he'd be more worthy? of your help than the other one? Well, of course you would. You
know you would, I mean, because every time you ride down through
town, you see some old bum out by the road begging, you know,
for a handout, you're thinking to yourself, you know, look at
that guy. I mean, he's too lazy to work.
Well, I'm not too lazy to work. Well, I'll go work. You know,
I'll do all these things. We don't have to go far to start
thinking of our own self-righteous ways, do we not? But when we
look at him, we ought to see ourselves. Because that's what
we are before Almighty God. We're nothing but beggars before
him. We're in need, dear brother. And there's no need to write
the sign like they do. We'll work for food. They won't
work for food, neither will you. Only the Lord in his mercy is
gonna deliver a sinner out of the darkness that he's in, because
he don't even know he's in the dark. So it's a mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness. The purpose of God. You see,
God intended the salvation of sinners. And
he made a world to manifest that. What a glorious thing. Now you
wouldn't have done it like that. See, people get to thinking,
well, you know, I'd have done this and I'd have done that.
Well, it ought to be this way or it ought to be that way. No,
it's the way God would have it. But he looked at it and he said,
it's good. When he told Adam what he was
gonna do, he wasn't surprised, was he? He said, Adam, in the day that
you eat this, you're gonna die. Did that take the Lord by surprise?
No. All things work together for
good to them that love God, who are the call according to His
purpose. Because you see, the Lord purposed to save His people
from the beginning. That's a mystery. And if you
want me to explain it to you in detail, I can't. Because it
is a mystery. And any man that says he knows
and understands... You know, you hear people talk
about the plan of salvation. Well, what is the plan of salvation?
It's not what men talk about as being the plan. The plan of
salvation is in the mind and purpose of Almighty God when
He created the world. That was the plan of salvation.
Because He purposed to save His people through the work of Jesus
Christ the righteous. That's the plan of salvation.
And if a man would be in that plan of salvation, it'll be by
the grace of God. According to His mercy and kindness,
And thankfully, he does save sinners. Great is the mystery
of godliness. We could spend a long time there.
And then he goes, he's gonna kinda define the mystery of godliness. That is the mystery of the works
of God. See, salvation's the work of
God. You notice I didn't say it had
two parts. Now, you've probably heard that before, haven't you?
I mean, I grew up learning about this, that salvation had two
parts. It had God's part and man's part. Well, the problem with that is
too many parts. I mean, there's only one part
in salvation, it's God's part. I'm glad. What would I have done if I had
to bring something to the Lord? Without controversy, great is
the mystery of the works of God. God was manifest in the flesh. Now, you could just read right
over that. That's a profound statement.
And a lot of people miss what it says. God was manifest in
the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh.
Now, what does that tell us? That the one who walked among
men in flesh and blood is God. Now, His disciples, when He walked
among them, they didn't fully understand this. I don't know
that they understood it right on Him up to the very end. I
don't know that we fully and completely comprehend how it
can be that God has been seen fit to manifest himself in the
flesh. But I'm telling you this, had
he not, we'd be of all men most miserable
because we certainly would have no access unto God, would we? I mean, how would, what realm,
where would we go? How would we approach him? God
was manifest in the flesh when the Lord, when Philip asked the
Lord, He said, well, you know, you've taught us all these things,
would you show us the Father? And the Lord Jesus said, Philip,
he says, have I been so long time with you and you have not
known me? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. Now that's a glorious thing.
God was manifest in the flesh. He wasn't a secondary God, but
he's God. Now, I don't have all answers
of how all of that fits together. We believe the scripture plainly
says, speaks about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And I know men have written many books and spent much time trying
to figure all this out and put it in a way for men to understand.
And when they get through, nobody understands. Because it's beyond
the realm of man's understanding. Suffice it to say that God was
manifest in the flesh. Jesus Christ is God. He said,
I and the Father are one. We're united. There's no separation
between them. None can be. Even in our thought
process or whatever, he said he manifested himself in the
flesh. He walked among men. He was justified in the spirit. Now how was Jesus Christ justified? What's it mean to be justified?
It means to be righteous. It means to be acceptable. If
a man is unjust he cannot come into the presence of God but
see you and I are unjust by nature because we have gone contrary
to the way of God so we are unjust Jesus Christ however he was justified
in the spirit he is just he's righteous He didn't have somebody
that made him righteous. He is righteous. He is the righteousness
of God. He's justified in the Spirit.
He was seen of angels. Now, there's a couple ways we
can look at that. Now, when we read the word angels
in the scripture, what do we usually think about? somebody
with wings and sitting up there and floating around or whatever. I mean some angelic heavenly
creature. And it well can be. And it is
definitely true that he was seen of angels in the sense that he
was worshipped from the beginning He was manifest in the flesh,
and the angels heralded his birth, did they not? They told the shepherds,
hey, you need to go down here because there's somebody's been
born. Hark, the herald angels sing,
glory to the newborn King. But I don't think that's exactly
what this is speaking about here. He was indeed seen of angels
in that way. But I believe that it has reference
to the fact that he was seen of messengers. An angel is a
messenger. Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. And I believe those angels are
ministers of God. Now I'm not talking about somebody
that occupies a position. I'm talking about somebody God
sends. See, a man doesn't have to have
a position for God to send him. God sends those whom He wills.
And He often sends men to us. We may never see them again,
but He sends messengers to us in the course of our lives with
His truth. He was seen of those angels which
then preached unto the Gentiles. See, I believe he's speaking
here that this was a great mystery how that the Lord ordained 12
men as apostles to be the messengers of the gospel. Now, where would
we be, dear brethren, were it not for those men whom God appointed? And this one born out of due
time, most of the New Testament written by the Apostle Paul,
whom the Lord taught. And not men. And he was seen
of these messengers. You see, they saw him with their
eyes. You and I haven't seen the Lord
Jesus Christ with our eyes. Peter did. Paul did. Matthew did. Luke did, John did, and we can believe their testimony
because they saw him. He was seen of angels. preached
unto the Gentiles. Now that's part of that mystery.
Remember that the word was hidden from the Gentiles. Let me read this passage of scripture.
I think it's in Romans chapter one. Just thought about this. speaking about the Lord Jesus
Christ and him being justified in the Spirit and preached unto
the Gentiles. It says, Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God, which he had promised to for by his prophets in the Holy
Scriptures. Now these things were prophesied
ahead of time. See, this was not something that
was hidden from view totally, but it was hidden from view in
plain sight. As you read a mystery or see
a mystery movie, and the solution to the mystery is always right
there, but you can't see it until you get to the end and find out
what it is. Well, the same way with the unfolding
of the gospel. which he had promised to for
by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. He was justified in the spirit.
You see, he was declared, he was manifested. He didn't become
something, he was shown to be what he is. And so he is seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles. Now, the Lord hid the
fact that he would save men of every kindred, tribe, and tongue.
It didn't appear that way from the beginning, did it? Because
there was this long period of time when chiefly the Jews, unto
the Jews, was committed to the oracles of God. The prophets
of God were sent to the Jews. Prophets of God weren't sent
to the Gentiles. I mean, the Perizzites and the
Hivites and all of those other hites that died in total pagan
darkness, they didn't receive the promises of God. They didn't
receive the oracles of God. The prophets of God were not
sent to them, but they were sent unto the Jews. And what was the purpose of it?
That through the stumbling of the Jews, the gospel might be
brought to the Gentiles. Now, did that just happen? Did
the Lord say, well, you know, I'm just wiping my hands of these
Jews and I'm gonna give this to the Gentiles. Now, the scripture
does speak in many ways that we might think that is the case,
but that's not what he said. In other words, the Lord loved
his people in Christ from the beginning. He didn't choose a
people in Jacob and then later on say, well, I'm gonna choose
a people in Christ. No, the people that were chosen
in Christ were his from the first. And he showed in his time that
he had a people not just of the tribe of Jacob. The purpose of
the calling out of the Jews was twofold. One was to manifest
the coming of the gospel. It was to show men the inability
of men to approach unto God through the works of the law. But it
was to bring Christ into the world as the Savior of the world. That's what he told Nicodemus
what did not. He said, Nicodemus, God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Not just Jews, Nicodemus. You
see, the Lord has a people in every kindred, tribe, and tongue.
They belong to him. And he would send forth the gospel
that it might be preached unto the Gentiles. I'm glad that he
did. I mean, you know, what would you or I have done had the Lord
only chosen the Jews? You know, it's a funny thing
to me that a lot of people, they'll get all up in arms and they'll
fight you tooth and toenail that the Jews are God's chosen people. But then they'll turn right around
and hate you because if you preach the doctrine of election. I mean,
you know the doctrine of election is indeed it was first manifested
in type and foreshadow in His choice of the Jews. But the Lord
had chosen the people in Christ. They belong to Him. They're that
peculiar people. They're the antithesis, the opposite
of those who are appointed under wrath. That we read about there
in and First Peter. They were appointed
unto this end. And what makes us any different
than them? The grace of God. The mercy of
God. The kindness of God. Believed
on in the world. Oh, what a glorious thing. Now wouldn't it have been a mess
if the Lord had went to all the trouble to send forth his son
into the world to die for sinners. And then he just stood back and
said, well, okay, boys, I've done all I can. Now it's all
the rest of it's up to you. And nobody believed. Well, I mean, you know, if it's
according to the free will of man, isn't that a possibility?
I mean, how did we know? How did he know? I mean, you
know, if it was all up to men, somebody, might not anybody believe.
That'd have been a mess, would it not? I mean, think about the
cobwebs in the mansions in heaven that were prepared and nobody
came. How foolish is that? I mean,
how ridiculous is that? The Lord did what he did on purpose.
He purposed to save a people. And he had the gospel be preached
unto the Gentiles and believed on in the world. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me
I'll in no wise cast out. He said, I know my sheep. I know
their names. And he said, I give unto them
eternal life. When he prayed in the garden,
he said, Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom
thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou
hast given them to me. Oh, what a glorious message that
is. What a mystery it is. But he
has, the gospel is believed on in the world. People believe
in it right now. Somebody's believing the gospel.
Now, when I was a kid, what we were taught was that, you know,
believing the gospel was like a one-time thing. Buddy, you
come up here and you go, he believed. Well, brother, I believed. Well,
you're in. Well, that's not what believing
the gospel is. Believing the gospel is casting
yourself upon the mercy of Christ. That's what it is to believe
the gospel, to believe that Christ is the Savior of sinners, believe
that Christ is the righteousness of His people. That's what it
is to believe. And the Lord is the one that
causes men to believe. And He gives men faith. And they're
like the Apostle Peter. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou is the words of eternal
life. You see, God's people must believe. Received up into glory. The Lord
has indeed been received up in the glory and well it is good
for us that he was because it shows that his sacrifice was
perfectly acceptable to the Lord. And he said he was going away
for a season but that he would come again to gather his own
unto himself. Oh great is the mystery of Godliness. We can't fathom its depth. But
we are given by the grace of God. the grace, the gift to go
forth and declare it unto the nations of the earth that Jesus
Christ is the Savior of sinners and that he receiveth sinful
men. Oh, that's a glorious message,
dear brethren. He didn't come to call the righteous. Men that's
got righteousness need not apply. But this is a place for sinners
at the foot of Christ. who with open arms says, come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Oh, he is
a glorious Savior.