If you would, turn in your Bibles
to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6. I'm going to bring
a message that I've titled this morning, The Mystery of the Gospel. I've recently been intrigued
with that word, mystery, as it's used to describe the gospel.
We find it in the New Testament. I counted some 27 times, if you
count the usage of the word mysteries. And and so I decided this morning
to bring you just some of my thoughts on that after I haven't
studied the usage of that word. It's used in the New Testament. We find it in the context of
the mystery of the gospel. It speaks of the mystery of Christ,
of the mystery of the kingdom. And so look with me there in
Ephesians chapter six. And in verse 19, actually you see from the context,
I guess let's go back to verse 18, where Paul says, "...praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." And he says
in verse 19, "...and for me." In other words, praying for me,
he's saying, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may
open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel."
Let me begin by just making some comments about the usage of the
word mystery, that's translated mystery, for there are some distinctions
between what we normally think of as a mystery and how it's
used here in the New Testament or translated that way. I don't
know about you, but I kind of enjoy a good mystery, whether
it be a movie or a book or whatever. I think I enjoy it because I
appreciate the challenge of trying to solve the mystery, but not
just the challenge, but knowing, for example, when reading a mystery
novel that at the end I'll find out it will be unraveled for
me. I'll discover what the secret was all about. So we enjoy it. We talk about reading a book
and I can't put it down because we're wanting to get to the end
and find out how that mystery unfolded. And I don't know about
y'all, you know, there's sometimes you'll get a movie or a book
and it'll kind of leave you hanging at the end. I recently watched
a movie and when it got to the end, they started rolling the
credits and I thought to myself, well, I've never seen a movie
where they started credits before they ended. They can't be ending
this movie because it didn't really tell me how the thing
was going to end up. And I'm real frustrated by those
kinds of things. I guess I'm kind of shallow.
I don't have the artistic appreciation, perhaps, that I should for those
things. But those kind of things can create frustration for us. The things we don't understand,
and I just use a book as one of many examples, we encounter
a lot of mysteries in life, in this life. Things that we know
something about, but we just can't quite figure out the answers
to. And if it's pertaining to something
that's very important to us, why, it can also cause real frustration
or real fear or real concern. And I guess the current day situation
is a good example of a mystery of sorts, the global financial
crisis that we're all facing here that impacts almost everyone.
And it's a mystery of sorts. to me is we try to seek out decisions
on what we should do with whatever material goods God has been pleased
to bless us with. In times like this, you see all
the experts in the world. I don't think there were any
who could foresee the depth of the problem we're now facing.
They certainly couldn't forestall it. And so there's great fear
and uncertainty as a result of all that. I've got some friends
who are investment advisors and have spoken with several of them
this week, and they said in this recent free fall of the market
that actually there's been no place for anyone to hide. You
know, normally when stock prices fall, bonds, fixed income investments,
which are considered pretty safe, they usually go up. Not in this
market. It fell. Even gold fell. And
of course, you know, the conventional wisdom is that everything's in
cash, and that would certainly have been a good place to be
in the last several months. But if it is, you end up losing
out to inflation over the long haul. So what you find is if
anyone could solve this mystery, 100%, I know there are some who
do better than others at figuring out how to hold on to and grow
their investment portfolio or whatever they've accumulated.
But if you could solve it so as to be 100% accurate, why,
on this earth you would have riches untold. Yet we know that, as with all
things in this life, we're not in control. We can't control
all the events, nor predict all the variables that would impact
on, for example, our financial future or anything else in this
life. Well, this word mystery, as it's
used in the New Testament here, is not used in the context that
would inspire our result in that same kind of unknown aspect,
as in a problem we're aware of but we just don't have the answer
to. That's not how it's used. It speaks of something that doesn't
create that same sort of fear and uncertainty. Not with that
which we would think of when we think of a mystery as perhaps
something that's mysterious. It doesn't refer to some known
or perplexing type of problem that we are even aware exist. But we just simply have not yet
figured out or can't figure out how to solve. In other words,
it's not something for which we observe a problem and then
look at it and say, but it's mysterious to me or baffling
to me. The Greek word for mystery. as
it's used here in Ephesians 6. And throughout, if I'm not mistaken,
that same Greek word is used in every reference in the New
Testament. And it's called musterion. That's a Greek word. I'm not
a Greek scholar and you know that. You can go home and look
these up in dictionaries and concordances for yourself. But
unlike our word mystery, this word musterion that's translated
mystery, It doesn't denote the mysterious, but it does denote
that which we cannot naturally understand. It denotes that which
can only be known by divine revelation. And it's only those to whom it
is revealed by the Spirit in God's appointed time. In our ordinary usage of the
word mystery, You see, it has the connotation of knowledge
being withheld. But as we're going to see today
in the Scripture, this word mystery is always communicated to us
in the context of truth revealed, not knowledge withheld. And I
want that to sink in here as we are going to look at quite
a few Scriptures today that deal with this word mystery as it
is used to describe the very gospel that is to be believed
unto salvation, the mystery of the gospel. Among the ancient
Greeks, that word mysterion, the mysteries, referred to religious
rites and ceremonies that were practiced by secret societies. And only those who were initiated
into those mysteries, in those societies, they became possessors
of this specific knowledge. Knowledge that others did not
even realize existed. So to be uninitiated was to be
unaware. And that Greek word musterion,
translated mystery, referred to that which was known to another
Greek word called the mustes. And that word meant the initiated
ones. In Philippians 4.12, Paul speaks,
there's a word that's translated instructed. He talks about how
he was instructed. And the word for instructed is
a derivative of this word mysterium. It's mus, excuse me, mueo. And Paul then is when he says,
I was taught or I was instructed, he is saying I've learned or
better, I have, it has been revealed to me. the initiated one, the
secret. So it speaks of a revelation. So again, that word that's translated
mystery is not knowledge withheld, but rather it is truth revealed. And that's an important distinction
I want us to think about today. We'll see this as we're going
to look at the usage of this term and how that word mystery
is always accompanied by words like made known, a mystery that
is made known, a mystery that is manifested, a mystery that
is revealed, a mystery that is preached or uttered, as Paul
sometimes says. And it's a mystery that some
come to understand. A revelation takes place. Well, as we see as we consider
this word, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of Christ,
the mystery of the kingdom, as truth being revealed. We saw
there in Ephesians 6, 19, when Paul asked them to pray for him,
instructed them to do so, said that utterance may be given unto
me that I may open my mouth boldly to what? Make known the mystery
of the gospel. Turn back a few pages to Ephesians
chapter 3 now. In Ephesians 3, the mystery of
the gospel here, and it's referring to the same thing, is called
the mystery of Christ. And there, beginning in Ephesians
3, 3, we read, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace
of God which is given me to you, he's speaking there to the Gentiles,
given to me to the Gentiles, how that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery. as I wrote afore in few words,
whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ." Now skip on down to verse 8, and he says,
And unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and to make all men see. There in this context
he means from among Jew and Gentile. What is the fellowship of the
mystery. And that's speaking of a kinship
and being among those to whom this mystery has been revealed. In a world, see, that understands
it not. He says, And to make all men
see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and
powers and heavenly places might be known by the church. That's
the ones initiated, so to speak. By the church, it might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal
purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now turn
back with me, I told you I'm going to have you turn in here
a little bit, to Mark chapter 4. We actually read a parallel passage,
or heard it read in the 10 o'clock service this morning, I think
in the book of, it was either Matthew or Luke. I could have
picked any of these. I just arbitrarily chose the
passage as it was related in Mark. But if you look there in
verse 10 of Mark 4, it says, And when he, that is Christ,
was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked him
of the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you
It is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. It's a
mystery truth revealed, see. But unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables, that seeing they see
and not perceive. Here he's speaking of they see
with a physical eye, but they don't perceive. And hearing with
their physical ears, they hearing, they hear and not understand. Lest at any time they should
be converted, see, and their sins should be forgiven them. So what we see is then to have
this mystery of the gospel, this mystery of Christ revealed to
you, is to see and to perceive, to hear and to understand the
mystery of the kingdom of God, the gospel. We see then that
to have then have that given unto us. This revelation is to
be converted. It is to discover your sins have
been forgiven. As we see in the context of these
verses, it's to be among the initiated again, so to speak,
to draw the parallel with how those Greek words were used in
ancient Greece. All right, now turn over with
me to 1 Corinthians 2. Maybe I won't make you flip much
more than this. And while you're turning, let
me make another comment about those ancient Greeks and their
use of this word that's translated mystery. They call those who
were initiated into these secret societies, they referred to them
as the perfected ones. And I thought this was interesting
and I wanted to share it with you. Because look in 1 Corinthians
2 verse 6. In particular, in the first phrases
here of this passage, Paul writes, "...howbeit we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect." And that word perfect there is the same
Greek word that was used to describe those perfected ones. to whom those ancient mysteries,
as they refer to them, there. So what you have is Paul drawing
a parallel from their usage of that language to actually a specific
mystery of the gospel being revealed. We know here he's referring to
those who are perfect, are made complete in Christ. And he says,
We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, the perfected ones,
so to speak, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes
of this world that come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
the world and to our glory, which none of the princes of this world
knew." You see, the princes of this world, they weren't seeking
to unravel a problem. They were not even aware that
one existed. For had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,
I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him." Why do they love him? Because, the scripture says,
because he first loved them. But God hath revealed them unto
us, and here's how. How? By his Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Well, you
get the sense of where I'm going with this. I won't make you turn
to these other passages. I'll mention just a few in Colossians
4, verses 3 and 4. Paul wrote, With all praying
also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to
speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds
And he says that I may make it manifest. It's a truth revealed. It's a manifested mystery. And
then in Romans 17, 25, he speaks of the revelation of the mystery.
And we won't cover all 27 usages of the word, but predominantly,
as it's used to speak of the mystery of the gospel, the mystery
of the cross, you find it always with those words of it being
made known, preached, manifested, a truth revealed. And I hope
you can see that from just these few passages that we've looked
at. You see, what that tells us, until God is pleased to bring
this mystery our way and give us life to see and perceive,
to hear with the physical ear but also with the God-given ears
of faith so that we understand, to embrace with the heart the
mystery of the gospel, that is, of that one sure certain way
of salvation, we really don't even consider that a mystery
might exist. You know, I think I related last
time I preached, you know, I remember the pastor who shared with me
the gospel first and how I said he talked about how God, how
could God be just and still show mercy on a sinner who's anything
but just. He's a transgressor of God's
law. And part of my response was,
well, I didn't even think about it that way, you see. I was oblivious
to the fact that that even mattered at all. I wasn't concerned with
how God could be both a just God and a Savior. And so we first
imagine that we have all the answers we need as it pertains
to this all so important subject of our eternal destiny. But to
discover the secret. to behold the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. Isn't that what 2 Corinthians
4, 6 describes conversion? It says, God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, He said, let there be light,
and there was light. He has shined in our hearts to give us the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. You see, a light's turned on,
so to speak, in our hearts, where we behold God as He is, based
solely on the person and work of Christ, how all of His attributes
come together in the greatest revelation of who God is, and
that is in what Christ did, where we see how God can not dispense
with His justice, not just, I'm going to pretend you're going
to be okay, but where sins were truly dealt with in our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. For that to take place is to
have this mystery revealed, manifested, made known to us. Now, it's not
to know all things that pertain to God. It's not to know all
things that pertain to eternity. We know that the Scripture tells
us that throughout this life, the life of a believer is one
of growing in grace and in knowledge. We know the Scriptures say that
we see through a glass dimly now. We don't have all the answers,
but listen, I think what this teaches us is that even though
we progress in our understanding of things, when it comes to the
gospel, to this mystery of Christ, this mystery of the gospel, it's
made manifest to a people. That is, we have been illuminated
by God's Spirit. If we're among those, or we will
be if we're among those for whom Jesus purchased that very spiritual
life for his righteousness, what he accomplished, the scripture
teaches us it demands that life. And so what we see is these at
some point do have the answer. The answer as to how God saves
sinners by Christ alone. That specific mystery of the
gospel has been revealed to them. Well, how do we apply that? What
should we take away from this interesting study of the word
mystery? And I thought about that, and
I think, first of all, the fact is that if the gospel that is
to be believed upon unto salvation, now, let's make sure we understand
why that's so important again. As Christ told the disciples,
he said, go into the world, preach the gospel. They that believe
it shall be saved. They that believe it not shall
be damned. Not they that believe it will be saved because they
believed it, but rather it will manifest, you see, that Christ
purchased that for them in his work at Calvary. So what we see
is then there's a truth revealed by divine revelation pertaining
to how God saves sinners. So wherever your hope is, wherever
your confidence lies, if you imagine that you're going to
be included among all those who are taken into heaven's glory
for all eternity, if it's in Christ's person and work that
you trust, listen, is set forth uniquely in God's gospel, in
this mystery of Christ, this mystery of the gospel. And I
say that In contrast to what the scriptures teach us are many
false gospels, false ways we imagine that we might be saved,
then this revealed mystery, this hope and sure confidence has
to be based then upon something which we were previously blind
to. In other words, there has to
be repentance, doesn't there? You see, for the scripture teaches
we all come into this world by nature as children of wrath.
spiritually dead in trespasses and sin, born in darkness. There has to be a revelation.
There really is a light that's shined into the heart by God's
Spirit through this Word of the Gospel being preached. You see,
let's don't take this lightly. This Word of the Gospel that
we're to look at is the Word of regeneration. When wielded
in the hands of God's Holy Spirit, You see, that's how it is made
manifest unto God's people in time. So what that means is, is there
must have been a complete change at some point with regards to
how we imagine God saves sinners. So we don't study our way into
this kinship of fellow believers, this kinship of the mystery as
we read. No, true believers, we look back
in hindsight and we kind of marvel, do we not, at how God providentially
brought our circumstances to bear to put us under the sound
of the preaching of this message of truth. You know, I've heard
stories, as scarce as the gospel is in our day, I've heard stories
of those who grew up under the gospel, even adults who have
sat under the message of the gospel for years. and accumulated
a lot of truth about the true doctrine of the gospel. And yet,
at some point in their lives, a light comes on. To some it
comes on, it may come on, that light, at a point when they are
first introduced to the gospel. For others, it may be at some
later point. But make no mistake, that revelation
must take place. And so what we learn from that
is, is if today, if my hope of salvation is just based upon
the way that would seem right to me from my youth up. The writer of Proverbs said,
the way that seems right to man is the way that ends in death.
There must have been a revelation, a divine revelation under the
sound of a specific message of the gospel or else I'm among
the uninitiated, you see. That's what that tells us, and
so I should seek and I should strive to find out about this.
And God's Spirit will put that in the heart of all His people
and cause them to desire to look into this. You see, He'll make
them in the day of His power to see and perceive, to hear
and understand. So we don't learn our way into
it, although God uses the very proclamation of the truth. you
see, of the very doctrine of Christ to reveal himself. So what we see is that's consistent
with God's clear instruction, his clear demand, command in
Scripture that all must repent. There's got to be a 180 degree
reversal from what they thought was right. He said, except y'all
shall perish. Repent. But the only test of
whether or not this secret's been revealed to us can't just
be a change of heart, can it? You see, for men change their
minds all the time about what truth is. It can't be any truth
revealed, nor can it be just any change of heart. Many people
change their mind about religious doctrines. They change denominations. They have spiritual experiences.
which they sincerely believe to be of the one true and living
God, whereby perhaps they discover a newfound interest in religion
and spiritual things. Look, it's beyond dispute. And
many of them believe they come unto Christ of this Bible. And it's beyond dispute that
many have some religious change take place in their life. The
Bible says we're all initially oblivious now to this mystery
of the gospel, this mystery of Christ. Until Christ is pleased
to reveal himself, how can we know if our change of heart,
our change of mind, is in fact the revelation of the mystery
of Christ, the mystery of the gospel? Well, there's the key,
isn't it? It's the mystery of the gospel. not just any way of salvation,
but God's prescribed way in His Word. And so I want to speak
just a few minutes about what distinguishes God's gospel, the
truth of how God saves sinners from any and all other imaginations
that we all will run to, this one that way, this way or the
other way, until God's pleased to reveal Himself under the preaching
of His gospel. So turn to Romans 1, if you would,
and I know some of you may get tired of hearing me use, so there
are a few verses that I quote often when I preach. And part
of the reason is, is I believe that's the job of any who would
set forth the gospel. Paul says, you know, he prayed,
he said, pray that I have utterance and a boldness to make manifest
the gospel. But that's what God uses. when
applied by His Spirit to the heart of His people, you see.
So, therefore, we must distinguish this gospel from the clutter
of all the religion out there in the world. And I just want
to mention two very clear distinctions again this morning. One we often
talk about, Romans 1, 16 and 17, where Paul says, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek, And he says here in verse 17, this is why
it is the power of God unto salvation. He says, For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Oh, we got a specific here about
what this revelation of the mystery of Christ is about. Therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith, that is, the body
of truth, to faith. Oh, there's a revelation to those
whom God is pleased to reveal it, subject to faith, as it is written, that just shall
live by faith. So what is this righteousness
of God that we so often talk about, and which we often describe
each and every time we stand up in this pulpit, I hope? And
that is, it is the perfect satisfaction that our Lord and Savior made
to the justice of God, whereby he satisfied God in perfect compliance
with all of the revealed will of God, he kept the law perfectly. Jesus Christ in his incarnation,
walking as God-man on this earth, is the only one who ever walked
on this earth of whom that could be said. God is holy and he requires
a perfection. The very perfection that Christ
commanded on the Sermon on the Mount, only He alone produced. And yet, He was God's man. He
needed no righteousness of His own. Christ didn't come as a
private person just to show some idea of love for a people. He came to accomplish something
for a people. And the people He came to accomplish it for
were sinners, like you and I, fallen in Adam, who come into
this world Speaking lies, the scripture says, from our mother's
womb. We are self-centered, sinful creatures who love ourselves
and who imagine, surely there's something I can do to get myself
saved. Well, as such, God's justice
requires that a debt be paid for. These are lawbreakers. That's
what it is to sin, to transgress God's revealed will. countless number of men and women
will perish in an everlasting separation from God. You see,
never ever paying down the debt, this oath before holy God's justice,
it took the invaluable, infinitely valuable blood of the God-man,
the unblemished Lamb of God, the one who offered himself up
without spot. So this righteousness is revealed
is that which Acts 17 says we're all going to be judged by. We
must possess the righteousness that equals that of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, how can we do that? The only way is He made
Him to be sin, 2 Corinthians 5.21. Who knew no sin? He made
Christ, He legally charged to Christ's account all of the demerit
of all the sins of all those that the Father had given Him.
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That is, that
the very merit of what he accomplished would be put to my account. Now
that's what I must have. That is the righteousness that's
revealed in the gospel. So therefore, if this mystery
of Christ, this mystery of the gospel is revealed to us, we
know that It's the power of God unto salvation, because what
is revealed is the righteousness of God in Christ. Paul told,
he said of his fellow Jews in Romans 10, he said, being ignorant
of or not submitted to that righteousness, by default they go about to establish
one of their own. And he prayed that they would
be saved. You see, that would give evidence they're ignorant
of that righteousness. Or they're not submitting to
it and embracing it as their only hope. you see, was an indication
that this mystery had not been revealed to them as of yet. Well,
has it been revealed to you? Have you submitted to it? Have
you embraced it? Must you have it as your own? Will anything else do? Well,
if nothing else will do, if that's what you've got to have, if you
have a love for that truth, then you You're among the initiated,
the Nueo. All right, secondly, now, the
other distinction I want to bring of the gospel is that it is the
gospel of grace. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, it's not of works, lest any man should boast. That doesn't mean That doesn't
mean, so don't be going around bragging, no, it means lest there
be any ground whatsoever where you would have a right to boast
of procuring your own salvation. So what that means is, we're
talking about the recipients of grace, those to whom the mysteries
reveal. They have the very unmerited
favor of God, at least as far as they're meriting it, but oh,
it was merited. It was based upon the satisfaction
of their substitute and their surety, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So it's like most of Christendom, or so-called Christianity, you
think like I did, and like I know many of you once thought, that
Christ died for all men who ever lived. That tells us you can't
have been initiated into this mystery because it's the gospel
of grace. You see, and if Christ did no
more for the people who go to hell than He does for the people
who go to heaven, there's another work left to be done, isn't there?
There's something that's got to be done by you, or in you, or
through you, or by you. And most of religion says, yeah,
just accept Jesus. Just invite Him into your life.
And so they got it backwards. They tell you to believe in order
to be saved. Instead, they should say, believe
Believe, and if you can, you are saved. You see? To believe
in Christ is to fall down and need His mercy. It's not to say,
OK, I'm ready to strike my end of the deal. OK, I think now
that I'm at this stage in my life, I'm going to get serious
and get myself saved. That's not grace. Paul said in
Romans 11, if it's of works, it's no more of grace. If you
can find an element of works, it's not grace. If it's truly
grace, that there's no works involved, that is, it is not
based upon anything that you can do, can be done in you, or
by you, or through you. It is based solely upon what
Christ said He finished at the cross of Calvary. That righteousness
alone made yours by God's free imputation of it to you. And
you know, there are some who, it doesn't take a divine revelation
to conclude that Christ didn't die for all men. There are many,
though they still be a minority, there are many who can look at
these scriptures and see the truth that Christ couldn't have
died for all men. It just doesn't make sense to
say he paid for the sins of a people and then God sends them to hell
anyway. And so they conclude, no, that can't be so, but you
see, If God hadn't done a heart work, if He hasn't revealed in
our hearts that I've got to have that that He accomplished on
Calvary to the exclusion of anything else, then that would reveal
He really hasn't convinced us of the sin that deceives us all. That I could somehow be saved
or others could somehow be saved at a time when the very fault
I had about how God saves sinners denies every attribute of His
character. It would say He was an unjust
monster, but, oh yeah, I'm still saying, I'm not going to say
that person's lost. You see, that's just not to be
convinced then that the only way you can be saved is by the
righteousness of Christ. For every God-dishonoring notion
that accompanies that kind of thinking, you see, you fail to
see the evil of it. That's the problem. That takes
a divine work for us to see the evil of me ever having imagined
that a holy God would save Randy because Randy believed. You see,
as long as I can imagine that, yeah, I've learned a truth here,
But that doesn't mean I'm going to say I was lost back then. Well, I don't see the evil of
it. There's no need for repentance. And so we see in these two distinctions
of the gospel, there has to be a repentance from the way that
seems right to us. But if it's the true gospel that
we turn to, we know that therein is the righteousness of God revealed,
And it's the gospel of grace that would exclude all grounds
of boasting in the center. It would exclude, as Augustus'
top lady called it, making Christ, whether wittingly or not, nothing
more than a pedestal upon which we can stand and boast of our
free will decision that makes all the difference in my salvation.
You see, that's not, Christ is not the Savior. It's the guy
standing on top of that pedestal. who says, I make the difference
in my salvation. That's his savior, his faith.
And so what we see by just considering these two distinctions of the
gospel is that if indeed the mystery of the gospel has been
revealed unto you, then God gets all the glory. You see, that's
what happens when he shines that light. It's the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
as He's revealed. He doesn't have to say, I'm just
going to pretend like you weren't a sinner and do away with my
holiness and my justice in order to just have mercy on you. No,
it took the blood of the God-man to pay that debt. And everyone
for whom He paid that debt, they've got to go free. Christ said that.
He said, All that you've given Me, Father, I'm going to raise
them up to the last day. It gives Christ all the preeminence,
you see. as the one who alone truly got
the job done. He met all the conditions and
requirements of the salvation of his people. And it excludes
all grounds for any basis whatsoever that we might look at within
here and say, well, I'm glad I did that and got myself saved. No boasting in the center. We'll
turn to Ephesians 1, and we'll look at that in closing. Ephesians
1. In verse 8 in Ephesians 1, he's
speaking, go back, if you look at verse 7, he says, he's speaking
of Christ, he said, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, and
look at verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of
his will. according to the good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself." Now, what did he purpose in himself?
That in the dispensation of the fullness of time, he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance. You can't earn that inheritance,
can you? being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted
in Christ," there I think he's referring to the Jews having
the gospel put before them before the Gentiles, "...in whom ye,"
the Gentiles, "...also trusted. After that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance," that is, speaking of our inheritance
into heaven, "...until the redemption of the purchased possession,"
what he purchased for us at Christ is redeemed into heaven's glory
is what he is speaking of there, "...unto the praise of his glory."
The Holy Spirit, he said, back in verse 9, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, he says, then, is the earnest
of our inheritance. It's how we know we're bound
for this redemption into heaven's glory. The Holy Spirit having
revealed to us this specific gospel message, the mystery of
the gospel. And so what is that mystery?
This mystery of Christ. called here the mystery of his
will. Go back to verse 3 and we'll get to start the first
part of this rather lengthy sentence here in Ephesians. It reads,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy We sinners should be
holy and without blame before Him in love. You see, that's
what God can't commune with sinners. None will enter into His presence
except those who are holy and without blame. I've got to have
that righteousness. The very merit of what Christ
accomplished has got to be put to my account. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
How can a sinner be accepted before a holy God? The issue
isn't will you accept Jesus this morning. The issue is how can
God accept you? Only in the Beloved, referring to His dear Son, the
One in whom we have redemption. There He is speaking in verse
7 of the price paid at the cross of Calvary through His blood. The forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. Well, to have this mystery revealed,
you see, is not to, doesn't cause us to fret like it might when
we think of a mystery that we can't unravel in this life. You see, there's a lot we don't
know, but all who were made perfect, the perfected ones in Christ,
you see, at the cross of Calvary, they shall at God's appointed
time, in each successive generation, miraculously be brought under
the sound of this message of the gospel wherein righteousness
is revealed. A righteousness I, for the first
30-something years of my life, I never even heard anything about.
How miraculous it is that we were put here under a place where
an imputed righteousness was set forth. Well, they will be,
in each successive generation, And God's Spirit under the sound
of God's gospel of what? Grace. Salvation merited solely
by what our Lord and Savior accomplished in His life and death. That gospel
where His righteousness is revealed, those have revealed unto them
the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the gospel. As we read in
Mark 4, unto them it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. They know with a certainty this
mystery of how God saves sinners by Christ and how He does so
by His work alone. And they have then a sure and
certain hope. Listen, so sure and certain that
as we looked at a few weeks back, they can say with King David
that their salvation also, as he said, is ordered in all things
and sure for, he said, He's been made all their salvation and
all their desire. They've got to have it. They
know nothing else will do. Oh, that's good news. You know,
this current global financial crisis, it does remind us that
in that arena, as well as anything else in this world, there's nothing
sure and certain. We fret a lot about it. I do. Sinfully, I fret
about it. But you know, we shouldn't. God's
in control. Investment strategies, for example, they'll come and
they'll go, but the very best financial minds in this world,
they cannot give you the assurance that you can even hold on to
whatever God's been pleased to whatever portion of this world's
material goods he might have brought your way. It does remain
a mystery, knowledge that is withheld. from our full understanding. But think about, in contrast,
what a blessing it is to have the mystery of the kingdom of
God preached to you. And oh, if God's pleased to reveal
it to you, so that not only do you see it with your physical
eyes, but with the eyes of God-given faith and the ears so that you
perceive and understand the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the
gospel. to discover there, as we read
in Ephesians 1, that we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. Now, we talk about having the
riches of this world. It's called in the Bible, we
read earlier, it's the unsearchable riches in Christ. And unlike
a mystery in this world, this is revealed to God's people as
100% sure, certain, cannot fail. My, that's good news. And it's
everlasting. Those riches are everlasting
in Christ. As Paul wrote to the Colossians in chapter 1, verses
26 and 27, speaking of the gospel, he said, whereof I made a minister,
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you, to fulfill the word of God. He's speaking of the specific
word of the gospel. Even the mystery, he said, which
hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is what
made manifest to his saints. To whom God would make known,"
listen to this, "'what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ, in you the hope of glory.'"
May God's rich blessings be upon you.