Let's begin our service turning
in our Bibles to Psalm 143. Psalm 143. I put this in the bulletin, but
let me allow you to hear it from me how much I appreciate all
your hard work that went into our conference last year, or
last week. I know especially when it comes
time to feed people and stuff, we don't have the best facility
in this world but y'all made it look like it was easy, and
I appreciate you so much. We do have a couple of ideas
that might make it a little easier next time. We'll see how that
goes, but I sure appreciate your hard work and serving the Lord
with you. I appreciate you. All right, Psalm 143. Hear my
prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my supplications.
In thy faithfulness answer me. and in thy righteousness, and
enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight
shall no man living be justified. For the enemy hath persecuted
my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground, he hath made
me to dwell in darkness as those that have been long dead. Therefore
is my spirit overwhelmed within me, my heart within me is desolate. I remember the days of old, I
meditate on all thy works, I muse on the works of thy hands. I
stretch forth my hands unto thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty land. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My
spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be likened to them that go down into the pit. Cause me to
hear thy loving kindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Deliver me,
O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me.
Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy spirit is
good. Lead me into the land of uprightness.
Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's sake. For thy righteousness'
sake, bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy mercy, cut off mine
enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul, for I am
thy servant. All right, let's stand together,
Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. Jesus, the Lamb of God, has died
to pay the awful debt. Tis finished was His final cry. God's just demands are met. O sing the praise of God's great
grace, that Christ would die for me. Christ has sin's power
now effaced by His death on the tree. The blood of Christ, the
price has paid. Sin's curse has been broken. Peace with our God has now been
made. The way to God opened. Okay, if you would, turn now
to song number 489. 489. Glory to His name. Down at the cross where my Savior
died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my
heart was the blood applied. Glory to His name! Glory to His name! There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name! I am so wondrously saved from
sin. Jesus so sweetly abides within
there at the cross where he took me in. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his
name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name! O precious fountain that saves
from sin, I am so glad I have entered in. There Jesus saves
me and keeps me clean. Glory to His name! Glory to His name! Glory to His name! There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name! Come to this mountain so rich
and sweet. Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's
feet. plunge into day and be made complete. Glory to His name! Glory to His name! Glory to His name! There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name! Our scripture reading, let's
turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians the fifth chapter. We'll begin our reading in verse
22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and
he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify, cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing. but that it should be holy and
without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. For we're members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh, This is a great mystery. Not
only is this a mystery, Paul says, this is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless,
let every one of you in particular, so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Thank God for his
word. Let's bow together. Our father, we bow before your
throne of grace. We bow carefully, we come into
your presence reverently, carefully with fear and trembling at the
presence of the thrice holy God. Father, how thankful we are that
because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can come boldly. We can come
before your throne boldly, pleading the merit of Christ our Savior,
pleading his blood that cleanses us from all sin. Father, how
thankful we are. Oh, we beg of you that you would
forgive us for so often being so ungrateful. We have so much
to be thankful for. And chiefly, we're thankful for
our Lord Jesus Christ, that we're accepted in the beloved, that
in him we can come into the presence of God and have our prayers,
our praise, our thanksgiving, our petitions heard and made
known for the God of all the earth. Father, how thankful we
are. How thankful we are that you've
given us another opportunity to meet together and worship
your holy name, to sing your praises, and Father, especially,
to have your word open to us. What a great gift you've given
to your people, the gift of your word that reveals your son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray as we look
into your word this morning that you would be our teacher, that
you would speak to the hearts of your people, that you would
reveal Christ to us, Father, we can't know these things by
human intellect. We can't figure these things
out by our much learning. But Father, if you would reveal
these things to us and give us faith to believe Christ, that's
our chief prayer. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for your people who meet everywhere around the world today.
Father, cause your word to go forth and empower, to bring glory
to your name, to save and comfort and edify your people. Father,
we dare not forget to pray a blessing for those that you brought into
the time of trouble and trial. Father, we're thankful to know
these things are not random accidents, but they're your will being accomplished
for your people. And we pray that you give us
a submissive attitude that we might patiently endure, that
we might learn the lesson that you sent for us to learn that
you would give a special portion of your presence. Father, you
promised to never leave nor forsake your people. We pray you'd give
a special portion of your presence to comfort the hearts of your
people, that you would deliver as soon as it could be thy will.
All these things we ask in that name which is above every name,
the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake and
his glory we pray. Just as that leaf hung on the
tree Next to Christ, the surety Oh Lord, remember us Oh Lord,
remember us And a Stephen was being stoned
And God stood up there at His throne Oh Lord, remember us Oh
Lord, remember us Cause some will stand before the throne
But some will stand in Christ alone Oh Lord, remember us. Oh Lord, remember us. As you said, and we believe,
all who ask, they shall receive. Oh Lord, remember us. Oh Lord,
remember us. Some will stand before the throne,
but some will stand in Christ alone. Oh Lord, remember us. When you come back with trumpet
sound And all the saints rise from the ground Oh Lord, remember
us Oh Lord, remember us Yes, some will stand before the throne
But some will stand in Christ alone Oh Lord remember us. Oh Lord remember us. Oh Lord remember us. Oh Lord remember us. that this little group in Podunk,
Kentucky would be remembered by Almighty God this morning.
All right, if you would open your Bibles out of Colossians
chapter four. I've titled the message this
morning, The Mystery of Christ. And the last time we were in
this chapter, we looked at our speech being seasoned with grace.
We looked at how our speech is seasoned with grace when we pray.
When we preach, when we talk to unbelievers, when we talk
to believers, we talk to each other, have our speech be seasoned
with grace. But there was a phrase in verse
three that I wanted to come back and deal with in a little more
detail, the mystery of Christ. Verse three, Paul says, with
all praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door
of utterance, that he'd give us the opportunity to go preach
to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. Now, Paul calls the gospel that
he preached, that we preach today, the mystery of Christ. And the
gospel is not a mystery because it's so difficult to understand
the message, difficult to understand what we're saying. The gospel
is so simple. Our children understand the gospel. It's called the simplicity of
Christ. And that's something, the mystery
of Christ is called the simplicity of Christ. It's simple to understand.
It's easy to understand what we mean when we say salvation
is by grace. It simply means we don't deserve
it. Like I said Wednesday night, this is grace. God saves us anyway. He saves us in spite of ourselves.
It's grace, it's easy to understand. It's easy to understand what
we mean when we talk about substitution and satisfaction. took the place
of God's people. He died the death that we deserve.
He died in the place of his people as our substitute. And his death,
the death of Christ the substitute, satisfied God's justice. So God's
not angry anymore. Substitution and satisfaction,
easy to understand it. It's easy to understand, but
it's impossible for the flesh to believe it. When somebody
finally understands what we're saying, That's when I'm getting
ready for them to leave. It's easy to understand, but
it's impossible for the flesh to believe it, and that's why
the gospel's called a mystery, because our flesh cannot and
will not believe the gospel, unless God the Holy Spirit reveals
Christ to us. He's got to give us faith to
believe Christ. You know, a mystery is a whodunit,
and by nature, we think we done it. By nature, we think that
we can do what it takes to be saved. By nature, we think we
can do what it takes to please God. And by nature, we won't
believe anything else. We'll refuse to believe anything
else because our sinful nature doesn't have the capacity to
believe anything else. We're so dead in sin, we think
a dead man could do something to please God. That's just how
dead we are. But the gospel says Christ is
the one who's already done it. Christ has done everything that
it takes to save his people from their sin. Christ has done everything
it takes to please the Father. The gospel says that salvation
is all in Christ. It says it's hidden in Christ.
Now, it's not hidden in Christ so you can't find it. It's hidden
in Christ so it's all in one place and it's easy to find.
If you'd have salvation, if you'd have righteousness, if you'd
have holiness, if you'd have forgiveness, if you'd have eternal
life, if you'd have any spiritual blessing you can think of, It's
real easy to find. They're all in one place. Go
to Christ. They're all in. That's what it means. These things
are all hidden in Christ. They're not hidden there so you
can't find them. They're hidden there so it makes it easy to
find. It's all in one place. If you would be saved, go to
Christ and trust him and quit trusting anything you do. Quit
trusting anything about you and trust Christ. That's the message
of the gospel. That's simple to understand,
but it's a mystery to the natural man because our nature cannot
believe it. Our nature cannot believe any
spiritual truth. We'll believe a lie just as quick
as can be. But we cannot believe the truth.
We don't have the capacity. And the only way we can believe
it is if God reveals it to us. Just like the only way you can
know the answer to a mystery, somebody has to reveal it to
you. The only way we can believe the gospel is if Christ reveals
it to us. And there are many things I had
to cut short what I plan to do here, because there are many
things in the New Testament that are called a mystery. And those
things, every one of them are vital pillar truths of the gospel. And for time's sake, we're just
going to look at seven of them. I know that sounds like a lot,
but I'll be brief and we'll take them in order as they appear
in God's word to get some understanding of the mystery of Christ, the
mystery of the gospel. Now, first, if you look at Mark
chapter four, The gospel declares the mystery of God's kingdom. Mark chapter four and verse 10. And when he was alone, they that
were about him with the 12 asked of him the parable. And he said
unto them, unto you it's given to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. but unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables. Now God has a kingdom
and our savior calls it the mystery of the kingdom of God. The Lord
Jesus Christ is king. This is what the word of God
declares. He's the sovereign king. He has mercy on whom he
will have mercy. He'll be gracious to me. We'll
be gracious and he'll pass by whom he will. He'll love Jacob
and Hades Saul. That's God's right. He's king.
He does with us as he pleases, just like he does. I mean, it's
easy to say God does what he pleases everywhere. But now when
that includes me, me and mine, that includes you and yours.
God does with us as he pleases. He can save us or he can damn
us. And he'll be just to do either one. Now, that's a mystery to
the natural man. We can never believe that and
we can never love that truth. We can never love that king.
unless God the Holy Spirit is pleased to reveal Christ to us.
God has a kingdom and Christ is the king. He is the sovereign
savior of sinners. He saves whom he will, when he
will, how he will. The father in eternity chose
a people to save and he gave them to his son. And Christ came
into this world to save those people and only those people. He wasn't trying to save somebody.
He came to save his people from their sins and he has the crown
rights to do it. You see salvation. This is what
the gospel declares. Salvation is not up to our decision
to accept or reject poor little old Jesus. Salvation is a choice
that God makes that God accomplishes and that God applies to the hearts
of his people and God gives his people the right to be citizens
in his kingdom. Christ is the king and he's filled
his kingdom with citizens and he's given his people the right
to be there. He translates them, he transfers
them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
son. And they're not just there on a green card, they're there
eternally. Every citizen of God's kingdom
willingly and lovingly bows to Christ our king. We bow before
him begging for mercy, begging for forgiveness. We bow before
him begging for grace. We bow before him in worship. Like Brother Nyberg told us in
the conference last week, this is worship. That leper came and
worshiped the Savior. He worshiped by saying, Lord,
if you will. He submitted to his will. That's
worship. Every citizen in this kingdom
worships God. We bow before him In Thanksgiving,
every citizen of this kingdom willingly and lovingly submits
to the authority of Christ our King. We love it that way. I
love it. I mean, I know the natural man
hates it, but I'm telling you, by God's grace, I love it. Christ
is King. He's the sovereign King. He cannot
fail to accomplish his will. And in his kingdom, there are
no rebels. They're all willing, loving servants.
And all of those people live in God's kingdom in peace and
security because Christ our king reigns to ensure it. His rule
over all things is absolute and his people, those citizens of
that kingdom love it that way. All right, number two, look at
Romans chapter 16. The gospel is a great mystery
and God reveals this mystery of Christ through the preaching
of his word. Romans 16, verse 25. Not him that is of power to establish
you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret
since the world began, but now is made manifest by the scriptures
of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God made known to all nations. for the obedience of faith. Now,
this is what Paul's saying here. The way God saves sinners is
a mystery. It's been hidden from men for
ages. It was hidden in the Old Testament
types, the Old Testament pictures. It was hidden in the prophecies
of the prophets. Now, in the Old Testament, we say that Christ
is hidden there, that his way of salvation is hidden, but you
know what? Christ is obvious in the Old Testament. if you've
got eyes to see him. If you've got eyes to see Christ,
it's obvious to know the day when our Lord Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. He saw my day and was glad. It's
the day he offered Isaac. He went there to offer Isaac
and saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham saw. He saw. This is how God's gonna
save his people. It's by the sacrifice of a substitute.
Christ is all that Christ in the art. I mean, it's obvious
to see if you've got eyes to see him. Our problem is by nature,
we're blind and we can't see Christ. We just think all these
things are nice stories, you know, the Old Testament or that
they reveal this horrible, mean God, you know, the Old Testament.
But now there's a different, nice new God, you know, in the
New Testament. We're so blind. That's what we'll think. Unless
God gives us eyes to see Christ. And the way God reveals the mystery
of salvation. The way God reveals the mystery
that salvation is all in Christ is by the preaching of Christ.
Now you just can't know Christ if somebody tells you who he
is. You can't believe on Christ if somebody tells you who he
is and why he's trustworthy, why you ought to trust your soul
to him. And that's what God's servants do right here preaching
Christ. And God's servant can tell you who Christ is, but he
can't make you believe. The only way we'll believe on
Christ is when the spirit moves in power and gives us life and
faith to believe on Christ. And the way he does that is the
seed of the word, the word being preached. He uses that to give
faith and life to God's people. And we're so dead in sin, it
takes an act of divine power, the very creative power of God
to give us life. And he does it through the preaching
of his word. That's the faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. That's how God gives faith. But
the Lord also establishes the faith of his people by the preaching
of the same gospel. It takes the same divine power
of God that gave us faith in Christ to establish that faith
in Christ, to establish us on Christ so that we will not be
moved away from him. It takes divine power. The power
only God has to give us faith in Christ, but it takes that
same power to make us grow in grace, to keep us saved, to keep
us next to him in Christ. And that's a mystery to the natural
man, because the natural man thinks the opposite of that.
By nature, we think we can do something to save ourselves,
and we think we can do something to keep ourselves saved. And
the most that our nature, Adam's nature will bend, is to say this,
well, okay, I see God can save me by his grace. And by grace,
I mean I need a little help. Now, I've done some things, but
I need a little help to finish up the rest of it. God can save
me by his grace that way, but now I gotta keep that. I gotta
keep that salvation by living right, by being a good, moral
Christian. I gotta do things to keep myself
safe, to live, and I need grace now. Yeah, I need grace to help
me out a little bit, but I still gotta do my part. Well, that's
not grace. That's not salvation, is it?
The mystery of the gospel is that salvation has already been
accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's finished. It was
finished before he cried. It's finished. It's finished
from the foundation of the world, wasn't it? Christ is the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. The father's always
seen his people in Christ. He's always seen them as that
sacrifice being finished and then cleansed in the blood of
Christ long before he actually said in time, it's finished.
Now that's a mystery, but if God's revealed Christ to you,
you love it. This is God's eternal will. God's
eternal salvation. Christ has already accomplished
the salvation of his people and that salvation is revealed by
the power of the Holy Spirit through preaching. And God's,
that salvation is kept by the same power, by the preaching
of the gospel. Now what a mystery. This is just,
this is an absolute mystery to the natural man. The only way
God saves sinners and makes his people grow in grace and grow
in faith is by one sinner coming to hear another sinful man preach
Christ. And the natural man said, I'm
not going to submit myself to that. I'm not going to submit
myself to the, to the rule of a pastor. I'm not just going
to listen to, you know, to that man preach because he just as
sinful as me. You're absolutely right. More
sinful, more so, believe me. But that's the only way God saves
him. The only way he reveals himself to his people is by one
sinner and another sinful man preach Christ. It's the only
way the mystery is revealed. And I hope we never do what the
world is doing today and minimize preaching. Minimize preaching. The preaching of the gospel is
the only way God reveals his son to the hearts of his people.
I mean, as smart as you are, you can't figure it out. God
must reveal it to us. And he does it by the preaching
of the mystery of Christ. All right, now look at 1 Corinthians
2. Here's the third thing. the wisdom
of God in salvation, salvation in Christ. That wisdom is a mystery
to the natural man. First Corinthians two verse seven,
but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before the world under our glory, which
none of the princes of this world knew. The best of the best, the
best this flesh had to offer. They didn't know it for had they
known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Now the wisdom of God, Paul said, we speak the wisdom of God. God
is so wise in everything he does and all in creation. You see
how wise God is in the, in the creation of animals. How they
function. God's so wise. God's so wise
in his dealings in providence with men. He's just so wise.
But I tell you where the wisdom of God is most clearly seen.
It's at Calvary. The wisdom of God is seen in
the Lord Jesus Christ. How God saves sinners through
the doing and dying of Christ our Savior. You see, God's salvation. The only salvation that'll really
save a sinner, the only salvation that gives your heart confidence
and peace and security is a salvation that is both just and gracious. Now it took wisdom to put two
of those things, those two opposites at the same place, in the same
person. Both just and gracious. See, God's salvation allows God
to be just, allows God to remain holy, and still justify the ungodly. God's salvation, salvation in
Christ allows God to be absolutely, totally, perfectly just and have
mercy on the miserable all at the same time. And that wisdom
is so far beyond human understanding. We can just never believe it
until the Lord's pleased to reveal Christ to us. Now man's very
religious, and every way of religion, every way of salvation that man
has come up with cannot truly save a sinner. They either look
for all mercy or all truth, and neither one of them work. They
look for all mercy and say, well, God just will ignore my sin,
you know. God just has to lower his standard of holiness and
righteousness because, you know, it's obvious I can't be holy.
It's obvious I can't be righteous, so God will just lower his standard. And really, I think God just
has to accept the best I can do. You know, I can't be perfect.
You know, God will accept the best I can do. That salvation
is not just, is it? It doesn't satisfy God's justice
to accept sin. That salvation does not satisfy
the holy character of God. If God has to lower his standard,
if God does lower his standard of holiness and righteousness
and he accepts unholiness, and unrighteousness. You know what
that makes God? Unholy and unrighteous. That doesn't satisfy the character
of God. God's not gonna do that. So God in his wisdom, he put
salvation all in his son, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He put
all of his people, God chose a people. They're no good, rotten,
dead sinners, rebels against God by nature. And God set his
love on them anyway. And he chose to save them. And
he put them in the best place he could put them. God said,
I got a people, where can I put them? The best place the father's
found is in his son. He said, I'm gonna put them there.
They'll be safe there. They'll be secure there. He put those
people in Christ our federal head so that God's elect would
do what Christ our head did. When the Lord Jesus came to earth
and he obeyed the law perfectly, so did all of his people. See,
that's how we're made righteous, by being in Christ. We were made
unrighteous by the actions of Adam, our first representative,
weren't we? God's people are made righteous the exact same
way through the actions of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. I read Ephesians five to open
the surface for this reason. Paul talked about that great
mystery, that great union of Christ and his people. That's
how they're made righteous by being in Christ and doing what
he did. And then the father made his son sin for his people. He took the sin of his elect
and he made it He gave it to the substitute. And Christ, our
substitute, willingly took the sin of his people in his own
body on the tree, and he died the death we deserve. He died
the death that that sin demanded, that God's justice demanded.
And when Christ died, he gave up the ghost and said, Father,
into thy hand I commend my spirit. God's justice was satisfied. The law demands death for sin.
There's been death for sin. Justice is satisfied. Now God
can show mercy to his people in justice. Matter of fact, this
is how sure salvation in Christ is. God's justice now demands
God be merciful to his people. Because Christ has died. God's
both just and justifier in me. But only in the doing and dying
of Christ our substitute. And the wisdom of substitution,
satisfaction by the life the death, the burial, the resurrection
of Christ, that's so glorious and it's so wise, the human mind
just cannot believe it. That's why it's a mystery to
the natural mind. Oh, but if God gives us faith to believe,
if God gives us faith to see Christ, if God enables the preacher
to set forth Christ and him crucified, the mystery solved. I see how
God is just and justifier. God's wisdom is put fully on
display. in the death of the substitute
of Calvary. If God gives us eyes to see Christ, if God will send
us a preacher preaching Christ and him crucified, tell us what
happened there at the cross. We'll see. And that's the only
message God uses to reveal that mystery. It's the preaching of
Christ and him crucified. All right, now look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. Here's the fourth thing. The gospel declares this mystery.
We have to be changed. We have to be made new. 1 Corinthians
15, verse 50. Now this I say, brethren, the
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye at
the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we should be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that's written,
death is swallowed up in victory. Now here's a mystery to the natural
man. We can never believe this. And I'll tell you why we can't
believe it, because right off, our parents start out telling
us, oh, what a good girl you are. What a good boy you are.
But brethren, we're not good enough. We're not good enough
to please God not even close. Not even close. We who believe Christ, we enjoy
the worship service, don't we? We enjoy, didn't you enjoy the
conference last week? Just to hear message after message
after messages. And we enjoyed that so much.
But you know what? And we think this is a taste
of heaven on earth. That's what we think. You know,
we cannot go to heaven as we are. Even when you're on that
spiritual mountaintop and you're hearing the gospel preach, we
cannot go to heaven as we are. the sin in this flesh would ruin
heaven itself. Brother Donnie Bell told me a
story last weekend about preaching a funeral not too awful long
ago. You know how preachers do. You
kind of ask a rhetorical question, you know, and not really expecting
an answer out loud. But in this funeral, he made
this statement. He said, how good do you got to be to please
God? If somebody shouted out, you got to be pretty good. And
Donnie said, oh, he said, I had to deal with that strong. And
Donnie said, no, you don't have to be pretty good. You got to
be as good as God. You got to be as good as God.
Now that's impossible. That's a mystery to the natural.
How can I be as good as God? One way. In the Lord Jesus Christ. We've got to be as good as God.
If the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for us, You know what
he did for us after that? He made us the righteousness
of God in him. He made his people as good as
God, as righteous as God. That's the only way a sinner
can be made right. And you're going to be righteous
now. He's got to be as righteous as God himself. He's got to be
as holy as God himself. The only way that's possible
is by the death, the obedience and death of Christ our Savior.
And God, the Holy Spirit moves in power. He causes us to be
born again. To be born again with a holy,
righteous nature. See, we gotta be born again,
because the way we're born the first time is with sinful seed,
which produces sinners, doesn't it? Well, the Holy Spirit's not
gonna use sinful seed. He uses holy seed, the word of
God, and causes a holy, righteous nature to be born in us. Now, the believer's got a righteous
nature, but we've still got a sinful one, don't we? Well, even though
the believer's been born again, we've got a holy nature, but
our bodies have to be changed to be a holy, righteous body,
too. These bodies are just not perfect,
darling. They're just not perfect. It's pretty obvious. Start looking
at the aches and the pains and the things you can't do anymore. You know, I mean, these bodies
are not perfect. And normally, the way we get
rid of this carcass, this dead fleshly carcass, is by dying
and putting it in the ground. Just putting it out of sight
and lay down this fleshly body of sin, and now the new man is
finally free from that clay prison. And he goes to be with the Lord.
You know, when we bury a believer, you know the grave has not won
a thing. I mean, I know it's a sad time
to lay the body of one of our dear loved ones in the grave
and cover it up with dirt. But I'm telling you, when that
happens, the grave hasn't won a thing. Has not won a single thing. All
that body is doing is just waiting there. And when the Lord returns,
He's going to raise that body from that grave in glorified
flesh. In flesh just like the body of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And those who remain, those who
have not died yet, that believe Christ when He returns, in a
twinkling of an eye, they're gonna be changed, because we
gotta be changed. Either by the resurrection or
changed by the power of God when Christ returns, we've got to
be changed. That's the only way a sinner
can be fit to enter heaven. It's by the glory, by the power
of God. And this is such good news for
the believer. I don't have to spend eternity
being like I am. If I believe Christ, I'm gonna
spend eternity being made just like you. I wanna be changed,
don't you? The good news of the gospel,
that's a mystery. But if God lets you see Christ, it's obvious.
He's gonna change his people to be made just like Christ.
All right, here's the fifth thing. Look at Ephesians chapter one.
The will of God. What is it that God wills to
do? The will of God. The will of God is a mystery.
that has to be revealed or we'll never know it. Now, I said the
will of God. I bet you the first thing that
passed through his mind is the will of God and what God is doing
in Providence. And I've heard people say, you
know, they've got a decision to make. And they say, you know,
well, I've prayed about it and thought about it. And instead
of choosing option A, I'm going to choose option B because I
just know this is God's will for me. Or I'm going to do this,
that or the other because that's God's will. Or God does something,
some event takes place in their life or some event takes place
in the world and they say, I see what God's will is there. Well,
I mean, I'll tell you, I'm happy for you, but that's just never
been my experience. Never been my experience. I'm
just thoroughly convinced we just don't know what the Lord's
will is in something until he's already done it. And even then,
we don't know what God's, all of them, the far-reaching effects
of God's will, we just don't know. So when I talk about the
will of God being a mystery, that's not what I'm talking,
and that's not what scripture's talking about either. The will of God
is God's will and God's purpose in the glory of his son. It's
him saving his people from their sin. That's the will of God that
scripture talks about. Ephesians 1, let me show you
that, Ephesians 1 verse 9. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself. Now this is God's will, the mystery
of his will that he's been pleased to reveal to us is that salvation
is all in Christ. It's all been accomplished by
Christ. If you wanna hold your finger there, look over at John
chapter six. We'll come back to Ephesians one in a moment.
Look here at John chapter six. The Savior just tells us point
blank, this is God's will. John chapter six, verse 38. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Now, the Savior himself is saying, here's why he came to earth as
a man, to do his Father's will, and here's his Father's will.
The will of the Father is that everyone he elected to salvation
be saved by the dying of Christ our Savior. Isn't that what he
says, verse 39? For this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. God has elected a people to save.
He's put them in Christ and it is his will that none of them
will perish. Then none of them will perish. If the father does
his will, if it's his will, none of his people perish, they won't
perish. There'll be given eternal life and that life is secure
because Christ died for them. If Christ died for them, they
can never die. In Matthew 18, our Lord said, even so it's not
the will of your father, which is in heaven, that one of these
little ones should perish. Not even one of them. It's his
father's will that they all be saved. In verse 40 he says, and
this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the son and believeth on him may have everlasting life
and I'll raise him up at the last day. Now the elect that
the father has given to Christ and all those that see Christ
and believe on him, they're one and the same. Everyone God elected,
He'll give faith. He'll enable them to see Christ
and they'll believe Him. And Christ will come and raise
them up at the last day. Raise them in glorified flesh.
It's the Father's will that His people be saved. It's His will
that they be given faith in Christ. And He's gonna do it through
the preaching of the gospel. Then our job is to just preach Christ. Just preach the word of God.
God will see to it His people hear it and believe it. It's
the Father's will that His people be born again, that they see
the Son, that they believe that they'd be born again. Well, I'll
tell you what, they're going to be born again. They will be.
And it's by the power of the Holy Spirit, which were born,
not of blood, nor the will of the flesh. They weren't born
of the will of man. How were they born? But of God, by the
will of God. All of salvation. The salvation
of a sinner from its beginning to its completion is by the will
of God. And you'd better hope your will
doesn't enter into that at any time in any way. Salvation cannot
come by the will of man. In John 5 verse 40, our Lord
told us, this is the will of man. You will not come unto me
that you might have life. I tell you what, you better hope
salvation is by the will of God. And the gospel declares that
it is. Now look back at Ephesians 1. It's the father's will that
when all this is done, he's gonna gather his people together in
heaven to worship God and to praise his son for eternity.
This is the father's will. Ephesians 1 verse 10. That in
the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
See, God's will is going to be done. God's will is that his
people be saved. that they be given eternal life,
that they be given faith in Christ, and that they be glorified. And
one day, it's gonna happen. Because that's the Father's will.
Now, what's God's will in wars, and hatred, and elections, and
the comings and goings of this earth? I got no idea. But I know
what God's will is. That his people be saved, and
they be glorified. and they will. Oh, that's good
news. All right, now look at 2 Thessalonians
2. This is a shocker to the natural man, iniquity. Do you know iniquity
is a mystery that has to be revealed to us? 2 Thessalonians 2, verse
seven. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work, only he who now letteth will let, until you'd
be taken out of the way. The mystery of iniquity. Now,
why does Paul call an iniquity a mystery? Well, what do you
think of when you think of iniquity? More likely you think of breaking
the law, God's law. You think of doing something
you ought not do, you know, which is iniquity in God's sight. Now,
while I grant you that that sin and iniquity, us just breaking
God's law, not keeping his law, not obeying him. I grant, I grant
you that that sin and that's an equity. But you know what? The sin of breaking God's law,
that's not what keeps people out of heaven. No, it's not. Christ came to save sinners.
So sin's not what keeps us out of heaven, is it? Sin's not what
keeps us from being saved. It's iniquity. And you know what
iniquity that keeps us from being saved is? The iniquity of self-righteousness. The iniquity of trusting self
to do something to make God happy with us. It's the iniquity of
false religion that's something other than Christ alone. And
it's that iniquity and only that iniquity that keeps people out
of heaven. It's the refusal to believe on Christ. So the iniquity
that we need to repent of is not the iniquity everybody knows
is something evil, lying and stealing and cheating and all
that kind of stuff, you know, smoking, drinking, cussing. That's
not the iniquity we need to repent of. I mean, you do well to do
less of that stuff, The iniquity that we need to repent of is
the good things we've done. The things we've done that we're
proud of. Think, well, I did something good there. I did something
nice there. I did something God will be pleased
with there. That's iniquity. And we drink iniquity like water,
don't we? Something that glorifies self,
we drink it like water. And that's what, it's not the
things that we're ashamed of necessarily that you gotta repent
of. It's the things that we're proud of. That's what we've gotta
repent of. That's the iniquity. that keeps
us from trusting Christ alone. If we think, well, you know,
I'll be saved if I'm a good little Christian and I live a moral
life and I do my best to keep the law, you know, God will accept
me. Tell you what, we'll go to hell trusting our rags of righteousness. But if we repent of those things
that we've done, trust Christ alone, we'll be saved. And I
tell you what, we'll do that if God ever shows us who the
Savior really is. All right, here's the last thing.
Look, 1 Timothy 3. God must reveal to us the mystery
of godliness. 1 Timothy 3, verse 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, received up into glory. Now, this is a mystery. God became
flesh without ever ceasing to be God. Brother Richardson so
famously said he's as much God as if he were not man and as
much man as if he were not God. And that is a mystery to the
natural mind. How can God become flesh? How
can God become a man and still be God? But God in the flesh
is to accomplish the salvation of his people. It's the only
way sinners could be saved, is God manifest in the flesh. God
was manifest in the flesh, he became a real man. Now that's
a mystery, but I wanna tell you another mystery. Why? Why did God become flesh? Why did he humiliate himself
to be clothed in flesh? Oh my. So that he could be the representative.
So he could be the substitute. of no count sinners like you
and me. That's a mystery. What love, what grace, what compassion. And when he came in the flesh,
he got the job done. He justified in the spirit. Everyone
he died for is justified. Their sins all been put away.
And I tell you the evidence of it, the proof of it, is he's
seen of angels. Christ was, he lived, he died,
he was buried, he rose again. And he ascended back on. Where
are angels? They're in heaven. He's in heaven. The angels see
him there now. You know why he, where they see
him? Sitting on the throne of glory. You know why he rose and
ascended back there? And the father said, sit down
here in my right hand. I'll make your enemies your footstool.
Because he got the job done. He satisfied the father and saved
everybody the father gave him to save. And now he's preached
and believed on in the world. Only God, the Holy Spirit can
take the stumblings and bumblings of the lips and tongue of a sinful
man and bless that to cause God's people to see Christ and believe
on Him and love on Him and have their hearts encouraged and strengthened. Only God could do that. That's
God accomplishing His will. That's His will and He's accomplishing
it. He's accomplishing it even today. And I tell you, that's
a mystery that we cannot believe until God's pleased to reveal
Christ to us. And if our preaching is not mysterious,
it's not the gospel. If we bring our preaching down
to where the natural man can understand it, and we bring our
preaching down to where the natural man can accept it, we've taken
edge off. We've taken the mystery out of
it, the spirituality out of it. And we take the mysteriousness
out of the gospel, we take away the power of God. And we put
the power in the hands of the creature. And nobody can be saved
that way. But if we preach a mystery and
you think, I can't believe that. I don't know how anybody can
believe that. We preach a mystery. And you
think, I just don't see it. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep
finding somebody that's going to preach Christ to you. Because
God's pleased to reveal Christ to the hearts of his people by
somebody preaching Christ. And when you see Christ, you
know what you'll say? Mystery solved. The Hardy boys couldn't
do better. Mystery solved. The only thing
it takes to have the mystery solved is to see the answer.
And the answer is Christ. That's the mystery of the gospel.
I hope God will make us believe it. Let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you for being pleased to reveal this mystery
of Christ to your people. And Father, I pray you'd take
the word, as it's been preached this morning, and that you'd
apply it to the hearts of your people for your glory, that we
might see the Lord Jesus Christ, believe him, and find ourselves
in complete love and dependence on him. It's for his glory, for
his namesake, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean. If you would, turn to song number
299 and stand as we sing. Day by day. Day by day and with each passing
moment, Strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father's wise
bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond
all measure, gives unto each day what he deems best. Lovingly it's part of pain and
pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest. Every day the Lord himself is
near me, with a special mercy for each hour. All my cares,
if he fame would bear, and cheer me, he whose name is counselor
and power. The protection of his child and
treasure is a charge that on himself he lays, As thy days,
thy strength shall be in measure. this the pledge to me he made. Held me then in every tribulation,
so to trust thy promises, O Lord. That I lose not faith's sweet
consolation, offered me within the holy Word, Help me, Lord,
when toil and trouble meeting, Ere to take as from a father's
hand. One by one, the days, the moments
fleeting, Till I reach the promised land.