Well, good morning. It's been
so long, I feel like I ought to reintroduce myself. It's been
three weeks since we've been able to be here on a Sunday.
I'm very thankful. I'd like to thank all the men
that came out yesterday. The lot looks and grounds look
pretty normal to y'all, but I mean, yesterday morning, I mean, you
should have seen the trees and the limbs and the, well, you
see a few of the piles. There's some up here. You don't
see the piles of limbs that they, pulled out of the grass and off
the lot and cleaned it up so we could get here. And this whole
thing was blocked coming around the building yesterday. And so
the work that they did, I appreciate you men. Thank you. Let me give
you a couple of announcements. Eric mentioned this, I know,
Wednesday. Greg and Tricia Elmquist's daughter, Jennifer, has had cancer
as long as we have known them. I think we first met Craig and
Tricia. We were down there on vacation 24, 25 years ago, and
Jennifer had this slow-growing cancer at that time, and it has
broken out. She's got stage four bone and
lung cancer, and it's not a good situation. She's in pain, and
it's significant. And this is what Greg asked me
to pass along to you. that as you remember her in prayer,
ask the Lord to move the heart of the insurance company to approve
a treatment. There is a treatment that has
some success with this cancer, and it will certainly reduce
her pain. And that's what he asked, that
we remember her in prayer. So I want to pass that on to
you. I talked to Gary Holbach last week. He is doing much,
much better. Still very weak and a long way
to go, but he is doing better, and we're very thankful. You notice there's a change.
I'm going to attempt to stand to preach this morning. I hate
to even talk about myself. There's too much said about me,
but I know you're wondering, so I'll just give you the quick
update. Since my second surgery, my pain
level really has not improved at all. I'm physically stronger.
My legs are stronger, but the pain level has not improved.
And Jan and I went back up to the surgeon to see the surgeon
on Wednesday. And we're going to try a few things that we hope
will help correct the problem. But in the meantime, I think
I'll be able to stand to preach. And I'm thankful for that. And
one thing that I'm very thankful for, that during this time when
I've been having to sit, I've been having men come up here
and read the scripture and lead in prayer. And I'm very thankful
to start. doing that again. So this morning,
Brother Wayne Kendall has agreed he's going to come read the scripture
for us and lead us in prayer. And then you ladies sing if you
would. If you would please open your Bibles
to First Corinthians, chapter 15. Begin reading in first one of
first Corinthians chapter 15. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved.
If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain, for I have delivered unto you, first of all, that
which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, he was seen
of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After
that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last
of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called
an apostle, because I have persecuted the church of God. But by the
grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, And so ye
believed. Now, if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching in vain. And your faith is also vain.
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified
of God that he raised up Christ. whom ye raise not up, if so be
that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. That every
man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they
their Christ that is coming. Then cometh the end, when he
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
For he must reign till we've put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. The wind
are reading there. Thank God for his word and bound
prayer. Our great God and heavenly father,
we come to this place this morning. A needy people. Desiring to hear
a word from you. Praying, Father, that you allow
us to worship and praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Father, we thank you that you've allowed us to once again gather
here with this group and in this building with all that's happened
outside. We thank you for bringing us
back here to once again gather around the preaching of the gospel.
We pray that you Be with Frank as he stands to preach to us
this morning. Give him a strength and ability to stand through
this service and preach to us and give him a clear recall of
the studies he's prepared. Pray that each one here may receive
the message and feed on Christ this morning. Let us truly worship
him for the wonderful work that's been done. Precious blood that was spilled,
Father, let us see that work fully satisfy your law and took
all our sins and put them away. This is evidenced by his resurrection. He satisfied your law and is
risen. Seated at your right hand, ruling
and reigning. Pray for us as we leave this
place, we ask that you Be with us in our daily lives. Guide
us and direct us. Give us thankful hearts in all
things. Cause us to remember each day that all that we have
is a gift of your hand. Think daily on what our Savior
has done to satisfy your law and to take our place. Have us be dressed in his righteousness. Cause us to think often on our
Savior. We ask that you be with those
that are going through difficult times. Think of Greg's daughter and
others, Father, that are in difficult, difficult times. Recovering,
we ask that you be with them and the physicians and the insurance
companies and all these folks that tend to our ailments. Give them the ability to help
them and it would be your will to heal these problems and take
away pain. Again, Father, we pray for this
hour to be a true hour of worship. Let the name and the work of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be exalted in this place this
morning. These things we ask and pray in Christ's name. Amen. The sands of time are sinking,
the dawn of heaven breaks. The summer morn I've sighed for,
the fair sweet morn awakes. Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
but day's spring is at hand, and glory, glory dwelleth in
Emmanuel's hand. O Christ, he is the fountain,
the deep sweet well of love. The streams on earth I've tasted,
more deep I'll drink above. There to an ocean fullness his
mercy doth expend. Glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. O I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved's
mine. He brings a poor vile sinner
into his house of wine. I stand upon His merit, I know
no other stand, Not in where glory dwelleth, In Emmanuel's
blood. The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear bridegroom's face, I will not gaze at glory, but
on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but
on his pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory of
Emmanuel's land. So good, thank you. Open your
Bibles, if you would, now with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 3. I don't know when I have been more
anxious and excited to preach a message. Maybe it's because
it's been three weeks since I've been able to, I don't know. But
this text has been a particular blessing as I've looked at it,
and I pray the Lord will bless it to our hearts this morning.
I've entitled the message, The Mystery of Godliness. 1 Timothy
3, verse 16 is our text. The apostle writes, 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. A mystery of godliness. A mystery
is a whodunit. And I'll tell you, I've always
really enjoyed reading mystery novels. There are a couple of
authors, I just read everything they write because they just
keep you guessing right up until the very last pages of the book.
You cannot figure out who done it. And it's just, it always
amazes me how they pull all this together. I just, I enjoy reading
those mysteries. You can't figure out who done
it. Now that's good in a book, but that's horrible in preaching.
There ought to be no suspense in preaching. Good preaching
is clear right from the very start and clear all the way through. It's not hard to tell what the
preacher means when you're hearing good preaching. Now, if you're
having to guess, well, does he mean this or does he mean this
or does he mean this? That's not good preaching. Good
preaching is when you know exactly what the preacher is saying,
what he means. You may not believe it, but you
know what he means, what he's saying. So let me begin my message
with this, by telling you whodunit. I'll take all the suspense out.
Here's whodunit. The Lord Jesus Christ, he did
it all. He is all of our salvation, and
he is all in salvation. Now you and I, we're the ones
who committed the crime, but we'll take the suspense out of
that too. You and I are the ones who committed the crime. We have
sinned against God, and that sin is a crime. against God. It's not just something, yeah,
we shouldn't have done that. This, our sin is a crime against
God. We committed the crime, but the
Lord Jesus Christ came and he paid for it all. He paid all
of the sin debt of all of his people by one sacrifice. And
his people, all of God's elect, everyone that the Father gave
him to redeem, they're redeemed. They're justified, they're forgiven
of all of their sin, they have eternal life in Christ and because
of Christ. Now the mystery, this mystery
is answered in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Job, they
say Job is the oldest recorded writing in scripture. Job gave
us the mystery of the age old question. This is the question
Job asked. How should a man be just with
God? How's that possible? That's a mystery. Well, the gospel
answers that mystery. Sinners are justified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because of what Christ has accomplished
for his people, because of who he is, God's people are made
just with God. They're made just, perfect in
the all-seeing eye of God. Now, since that's true, let me
implore you one more time. Come to Christ. Seek Christ. Seek Him with all you've got. And don't quit. Don't give up
hope. Don't quit. Keep seeking Him because Christ
is the answer. And if you'd seek Christ, seek
Him where He's found. Seek Him in this book. The whole
purpose of this book is to reveal the answer to the mystery. It's
to reveal Christ. That's the purpose of this book.
If you're looking to it for any other reason, You might find
something good for, you know, some good advice or something
for yourself. But I'm telling you, you missed the purpose.
The purpose of every verse of scripture is to reveal the answer
to the mystery, is to reveal Christ. Now, I can tell you whodunit,
but you'll never believe Christ unless God the Holy Spirit enables
you to believe Christ by revealing him to your heart and giving
you faith. Our Lord told Nicodemus, this is something, I mean, Nicodemus
must have been, he had to be a brilliant man and he couldn't
understand, could he? Our Lord told him, you cannot
see, you cannot understand, you cannot perceive the kingdom of
God unless the Holy Spirit comes and causes you to be born again.
You cannot see, understand, believe Christ, believe the kingdom of
God unless you've been born again. So a mystery is a whodunit. But
a mystery is also something that can't be easily understood. And
that's the gospel. The gospel is not to be understood.
If anybody here is falling into this trap and thinking, well,
I've got to understand this before I believe it, quit it. Just quit
it. The gospel is not to be understood.
The gospel can't be understood with the natural mind. The gospel
is to be believed. Christ, the mystery of His person
is not to be understood. He's to be believed. He's to
be bowed to. You're to bow to Him and beg
Him for mercy. And only the Holy Spirit can enable us to do that
by giving us a new nature in the new birth. And I'll tell
you how the Holy Spirit does that. He doesn't do it by just
randomly striking you by lightning out there somewhere. The Holy
Spirit reveals Christ through the preaching of Christ. He gives
a new nature and a new birth through the preaching of Christ,
through the preaching of the word, the seed of the word of
God. So if you're seeking Christ, seek him where he's found. Seek
him in his word and seek him where he's preached, because
that's where he is. That's where you find him. And
that's the sole purpose of the church. That is the sole purpose
of our gathering here together. It's to preach Christ, to preach
Christ. God saves his people through
the preaching of the Savior, His Son. God reveals the answer
to this great mystery through the preaching of Christ. God
feeds His people. He comforts His people. He corrects
His people through the preaching of Christ. And there ought to
be great joy in that. If there's not joy in it, brethren,
we're doing something wrong. If there's not joy in this, the
gospel is good tidings, glad tidings. We ought not just be
so doctrinally straight that we're just mean and hard. That's
wrong. There's joy in the preaching
of Christ. You know, when you have a mystery,
you have a problem and you need to fix it. You can't figure out
how to do it, but it needs to be fixed. You've got a mystery
on your hands. It's frustrating, isn't it? What joy you have,
what relief you have when suddenly you find the answer and you can
solve the problem. That's the gospel. You and I
have a great problem with sin, a problem we can't solve. We
can't figure out how to quit sinning, and we can't figure
out how to get rid of our sin, how to pay for it. And this is
a life and death problem. I mean, there's some problems
I have I can't figure out. It's not really going to make
any big difference. This is a life and death problem. This problem
with sin. We will die eternally if somebody
doesn't show us the solution to this problem. Putting away
sin is a mystery that natural man cannot solve. Somewhere in man, I don't know
how this is, but somewhere in man, they know, man knows there's
got to be a blood sacrifice. There's got to be a blood atonement.
Jane and I watched this movie the other day where this guy
done something wrong and he was having himself cut and shedding
all his blood and doing all this suffering, you know, trying to
make up for this thing he did wrong. And I told her, that's
in man to know there's got to be a blood atonement. But brother,
our blood's not going to make any difference. Our blood is
polluted with sin. It can't cleanse from any sin.
This is a mystery, the putting away of sin that man cannot understand. We just can't solve it. But what
joy when Almighty God reveals the answer to the mystery. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. All you do is look to Him. All
you do is believe Him and trust Him and rest in Him because He's
the answer to the mystery, the problem of sin and death. And
oh, what joy and relief to your soul when God the Holy Spirit
reveals Christ to your heart. Many of you know exactly what
I'm saying. What joy that is. And not just the first time,
but every time, isn't it? Every time you see Christ, what
a joy and relief to your heart. So all that being said, Let me
one more time. I don't know how many more opportunities
God's going to give me. He's given me this one. Let me
one more time declare Christ to you and declare salvation
in Christ. Let me declare to you how it
is that God saves sinners through the person and work of his son,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's a mystery to the natural
mind. We can never understand it with the natural mind. But
my prayer is that God, the Holy Spirit, will grant each of us
here this morning a heart of faith to see Christ and to believe
Him and to love this mystery of godliness. Because this is
the mystery of how and why God Almighty would save sinners like
you and me. That's a mystery. Now, earlier
in this chapter, 1 Timothy chapter 3, we've looked at the instruction
and qualifications for pastors and elders, and we've seen how
it is that we are to behave ourselves in the church, what it is that
the church is supposed to do. And the answer is simple. We're
to preach Christ. We're to preach Christ. That is the message of
God's pastors and elders. It's Christ and Christ alone.
And that's how we're to behave ourself in the church. It's the
function of the church that all of us work together to accomplish
our mission to preach Christ and Christ alone, to believe
on Christ and Christ alone. Now let me show you four mysteries
of how Christ is the answer. This to the mystery. This is
the message of God's church. Number one is this, the person
of Christ. It is a great mystery that God
was manifest in the flesh. It's a great mystery that it's
even possible that God could be manifest in the flesh. Paul
says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. God appeared in human flesh as
a real man. The Lord Jesus Christ is both. 100% God and 100% man. 100% God plus 100% man equals
100% one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I know the math
of that doesn't add up. 100% plus 100% can't equal 100%.
Becky's a math teacher. But that's heavenly arithmetic.
That's not arithmetic we teach in our schools. This is heavenly
arithmetic. Scott Richardson said it like
this. The Lord Jesus Christ was as much God as if he were not
man, and as much man as if he were not God. Now that's a mystery. That's a mystery. What a mystery
that God could be made manifest in the flesh. Look back with
me at the book of Isaiah, chapter nine. When we say that God was
made flesh, this is what we mean. That he was made to be a real
human being. He had a real human body and
a real human soul. Yet he was still the eternal
God. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. For unto us a child is born,
a real human child, baby is born. And unto us a son is given. And
the government should be upon his shoulder and his name should
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God. The everlasting
father, the prince of peace. Now Mary's baby boy was a real
baby boy and yet he was God too. That's what that verse is saying.
That baby born of Mary in that stable was the eternal father
without beginning, without ending. What a mystery. What a glorious,
wonderful mystery. That baby born to Mary in Bethlehem
was a real human baby boy who was completely dependent upon
his mother. He was dependent on her to feed
him, to keep him warm, to keep him safe. But he was also God
and Mary was completely dependent on him to give her life. She was dependent on that baby
to give her milk to feed him. What a mystery. And Mary was
completely dependent on that baby boy. to save her sinful
soul. Now don't ever be mistaken in
thinking that Mary was sinless because she was a virgin. Mary
was just as dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God and her Son, to save her sinful soul and put her sin away
as you and I are. That's exactly right. She was
completely dependent on Him. The Lord Jesus Christ was one
man with two natures, God and man. He's the Son of God, and
he's the son of man. How often did he call himself
the son of man? He is truly the God man. And that's a mystery. But I'm
telling you, it had to be that way. He has to be both God and
man if he would be the savior of sinful men and women. You
see, he had to be God so he'd be perfect. He had to be God
so he's holy. He had to be God so he can bring
in everlasting righteousness. A man can't do that, can he?
The son of Adam can't do that, but God can. He had to be God
to be perfect, but he had to be a man so he could be our representative. He had to be a man so he could
obey the law as a man. See, sin came by one man, by
one represented man, didn't it? Well, righteousness has got to
come by another. Wayne read to us, death came by one man. Well,
life's got to come by another man. He had to be a man. The
Savior had to be a man so he could be our substitute, so he
could be our representative. God can't be my substitute, but
a man can. Christ had to be a man so he
can suffer and die. A man can't die, but God can.
So he had to be a man to die, but he also had to be God so
that his death would be worth something and make him able to
save. See, one man having two natures,
that's a mystery to the natural mind, isn't it? But you who believe,
you have some understanding of one person having two natures,
don't you? You have some understanding of that. Because God the Holy
Spirit has caused you to be born again. You've got two natures,
flesh and spirit. You are both dying flesh and
living spirit. One person, but two natures.
The exact same way our Savior came. Great is the mystery of
Godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.
God and man in one person. All right, here's the second
thing. It's a great mystery why Christ
was manifested in the flesh. The apostle says he was justified
in the Spirit. Now that means a whole lot more
than that the Holy Spirit gave evidence and proof that Jesus
of Nazareth was the promised Messiah. And he did that, didn't
he? The Spirit enabled the Lord Jesus
to perform miracles and do things that were evidence. He has to
be the Christ. No man can do the things you
do unless he were the Messiah, unless he were sin of God. So
it's true in that way that the Spirit justified the Christ,
but that's not what this statement means. This statement means much
more than that. This is talking about salvation.
This is still talking about the message that the church preaches.
Christ being justified in the spirit means this, that when
Christ came in the flesh, he fully saved all of his people
from all of their sin. He justified his people and made
them sinless. That's what this means. God became
a man. so that he could be the representative
of his people, so he could be the substitute for his people.
And when his hour was finally come, the Lord Jesus, who knew
no sin, who did no sin, perfect, holy, harmless, separate, undefiled,
separate from sinners, was made sin for his people. He was made
to be all of the sin of all of his people in one mountainous
mass of sin. All in one place at one time.
And then the Father put him to death in justice. He put him
to death for that sin because that's what justice demands.
Death for sin. Now what a mystery. The Holy
Son of God was made sin for His people. The Lord Jesus Christ
was made sin. Yet He was the sinless perfect
sacrifice. He was made guilty of all the
sin of His people. He spoke of it as His sin, as
His guilt. Just as surely as He had committed
that sin, He was guilty of that sin, yet He never sinned. In
thought, word, or deed, He never sinned. What a mystery. What
a mystery. Now that can't be understood.
Don't think you've got to understand that before you can believe it.
Just believe it. Just believe it with God-given
faith. But don't forget this, when we talk about Christ being
made sin, don't overlook this most important teaching. Don't
overlook the joy of this. He was made sin that, that, for
a reason, that we, God's people, might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Oh, now there's joy. There's
joy that Christ was made sin so that His people would be made
without sin, so that they'd be justified. The Lord Jesus was
made sin for his people, and he suffered and he died for that
sin. And his death means something. My death wouldn't mean anything.
My death wouldn't help anybody, wouldn't put any sin away. But
his death means something, because he's the son of God, because
he's God manifest in the flesh. His precious blood fully paid
all of the sin debt of all of his people. His precious, sinless
blood washed all the sin of his people away and washed them,
made them white as snow. And the proof of that is this.
The spirit raised him from the dead. See, this is how the Christ
was justified. He was proven to be the savior
who saved his people from their sin. He was raised from the dead. Christ was raised from the dead
as proof that his death justified his people from all of their
sin. And their sin's gone. And they cannot die. They cannot
die the second death. They cannot. Any more than Christ
could stay dead. He couldn't stay dead, could
he? Why? Because sin was gone. Sin was gone. Then you who believe
can't die either. Because your sin is gone. He
put it away. Look back at this passage Brother
Wayne read for us. First Corinthians 15. He read this, and I thought,
oh, I should have had this as a reference in my notes already. 1 Corinthians
15. The resurrection of Christ is
vital teaching, vital to the gospel. There's no good news
of the gospel without the resurrection of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 17. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain. And you're yet in your sins.
Our preaching is vain. Everything we're doing here is
vain. It's empty of any use if Christ is not raised. But brethren,
Christ is raised. Christ is raised. So your faith
in Him is not in vain. Your faith in Him is saving faith.
And you're not in your sins. Since Christ is raised, you're
not in your sins. His resurrection is the proof.
His sacrifice puts your sins away. So you're not in your sins.
He justified His people from all of their sin. Now I understand
that's a mystery, but that's heavenly arithmetic. Sinful men and women who do nothing
but sin. You and I, even if you believe
Christ, we can't do anything but sin. Everything we do is
sinful. Yet we're justified. We're perfect
without sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if God has saved
you, you understand that and you believe that mystery. that
Christ has justified you, Christ who is your justification, Christ
who is your hope of salvation, has justified you fully by his
death, his burial, and his resurrection. If God saved you, you love that
mystery, don't you? Oh, what a glorious truth. And
that brings me to the third thing. It's a great mystery who Christ
was manifest in the flesh for. Paul says here that, justified
in the spirit, seen of angels, and preached unto the Gentiles.
Now here's what that means. Seeing of angels preached unto
the Gentiles. It means this, that Christ came to save the
worst of sinners, the very worst. He was seen of angels. Angels were all around the work
of the Savior. Don't you imagine that they just
watched his whole earthly ministry in great wonder, wondering. What is going on? What is he
doing? What is he accomplishing? Why
is he allowing this to happen to him? The angels saw that. Angels were the ones that came
and announced his birth, saying joy to the world. Angels came
and ministered to the Lord after he was tempted of Satan. Forty
days and forty nights without eating or drinking, tempted of
Satan. He ran Satan off, how? With the word of God. And Satan
left and angels came and ministered to him. The angels ministered
to our Lord in the garden before he went to the cross. Angels,
they announced his birth, they announced his resurrection. And
the angels told the disciples, why stand here staring up in
the sky? He said, this Savior, this Lord is going to return
in the same manner that he ascended. He's coming again. The angels
said all that. And right now, around the throne
of glory, there are angels worshiping God. That's something. I mean, the angel is such a glorious,
creative being. I mean, I just can't even imagine.
But you know, you who believe, you understand and experience
salvation like an angel never will. Angels are so much more
glorious than us by nature, but you understand and experience
salvation like an angel never will. And the reason for that
is Christ came to save sinners, not angels. The writer to the
Hebrews in chapter two, verse 16, said, Christ took not on
him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
He took on him the seed of Abraham to save sinful men and women
like Abraham. He didn't take on him the nature
of angels. He didn't come to save angels. He came to save
sinful men and women. Now there are fallen angels.
There are elect angels that God has kept from falling. There
are fallen angels. Those angels who fell, have no hope, no hope
at all, because they have no substitute. They have no representative
come in their nature. That's why Peter tells us, 1
Peter 1 verse 12, he said the angels desire to look into these
things. The angels desire to look into
these things that you have preached to you every week. They desire
to look into the gospel of redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
desire to look into it, They hear it, they see how it's accomplished,
but they'll never know about redemption by experience like
you who believe. Because Christ came to save sinners. Isn't that a mystery that Christ
would come to save sinful men and women who are lower in glory
than the angels? But that's what he did. Because
Christ came to save the worst of sinners. And we don't need
to bother comparing ourselves to angels. What about men? What about men? What about other
people in our nature? Christ came to save the worst
of them. The worst of them. So I say again to you, seek Christ. Come to Christ. Look to Christ.
Close with Christ. Come to Him. Seek Him with all
of your heart. If I were seeking the Lord, if
I were lost and I knew it, if I was on my way to hell and I
knew it, if I was in my sin without help, without hope, without Christ
in this world, tell you what I'd do, I'd make it my business
to be where he's preached. I mean, I'd make it my business.
I wouldn't let these doors be open unless I wasn't right here,
ready to hear the gospel. Think about this. If angels who
have no hope of redemption, they desire to look into these things.
How much more should sinful men and women who have hope of redemption
in Christ, how much more should we desire to look into these
things? Oh my, God help us. God give us that desire to seek
Christ. And our Lord said, when you seek
him, you'll find him. Seek him with all your heart,
you'll find him. See, God was manifest in the flesh. Don't
think there's no hope for you because God was manifest in the
flesh to save the worst of sinners. Christ did not come. to only
save religious Jews. He came into his own, didn't
he? He came as a Jew, he came into his own, and his own received
him not, yet he saved some of them anyway. Oh, he saved the
worst. Christ came to save the worst
of sinners, and he proved it by sending the gospel to the
Gentiles. Gentiles were those people who
worshiped idols. They offered their children to
idols. We're down in Mexico. One time,
the Mayans were famous for sacrificing their children and young people.
They would sacrifice them. They have there what they call
cenotes. Some of them are just big old
pits in the ground with water down there, you know. And usually
the water's very pretty. Well, we went to this big old
place where they had this big old pyramid and all the stuff.
It used to be a huge religious hub for the Mayans and the Aztecs. And that water was just algae
covered. And Cody told us, you know why
that water's different than all the other water, all these other
cenotes you've seen? He said they sacrificed so many
children in this cenote, they clogged it up. That's our ancestors,
the Gentiles. sacrificing their own children,
cannibals eating each other, people who knew not God, who
did not have the priesthood, who did not have the sacrifices
of the prophets, people who were as far away from God as you could
get. They're without help, without
hope, and without Christ in this world. And they were the ones,
the very ones that Christ came to save. Now that's the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
That's a mystery. Who he came to save. That's a
mystery. He came to save sinners. This is a faithful saying. It's
worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy for everybody to
believe. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and
the worst of them. Good morning, chief. God still
had mercy on me. That's the mystery of godliness. And I tell you, that's the best
reason that I can think of for me to tell you one more time
and for you to follow my advice. Seek Christ. Seek Him. Come to
Him. Look to Him. Trust Him. And rest
in Him. Because God was manifest in the
flesh to save a sorry sinner like you. Now you trust Him.
And that's not just good doctrine. Now what I'm telling you is good
and true doctrine. Make no mistake about it. But
this is a whole lot more than good doctrine. This is the joy
of the Gospel. We have glad tidings to preach
to guilty sinners. Christ came to save the worst
of sinners. And if you are the worst of sinners,
you'll love it when you hear it. You'll love it. And you'll
hate this good news if you have some goodness of your own. If
you have something that you think you can do to commend yourself
to God and separate yourself from the rest of Adam's race
and make you more savable and more accepted than them, then
you'll hate this good news of the gospel that Christ came to
save the worst of sinners. But if you're the worst of sinners,
if your sin and your guilt and your wretchedness is so vile,
I've got good news for you. This mystery is the best news
you've ever heard. Christ came to save the worst
sinners. And might I tell you this, I
tell you this to you all who sit here week after week after
week, who've sat here from the time of your children till now,
I can tell you this because of my experience, I sat where you
sat. Y'all look so good. You're in
your Sunday best and you act so nice and kind and take care
of each other. There's nobody I'd rather spend
time with than y'all. And there's people out there
in the world I would avoid spending time with at all costs. But don't
think that makes them worse sinners than you. You know what's worse? What's
worse? Brother Henry used to talk about
people down in the honky-tonks. Some fellow down there in the honky-tonks,
drinking seven or eight Budweiser's a night, never heard of God,
doesn't have any use for religion or the gospel. Or me, who sat
week after week after week, year after year after year, would
not believe. I'm thankful to tell you, it's
not too late for you. You come to Christ. Christ came
to save the worst of sinners. And you get discouraged. Do you
ever get discouraged? You believe. I'm talking about
now somebody you believe, you genuinely believe Christ. Do
you get discouraged? You think, why do I do that? Why do I think
that? Why is my heart so cold? Why am I so dead feeling, unloving? How could I go so long thinking
about the Lord? How could I go so long about
reading his words? Do you get discouraged? Well,
you remember this. Christ came to save the worst
of sinners. And brother, he'll keep them. He'll keep them. See,
we don't keep ourselves. He's going to keep his people.
This gospel reveals the mystery of Christ. And I tell you, it
thrills your heart if you're needy, if you're needy. When
the gospel is not thrilling, to our hearts. Usually, usually,
it's because we're not listening as a needy, guilty sinner. If you listen to the gospel as
a know-it-all, I know that. I've heard that before. Probably
not going to be real thrilling to you. But if you come to hear
the gospel as a needy sinner, it'll thrill your soul. The revelation
of the mystery of Christ, that He came to save the worst of
sinners. And then here's the fourth thing. The success of
Christ manifest in the flesh is a great mystery to the natural
mind. Paul says here that he was believed on. He was preached
to the Gentiles and believed on in the world, received up
into glory. Now God manifests in the flesh.
God became a real man in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. That happened. And when his mission
was fully accomplished, he was received back up into glory as
a man, as a man. And you know why that happened?
Because the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, did everything
He came to do. He came to save His people from
their sin, and He did it. He came to put away sin and to
bring in everlasting righteousness, and He did it. He came to defeat
every enemy, and He did it. And after He suffered and died,
defeating every enemy, putting away all the sin of His people,
He arose from the grave and he ascended back to the Father as
the mighty conqueror in full, complete victory. And I'll tell
you what that means to you and me. All of his people must be
saved. All of his people, they must
hear the gospel. They must be given faith in Christ. God's gonna see to it. See, since
the Lord Jesus Christ is the completely successful, victorious
Savior, all of his people, shall be saved. Make no doubt about
it. Not one of them will perish. They can't. They can't perish.
It's impossible. Their sin is put away. It's impossible
that they perish. They must follow him there. Since
there's one man in glory, many more are going to follow. Everyone
he represented is going to follow him there. And since that's true,
we cannot fail when we believe Christ. Since Christ is the mighty,
successful, victorious Savior, we cannot fail when we preach
Christ. It's impossible. Just preaching.
Somebody's going to believe what we're saying. Somebody's going
to. And I can tell you who it is that's going to believe. It's
God's elect. Everyone for whom Christ died,
they all are going to hear and believe. Eventually they are.
So let's just preach Christ. We're going back to how should
we behave ourselves in the church. What is the mission of the church?
Let's just preach Christ. No other methods, no other psychological
persuasion, no other hoops for people to jump through. Just
preach Christ. We'll be successful. We can't
fail if we preach Christ. Now I promise you we will fail
if we do anything else. If we add anything to Christ,
if we mix something else in, we may build a bigger following,
but we're going to fail. We're going to fail. Men and
women will go to hell believing what we're saying. But if we
preach Christ only, we cannot fail. God's people are going
to be saved. They're going to be kept. They're
going to believe. Every time someone comes to Christ
and believes on Him, you know why that is? Because Christ is
the successful, victorious Savior. His people coming to Him, that's
the result of His work for His people. So let's just preach
Christ and let's just believe Him. Let's just believe Christ. We cannot fail. We cannot be
lost. We cannot perish if we trust
Christ and Christ alone. And let's be committed not to
be pulled off on a tangent. Let's be committed not to look
anywhere else, not to try to look two places at one time.
Let's be committed to trust Christ and Christ alone. And we cannot
fail because Christ is the answer to the mystery of godliness.
Christ is the answer to every spiritual mystery. Christ is
the answer to every mystery of this book. If there's something
you read in this book and you don't understand it, just keep
looking, just keep reading, just keep asking God to show you.
The key to it is Christ. The answer to it is Christ. He's
the answer to every mystery of this book. And it is my earnest,
fervent prayer that God the Holy Spirit will grant each of us
here this morning that faith in Christ to believe Him and
to rest in Him. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank You for Your Word. How we thank You
that You've given us some understanding of the revelation of Your Son,
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ in Your Word. And Father, I pray
You'd bless Your Word. You promised that You'd bless
Your Word, that Your Word would not return unto You void. And
Father, I pray that it as your word has been preached this morning,
that you'd cause it to go forth in power, to accomplish your
purpose of redemption, to accomplish the purpose of instructing the
hearts of your people and reminding us to keep looking to Christ,
to keep looking to him, keep trusting him. I pray you'd send
your word forth in power to comfort the hearts of your people, that
our God has saved his people and they cannot fail. Father,
bless your word to your glory. Enable us to see your glory through
the preaching of your word this morning. We thank you for allowing
us to meet this morning. Father, we pray that you'd bless.
Bless our time of worship as we go back home and prepare to
go back out in the world tomorrow. Bless and watch over your people.
Cause your word to strengthen our heart so we can come back
and get another helping of your word. It's in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his glory, for his sake,
we pray. Amen.