Well, good morning to everyone.
If you would, turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1
Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 3. As you're turning from the news
that we have received late this week, the Lord willing, we will
begin to meet again publicly on May the 20th. That's a Wednesday
evening, May the 20th. And we'll plan to get all the
details out to all of you, how we're going to be able to do
that by safely following the guidelines that we have, maintain
our social distancing and so forth, and the things we'll have
to do to be able to meet the restrictions that we have. But
Lord willing, we will be able to meet again, and I'm looking
very much forward to that. All right, 1 Timothy chapter
3. Let's read this chapter together.
This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of
a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless,
the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given
to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker,
not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous,
one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in
subjection with all gravity, For if a man know not how to
rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of
God? Not a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall
into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have
a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach
and the snare of the devil. Likewise must the deacons be
grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy
of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure
conscience. And let these also be first proved.
Then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.
Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderous, sober, faithful
in all things. Let the deacons be the husband
of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For
they that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase to
themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which
is in Christ Jesus. These things write I unto thee,
hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou
mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house
of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, scene of angels, priesthood of the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. We thank God for His Word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
merciful, and gracious Heavenly Father, we bow before your throne
of grace this morning. Father, we bow. We bow reverently,
knowing that we come before the throne of God Almighty. Yet we're
thankful to come boldly, confidently, confident that we'll be heard
and accepted in our Lord Jesus Christ because of who He is and
because of everything that He has accomplished for His people.
And Father, we're thankful. And we bow seeking a blessing,
Father. Oh, would You bless Your Word to our hearts this morning.
Would You bless Your Word to Your glory Father, as I stand
to this awesome task of preaching Your Gospel, Your Word to Your
people, Father, I pray that You would bless. I pray that You
would bless me and uphold me with Thy Spirit and enable me
to rightly divide the Word of Truth. And Father, cause Your
Word to go forth in power. Cause Your Word to bless the
hearts of Your people, to pierce our hearts, to give us life and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to cause us to rest in Him. Father,
reveal Your glory to us, we beg. We say with Your servant of old,
show us Your glory. Oh, would You reveal Your glory,
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in our presence this morning
through the preaching of Your Word. And Father, we bow before
You. A needy people, blessed us beyond
measure in this flesh, but we are still a poor and a needy
people. Father, we pray for those who
are sick and hurting. We pray for Jessica Clark at
this time that you undertake for her to heal her body and
touch her and be with her and her family. Father, we seek a
blessing for those who are brokenhearted and bereaved. We pray for our
brother Dan Morgan at this time, the loss of his mother, that
you would Comfort his hearts and be with his whole family.
We pray, Father, for the family of our brother Don Fortner. We
pray you'd be with Shelby. Comfort her heart, Father. Be
with the children and the grandchildren. Be with that congregation there
in Danville that you'd comfort their hearts with your presence.
Lead and guide and direct according to thy will, Father, we pray.
Father, for our world, we pray that you would provide some relief
for the suffering in our world at this time that people are
so sick and hurting and dying, people out of work and so many
needs and cares that this thing has brought upon the world. Father,
we pray for some relief. We know that You're able. This
plague could end at just Your word. And Father, we pray that
You'd give some relief to our world and that You'd be with
our leaders, that You'd enable them to lead right and our medical
professionals, that You'd and able them to be a tool used in
my hand to provide a cure and a relief from this thing. Father,
we pray for the members of this congregation, your people. Father,
I pray that you would watch over your people, that you'd keep
them safe from this sickness, that you would provide for them
and watch over, Father, and protect. that You would bring us back
together, that we might worship Thee together again soon, as
soon as it could be possible in my time. Father, all these
things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the precious name of Christ our Savior. Amen. Alright, now
I've titled the message this morning, The Pillar and Ground
of Truth. Verse 14, the Apostle writes,
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest
to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of
the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now, Paul
writes to Timothy and he writes to us also that we may know how
to behave ourselves in the house of God. The house of God is the
church. The house of God is not just
a building like this building, but it means the whole congregation
of God's people. And he tells us how we ought
to behave ourselves. The word means how we ought to
conduct ourselves. Paul is telling us here what
it is that we're supposed to do in the local church. I wish
more people knew that. I wish more people knew the function
of the church. What is it that the local church
is supposed to be doing? Now the church, God's church
is not a social club. I would, I will be so much happier
when all of you can be here and there's a social element to this,
to seeing you, to seeing your faces as I preach to you. Is this making sense? Are you
getting this? You know, to preach to people, to greet you. We love
our brethren. I'd be so happy to see you, but
the church is not a social club. The church is not an entertainment
center who entertain sinners on their way to hell by just
telling them what the flesh wants to hear regardless of whether
it's true or not. The church is not to fiddle while the ship
is sinking. We're not to fiddle and attempt
to distract people from the fact that we are dead and dying sinners
who are on the very brink of meeting God in eternity. The function of the church is
not to be a social club, not to be a bunch of entertainers.
The function of the church is to preach Christ. And we're going
to see this as the message that we're to preach as we look at
these verses here in just a minute. That is how the church is to
behave. This is what we're to do. We're to preach Christ. The
other meaning of this word behave I thought was very interesting.
It means to turn from or to turn upside down. The church is to
turn away from the religion of this flesh or to reject it by
preaching the opposite of what the world preaches, by preaching
the opposite of what the flesh preaches. The church God's church
is to turn man's free will religion upside down. You know, man's
free will religion puts man on top and God on the bottom. We're
to turn that upside down. To put God on top and man at
the bottom. We're to turn man's free will
religion upside down by preaching Christ and preaching Christ alone,
preaching nothing other than the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ
and Him crucified. We are commanded to preach Christ. We are commanded to preach Christ
not as we think he is, not as we wish he was. We are to preach
Christ not as we speculate that he is. We are to preach Christ
as he has been pleased to reveal himself in this book. We are
not to use human logic to arrive at our message. If we use human
logic to arrive at what God is like and how God saves sinners,
100% of the time we will be wrong. Human logic about God is always
wrong. God said, your thoughts are not
my thoughts. Your ways are not my ways. If
we use human logic to determine what God must be like, we will
be wrong. So we're not to use human logic. When we preach,
we are to preach the Word and only God's Word. Hold your place
here and look over a couple of pages of the book of 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy chapter 4. The apostle tells young Timothy,
he's a preacher, he's a pastor, and this is what he's telling
all of us still today, I charge thee therefore, I charge thee
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick
and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, this is my charge
to you, preach the word. Always and only preach the word. Be instant in season and out
of season. Whether the world thinks it's in season or out
of season, preach nothing but the word. Whatever it is that
needs to be done in God's church, preach the word. Reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Preach the word. Preach Christ as he is revealed
in the word. And back in our text, 1 Timothy
3, the apostle tells us here, Why is it that we must preach
the Word? We must preach the Word. People
must hear the Word preached. Why is it? Why can't we figure
out God on our own? Why does God have to send a man
to tell us what God's like and how God saves sinners? Why is
it God's got to send a man to tell us what we're like? God's
got to send us a man to tell us we're sinners or we'll never
believe it. Why is it God's got to send us a man to preach the
Word, telling us what we're like and what God's like, how God
saves sinners? Why do we need a preacher? because
the gospel is a mystery. Look at verse 16. And without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Now, there's no
controversy in the truth of the gospel. There's no questioning
it. There is no questioning, no controversy about what the
gospel declares, the truth that the gospel declares. The facts
of Christ the Savior in Scripture are undeniable, unchangeable
truths. I said this to you last Wednesday
night. Now it's true that we do not know everything there
is to know about God. But God gives His people knowledge
and wisdom and understanding. Now we don't know everything
there is to know about God, but we will never learn anything
new about God that will contradict the truth of salvation in Christ
that's been revealed in His Word. You'll never learn anything about
God new that will contradict His Word. God has put in His
Word everything that a sinner needs to know to know Christ,
to believe Christ and be saved in Him. There's no controversy
about this. There's no controversy about
the Gospel of Christ because it is plainly revealed in the
Word of God. It is so plain a child can understand
it and a child can believe it. But it's such a great mystery
that it cannot be believed apart from divine revelation. This
is such a great mystery, we cannot believe it unless God the Holy
Spirit reveals Christ to us. He must take the gospel and reveal
Christ to us, and then the Spirit must give us a heart, a heart
of faith that will believe Christ. Otherwise, it will remain a mystery
to us. That's why we need God to send us a preacher, because
the gospel is a mystery. And the mystery that we are to
preach is Christ. It's salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The mystery that we're to preach
is not the mystery of when Christ's second coming is going to be.
Will there be a earthly tribulation? Will there be a thousand year
reign? Will there be this? Will there be that? That's not
the mystery we're to preach. The mystery that we are to preach
is the salvation in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now that's a mystery. to the
natural man. It's not a mystery God will open
up the scriptures to unless you see Christ in it, but that is
salvation in the person and work of Christ alone is a mystery
to the natural man. As our brother Henry Mahan told
us so many times, we are to preach who Christ is, what Christ did,
why Christ did it, and where Christ is now. And that's my
four points this morning. Who is he? What did he do? Why
did he do it? And where is he now? That's the
gospel that we see here in verse 16 of 1 Timothy chapter 3. And
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received
up into glory. And here's my first point. We
are to preach who Christ is. Well, who is he? Who is the Lord
Jesus Christ? Well, look at the book of John,
Gospel of John chapter one. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
manifest in the flesh. John chapter one, verse 14. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. The
Word was made flesh. In Him was all the glory of the
Father, all the glory of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
manifest in the flesh. He is the God-Man. Now, in order
to save sinners, this tells you how lost in sin we are, how hopeless
we are in our condition by nature. In order to save sinners, God
had to become a man. the eternal God, the eternal
Son, was made flesh. Yet, He never ceased to be God. He is God and man. As Brother
Scott Richardson so famously said, He was as much man as if
He were not God, and as much God as if He were not man. Now, that's a mystery. That's
a mystery. That's something that can only
be believed by God-given faith. And the salvation of a sinner
is so hard to accomplish that the salvation of sinners required
the eternal, holy, almighty God to become a man. God had to humble
himself to become a man so that he could be the representative
of his people. Now, you cannot understand the gospel and to
understand what we're talking about here. You have to understand
the truth of representation if you would understand the gospel
of how God saved sinners. Now, all men, women, boys and
girls were made sinners by our first representative, Adam. We
did what Adam did. When Adam sinned, we sinned too. It wasn't like when Adam sinned,
God imputed Adam's guilt to us. No, when Adam sinned, we sinned
too because we were Indian. We became guilty because we sinned
when Adam sinned. We died spiritually in Adam because
we sinned when Adam sinned. We're dead in sin. We're born
that way. We're born dead, and there is
not one thing that we can do to save ourselves. There's not
one thing we can do to get God to save us. We are dead, dead
in trespasses and sins, and we deserve God's eternal wrath for
our sin. But Almighty God is merciful
and gracious, and he's going to save somebody. So if sinners
are going to be saved, we need a second Adam. We need a second
representative to come and undo for his people everything Adam
did to his people. So God became a man. He had to become a man so that
he could be the perfect man. See, the only way we can have
a perfect man is if God becomes a man. If God becomes a man,
we'll have a perfect man and he can make his people righteous. Just like Adam made his people
unrighteous, This God-man can make his people righteous. Just
like Adam made his people dead, this man, this perfect man, can
give his people life. When the Lord Jesus Christ, he
came in the flesh and he obeyed God's law. And when he obeyed
God's law, his people did too, because they were in him as their
representative. When the Lord Jesus Christ died
to satisfy God's justice, justice has no more claim on him. Doesn't
want anything more to do with him. He's already satisfied justice
by his death. Christ died to the law. He died
to the law because he satisfied the law. So the law has no more
demands on him because he's dead. He already died. He died to the
law. He died to satisfy God's justice.
And when Christ died, his people died too. They died in him. When
Christ died, his people, they satisfied God's justice too.
They satisfied God's law too. because they died in Christ,
their representative. So God's law has no more demand
on God's elect. They already died to the law.
They've already satisfied the law in Christ, their representative,
so that they have no more relationship with the law. They died to the
law in Christ, their representative. And they'll never be condemned,
because they already died. They were already condemned in
Christ, their representative. But in order for all that to
happen, The Savior had to take on Him flesh because He was going
to be the representative of a people who were in the flesh. So He
had to become flesh. But He had to also be God. At
the same time, He had to be God so that He could obey God's law
perfectly. The Savior had to become a man. God had to become
a man so that He would have a body to be sacrificed. But He had
to be God so He'd be a perfect sacrifice. or else His sacrifice
could never take away sin. Now that's a mystery. That's
a mystery that God was manifest in the flesh. It's a mystery
that the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh to save His people
who were in the flesh. But if you look at 1 John chapter
4, this is a mystery. No question about it. This is
a mystery. How did God become a man? I don't
know. He just did. God became a man. That's a mystery.
But it's a mystery every single saved person believes. I can
show you that in the book of 1 John, chapter 4, verse 2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit, every preacher that confesseth that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit, every preacher
that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is the Antichrist, the
spirit of Antichrist. Where have you heard that it
should come? And even now already is it in the world. This is a
mystery every saved person believes. Not only did Christ come in the
flesh, God's Son came in the flesh, but when He came, He made
every single person the Father gave Him righteous. It's not
just that He came in the flesh, what did He accomplish in the
flesh? He made every single person He represented righteous. Now
that's who Christ is. He's God manifested in the flesh.
Well, Was he able to accomplish this great mystery of salvation?
The salvation of a sinner is a mystery. Was he able to accomplish
it? Well, here's the second thing
we're to preach. We are to preach what Christ did. Well, what did
he do? Well, our text tells us he was
justified in the Spirit. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
God. He's one with the Father. He's
one with the Spirit. That's how he had the Spirit
without measure. He's one with the Spirit. The Spirit was the
one who enabled him to do these different miracles that he told
John the Baptist, this is the evidence that I am he that should
come. This is the evidence that I am the Christ. These miracles
that I've performed, no man could do them except God. He had the
Spirit without measure that enabled him to perform these different
miracles. But that's not exactly what this is talking about here.
There can be no question, this is without controversy, This
phrase, justified of the spirit, means a whole lot more than he
had the spirit without measure and he performed these miracles.
This refers to the time that Christ was made sin for his people.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God, the God-man, was
made sin. What? The Holy Son of God was
made sin. That's a mystery, isn't it? That's
a mystery. How's that possible? I don't know. He just was. I
know he was because that's what God's word says. I don't know
how. He just was. He had made sin.
You know, people ask, well, how could the Lord Jesus be made
sin, but still be the sinless sacrifice? I mean, if you're
saying Christ was made sin, they say that you're saying he was
a sinner and he had a sinful nature and all. Remember what
I told you about human logic? That's the conclusion that you
arrive at if you use human logic. But if you just stick to what
the Word of God says, we know He was made sin. And a whole
lot better question than, well, how is that possible? A whole
lot better question is why? Why was the Lord Jesus Christ
made sin and what happened when He was? When Christ was made
sin, He took the sin of His people and He took it completely away
from them. so that they have no sin. He
was made sin for them. He took their sin away from them. And He suffered and He died to
pay for all of the sin of all of His people, to put it all
away under His blood. The sacrifice of Christ put away
all of the sin that was laid upon Him. So the sacrifice of
Christ justified His people. It put their sin away. It made
them without sin. The sacrifice of Christ made
both Him and them, both the head and the body, without sin. He justified. And when the Holy
Spirit raised Christ from the dead, He gave us proof positive
that the death of Christ justified His people, made them to have
no sin. Romans 4.25. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Raised
again as proof positive, His sacrifice justified His people. Christ must rise from the dead.
Death could not have hold, keep hold upon Him because the reason
for death is gone. All that sin that demanded His
death is gone, put away under His blood. There's no sin left.
Well then, death cannot have dominion over anyone for whom
Christ died. It's impossible because the death
of Christ removed the only reason for their death. The sacrifice
of Christ removed the sin of his people. So they must have
life. Everyone for whom Christ died
is justified. They're saved from all of their
sin. They're saved from death. They're saved from the wrath
of God. The sacrifice of Christ justified all of his people from
all things from which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. That's what Christ did. He justified
his people from their sins. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come and make an attempt, make a stab at salvation. He did not
come to try to save anyone. He saved all of his people from
all of their sin. And there's not the slightest
chance that any one of them can ever perish. There's no controversy
possible about that. The Lord Jesus Christ was justified
of the Spirit. He justified his people. The
Spirit gave us evidence of that. And our text said he was seen
of angels. Now angels, I don't know a lot
about angels, but the few things I know from the word of God,
I know angels announced the Lord's conception in Mary's womb. And
that was a mystery. The angel didn't know what to
say other than to say that holy thing that's formed in thee.
It was a mystery. How did the eternal become an
embryo of the womb of a virgin? That's a mystery to that angel,
but he announced it because it was so. Angels announced the
Lord's birth. Almighty God was born as a baby. Glory to God in the highest.
They said, that's a mystery. I can't explain how can God be
born as a baby. I don't know. It's a mystery.
But the angels sang God's glory for it, that he was born in Bethlehem.
The angels watched everything our Lord Jesus did in his earthly
ministry. They watched it all. Angels came and ministered to
the Savior in Gethsemane's garden when He thought His body just
might die at the horrible thought of being made sin, at the horrible
thought of suffering and being separated from His Father. Angels
came and ministered to His body and strengthened Him to go to
the cross. And angels watched. They watched the Lord of glory
suffer and die upon a cross. They watched Him beaten. They
watched Him They watched as his beard was plucked out. They watched
as he was nailed to a hunk of wood. They watched as he was
mocked and suffered and died. And then angels announced the
Lord's resurrection. They had a ring side seat to
everything that happened. And you can just imagine the
angels' utter amazement as they watched all of this unfold. And
they turned to each other and they said, what's going on? This is a mystery. They asked,
as the Lord was being crucified, they asked one another, why doesn't
the Father send us to destroy this whole creation that's making
the Prince of Glory suffer like this? They said, this is a mystery.
That was a mystery to the angels. Well, you know, that should be
all the more a mystery to you and me. The angels watched all
of that with awe and wonder. And man by nature has reduced
this, the death of Christ, to something that God owes us. We've
reduced it to an offer from God. We've reduced it to something
that we can accept or reject and look at it with no awe, no
wonder, no mystery whatsoever. But the angels saw all this in
wonder. And they praised God in the highest
for what they saw. They praised God and the angels
did. They praised God in the highest for this and angels have
no Redeemer. Angels have no representative.
Angels have no Savior. How much more should sinful men
and women like you and me look upon what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished with awe and wonder? How much more should you and
I sing His praises He came to save sinners like us. Glory to
God in the highest. He came to save sinners like
you and me, and brother, He got the job done. Now that's a mystery. That's a mystery how it is that
God in the flesh could justify a sinner like me when all I see
about myself is sin. That's a mystery. But God's Word
says it's so. And that's reason to trust Him.
He got the job done. God in the flesh accomplished
everything that the Father sent Him to do. So that's who Christ
is. That's what He did. Thirdly,
we're to preach, why did Christ do it? Why did He do it? Well, our text tells us that
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, was preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world. Why did Christ come? He came
that all of his people would be saved. That all of his people
would be justified. That all of his people would
hear the gospel and believe on him. That all of his people would
be given faith to believe on him. And this verse gives us
a very good description of who it is that Christ came to save.
For whom did Christ die? He died for the Gentiles. That's
what this says. He was preached unto the Gentiles. Now the Jews called the Gentiles,
Gentile dogs. They couldn't imagine a worse
sinner than the Gentiles. Gentiles were idolaters. Gentiles sacrificed their own
children. They threw their own young people
into burning pits and all kinds of horrible things. They sacrifice
their children, knowing somehow we got to sacrifice the best
that we got to make God happy with us. They're idolaters killing
their own children in the name of religion. You can't think
of a more corrupt, filthy sinner. There's not even imaginable something
worse than a Gentile dog. But that's who Christ came to
save. He came to save the worst of sinners. He didn't come to
save little sinners. He came to save the most corrupt, most
filthy sinners imaginable. That's who Christ came to save. And He's going to see to it.
He suffered and died for those people. And He's going to see
to it that every last one of those vile, filthy sinners is
going to be saved. They're going to hear the gospel
and they will be given faith to believe it. Christ is preached
to the very worst of sinners. And Christ is believed by the
very worst of sinners. As you sit in your living room
this morning, listening to this message, then I'll have to give
you hope. Christ is preached to the worst of sinners. And
Christ is believed by the very worst of sinners. God, the Holy
Spirit, will send the gospel to God's elect. He's going to
cross their path with the gospel. And when He does, He's going
to reveal Christ to them. That is the function of the Holy
Spirit. It is to reveal Christ to God's elect and to give them
faith to believe on Christ. You know, a lot of people think
of the Holy Spirit, they think of the mystery of miracles, speaking
in tongues and healing and whatever else, you know, things that they
do. All this is such a mystery If
you want to look into a mystery, I'm going to give you a mystery
to look into. A deep mystery. A whole lot deeper than speaking
in tongues and healing folks. Here's a mystery. That the Holy
Spirit can come to a dead dog sinner, who by nature is the
enemy of God Almighty, and give them faith to believe on Him.
And give them a heart that loves God. A heart that God will accept. A nature that God will accept.
That's a mystery. Oh, that's a mystery. And that's
the function of the Holy Spirit. And absolutely nothing is going
to stop God's purpose of the redemption of His people. God's
elect from all over this world. You might think they're too far
away from us for us to be able to reach and for us to tell about
Christ. I'm telling you, nothing is going
to bind God's word. God's elect from all over the
world are going to hear the gospel of Christ and believe on Him. God's going to send them a preacher.
He's going to send them the message. I've been telling you this very
often since we've not been able to meet in person because this
pandemic Our movements have been restricted But God's words not
restricted not in the least not a single event in human history
not even a pandemic where we got stay-at-home orders Absolutely,
nothing. No event in human history will
ever stop or even slightly delay God's purpose of the salvation
of his people Matter of fact, somehow it's going to accomplish
it. Somehow God's working this, even this pandemic where we can't
meet together in person. Somehow God's working it together
to save his elect. You can write it down. There's
no controversy about it. Every last one of God's people
are going to hear the gospel of their salvation, and they're
going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ our Savior
lives to ensure it. See, that's why Christ came.
Christ came to glorify his Father. by saving everyone that the Father
gave Him to save. I know that's a mystery to the
natural man. It's a mystery. How is it that
God can save sinners? How is it that God can reveal
Himself to sinners by the foolishness of preaching? By the preaching
of Christ, which seems like foolishness to the natural man. How is it
possible that God can use that and save His people from their
sin? I know that's a mystery to the natural man. but nothing
gives me more reason to trust Christ. Nothing gives me more
reason to rest in Christ. Nothing gives me more reason
to come to Christ begging Him for mercy than this fact. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the successful Savior and everyone without exception
who believes on Him shall be saved. Nothing gives me more
confidence, more reason to come to Him begging Him, Lord, give
me that faith. Give me faith. Reveal yourself
to me because everyone without exception, who believes on Christ,
shall be saved." Now that's what Christ accomplished when He came. Here's the fourth thing. We're
to preach where Christ is now. Our text says He was received
up into glory. Now why is that important, that
He was received up into glory? The Lord Jesus Christ was received
back up into glory Because He did everything He came to earth
to do, there's no reason for Him to stay on earth anymore.
He finished everything He came here to do, and He was received back
up into glory. And when the Lord Jesus ascended
up in those clouds, back to heaven, I'm telling you that was a glorious
homecoming. He was already King, but this
is a coronation celebration. The mighty, conquering, Successful,
victorious savior came back to glory to sit upon the throne
of heaven. And you know why he did it? So
that from his throne, he can rule every event in his creation
and to work all of those different events together for this one
purpose, the salvation of his elect. And let me tell you, the
king is not going to fail to do what he's there to do. He
did not fail in His sacrifice. He did not fail to save one who
the Father gave Him to save. He saved them all. And He's not
going to fail in His reign either. The prophet Isaiah told us when
He comes, He shall not fail nor be discouraged. And He wasn't
in His earthly ministry. He did not fail in His sacrifice
and He will not fail in His reign either. All of His people will
be brought to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now since the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, was right, the God
manifest in the flesh was accepted back into glory. There is now
a man in heaven. And that means there are going
to be many more men, many more women, many more people in the
flesh to follow the Savior there. The firstfruits are already there.
Christ is the firstfruits. He's already there. But you just
wait till you see the rest of the harvest. You're not going
to be able to count them all. More men, more people, women
in the flesh are going to follow him there. And I'll tell you
another reason. I know many more people are going
to follow the Savior into glory because the man Christ Jesus
is already there on the throne as the intercessor for his people. He is there on the throne pleading
his sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. He's there pleading
his death as the reason his people should be given life. Then they'll
all be forgiven. They'll all be given life and
every last one of them in his time is going to be brought to
be where He is, that we may behold His glory." Nothing between,
face to face. There's no reason for that not
to happen. There's no reason that one of God's people, one
of God's elect, one of those for whom Christ died, would not
be accepted into glory. Christ has already justified
them. He's already made them meet. He's made them fit to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And you
might say, that's a mystery. You can say it's a mystery if
you want to, but it's not a mystery if you know Christ, if you know
who he is, if you know what he did, you know why he did it,
and you know where he is now. And God will show us that. He'll
show us this message of Christ. We'll know this is how we are
supposed to behave ourselves in the church of the living God.
This is the message that God's given us to preach. Brethren,
the church here is called the pillar and ground of this truth. The pillar and ground of the
truth of Christ. We're the pillar of it. We cannot
move away from it. If the pillar is compromised,
the whole roof's coming down. We're the ground, the foundation
of this. We're to hold this thing together. If the foundation crumbles,
the whole building's falling down. We can never compromise
this truth, this message of Christ and Him crucified. We're to boldly
preach it, and we're to defend it. Because this is the truth. We're to boldly, clearly preach
this message, this message of Christ, and only this message
of Christ, because only the message of Christ is the only way a sinner
can be saved. We're to only preach this message
of Christ, because it's the only way God's sheep can be fed. The
only way God's sheep can be blessed, the only way God's sheep can
be comforted, the only way God's sheep can be encouraged, is through
this message of who Christ is. What did he do? Who is He? What did He do? Why did He do
it and where is He now? That's the message that saves
God's sheep and it's the message that feeds and comforts and instructs
God's sheep. That's the message. Oh, I hope
you've been fed. You've been blessed and you've
been comforted and encouraged by this message of Christ and
Him crucified this morning. God will give us the faith to
look to Him. We'll know how we're to behave
ourselves, won't we? We'll know the message that we're supposed
to preach. If God will ever give us a sight of Him, there won't
be anything else to preach, will there? There won't be anything
else to believe other than the Lord Jesus Christ of God. Just
let us see Him. Let us see who He is. What did
He do? Why did He do it? And where is
He now? All right. I hope the Lord will
bless that dear heart. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. How we thank You for the clear
declaration of the mystery of godliness that You revealed in
Your Word, that You put in Your Word for us to read. And Father,
I pray You'd give us an understanding. I pray that You'd give us a heart
to believe the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe Him, to take away
the mystery, take away the cloud of doubt and unbelief, take away
the cloud of human logic and give us a heart of faith that
we might believe the Lord Jesus Christ and to keep believing
Him, to keep preaching Him, to keep trusting Christ and Christ
alone who is all of our hope, all of our peace, all of our
righteousness, all of our acceptance with Thee. Father, bless Your
words as preached to bring glory to Your name. Reveal to us the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ through the preaching that we've
heard this morning, the preaching of your word. Father, bless us,
we pray, for it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For
his glory and his sake, we pray. Amen. Well, until next time,
I pray the Lord will bless you and keep you.