The first passage we're going
to look at is Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6. Paul obviously writing to the
saints at Philippi, he says in verse 10, Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And then
he says in verse 18, he asked the brethren to pray always with
all prayer and supplications in the Spirit and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Chapter 6 and
verse 19, as for me, pray for me, Paul says, that utterance
may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make
known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador
in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak."
Verse 19, "...that he may open his mouth boldly to make known
the mystery of the gospel." Colossians chapter 1. Colossians 1. And verse 25 through
the end of the chapter. Colossians 1. Paul says, Whereof
I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which
is given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God. Even the mystery
which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning
every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also
labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in
me mightily." Verse 25, I am made a minister according to
the dispensation of God, which is given me for you to fulfill
the Word of God, even the mystery. This mystery that has been hid
from ages, from generation to generation, but is now made manifest
to His saints." 1 Corinthians 2 through 10. Brethren, when I
came to you, says Paul, I came not with excellency of speech
or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For
I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. and I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power. Why, that your faith should not
stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit,
we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom
of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory which
none of the princes of this world knew. For had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it
is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God." Verse 7 in this passage, but
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. 1 Timothy chapter
3. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and the last
verse of that chapter, verse 16. And without controversy,
Great is the mystery of godliness. That is, God was manifested in
the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. This mystery of godliness. Matthew
chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13, starting
in verse 10, the disciples asked our Lord, Why speakest thou unto
them in parables? And Christ answered and said
unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For
whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance. But whosoever hath not, from
him shall be taken away, even that he has. Therefore speak
I unto them parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing
they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear,
and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall
not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have
closed, lest any time they should see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes,
for they see, and your ears, for they hear." Verse 11, Christ
answered them, "'Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries
of the Kingdom of Heaven." Matthew chapter 11 and verse 25 and 26. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things, these mysterious things, from the wise
and prudent and hath revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Now back to our main
text, I guess it would be Ephesians 6. In all of these verses, except
for the last one I read, these chapters I mean, except for Matthew
11, The word in our translation that I want to zero in on is
mystery. Or more properly in the Greek,
secret. Secret. Let's look at this mystery
of the kingdom. He says it's a mystery of the
kingdom, it's a mystery of the gospel, it's a mystery of God.
And let's see for ourselves that salvation of sinners. is by the total and
complete grace of God. Period. Period. So the first point is, what is
this secret? What is this secret? It's used
in these various verses. Well, it is none other than the
wisdom of God manifest to all His saints. Because to His saints,
to each precious believer, Christ, that mystery, which spoken of
in the Old Testament, in type, was unveiled. We can go back
to the Old Testament and see in the teachings, we can see
Christ crucified. The story of how God saved sinners.
We can see that the mysteries back then are now made plain.
The prophecies of all found their fulfillment in Christ. And the
secret counsels of God have been published and made plain. These
mysteries are the secret things of God in how he would seek and
save, call and quicken, substitute and reclaim all his elect people. It is God's everlasting gospel
of how he can both be just and justify the ungodly. This mystery
is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This mystery is also
the mystery of God, the mystery of Christ, and the mystery of
His Holy Spirit. Can you explain to me how God
could be three persons? It's a mystery. I've read a lot
of books, and I've read a lot of explanations. To me, they
end up just muddy in the water. There are certain things that
faith receives and cannot explain. How can God become a man? How
can God become the Son? How can God become manifest in
the flesh? How can God be called Emmanuel,
which is being interpreted, God with us? The mystery of the Spirit's work
in regeneration, making us, who were not a people, His people. or our union with Christ and
having sweet communion with Christ? Or how do you explain the resurrection?
That Christ rose from the dead and so we also in Him will rise
to everlasting life. So what are these mysteries of
the Kingdom? What are the mysteries of God? The mysteries of the
Gospel? It's the whole scheme of God, His plan to rescue fallen
sinners and bring glory to Himself and bring us home to Himself.
It is called in this book, a mystery, a secret. Now, I went back to
my childhood and I thought, what is a secret?
You kids, you know what a secret is. If I had something up here
and I had it covered, you wouldn't know what it is.
You would have no idea what it is until It was revealed. That's the second point. The
secret was hid until. This is basic truth. All these
truths, or singularly, the Gospel truth, because all truth converges
in Christ and Him crucified. It's like a hub of a wheel. He
is the center point. Any Bible interpretation is best
interpreted by Christ. The Bible interprets the Bible.
You know, there's a rule of first usage in the Bible. Find a passage
where the word is the first use in the Bible, and that'll give
you a good indication of what it is. There's certain principles,
but if you have the key, Christ, you have all, because Christ
is all in all. Basically, these truths, this
mystery is hid until they are revealed. That's the short of
it. It's hid, until it's revealed. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2. We'll
just look at a few of these and I'll show you what I mean. 1
Corinthians 2. They are hid secondly until they're
revealed. This mystery is hid until it's
revealed. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
7, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. And verse 10, but God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit. So you can look at this Bible,
and this Bible is light, you can look at it and read it and
read it from cover to cover, And until it's revealed, you're
just guessing. You're just guessing what's underneath
that cloth. You have not seen the full glory.
And what's God's full glory? Christ and Him crucified. That's
why we saw in, we won't turn there, but that's why we saw
in Matthew 13, why Christ spoke in parables. Because to you it
is to reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. And people
love to trivialize this Bible. They like to put people under
bondage with this thing, and all these different rules and
regulations. They like to put the little thing in the yard. I haven't seen it here, but it
used to be real big around down here. They used to put it in their
yard, the rules of life, the Ten Commandments. You'll do that and you'll probably
be a better person and I'd rather have you as a neighbor than somebody
else. But until the book is revealed,
we don't have a clue. We don't have a clue. We are
simply, as He says in Ephesians, you don't have to turn there,
we are Christ's ambassadors. We simply tell the truth about
God, about Christ, and about sin. We pray over it after we
preach it, we weep over it after we preach it, and we let it go
because we know God's Word will prosper regardless. Regardless. He reveals to His people by the
Holy Spirit. It is covered with a curtain
until that's pulled back. The veil, until it was rent,
the high priest could not go. They could go in there. Well,
they had to crawl underneath there, but that's a whole other
story. Turn to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. And verse 25 and
26. Colossians 1. Verse 25 and 26. Paul says, whereof I am made
a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me
for you to fulfill the Word of God. Even the mystery which has
been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest. Made manifest to His saints. But now is made manifest. That
word manifest is to render apparent or to show. What does the Scripture say about
the Jews when Moses is read? They still have a veil on their
heart. It's covered. That's what I'm saying. Matthew
chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. And verse
25, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank
Thee, O Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast
hid." Now that word, hid, means to cover. Do you kind of
get what I'm saying? It's all the same thing. It's
a secret. These things from the wise and
prudent, and has revealed them. What has that word revealed?
To take away. Or to literally take off a cover. to the wise and prudent, or to
reveal the secret, the mystery, this secret, God has to unveil
your heart, God has to open your eyes and your ears, or you will
not understand. And when you understand, you
will understand some basic trivial, what do you mean by Exodus, this
and that, or what's this? You'll understand that this whole
theme of this book is a hymn book, an H-I-M book. It's about
Christ. And it testifies of Him. And
you'll see Christ is all you need. You'll see Christ is all
you want. Because you are and I am the vilest of sinners. Paul says, I'm less than the
least. I am right now. He didn't say,
I used to be. I am now. And that's what the
grace of God does for us. This is, and I've mentioned many,
many times from this pulpit, the two brethren on the road
to Emmaus. after Christ had been crucified
and was buried and He rose from the tomb. They were believers.
They were walking on the road to Emmaus and Christ was with
them. He came up to them and they did
not recognize Him. These were two believers. They
did not recognize Him. And they talked And then Christ
revealed Himself to them. And what did they say? Didn't
our hearts burn within us when He spoke to us? So even believers,
because of sin nature, because of the old nature, is ever present
with us, we still have to have these things, all things God,
all things Scripture, all things regarding the Gospel of free
substitution in Christ revealed to us. That's the second point. The secret was hid. It's hid
until it's revealed. But thirdly, this revelation
is only by the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ. As we just looked at in Matthew
11, some were revealed and some were hid. Turn to Matthew chapter 13. Verses 10 and 16, He answered
and said unto the disciples, Because it is given unto you
to know the mysteries, the secret of the kingdom of heaven, but
to them it is not given. It is not given. Grace, it's
not earned. And look at verse 16, But blessed
that is happy, or also could be graced, are your eyes, for
they see, and your ears, for they hear. So some were blessed
and some were not. They see, they hear. Because
we by nature and by practice are blind and deaf and completely
lost. And none are deserving of grace,
so there's no boasting. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2. And
verse 10. but God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit." Who's us? Anytime you see us,
who's us? Well, let's go back and keep
it in context. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2, Paul's writing to
the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified
in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that are in
every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both
theirs and ours." And look at this verse 3, I may be wrong,
I haven't looked at it in a while, but every epistle starts this
way, Grace be unto you, and peace. You cannot have peace before
grace. It's got to be grace. And it's
worded in this well, it's just how it's grammatically. No, this
book was given by inspiration. There's no error. It's always got to be grace.
And grace has to be revealed. And what is He revealing? He's
revealing the mystery or the secret. And what's that? In one
word, it's converged. It's Christ. And that's why,
and I used to be big in all this stuff, and I understand we all
grow in different places, but I used to be big in Christian
apologetics. And I used to love the Arger Scripture. I've completely
abandoned it. Christ is the only thing that
will help you and I. It has to be, like he says, it
has to be revealed in verse 10, but God has revealed them to
us. It has to be revealed to us. It's purely the grace of
God. Not to all men and all women, but to some men and some women.
I ask you, how do you contain the Spirit? No man knows how
to contain. It says in Scripture, He lists
where it does. And it's unaffected by our puny,
sinful, supposed, will, whatever you want to call it, by our nature,
we cannot affect the Spirit. I asked you, and I thought about
this, and I by far have not read every Puritan, every Grace writer. There's Grace writers that, you
know, just come into life. Hawker, it was Gil this, Gil
that. And then Rupert Reibenbach stumbled
across Robert Hawker. And then Hawker, oh, everybody
had to get Hawker. All these men. These grace men
of years gone by, I ask you this, do you ever read in any of their
writing the word luck or the word chance? Nope. Who cares about these men? Do you ever find the word luck? And I hate to say chance, because
it's used once, but it's not used how we use it. No. No. It's not. So, you know, again,
if you or your children say the word luck, I may give them a
look, I may say something, because it's not used. Because there's
no such thing. The believer does not believe
in what they say, faith, which they say is blind, or how they
talk of luck all the time. The grace of God in the salvation
of men, women, boys and girls, no such ideology, never. Salvation or the revelation of
this mystery by which we are, if we know Christ, we are ambassadors,
all of us. Tell the truth and it's up to
God to pull the cover away. Colossians 1. Verse 26-29. Paul's made a minister even.
He declares the Word, the mystery, which has been hid from ages,
from generations, but is now made manifest, here we go, to
His saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches
of His glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. which is
Christ in you." How do you explain that? It's a mystery until He
unveils it. "...made manifest unto His saints."
Again, not everyone, but I will say the Scripture, I agree with
the Scripture, it's a number which no man can number from
every kindred, tribe, nation and tongue. It's the number of
the sand of the seas. So what I'm saying is this mystery
or this secret is God's secret. It's His mystery. He can and
does and has revealed it to those whom He has given eyes and ears
to see it and hear it. So He will get all the glory
in our salvation, not us, never us. It puts eternal life where
it belongs, in God, in Him. I want to close. Look at three
passages. Proverbs chapter 25. Proverbs chapter 25 and verse
2. It is the glory of God to conceal
a thing. That word conceal It means to
hide. It's His secret. Job chapter
34. Job chapter 34 and verse 29,
when He, that is God, gives quietness, Who then can make trouble? That's
what the men we were talking about back there. If we know
God's on the throne, trouble comes if God gives us quietness. Nobody can bother us. But look
at this next thought. And when he, God, hides his face,
that word, that means to conceal by covering. When He hides His
face, who then can behold Him, whether it be done against a
nation or against a man only? We have to back off. God is on
His throne. Salvation is owned by and it
is in Christ. You will have to go to God to
plead that it may be revealed to you and to me." And as Bruce
made, somebody made a comment, God always hears a genuine cry
for mercy, because He's put that cry in the heart. This is not
just, we're not just talking doctrine, we're not talking theology,
we're talking about the revelation of a mystery. And I'm not up here to make you
curious of what's underneath that cover and get all excited
and do magical tricks and this and that. I'm just here to preach. But
God has to pull that veil back. He has to reveal it. Let me close
by a very encouraging and exciting passage, Isaiah 35. Now, we won't
go into everything. I'm going to read the whole chapter. It's only 10 verses, but this
is regarding His church. This passage is regarding the
church of Jesus Christ. The wilderness, Isaiah 35, the
wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. And the
desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom
abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of
Lebanon shall be given unto it, the church, the excellency of
Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the
Lord and the excellency of our God. His church talks about His
excellency. Strength, strengthen ye the weak
hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of
a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come
with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come and
save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened. The ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a heart and the tongue
of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters
break out and streams in the desert." Streams in the desert.
Doesn't make sense. This gospel never makes any sense
until it makes sense. Isn't that the truth? I mean,
I could give examples, but it would
bring tears to my eyes. It doesn't make sense until it
makes sense. Until that old man came, what
must I do to be saved? And the parched ground shall
become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water in the
habitation of dragons, where each leg shall be grass with
reeds and rushes, and a highway shall be there in a way, and
it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it, It shall be for those, the wayfaring man, though fools,
shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any
ravenous beast shall go up therein. It shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransom of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion, the church with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads. And they shall obtain joy and
gladness and sorrow and sign shall flee away. Oh, I pray that
the Lord would set us upon this beautiful and lovely highway
in verse 8. Yes, a fool, but a fool who has
been shown mercy. There's not going to be any unclean
there because we're pronounced clean, like that leper. He wasn't
pronounced clean in Leviticus 13. Until that leprosy had included,
encompassed the whole body. From the bottom of the foot to
the top of the head. He says, in another place, there
is no cleanness in it. There is no soundness in it.
And then the priest looks at him and he says, clean. Are you a full leper? Or just... No. This highway, this way of
holiness, is for those, they're wayfaring men. We acknowledge
we're sinners. We acknowledge we've been foolish.
We'll not err therein. How do we understand? How can
the mystery of God, God incarnate, flesh, God made flesh, how do
we understand it? It's a mystery. But it's been
revealed. And I thought about this, this
controversy used to be, I don't know if it's still a controversy.
How much do you have to know to be saved? I'm not even going
to go there. I do know this. How much? What's
been revealed. What's been revealed. And Christ
will be revealed to you. Brandon, would you close us please?