1 Timothy 3.16, and our subject
today is the mystery of godliness. Let's read this verse together.
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. By the term godliness here is
not meant the successful performances of men's religious ideas. But true godliness is that which
originates with God, is worked in us by God, and is approved
of God. It doesn't make any difference
what anybody else thinks, religious or non-religious. The approval
of God is what counts. It's called a mystery here. The
word mystery and mysteries, plural, is found 27 times in the New Testament. And all
27 times, it's the very same Greek word, not meaning mysterious,
the way we use the word. No, not at all. but it rather
means a hidden truth. That's what mystery is in the
Bible, a hidden truth. The Strong's Greek Dictionary
defines mystery in the New Testament as that which, being outside
the range of unassisted natural apprehension, can be made known
only by divine revelation. and is made known in a manner
and at a time appointed by God and to those only who are illumined
by His Spirit." Mystery. Hidden truth outside the range
of unassisted natural apprehension. Made known only by divine revelation. And without controversy, great
is the mystery, the hidden truth of godliness. This word mystery
does not mean something with no explanation, though it is
that to us naturally. But it means a hidden truth.
And though it be fully understood by none of us, The mystery remains. And Paul tells Timothy not that
he should do what so many today do, deny the mystery or ignore the mystery or try
to explain away the mystery. Oh, no, he says, leave the glorious
mystery. And the New Testament has much
to say about this. Ephesians 3.2, the mystery is
hidden in God. Colossians 3.3, the mystery is
hidden in Christ. Revelation 3.18, the mystery
is hidden from the eyes of men. It was hidden in the Old Testament
types and shadows, which men did not see and we would not
see without the light of the New Testament. It was hidden
to a degree, and it is hidden to a degree, this mystery of
godliness, even in the gospel. To a degree, I said. Paul said,
now we see in part, just in part. 1 Corinthians 2, 7, but we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom. which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. Remember, we're
not talking about something mysterious, something spooky, the way we
use that word mystery. We're talking about simply a
hidden truth, not yet revealed. Colossians 1.26, even the mystery
which hath been hid from the ages and from generations. Romans 16.24, now to him that
is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the
preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery
which was kept secret since the world began." Ephesians 1.9,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will. Colossians
1.27, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. First Corinthians 4.1,
let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God. So don't listen to those
in our time who explain away the mystery. Cocky preachers who would have
us believe they've got all the answers to every question. They've
got the devil by the horns and life is a picnic and they come
down on you like you ought to be on top of everything in your
little world. And you ought not have any problems. But don't despair in your heart
that you've got mountains you can't get over. And you've got valleys you think
you won't get through. Don't give the devil credit for
it, but realize that God has you where he has you. There is
supposed to be a measure of hidden things in life. We don't know it all. We don't
see it all. We can't figure it all out, and we don't supposed
to. But we are where we are. by his
own design, and he does this to bring us to trust him, to
lean on him fully. Don't despair that there's so
many things you don't understand. Without controversy, that is,
without any argument about it, great is the mystery of godliness. Now, Timothy has been given the
oversight of the church at Ephesus. And Paul says in verse 15 that
he hopes to visit Timothy soon. Or verse 14, he says that. Then in verse 15, he says, but
if I tarry long, if I don't get to come as soon as I hope to
and intend to, I am writing to you, this is in verse 15, that
thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house
of God. Now, I've heard this used this
way, but he's not talking here about misbehaving in church. But rather that thou mayest know
how to conduct thyself, carry on in the ministry and the assembly
of the saints, the order and the worship. major on the majors
in the assembly and in the worship. Don't be overtaken with side
issues. Stick with the basics, stick
with the fundamental. Common truths, the common ground
of all true believers. Notice in verse 15, the assembly
of the Lord's people is referred to by three statements. Number one, the house of God.
Number two, the church of the living God. And number three,
the pillar and ground of the truth. First, the house of God. He's not talking about a building
made of brick and mortar. The Greek word used here for
house means household. the family. You remember in the
Old Testament, the house of Jacob was the family of Jacob. The
house of David was the family of David. And the house of God
is the family of God. It means that we're all brothers
and sisters, not strangers. I'm not talking about the building,
but the people. It's called the house of God.
because he's the builder of the family. He's called the house
of God because he's the father of the family. He's called the
house of God because he dwells in it. He lives in the house. God's people are his house. Psalm
132, verse 13, for the Lord hath chosen Zion. His people, he hath desired it
for his habitation. This is my rest forever. Here
will I dwell, for I have desired it. The house of God. The people
of God. Secondly, the church of the living
God. This is here in verse 15 also.
And again, the building is not the church. I mean, we say, well, I'm going
by the church. We mean we're going by the church house. We're
going by the building here for something. But the church is
not the building. God's people are the church. The word is Ecclesia or Ecclesia,
as some pronounce it, meaning the called out ones, the church. those whom God has called out
from the world by His grace, given a hope in Christ. It's
called the church of the living God. Why would He say in the
living God? Well, it's in distinction from
the houses and the temples of idol gods. The church is the
house of the living God. The church belongs to the living
God. The church is the dwelling place
of the living God. The living God, he is life, he
is the fountain of life. He gives the life, the breath,
the movement to his church. So as his people, we're first
the house of God, Again, in verse 15, the church of the living
God. And then thirdly, the pillar
and ground of the truth. This is so important. This is what the church is. It's not the. The church does not exist to
have somebody to eat pizza with, that's not it. The church does
not exist as a matchmaking place in the community. That's not
it. The church is the people of God, those saved by the grace
of God, assembled to worship God and defined as the pillar
and ground of the truth. Now, I read some writers who
interpret this just backwards. It is not, as Rome says, now
this is what Rome claims, this is what the Pope claims, that
the church sustains the truth. But rather the truth sustains
the church. Truth's stability and truth's
strength is manifest in the church. We are visible evidence of God's
working, what God can do and has done. Truth is the pillar
that sustains, upholds. Truth is the ground, the foundation
upon which she rests. And, of course, this truth is
Christ Himself. He is the foundation He is both
the chief cornerstone and the foundation stone. He is the basis
of true Christian doctrine, and particularly the doctrine of
his person. As truly God and as truly man,
he is the pillar and the ground which supports all other truth,
and without him, They all fail and they all fall. And without
him, what would it matter anyhow? These statements lead right into
verse 16 and the clear fundamental statements that are believed
and embraced by God's true children everywhere and in every generation. We may fall out over a lot of
things. But the things declared here in verse 16 are fundamental
truths and are upheld by true believers everywhere. So I want
us to look carefully at this verse for a few minutes this
morning. We will by no means exhaust it
or even come close to mentioning everything, but we want to look
at it. 1 Timothy 3.16. It begins with this statement. We've already said something
about without controversy. without any argument about it.
Great is the mystery of Godliness. Then he proceeds in this single
verse to make six statements, each one very brief, each one
spoken clearly, and yet each one is so profound that the natural
man cannot grasp it or receive it. And before we look at these six
things, Let me back up to what I referred to about revelation
a few moments ago. Consider this. If the truth of
God be a mystery, then any knowledge of the truth we
have is a result of divine revelation. It's not that you figured it
out or I figured it out. That's why we have so many false
religions in the world. They're based on what people
have figured out. But Christianity, the family
of God, is based upon divine revelation. We do not, by our own initiation,
learn God's truth, but it's by the Holy Spirit's
teaching. He reveals to whom he will God's truth. And that being the case then,
we could say what special favor, what grace it is when any child
of Adam, like you or I, is spirit taught to know and believe the truth
concerning God and His Son. And in so doing, the Holy Spirit
does not teach by reason, men reason, but he teaches by faith. Flesh embraces reason. Faith
embraces revelation. Flesh embraces what I can see
and what I can figure out and even what I can feel. Faith embraces
what God has said. and made me to know in my heart
it's so. It's like Abraham and Sarah. Faith embraces as Abraham
did. Flesh and reason laughs as Sarah
did. See the difference? So all the
blessedness of having been taught of God anything at all, how blessed
we are. But he's faithful, he's faithful.
John 6.45 said, and they shall all be taught of God. All God's people are taught of
him. Now for these six things, which
I trust we believe, we look at a few minutes, we do not understand
it all, but we believe it all. Number one, look what it says
here in verse 16. Number one, God was manifest
in the flesh. Now that's too big for any of
us. That's just big. At the incarnation of Christ,
at the birth of our Savior, and we had this in our Bible class,
that was not the beginning of Jesus of Nazareth. No. That was
not the beginning of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah said, for
unto us a child is born, Unto us a son is given. The son wasn't
born. He's always been. But the child is born. And the
Son of God from eternity is given. And He's born at the incarnation. The Son of God in a virgin's womb. becomes the union of two natures,
divine and human, comes forth in one person. You say, I don't
understand it. Join the club. John Gill said, this is a mystery,
and though revealed to us and believed by us, it is not to
be discerned or accounted for or comprehended by human reason. Don't deny the mystery, the hidden
truth, that that's beyond us to figure out. Don't deny it. Neither expect to understand
it. Just believe the declaration of it. was manifest in the flesh. A whole lot of people believe
there was a historical figure named Jesus. But they don't believe
he was God. But his people believe he's God.
So this is the first thing, God was manifest in the flesh. John
1.14, and the Word, with a capital W, it's talking about Jesus,
the Lord, God, the Son, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And we beheld his glory. What
kind of glory? The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. He wasn't full of
nothing else like some of us are. He was full of grace and
truth. Wasn't room for anything else.
He's full of grace and truth. That's him. John 1 18, no man
had seen God at any time. This was before the incarnation.
But the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father,
he hath declared him. Did He not say, I and my Father
are one? He told those disciples, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. He's God, manifest in flesh. 2 Corinthians 5.19, God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. God was manifest
in the flesh. 1 John 1 and 2, for the life
was manifested And we have seen it and bear witness and show
you that eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. How in the world can you show
somebody that eternal life? I'm talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the eternal life, which was with the Father and
was manifested unto us. Great mystery indeed. Not mysterious,
not spooky. but great hidden truth indeed,
that the creator joined his creation without ceasing to be the creator.
Figure that out. God became man without ceasing
to be God. Figure that out. Great is the
mystery of godliness. Do we understand it? No. Do we
believe it? Yes. That Jesus Christ in his
flesh was and is God of very God. Yes. All right. Number two here in verse 16,
not only God was manifested in the flesh, but secondly, justified
in the spirit. We do not understand the depth. of the humiliation of our Savior
during his sojourn here. So deep was that humiliation. And that was part of his assignment
here, to go lower than low. But it was the Spirit's business,
the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, all one in the
same person. It was the Spirit's business
to justify the claims of Jesus Christ and justify Him in all
conditions. You look at the story. He's conceived
of the Spirit in Mary's womb. He is testified to at His baptism
as the Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. He's
led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil. And throughout his pilgrimage, sojourn, John 3.34 says he was
given the Spirit without measure, the Spirit of God. He's resurrected
by the Spirit. 1 Peter 3.18, being put to death
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Ghost, went on then and confirmed our Lord's acceptance
back into glory. How did He confirm it? How did
He let us know that all is well and that Christ is accepted and
that we're justified? The Father has accepted us. How
do we know that? How did the Holy Spirit confirm
it? At Pentecost, He poured out His power upon believers. So Christ was truly justified
in the Spirit, vindicated by the Spirit, confirmed by the
Spirit to be all He claimed to be. So do we believe these two things?
God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus was God. Yes, we believe
it. And two, that he was justified
in the Spirit. That is, the same Holy Spirit
that brooded over the waters in Genesis 1 testified that Jesus
is the Son of God with power. That he's well-pleasing to the
Father. Yes, we believe it. We believe
it. And not just that he's accepted
back by himself, but we're accepted in him. See, I've made this statement
before. You might not have caught it.
The Son of God did not come into this world to live and die and
rise and ascend as a private individual. He came as a representative person. He came representing all His
elect people. He came to live the life that
we could not live. He came to die the death and
shed His precious blood, sinless blood, which we did not have
to shed. And then He took that blood,
as the high priest did in the Old Testament, ascended in the
very presence of his father to the Holy of Holies in heaven,
presented not the blood of animals, but his own blood. And he did
it for us. He's a representative person
all the way. And the very fact that Jesus Christ lived, died,
rose again and ascended not only proves that he himself is accepted
with God forever, it proves I'm accepted with God forever. Now that's big. That's good.
That's good. That's good. Justified in the
Spirit. Number three, scene of angels. Scene of angels. What does that
mean? Well, if you go through the Old Testament, You'll find
many times that angels had brought messages to men, angels delivered
messages to God's prophets, and even come into the New Testament.
We find that the angel Gabriel had come and told Zacharias, John the Baptist, about the Lord
Jesus. He had told Mary about him. The angel of the Lord had told
Joseph about him and even told him his name, called him Jesus. Angels did all this through the
ages. But did you realize not until
he was born had the angels ever seen their creator? Seeing of angels. God is a spirit. We read you that a while ago,
John 118, from the Old Testament, from eternity. God is a spirit. No man has seen God at any time. But the only begotten Son, He
had declared Him. In Him, who was made flesh, lying
in that manger, those angels after thousands of years of taking
commands and obeying those commands and taking messages about the
Savior. For the first time, they see
Him manifest in flesh, seen of angels. That's what all the ruckus was
about in Luke 2. Listen to this. There were in
the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon
them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they
were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. The angel said, You shepherds,
I didn't come out here tonight, here late at night, just Just
see what y'all doing, drinking coffee or what? No. I'm here
with a message. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you. They didn't go to Jerusalem with
this message. They didn't go to Main Street, Bethlehem with
this message. They went out in the field where the shepherds
were. You'll find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in
a manger. And this angel no more than delivers
this message. And then the scripture says,
and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of angels,
a heavenly host, an army of angels. praising God and saying, glory
to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward
men. Scene of angels. Scene of angels. Hebrews 1 and 6, and again, when
he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and
let all the angels of God worship him. Scene of angels. Now you
and I hadn't seen him with these physical eyes, but by faith I
see him. And the message is, let all the
people of God worship him. So angels attended his birth.
They attended his temptation in the wilderness. They attended
his agony in Gethsemane and ministered to him. They attended his death. They attended his resurrection.
They attended his ascension. He was ministered to by angels
throughout. God was seen of angels. And number four, look at it still
in this verse preached unto the Gentiles. This God who's manifest in the
flesh is preached under the Gentiles. Now always in history, Old Testament,
Gentiles had worshipped multiple gods. I mean, when you got out
of Israel into any of the heathen nations, Canaanite nations, and
all the rest, they had a different god for
everything, multiple gods. Well, you and I are not too good
for that. If we'd been left to ourself, we could be that ignorant. But now in Jesus Christ, these
Gentiles who always worshiped multiple gods and anything as
God, they're preached unto that there's one God manifest in the
flesh. He is God's Son, and yet He is
God. God is my Father, and yet I and
my Father are one. How are you going to figure all
that out? He's God the Son. He is the one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The mystery is not denied. It's
not ignored. It's not explained away. It's
just preached. Preached unto the Gentiles that
this one born in Bethlehem was God. God. To Gentiles, those who never
had and in themselves never could believe any such, but yet Christ
is preached unto the Gentiles. Number five, and I'm not even
scratching the surface of these things, but fifthly, believed
on in the world. Believed on in the world. Not by the world, but in the
world. See, here's some of those other
worlds. that we all time talking about how the word is used in
the New Testament. So many ways. Believed on in
the world. Now this is not so much just
the Gentile world because the Jewish world didn't believe on
him either. In general that is. But the mystery is that he's
believed on in the world. All Adam's race by nature is
stuck in unbelief. To believe God is not a decision
we can make. It's the gift of God. To believe
in God is one thing, but Abraham believed God and it was counted
to him for righteousness. It didn't say he believed in
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. He believed
God. In other words, he trusted God. So to believe God is the gift
of God. The Holy Spirit plants, puts
faith in our heart to believe. Therein and therein only do any
of us believe God. It's not a human activity. It's
a divine miracle if you believe. And God's true children, can
I say this? God's true children do not gloat. and slouch around and live haphazardly
as if it were our own doing. But rather, we never get over
the miracle, the awe of it, that such a vile creature as I, such
a wretched sinner as I, could be brought to believe and rely
on and trust in and rest in. the Lord Jesus Christ. He's believed
on in the world. Believed on in the world. This
is not an accident. This is not our choice. It's
a miracle. It's God's doing. Just to show you what I'm talking
about, for example, if I tell you this morning that I talked
to a man on the streets of Hendersonville yesterday and he He assured me that he had no
earthly father. He was born of a virgin. He was
sure of it. And he was so convincing. And
I believed him. And I just thought I'd tell you
about it this morning. What do you think? Is there any possible
way you would believe that? No way. No way. And yet you believe it about
Jesus Christ. And I believe it. He's believed on. He's believed
on in the world. Not by the world, not by the
religious world, not by the political world, but he's believed on in the world.
And could I add, in the world of the ungodly he's believed
on. You go this morning to any gambling casino, You go to any
liquor joint, you go to any nightclub, you go to any dope house, you
go to any house of prostitution, you go to any prison, anywhere,
and you'll find somebody, and you'll probably find many, that
you cannot convince that Jesus Christ is not who he said he
is. You try telling folks that he's
not God's son, he didn't die on a cross, He didn't satisfy
God for our sins, and the sorriest people alive will call you a
liar and say he did so. He did do all that. Believed on in the world. This can be ascribed to nothing
other than the power of God. That one who died so shamefully
was numbered with transgressors. How could he ever be believed
to be anything other than one of those transgressors? When he died, even the Roman
centurion couldn't hold his tongue. You know what he said? Truly this man was the son of
God. How did he really know that? Talk about the miracle of God
and believing. Believed on in the world. When they crucified Jesus, they
said, we'll put a stop to all this. We'll end this. But you know
what happened? On the day of Pentecost, there
were 120 believers gathered. And when the spirit of God was
poured out on them, Before the day was over, 3,000 more had
believed. 3,000. But it goes further. Here's the
question for you and for I this morning. Here's a greater mystery
and a greater miracle. It's one thing to believe in
Him, that He is who He says He is,
and did what the Bible says He did, And there are many, many, many
perishing souls this morning that believe in Him. But it's something else to believe
on Him. You say, what's the difference? Only those chosen in Christ for
the foundation of the world, only those whom Christ represented
on the cross shed His blood for, only those who are brought by
the Holy Spirit to actually trust Him with our eternal welfare, to rest in Him, to cling to Him
as our only hope. That's the difference in believing
in Him and believing on Him. There's a lot of folks that believe
in Jesus, but they believe in on themselves. John 336, he that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. That is, he who is trusting nothing
else and no one else but the Son of God. That fellow has everlasting
life. That's what Jesus said. Our former
pastor, Brother Huntley, used to tell this. This was many,
many, many years ago. Of course, he's been gone quite
a few many years now himself, since 88. But this happened many
years ago. And he'd tell this. A famous stuntman walked across
the Niagara River above the falls on a tightrope, above the falls. And he got to the other side
where part of the crowd was gathered to watch. And there was a wheelbarrow
sitting there. It was part of the show. And he said to a man, do you
believe I can roll this wheelbarrow back across? The fellow said, oh yes, I believe
it. I believe it. He believed in the stuntman.
But then he said to the man, all right, get in the wheelbarrow. And the man wouldn't do it. He
believed in the stuntman's ability to a degree, but not enough to
put his own life on the line. You know what it is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? It's to take your hands off and
realize that you'll perish without him, that he's your only hope. He believed in Him. He didn't
believe on Him. I know you believe in Jesus this morning. Do you believe on Him? That's
the question. Are you big enough to handle
your life with all its ups and downs and mountains and valleys? Are you good enough to face God
without Christ? That's the question. And I can
tell you, he's the only hope I have. I believe on him. He's believed on in the world. What a miracle. And number six,
latter part of this verse, last statement, received up into glory. He didn't do this privately.
He took his disciples and went out there to the Mount of Olives. And they stood and beheld that
he ascended. He went up. And he's received
up into glory. He's received. He doesn't ascend
and then to be rejected and sent away as a fallen son of Adam. Oh no. He's received because that's
home. In a sinless body of flesh, we
have a representative in glory. Received up in the glory. There is one there like us, except without sin. One who is touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. One who has felt everything we
feel or will feel. One who knows all we'll ever
face in this world. One who cares more than any earthly
friend ever could. One who does more for us than
any earthly acquaintance ever has. Paul told Timothy, great
is the mystery of Godliness. Don't lose any of this. Don't
deny the mystery. Don't explain it away. You cannot
comprehend it. But Timothy, son, you make dead
sure of this one thing. You believe it and you preach
it. So I would say to us this morning
at this season of the year. When everybody's willing to talk
about baby Jesus right now, I want to ask you a question. What good is a baby in a manger? that was not sinless. What good is a babe in a manger
that did not grow up and die on a cross and shed his blood? What good is a babe in a manger
that did not in time bear my sin on that cross? What good is a babe in a manger
that did not live, die, and then get up from the grave? What good is a babe in a manger
that did not grow up and walk among men in rejection, humiliation,
persecution, What good is he if he was not
accepted of God? What good is a baby in a manger
or a Jesus on the cross or an empty tomb? What good is it to
me if he did not satisfy God on my behalf? If he did not do all that, he's
no good for me. But thank God this morning I
believe and I know in my heart that he did. He did. I believe on him. I'm resting
in him. What about you? What about you? And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. justified in the Spirit, capital
S, seen of angels, preached under the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. May we stand.