When your Bibles, if you will,
to first Corinthians chapter four. First Corinthians, the
fourth chapter. My subject tonight is the mysteries
of God. First Corinthians chapter four. In the first three chapters of
this epistle, the spirit of God inspired the apostle Paul to
write to the Corinthians with regard to their carnal strife
and division, urging them and urging us ever to strive for
the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And doing so,
he urges these Corinthians and urges us to properly esteem God's
servants as God's servants. not to form cliques behind one
or the other, not to treat one as though he is somehow superior
to another. And when I speak of God's servants,
I'm talking specifically now about men who preach the gospel,
gospel preachers, pastors, missionaries, evangelists, gospel preachers. All gospel preachers are co-laborers
in the cause of Christ. not rivals, not competitors,
co-laborers. One is no more important than
another. Some pastor large churches in
large cities. Others pastor a small, insignificant
assembly in an insignificant place like Denver, Kentucky.
But each faithful servant serves Christ in the place where God
put him. And he's to be treated as God's
servant, serving the Lord where God put him. Some of the Lord's
servants are very well educated. Some of them barely educated.
Some are very eloquent, gifted preachers. Others speak with
great plainness. Some may appear to be more influential. I said appear. Others may appear
to be less influential, I said appear, because none of us knows. None of us knows. Let me illustrate
what I'm saying. How many of you know the name
of Henry Scogle? The man lived for 27 years, just
27 years. He was a brilliant young man,
even in his earliest days, brilliant. He lived just 27 years, preached
in Scotland, was a professor of theology at Aberdeen University. And the year before he died,
he wrote a letter to a friend trying to persuade his friend
of the reality of Christianity, the reality of faith and life
in Christ. And another friend saw the letter
and urged Scogol to publish it as a tract. So he did. So far
as I know, the only thing he ever wrote was that little tract.
It was called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Fifty years
later, another young man by the name of George Whitefield picked
up that little tract and read it. And God set his life in the
soul of that man, whose name we all know. Henry Scogle, nobody
knows except those who are with him in glory. George Whitefield,
everybody knows. God used him in the conversion
of thousands. Now you tell me which is more
important. You tell me which is more significant. You tell
me which is more useful. Who knows the name of the man,
the stand-in primitive Methodist preacher? One January morning,
I believe it was January the 9th, In London, snows were so
heavy, the preacher couldn't get there. Virtually nobody else
got there. Mr. Spurgeon was a 16-year-old
boy. He was on his way to another
chapel, and he couldn't get to the place where he was going.
So he turns down an alley into the place where there's a primitive
Methodist chapel, and there's a man standing in the pulpit
and just half a dozen people scattered through the auditorium.
And he took for his text because nobody else was there to preach
Isaiah 45, 22. And he just kept repeating, look
unto me and be you safe. All the ends of the earth said
what he could concerning it and spotted Spurgeon sitting beside
a pole in the building. And he he said, young man, you
look like you need to look. And Spurgeon said it was as though
he looked right through me. And for the first time in his
life, though raised under the sound of the gospel, both his
father and his grandfather, gospel preachers, for the first time
in his life, Spurgeon heard the gospel with efficacy in his soul. I don't have a clue who that
Methodist preacher was. Don't know what his name was.
He was just a primitive man, wasn't even a preacher. He was
just a standing preacher. He was there used of God. which is more important. Spurgeon
or that standing preacher, I wouldn't think to say. Which is more significant,
I wouldn't think to say. The fact is God's servants are
co-laborers in the cause of Christ. Let none of God's saints ever
look with scorn upon any man who preaches the gospel of God's
grace. He who faithfully preaches the gospel of Christ to two or
three. Oh, how I admire that man who
will spend his life, spend his life preaching to just a small
band of believers just because he knows they're God's people
and that's where God's put him. That's called faithfulness. That's
called faithfulness. The man who preaches to two or
three, or the man who faithfully preaches the gospel to two or
three hundred, or if possible in this day, two or three thousand,
are co-laborers in the cause of Christ. One is not to be heard,
respected, honored, supported, or prayed for any more or any
less than the other. You who believe are God's husbandry. God's husbandry. He's the husbandman. I'll tell you what preachers
are. Preachers are hoes and hoses. Preachers are the instrument
God uses to minister to the needs of his people. Nothing more,
nothing less. I'm as significant in this place
as the garden hose we use to water the garden out there. as
significant and no more significant than the hoe my wife uses to
chop the weeds. No more, no less. That means
there's nothing to me and nothing to any man. We have this vessel,
this treasure rather, in earthen vessels, this treasure of the
gospel, and broken pieces of pottery and clay pots, nothing
to the pot. Everything about the glory is
God's. Everything about the praise is
God's. Now read on, read on. In the opening words of our text,
the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 4, 1, let a man so account of
us as the ministers of Christ. What an honor, what a privilege. Let a man so account of us as
the ministers, the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Those men who are called and
gifted to preach the gospel are stewards in God's house. stewards
of the mysteries of God. They are men into whose care
the Lord has trusted the mysteries of the gospel, the mysteries
of God. He has entrusted the riches of
the gospel of his grace into the hands of these men. He calls
his servants stewards in his house. And if you look at verse
two, you'll see that stewards have one requirement. Moreover,
it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. I covet your prayers on my behalf in this regard. That I will be found faithful
to the charge God's given me, faithful to his word, faithful
to your soul, faithful to his glory, faithful to his will,
faithful to the work he's committed to my hands. Now, we're considered
here, are called here stewards of the mysteries of God. This word mystery, it's used
in the New Testament to speak of something that was once hidden
but is now revealed. That which was hidden, not completely
hidden, but partially hidden in types and shadows under the
law. That which was hidden almost
entirely from the Gentile world, but is now revealed in the gospel
of God's grace. Revealed in the full revelation
of the New Testament. That which is hidden from natural
men, unregenerate, unbelieving men and women, is revealed to
regenerate people. To those who are born again,
it's revealed as we are taught of God by the Holy Spirit. A
mystery in the New Testament is a profound spiritual truth,
a profound spiritual truth that can be known only by the teaching
of God, only by the revelation of God, only by the Spirit of
God. When we come to the study of
the mysteries of God, We're studying that which can be understood
only by divine revelation, only by faith in Christ. Anytime you
come to anything in the scriptures that speak of these mysteries,
realize that you've come to that which is the most profound of
truths in the universe. but that which is known by every
God-taught child of God, every God-taught sinner, every heaven-born
soul, known by divine revelation and clearly set forth in Holy
Scripture. The fact is, the mysteries of
God are those aspects of gospel truth that all believers understand,
one measure or another, to one degree or another, but those
things that no unbeliever can ever understand. Now get it,
the mysteries of God are things that the simple-minded believer,
the most uneducated, illiterate believer clearly understands. But things that no man, no matter
how well learned, no matter how brilliant, no man can understand
except by divine revelation. The word mystery is used 22 times
in the New Testament, but it refers to seven distinct things
spoken of here in our text as the mysteries of God. I want
us to look at all seven of them very briefly. I'm going to spend
the bulk of our time deliberately on the first, 1 Timothy chapter
3, verse 16. Because all the other mysteries
of God center in and arise from this in one way or another. First
is the mystery of godliness. 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. Paul, writing to Timothy in verse
15, says, 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, That's what we are right here, right now. He's
talking about the house of God. He's talking about the gathered
assembly of God's saints. The pillar and ground of the
truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. This mystery of godliness is
the whole body of revealed truth. regarding the person and work
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate, crucified, risen,
exalted, saving Lord. The mystery of godliness is called
the mystery of the gospel in Ephesians 6. It's called the
mystery of God in Colossians 2. And it's called the mystery
of Christ in Colossians chapter 4. But let's look at what Paul
speaks here concerning this mystery of godliness. The word godliness
simply means devotion, or commitment, or worship, or consecration. What is it that inspires believers
to devote themselves to Jesus Christ? What is it? What is it that inspires believers
to devote themselves to Jesus Christ. While we were in England,
my friend, Brother Sid Buggins, told me a story, a true story.
I got the lesson from the story from my son-in-law yesterday.
I didn't have the good sense to put it together, but Doug
immediately did. Sid, he said when he had a grain
business, there was one man who worked for him until retirement,
worked for him all his life as an adult. And when he got of
age, he retired. But he was going to work two
days a week. And the man just wanted to work two days a week
so he wouldn't mess up his pension, his income tax, something or other.
But Sid said he did that for a few weeks. And then one day
he came in. He was there when he wasn't supposed
to be. And Sid said to him, he said, Joe, what are you doing
here today? He said, well, I knew you had a shipment coming in
today and nobody knows how to keep this elevator operating
running smooth but me, so I thought I'd come in and help out. And
Sid said he worked every day after that until he was 78 years
old. But he worked with a slight difference. Up until that time,
when he was working for wages, working because he needed to
work, working because he had to work, he did like everybody
else. He smoked a pipe and he'd go
out on break and smoke his pipe or go out on what they call tea
and smoke his pipe. Never while he was walking around
on the floor of the shop. But after that, Sid said every
day he smoked that pipe. He'd walk around smoking that
pipe all the time. As though to say, you can send me home
anytime you want to. I don't have to work anymore. I don't
have to work anymore. Doug said to me when I told him
that story, he said, isn't that the way it is with a believer?
We spend our time working for God's favor. And when we're made
free, you do the same thing because you want to, just because you
want to. Why? What causes a believer to
devote himself to Christ? I mean, to sacrifice other things,
to worship Him, to sacrifice other things in the promotion
of His cause, to give up other things because he wants to, to
worship and serve the Redeemer. It's called the mystery of godliness. What the world doesn't understand.
The world, the religious world doesn't understand it. They think
God's people have to be whipped and beat and bribed and pushed
and pried and pulled. They don't understand. The world
knoweth us not because it knew him not. Well, what's the mystery?
Great is the mystery of godliness. And Paul calls our attention
here to six things. Look at them. God was manifest
in the flesh. God took on himself our nature.
The mystery of godliness is God becomes a man. The son of God
came into this world in human flesh that he might bring in
everlasting righteousness, satisfied divine justice and save us from
our sins. Our savior then was justified
in the spirit. Now here Paul's not talking about
the same thing as we read in the New Testament about our Savior
being justified in his claims by his miracles, being justified
in his claims as Messiah by the things he performed or by the
Lord speaking from heaven. No, no. Here Paul's talking about
justification. Our Lord being justified. He
who was made sin and died under the wrath of God in our stead,
He who bore our sins in his own body on the tree until justice
was satisfied now is justified in the spirit. Raised from the
dead, justified by God, declared by God to be freed from sin just
as we by his sacrifice are justified and freed from sin. Third, scene
of angels. The angels of God saw him. The
angels of heaven saw him before he came into this world, saw
him as he's coming into this world, saw him in all the days
of his life, in all his temptations, in all of his trials, saw him
in all of his obedience. The angels of God saw him in
the garden. The angels of God saw Him when
He was made sin for us. The angels of God saw Him when
He bare the wrath of God as our substitute. The angels of God
saw Him when He was buried and watched over Him in the tomb.
And the angels of God saw Him risen, saw Him ascended, saw
Him exalted. As a matter of fact, both Paul
and Peter tell us the angels of God are looking in right here
to see Him. to see and understand those things
we have experienced of God's redeeming grace in Jesus Christ
the Lord. He's seen of angels and then
preached unto the Gentiles. You and I at this distance can't
really fathom the usage of this word Gentiles in the scriptures. The Gentiles. The base, the crude,
the dirty, the superstitious, the idolatrous, the pagan, the
immoral, the disgusting, the ignorant, superstitious, gendiles. He preached to you and me, wonder
of wonders. This one who is God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached
to such things as we are at his own command. He said, go and
preach the gospel to all nations. Turn over to John chapter three
for a minute. Hold your hands here. We don't have to stay in
second first Timothy, but turn over to John chapter three, John
chapter three. As Moses, verse 14, lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be
lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. Verse 16, for God so loved
the world. Now this is exactly what that
means. God loved the world of his elect among the Gentiles,
just as he loves his elect among the Jews. That he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world, we Gentiles,
scattered throughout the world, might, through him, might be
saved. All right? Here's the fifth thing.
Believe, Doan, in the world. Oh, wonder of wonders, God has
given faith to the most despicable wretches there are. He's given
faith in Christ to such things as we are, Gentiles, lost in
this ungodly world, ungodly men and women. What's our motive
for godliness and devotion? Oh, God's given us faith in Christ. Look again, received up into
glory. The Lord Jesus, He who came down
here to save us, who was crucified as our substitute, who was justified
in the Spirit, who was seen of angels and preached to the Gentiles
and believed on in the world, now is received up into glory
and set down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Our faith
in Him is not fanaticism. It's the most reasonable thing
in the world. The most reasonable thing in
the world. A while back, a friend of mine
who's pastored a young man all his life, that young man about
to make great sacrifice, go preach the gospel, giving up everything
he had. Everything, job, security, pension,
everything. Go preach the gospel up here
in Louisville, Kentucky. Someone suggested to his pastor
brother, Pledger, said you need to warn him about doing that.
David said, oh no, I'm not going to warn him. I warned him too.
I'm not going to warn him. Warn him? But that's the most
reasonable thing in the world. That's the most reasonable. It's
reasonable. that you should sacrifice everything.
Reasonable that I should sacrifice everything. Reasonable that we
let nothing come between us and our Savior. You're bought with
a price. Christ redeemed you. The Son
of God loved you and gave himself for you. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable under the Lord, which is your reasonable
service, while nothing less could be expected. All right, here's
the second thing. Back in 1 Timothy again, chapter
three, verse nine. Paul speaks here of Pastors and
deacons telling us that they must be men who hold the mystery
of the faith in a pure conscience Now the mystery of the faith
is the doctrine of the gospel these men who are pastors and
deacons Must be men holding the mystery of the faith in a pure
conscience There is but one faith by which
sinners are saved. The faith of Christ, that is
the doctrine of Christ, the gospel of Christ, that which is the
declaration of Jesus Christ. Paul urged Timothy to war a good
warfare, holding the faith and a good conscience. This mystery
of the faith is called the mystery of the gospel in Ephesians 6,
19. Paul doesn't leave us to guess what he's talking about.
It's the message which God has sent his ambassadors to proclaim. Very simply put, the mystery
of the faith is the gospel we declare, salvation by a substitute. Salvation by the doing and dying
of the Son of God. This mystery of faith. is the
declaration that salvation is had by faith in Jesus Christ
alone. He who obeyed God in our stead,
by His obedience unto death, has merited for us everlasting
life. And this life is obtained not
by what you do, but by Him you believe. It is obtained by Him
for us already and we receive the joy of it in faith, believing
on Him. We do not suggest, we do not
imply in any way that our faith in Christ is the cause of our
being saved or that our faith in Christ calls God to justify
us or that our faith in Christ is somehow connected with the
accomplishment of redemption. You know better than that. No,
but faith in Christ is that by which we receive the enjoyment,
the blessedness and the knowledge of all God's salvation. All right. Turn over to Colossians chapter
one. Colossians chapter 1. If you're taking notes, be sure
you jot down Ephesians 5, verses 25 through 32. Here Paul speaks
about the mystery of spiritual union between Christ and his
people. Paul talks about the husband
loving his wife and talks about a husband and wife being one
flesh and he says this is a great mystery. But that's not what
I'm talking about. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about Christ and His church. Adam said when he
first looked at Eve, he said, for this cause shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and they too shall be one flesh.
Well, Adam didn't have a father or a mother. God created him. Adam was speaking prophetically. He's talking about the union
of believers with Christ. For this cause a man will leave
everything. If you don't hate your father
and mother, your brother and sister, yea, and your own life
also, you can't be my disciple, the Lord said. And coming to
Christ, they too are one flesh. How much so? Colossians 1.25.
Whereof I, Paul, have made a minister according to the dispensation
of God, which is given to me for you. this economy of which
I made a steward, this preaching, this service of God's house,
this dispensation of God, which I'm a steward, given me for you
to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid
from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his
saints. Now, Larry, I take that meaning
made manifest to his saints. If you're one of his saints,
you know this. You might not be able to put it into words.
You might not be able to articulate it. I don't suggest that you
should. But I'm telling you that all who are his saints, all who
are born of God, know this mystery. It's a wonder, an astonishment.
The more you know of it, the more astonished you become. They
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. I urge you at your leisure, as
soon as you can, to read again the chapter Brother Joe read
before I started to preach this evening. I'm certain he didn't
have any idea what I was preaching about tonight. He hadn't asked
me and I hadn't told him. That whole chapter, Joe, is talking
about this union. The chapter means nothing except
you understand this union between Christ and His people. What the
Savior is praying for for Himself, He prays for for you. And what
the Savior receives for Himself, He receives for you. And what
God gives to Him, God gives to you. Oh, Christ in you, the hope
of glory. What a mystery this is. There
is between God's people and God's son, the God-man mediator, a
blessed, indestructible, mystical, spiritual oneness. We are in
Christ. And Christ is in us. We are in Christ. as the vine
and branches are in one another. We are in Christ as the members
are in the head and the members and the head in the body. We
are in Christ. And Christ is in us as air is
in our lungs, as breath is in our lungs. Christ is in us as
the soul is in the body. Christ you the hope of glory. Now hear me and hear me well.
Hear what God says plainly and hear it well. The hope of your
soul is not the fact that Christ came into this world. That's
part of the basis of it, but not the hope. The hope of your
soul is not the fact that Christ obeyed God for you. That's the
basis of it. But that's not the hope. The
hope of your soul is not the fact that Christ died for you
and redeemed you. That's the basis of hope. But
you can't know anything about the basis until the hope is in
you and Christ in you is the hope of glory. Nothing else is
called such. In other words, no sinner has
any reason to have any hope of anything until God puts Christ
in you. And that's made manifest when
he gives you faith in his son, Christ in you. How real is this
union? So real that without him, we
have no life. So real that without us, He has
no completion. Ephesians chapter 1 says so.
We're the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Without you,
Shelby, Gene, Peters, Fortner, Jesus Christ would be incomplete. Can you get your arms around
that? Can you get your heart around that? What is it that
causes the sinner who knows there's nothing in himself to devote
himself to God in this wondrous thing called life in Christ.
Christ is in me, and I'm in Him, inseparable. This union with
Christ is a union we've had with Him since He had being as our
surety, and that's in eternity. It is a union that is unchangeable. It didn't change when we sinned
and fell on our father Adam. It didn't change when we came
to believe on him. And it doesn't change now, and
it won't change tomorrow. For the gifts and callings of
God are without repentance. To which Jesus and the chosen
race, there is a bond of sovereign grace that hail with its infernal
train. cannot dissolve nor rend in vain. Nothing in all the Bible is more
profound than that. Christ in me and me in Christ. Fourth, turn, if you will, to
Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11, verse 25.
And look briefly at the mystery of
providence. The mystery of providence is
the revelation of the fact that God has always intended to save
chosen sinners out of every nation. Now, this was so important in
Paul's day. So very important because the
Jews really did think they had a handle on God and nobody else
did. They really did think that because
they were Abraham's children, God couldn't possibly forsake
them. They really did think that since they were Abraham's children,
They were gods forever. And they had special blessings
and privileges because they had been circumcised. They really
thought like that. Just like the prophecy idiots
of our day think. Surely you didn't mean to say
that. No, I meant to say just like the prophecy idiots of our
day think. I'm talking about men who are
utterly ignorant of the things of God with regard to spiritual
truth in Holy Scripture. flesh and blood shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. Is that plain enough? You're
born again, not because of who you're related to, but because
God chose you. John chapter one, verse 12, 13.
That's as plain as it can be. Well, what about what about God's
promises to Israel? God has no promises to that physical
nation in Israel any more than he has to the United States of
America. You won't find them in this book.
Oh, no. Let's see if that's so. Romans
chapter 11, and we'll begin reading at verse 25. For I would not,
brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery. No,
that's what I was talking about. Don't be ignorant of this. Lest
you should be wise in your own pride, your own conceits. that
blindness in part has happened to Israel. God didn't throw them
all away. I've got some friends who are
Jews who know God. I've got some friends who are
Jews who've been born of God's spirit. God hadn't cast away
all the Jews. No, he hasn't elected them among
the Jews and the Gentiles. But blindness in part has happened
to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so, now this is what that
means. By this method, by this means,
by God blinding the nation of Israel, by God sending blindness
and darkness to that nation. And so, by this means, all Israel,
not the physical nation, the Israel of God. Not the physical
nation, Abraham's spiritual seed. And so by this means all Israel
shall be saved. How? By sending the gospel to
the Gentiles? That means James Jordan, you're
one of God's Israelites. That means you're one of Abraham's
seed. Like Zacchaeus, a child of Abraham. Abraham's the father
of all who believe. And the promises of God are gospel
promises in Christ Jesus, yea and amen. And they are to all
the Israel of God. So all Israel shall be saved
by the gospel going to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews as It
is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall
turn away ungodliness from Jacob For this is my covenant unto
them when I shall take away their sins. This is the mystery that
the Gentiles should be fellow heirs into the same body and
partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus by the gospel. This mystery
of providence is that which assures us and comforts our hearts as
we face the sorrows and trials and troubles of life in this
world. God still hides the gospel from
some in judgment, just as he has hidden
the gospel from the nation of Israel. He hides it from the
wise and prudent that he may reveal it to babes, even so father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. Book of Romans 11, Romans chapter
11. What do you have to say to all
this? Verse 33, oh, the depth of the
riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out for who hath
known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counselor or
who hath first given and to him it shall be recompensed unto
him again for of him through him and to him are all things
to whom be glory forever. Amen. Now you don't need to turn
there but in Revelation chapter 1 while John was on the isle
of Patmos the Lord revealed to him the mystery of the golden
candlesticks and the stars. You remember the picture John
said he he saw He saw one walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks,
seven golden candlesticks and the seven stars. And the one
walking in the midst of those seven golden candlesticks and
seven stars was one like the son of man. Christ is always
in the midst of his church. And he explains the mystery to
be this. The seven churches, or the seven candlesticks, are
the seven churches. The seven churches of Asia Minor
are specifically named. But those seven churches represent
all gospel churches throughout the ages. Seven, the number of
completion and the number of grace. I thought long and hard about
this as I was working on this message today and tried As I
was preparing the message to pray for our friends who are
scattered all over the world, who have no pastor, no local
church where they can gather. And it's hard to grasp, hard
for me to grasp as a preacher. They're always exactly enough. God always has exactly enough
churches in this world for the in gathering of his elect, for
the accomplishment of his purpose, for the furtherance of his gospel,
for the building of his kingdom. And with each church is an angel,
a star, the angel, the messenger of the churches, seven of them. There's always enough preachers. Always enough preachers. Brother
Bob Ponson read First Kings 18 tonight back in the office. And
Elijah bowed before those 400 prophets of Baal, and Elijah
said, I'm alone, the prophet of God. And when you get to the
end of the chapter, you find out that was enough. That was
enough. God always has messengers enough
to fetch out his elect in this world, to build up his church
and kingdom. And when Don Fortner's gone,
God will supply another. God will supply another. And that's as it should be. That's
as it should be. And when this pastor's gone or
that one is gone, God will raise up another as need requires to
fulfill his purpose. They're always sufficient. And
both the pastors and the churches are always under the constant
watchful eye of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself
for us. Would to God I could learn this.
Quit fretting. Quit fretting. Well, I've got
churches that have called me recently, several of our friends
in Wheatlesburg, Folks in Hucumba, California, one of the churches
in England, a church without pastors. Where are we going to
get a pastor? I'll do everything I can to help,
but I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Wait. Don't get
in a hurry. God will supply you with just
the man he's ordained for you. Always sufficient. Always under
Christ's eye. Always under his care. Then in
2 Thessalonians 2, Paul speaks of the mystery of iniquity. The mystery of iniquity. Second Thessalonians 2 verse
7. The mystery of iniquity doth already work. If you look in
Revelation 17, when you get home, this mystery of iniquity is called
the mystery of Babylon. Babylon. All the way back in
Genesis chapter 11, where they built a tower to Babel. Babylon
has represented the confusion of man's religion. Babylon is
the religion of the world. Babylon is the religion of freewill
works, man-centered, man-worship. Babylon is the religion of Arminianism,
freewillism of works. Doesn't matter what name you
call it. And Babylon is called the great whore. Oh, she's beautiful,
she's rich. John said, when I saw her, I
marveled with a great marvel. And the angel spoke to me and
said, why did you marvel? Don't you know who this is? She
made the kings of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Drunk with the wine of her fornication. Listen to our politicians as
they talk about religion and listen to how drunk they are.
listen to preachers on television and radio, and hear how drunk
they are with the religion of Babylon. My dear friend, Brother
Buggins, I mentioned earlier, made this statement to me. He
said, the mystery of godliness is God made himself a man. The mystery of iniquity is Man
makes himself God. And that's exactly it. The whole
of the religious world around us makes man to be God, making
God subservient to man. Making the will of God subject
to the will of man. Making the power of God subject
to the power of man's will, of man's decision, of man's choice. And then in 1 Corinthians 15,
Paul speaks about the mystery of the resurrection. I show you a great mystery, he
said. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Eternity. Go back as far as you
can in your imagination until you're lost in an utter fog,
and you haven't begun to reach eternity. And as far forward
as you can go, and you haven't begun to think about getting
started. And between what we call the
eternities, see how dumb we are about this thing? Who can talk
about between eternity? The eternities. Eternity past
and eternity future. No such thing. But we can't grasp
eternity. Between the eternities, there's
a little notch we call time. Just a few thousand years, just
a few days. And in this little space we call
time, God purposed to accomplish something wondrous. the revelation
of his glory to creatures made in his image. And he promises
three times, three times he promises that there's a day coming when
God will dwell with men on the earth. Solomon heard that promise
and he was astonished and he said, is it true? Indeed that
God will dwell with a man. Is it true indeed? Can that be? Three times God promised it.
He promised there's a day coming when the earth shall be full
of the glory of God. That is the earth shall be filled
with the knowledge with the apprehension, with seeing, with knowing the
glory of God. Soon, the Lord God Almighty,
when our Savior comes again, will burn up this earth. He will
cleanse his creation with fire, just as in Noah's day, he cleansed
his creation with water. And the old coat of the curse
shall be cast off. And the slime of the serpent
literally burned off God's creation so that we, beholding the glory
of God, I'm talking about everybody living in the new creation, beholding
the glory of God as we look back over the Alps of time, from the fall, from the creation,
the fall, the entrance of sin into the world, Lucifer, and
the rage of hell, and the demons of hell, and wickedness, and
ungodliness, and we get to the end of this little notch of time. We look back over it all and
say, wow, no harm done. No harm done. God's had his way. Behold now in Jesus Christ the
glory of God in the people he's redeemed. Oh God, hasten that
day. Hasten that day for Christ's
sake. Amen.