Would you turn back to 1 Timothy
chapter 3? While you're turning there, I'll
be going to the wedding of Sarah Williams and Austrin Groover
this weekend in Houston, and I'm going to be preaching for
David Pledger and for David Edmondson at the Laird Street and the Lincolnwood
Baptist Church, and I'm also doing something I've never done
before. David Pledger asked me to bring an ordination message
for Cody. I didn't know he hadn't been
ordained, but I'm going to give it a shot, and everybody remember
me. Somebody said, why would he have
an ordination message after he's been preaching for 15 years?
I don't know. I don't know. But an ordination
message, as far as that goes, we don't put anybody into ministry.
The Lord doesn't. And the Lord's people acknowledge
that. I've entitled this message, Great
is the Mystery of Godliness. We use superlatives very freely,
don't we? That was an amazing meal. I feel great. I heard somebody
say just the other day, he said, if I was doing any better, I'd
have to have twins. Oh, that's pretty good. That was awe-inspiring. That was awesome. How many times
do we use the word awesome? That's used a lot in our day.
All inspiring? Really? We have a tendency to exaggerate. You know, I say to Lynn all the
time, I say, this is a very important game. Well, just the fact that it's
a game negates its importance, I realize that. But we use superlatives
very freely. We make things bigger by over-exaggerating,
and we make things smaller by under-exaggerating. But you know
the Bible never does that. Never does. When Paul says, great
is the mystery of godliness. Indeed, it is great. It's beyond comprehension. Now that word great is translated
high. High is the mystery of godliness. It's translated loud. Loud is
the mystery of godliness. It's translated mighty. Mighty
is the mystery of godliness. And it's translated strong. Strong
is the mystery of godliness. And notice Paul says without
controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness.
I love this story. There were two brothers who were
preachers and one of them denied the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, why someone would bother to be a preacher if you don't
have a message, I don't know. But this man denied the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he had his brother who believed
in the deity of Christ to come preach for him. And he said,
now, I don't want you to preach on anything controversial. Don't
want that at all. And what he meant by that is
don't deal with this subject. He said, okay, I won't. And he
announced this as his text without controversy. Great is the mystery
of godliness. Now that word controversy is
taken from the word confess and confession. It is the adverb
form of that word and could just as easily be translated confessedly. This is what all who believe
confess. This is what all who believe
stand for. This great mystery of godliness. Now this is the truth. of which the church is the pillar
and the ground of. Look what he says concerning
the church. But if I tarry long, verse 15,
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, the truth is contained in
verse 16, this great mystery of godliness that the church
stands for, of which it's the pillar and the ground. And notice
he says, great is the mystery. The truth is a mystery. When we preach the gospel, we
preach the great mystery of God. Now, mystery does not mean truth
concealed. Mystery means truth revealed. Truth that we could not possibly
know or stumble across unless God was pleased to make it known. The Lord said, I thank thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hid these
things. from the wise and prudent, and
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight." The gospel is a great mystery that cannot
be known unless God is pleased to make it known. He said to
his disciples, unto you it's given to know the mysteries of
the kingdom. but to them it is not given."
Now, the only way I'm going to know these mysteries is if God
makes them known. Now, He's made them known in
His Word, and I won't understand them unless He makes them known
to my heart. We're totally dependent upon revelation. This is the
same mystery that Paul spoke of early in this chapter when
he says, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. First Corinthians 2.7 says we
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which
God has kept secret since the world began. We read in Ephesians
1.9 that he made known the mystery of his will. We know the will
of God. It's because he's made it known
to us in his word. We read in Colossians 1.22 of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory. We read in Ephesians 5 31, the
two shall be made one flesh. This is a great mystery. but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15, 51, behold, I show you a mystery. We should not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed. Speaking of the resurrection,
2 Thessalonians 2, 9, the mystery of iniquity doth already work. And then our text in 1 Timothy
3, 16, great is the mystery of godliness. You know, our Lord,
walked in this flesh as the God-man, and people didn't recognize him.
That's amazing. He had brothers and sisters,
and they didn't get it. They didn't understand who he
was. His neighbors, they didn't understand. This is the carpenter's
son. This is Jesus. You see, you won't know this
mystery unless God is pleased to make it known. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The word was made flesh, John
tells us, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
2. Colossians 2 verse 9, For in
him, in the Lord Jesus Christ dwelleth, resides all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. All that God is, in his incomprehensible
glory resides in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fullness of holiness
resides in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fullness of sovereignty resides
in the Lord Jesus Christ and dwells there. The fullness of
power dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fullness of wisdom
dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ. All that God is, all the fullness
of the Godhead In a body, it dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is a great mystery. How? How? I don't know. Had no idea how that can be.
But we believe. We believe that God was manifest
in the flesh. The infinite became an infant. The omnipotent God became the
man of sorrows and acquainted With grief, the creator was nailed
to a cross by his creatures. God was manifest in the flesh. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Verse five, wherefore? When He,
the Eternal Son of God, cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice
an offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. Now before our Lord's incarnation,
He didn't have a physical body, but now the Lord has prepared
Him a body. In burnt offerings and sacrifice
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. He came to do the Father's
will. That's why he came in a body. Now, this is very similar to
the confession of John. Turn to 1 John chapter 4. God
was manifest in the flesh. Verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, test the spirits, whether they're of God,
because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby
know ye the spirit of God. Every spirit, every preacher
that confesseth. Now he confesses this, this is
his public declaration. This is what he stands for. He
doesn't just say it privately, he confesses it. Every spirit
that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. is of God,
there's God manifest in the flesh. And every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and
this is that spirit of Antichrist, where if you've heard that it
should come, and even now already it's in the world. Now I love
the simplicity of this confession. This is what we confess, this
is who we confess, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
God manifest in the flesh. Now when I make that confession,
I first of all confess that He was before He came. I confess His eternal deity. He was before He came. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was,
eternally was, in the beginning with God. I confess who He is. He was before He came, the eternal
Son of God. And I confess that He came in
the flesh. God became a man. He came in the flesh and He did
what He came to do. He kept God's law as the representative
of His people and worked out a perfect righteousness for them.
And in the flesh, He died. Because the sins of God's people
were placed upon Him. In the flesh, He died. And in
the flesh, He was raised from the dead. And in the flesh, he
ascended back to the Father. And right now, there's a man
in glory, in flesh and blood, representing me, representing
all of his people, my great high priest. And he's coming back
in the flesh, and he's always going to be in the flesh. The
God-man Christ Jesus. God was manifest in the flesh. And you know, every believer
knows it. The dying thief. I love the way
he said, don't you fear God? He knew that one hanging beside
him was God. Don't you fear God seeing you're
in the same condemnation. Every believer knows that Jesus
Christ is God, the mighty creator manifest in the flesh. You see
why this is so great? You know, other religions are
so paltry and nothing compared to this glorious truth that God
was manifest in the flesh. He was, He came in the flesh,
and He did what He came to do. Now next it says in our text,
back to 1 Timothy chapter 3, Great is the mystery of godliness. This God who was manifest in
the flesh was justified in the spirit, declared to be right, in the
spirit now the lord came for this purpose he came for this
purpose to justify us you see i'm not just and for me to be
saved i'm gonna have to be just and he made a way for god to
be just and justify every believer and all i the more i Here, the
more I preach, the more I believe the glorious truth of justification,
the more I love it. I stand before God without guilt,
without sin. That's what Christ came to do.
He came to justify me. He was delivered for our offenses
and he was raised again for our justification. He came to make
a way for God to be just and justifier. And as a man, he was
completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. He didn't have a
measure of the spirit, but he had the fullness of the spirit. And it was by the eternal spirit,
the scripture says in Hebrew, that he offered himself without
spot to God. The Holy Spirit testified of
him in his baptism when he descended on him in bodily form as a dove. The Holy Spirit confirmed that
He was God by the miracles that He enabled Him to do that only
God could do. He raised the dead. There's only
one who can raise the dead. He controlled the weather. He
said, peace be still to a mighty storm and there was a great calm.
He gave sight to the blind. He did what only God can do. The Holy Spirit raised him from
the dead. He was justified in the Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible to testify of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. And you know, He bears witness
to us. It's the Spirit that beareth witness. It's the Spirit that
quickeneth. The Spirit justified Him in justifying us. He was
justified in the Spirit. And next it says in our text,
in 1 Timothy 3.16, He was seen of angels. He was seen of angels. Do you think most of what's going
on in the world piques the interest of angels? I got to thinking
about that. All the stuff that men are so
impressed with, angels aren't impressed with it. And I guarantee
you they don't like the religious gatherings of men. They're offended
by them. They're mad at them. They hear
the horrible things men say about the gospel and about the God
of glory and about the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, even fallen
angels. have a better understanding of
who the Lord is than your average religious person. The scripture
says regarding the fallen angels, the devils believe and tremble,
tremble. You believe there's one God,
you do well. The devils believe the same thing and they tremble
in their shoes at the thought of it. I feel quite sure that
most of what goes on, angels have no interest in. Now, the
scripture tells us that they're greater in power and might than
we are. But I know this. They see things
as they really are. I'm thinking about the scene
of angels. What will angels see? Well, angels
see men. They know this about man. I love
that scripture in Psalm 62 that says, men of, let me quote it,
men of, Men of low degree are vanity,
and men of high degree are a lie. I like that. That covers everybody,
doesn't it? To be laid together in the balance,
they're altogether lighter than vanity. Now, angels know that.
Angels know that. We don't. We have these high
opinions of ourselves, but angels know better. But I'll tell you
what angels do look upon. You reckon the angels were amazed
when the eternal God became a fetus in a womb? Oh, how they looked
upon that. Don't you reckon they were amazed
at his birth? They said, glory to God in the
highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward men. That holy thing which
is born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Oh, how they
worshipped at this time. And don't you know that they
watched every move he made. They were amazed. They didn't
know what to think. God became a man. They watched
him every day. They watched him when he was
a little boy. They watched him as he grew up in the carpenter shop.
Oh, how they watched him when he worked out a perfect righteousness. And the angels were there when
he was arrested. Twelve legions of them were ready
to smite if they were called upon to do it. always watching
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were with him in Gethsemane,
ministering to him as he swept great drops of blood. When he
was raised from the dead, it was the angels that announced
it. Why seek ye him that lives among the dead? Behold, he's
not here, but he's risen. Scene of angels. And then next, it says in our
text in 1 Timothy 3.16, Preached unto the Gentiles. Now this is
a part of the great mystery of godliness. Preached unto the
Gentiles. I wonder how many of us find
it very mysterious and glorious and amazing that the gospels
preached to us. He was preached to the Gentiles,
to Gentile dogs, like me and you. Are you amazed? Paul said to me, who am less
than the least of all the saints is this grace given that I should
preach to the Gentiles. That's me and you, the Gentiles,
the Gentile dogs. Glorious gospel of grace. The unsearchable riches of Christ.
Now, God manifest in the flesh was preached. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. We
preach Christ crucified, God manifest in the flesh. This is
what God uses, what we're doing right now, the preaching of the
gospel. He was preached. He was declared to the Gentiles,
to the Jews, this was unbelievable. They were God's chosen people.
And as a matter of fact, when Paul was preaching to them, when
he was giving his testimony in Acts chapter 22, You know when
they stopped and said, away with such a man. Let him be killed.
It's not fit for him to live. Let's get rid of him. It's when
he said, the Lord has sent me to the Gentiles. And they said,
that's enough. That's enough. You see, their hope was that
they were Gentiles. I mean, that they were Jews.
And if he says Gentiles, that's taking away what their hope was.
They believed they were God's special chosen people. You know,
I think it's almost interesting. When the gospel was first preached
to the Gentiles by Peter in Acts chapter 10, Peter said, What
was I that I could withstand God? Peter said, I can't see
why he's doing it. I wouldn't preach to the Gentiles,
but the Lord's doing it. You know, Peter always did have
a hard time loving Gentiles, didn't he? Always did. Who was
I that I could withstand this? Almost like I'd stop it if I
could, but I'm not. It's preached to the Gentiles.
Aren't you thankful? This is a great mystery of godliness
that the gospel would be preached to me. Isn't it amazing? that the Lord
has sent us his gospel. And then he says in verse 16, God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, and believed on in the world. Now here's a great
mystery. that he was believed on in this world, this wicked
world that hates God. Men out of this wicked world
believed Him. And they believed that which
is so contrary to the flesh. I can give so many examples.
For instance, Genesis 6-5. God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. You know I believe that. I believe
it about me and I believe it about you. I believe it about
every man, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart,
only evil continually. I believe that. I believe that the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his actual obedience is the only
righteousness that there's ever been. I believe that. And I believe that His righteousness,
His law-keeping, His perfect obedience is my personal righteousness
before God. I believe that. Do you believe
that? If you believe that, that's a miracle of grace. You're part
of this great mystery of godliness. I believe that He put away my
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That's what the Scripture says.
Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away
sin. You know what that means? That
means my sin has been put away means I don't have that means
it's gone, it's obliterated. I believe that. I really believe
that. I really believe that He did
that. And that He is everything in
salvation. I really believe He's the Lord.
You believe that? I believe everybody's eternal
destiny is in His hands. As to whether or not you'll be
saved or whether I'll be saved, it's not up to us. It's up to
Him. I believe that. Your eternal destiny is in His
hands. That's a good place for it to
be, isn't it? He was believed on in the world. I believe He's coming again.
I believe that. You know that anybody believes
what we believe, it's a miracle of grace, isn't it? Would you
have ever thought you'd believe this? Would you have ever thought
you'd believe the gospel? There was a time when you didn't.
There was a time when it would seem ridiculous to you. As a matter
of fact, when you first heard it, you didn't even like it.
Now you love it. Why? Well, you're a part of the miracle
of the great mystery of godliness. And then finally it says, in
this great mystery of godliness, he was received up into glory. Now why was he received up? Let
me give you the reason. Whatever it was he came to do,
he did. He said, I finished the work
that thou gavest me to do. And what was that work? That
was the work of saving His people from their sins. Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
And He was received up into glory. Don't you love to think of the
disciples just watching Him go up? The ascension of the Lord
Jesus Christ when He ascended back to the Father? He was received
up into glory, and He's going to be coming back. Even so, come Lord Jesus." Now,
this great mystery, the whole gospel is found in the verse,
isn't it? That's the truth which the church
stands for, the pillar and the ground of the truth, the great
mystery of godliness. Let me say two things about this.
Number one, receive it. Receive it. Receive it as the
very gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. God was manifest in the
flesh. Receive it. He was justified
in the Spirit, completely accomplished what He came to do. The Spirit
testifies. Receive it. He was seen of angels. Receive it. He was preached to
the Gentiles, folks like us. Receive it. He was believed on
in the world. Receive it. And He went back
to glory, having accomplished His work. Receive it and preach
it. Oh, may God give us grace to
be faithful witnesses of His Son. Our purpose for being here
is to spread the great mystery of godliness, to preach the gospel,
the great mystery of godliness to every creature. Receive it
and preach it. May God give us grace to do that. Isn't that a wonderful summary
of the truth? Great, truly great. This is awesome,
isn't it? This is a good way for us to
use this word now. This is awesome. This is altogether glorious.
Great is the mystery of godliness. Let's pray together.