1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul is
writing, it's said that he wrote four letters to the church of
Corinth. We only have two that were inspired to be put into
God's word, but they corresponded with each other. And this is
an answer to some of the questions they were asking, or some of
the issues that the church was facing. Paul's dealing with sexual
immorality, he's dealing with They had cliques in the church
where if you had more money than others, you were in this club
that nobody else could be in, so to speak. It's silly things
like that that they didn't think was wrong. They were justifying
everything they were doing, whatever the sin was. But the worst sin
that they were doing, they were mixing flesh with worship. They were making worship into
a social gathering. They were watering it down to
where it was not reverence, reverencing the Lord. It wasn't honoring
him, it was all about self. The example that he gives is
that they were making a feast out of the Lord's table. They
were taking, they were getting drunk off of the wine, they were
eating the bread. He said, have you not houses
to drink in? Do you have houses that you can't eat in? Why are
you doing this at the Lord's house? They were making it all
about self. Paul's writing this letter for
correction, for reproof, for exhortation, and he's also writing
it as rebuke, but what do we do to deal with those issues? He deals with the issues the
same exact way we do. He tells them the gospel. He
declares unto them the gospel, and he says, this is the truth
of the Lord. This is the Lord's holiness.
When the Lord will meet with you is when the gospel is declared. That's what corrects, isn't it?
That's what reproves, isn't it? That's what rebukes the gospel. It's that simple. Now, how do
we know that these things that he's writing apply to us? We'll
look in verse one, if you will, of chapter one. He says, Paul
called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the wheel of God
and Sothisnes, our brother unto the church of God, which is at
Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be
saints with all. Here's where we come in with
all that call in every place. with all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we know
it applies to us, to everyone that calls upon the name of the
Lord. And through the eyes of faith that he's given, those
that are sanctified. I love the wording there because it says
that they, because they're sanctified, they've been called saints. The
sanctifying came first, didn't it? So this is not only a letter
to Corinth, but to everyone God has sanctified in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Now, in our text here, verse
one, we're gonna read seven verses in 1 Corinthians 2. And I, brethren,
when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or
of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined
to know nothing, I determined to know anything among you, save
Christ Jesus, 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 man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How be it we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect? Yet not the wisdom of this world
nor of the princes of this world that came 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. I've titled this
message, The Hidden Mystery of God. The word mystery means something
that is difficult or impossible. to understand or explain. Something
that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain. God's
mystery is his gospel. It's impossible to understand.
It's not difficult to explain. I can tell you very simply what
the gospel is. Christ is all in God's salvation. It's his salvation, isn't it?
That's not difficult, but it's impossible to understand unless
the Lord reveals the truth about the mystery of God. It's hidden,
cannot be understood by explanation. It cannot be taught of man. It
cannot be discerned by education. We can't come to an understanding
by getting educated. Men have colleges, Bible colleges
that they go to and they come to a higher understanding of
who they think God is. But God's ways are past finding
out. Scripture says those men are ever learning, but never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Why? Because it's
his mystery. It's hidden. And if our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. The scripture is not
hidden to the Lord's people. He reveals it. That's the glorious
news of the gospel is he reveals this mystery to his people in
his time. Why can't we come to an understanding? Why can't we come to get an explanation
of it? Why can't we naturally evolve
to an understanding about who God is? Well, it's spiritually
discerned. It's not physically discerned. And no, I'm not preaching
about evolution. I'm being a bit facetious, I suppose, but Men
think they're evolving, we're getting better. When better,
that's not what God says. Evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse. And we can't come to a knowledge
of it because it's spiritually discerned. Look in verse 14.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them. Here's the reason, because they
are spiritually discerned. That's the reason. I was talking this morning to
my daughter, and I told her, I think we were talking about
food, and it was the flavor of vanilla, and she said, ooh. And
that can be interpreted two ways. Based upon your facial expressions,
based upon your tone, you can say, ooh. Or you can say, ooh. Two different meanings, right?
I mean, totally different meanings. It can be a positive, it can
be a negative. When it comes to God's gospel, There is two
interpretations. There is a natural interpretation
that does not lead unto eternal life, and there's a spiritual
interpretation that leads to eternal life because of faith
given by God. It's totally different in the
gospel, isn't it? Totally different than what it used to be in the
law, in false religion. But it's the same words. The
truth has not changed, has it? God changed the truth. See, adding
one thing to it changes the you from a positive to a negative.
It makes it false. It's no longer true. Just adding
one thing to it must be revealed. So how does God reveal his mystery? Well, turn with me. I'll show
you in Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four. Christ had
just declared the parable of the sower. You remember the parable
of the sower? The man went out, the sower,
went forth, he spread his seed and tried to grow. Didn't try,
it was a picture of the Lord showing us that it must be him
and his doing in order for salvation to occur, but some of the seed
fell on stony ground, didn't it? Some of it fell upon thorny
ground, it was choked out. And some of it, the sun, the
sun burnt up, but some fell on good ground and it brought forth
a hundred fold, some 400 fold, the Lord tells us that, but it's
a picture of the Lord doing the work. Now he's revealed that
only those who were on good ground, those were the ones that received
the truth. Now look here in Mark four at verse 10. And when he
was alone, they that were about him with the 12 asked of him
the parable. And he said unto them, unto you
it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto
them that are without, all these things are done in parables that
seeing they may see and not perceive. and hearing they may hear and
not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and
their sins should be forgiven them. So how is this mystery
of God revealed? It is given. Unto you it is given
to know the mystery. He's give this, it's a gift.
It's something he decides to give and he must be the giver
of it because he's the possessor of it. God by his choice, God
by his power, this gift. Look at verse 9. He said unto
them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Who all has ears
this morning that's sitting here? Every person that's present.
But who all has spiritual ears? Because he's not talking about
hearing with the natural ear. Because the natural man cannot
discern the things of God because they are of the Spirit of God. We just read that in our text.
We must have ears and eyes of faith. He's not talking about
natural ears. Faith is the only way we can
see. Faith is the only way we can know the truth and the truth
set us free. Faith is the only thing that
reveals the mystery of the Lord, reveals his gospel. So if it
must be given of God, it is the gift of God as we know. And God
is definitely the giver of it. Who is it given to? He said unto
you, I want to be one of the you's that is in this text, don't
you? Unto you it is given. Look at verse 11. And he said
unto them, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. But unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables. Whomsoever God chose
And the covenant of grace before time is a you in this passage. And whomsoever God did not choose
in the covenant of grace is a them in this passage. It's that simple.
The Lord has a people that he loves, a people that he died
for, a people that he really redeemed, that he was successful
in shedding his blood and putting away their sin. And everybody
else he passed by. What made him choose the ones
that he chose? Grace. There was no merit in
any of us. There's nothing good in us. The
scripture's clear on that. If a man or a woman believes
that there is something good in them, they fail to read the
verse where the Lord says, there is none good, no, not one. It's that simple. Christ Jesus,
Christ Jesus must be our substitute. He must be our substitute before
God. Colossians 1 tells us, the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generation, but now
is made manifest to his saints. When he reveals it, Christ Jesus
is our substitute. It's revealed that we are his
and thereby his saints. We are justified in his sight.
We are precious. We are perfect, made perfect
in his sight by the blood of the lamb. And let's go back to
our text. First Corinthians chapter two. If everything about the Lord
is spiritual, and it is, it's eternal, and everything about
us is natural, then we are going to have to receive the Spirit
of God in order to have any discernment whatsoever when it comes to godly
things. Look at verse seven. 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 hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart
of men, the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Now we receive not the Spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God that we might know the things that are freely
given to us by God. We've received the spirit that
reveals the truth about this mystery. We received the spirit
that reveals the truth about who God is and about what we
are by nature, how God views us. what we must do to obtain
eternal life. There's a lot of churches saying
you have to do this and you have to do this. That's not what the
Spirit says. The Spirit says it is finished, that Christ successfully
redeemed. It says believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. But believing is something we can't do naturally. We cannot
believe, and even if we could naturally, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. We must have His Spirit. We must
be washed and made Brand new, we can't be in our sin, we have
to have the righteousness of God. And that's why faith is
imparted to his people. Faith is given and therefore
righteousness revealed. It's no longer hidden, is it?
No, he's revealed the mystery of God by that faith. We see
Christ who is our life in God. We see that our life is hid with
God in Christ. We see that we've been made the
righteousness of God in Him all by His doing. How do you explain
that? You can't. You just believe it.
This right here is righteous in the sight of the Lord. Is
that what I'm saying? Yes. That's what He said. Now
I can't see it. All he sees is his son. That's
what he sees for his people. He sees his son and the son's
righteousness. He sees the blood of Christ and
he says, satisfied. I'm satisfied. We say that everything about
God's reveal, that's, that's, he's mysterious, isn't he? He's
other than we are. We just believe him. We don't,
we don't understand what we believe. We don't truly understand the
mysteries of the Lord, but the mystery of salvation has been
revealed. Christ is all, and we believe
that. We believe that. We acknowledge His ways are past
finding out. We just believe by His Spirit. We no longer try
to establish a righteousness before God. Why? Because He's
revealed the truth. God is holy, and there is nothing
you and I can do that pleases Him. Not one thing ever. Not
one thing. Everything that we do is enmity
against him. Everything that we do is contrary
to him. It's other than him. We must
be found in the righteousness of Christ. We must be or we have
no hope of eternal life. Well, if I must be, how do I
do it? Well, he does it, you don't. He gives faith to believe
by his gospel. He sends his spirit. That's who
we were asking the Lord to send, the third part of the Godhead,
the triune God. Lord, send your spirit. Reveal
your truth. Because if you don't, we're going
to be lost. We're going to be lost. I'm in
darkness. Shine your light. That's how
the mystery is revealed. Shine your light. That's what
the gospel does. The only way we see is if he
gives faith and the only way faith comes is by the word. Now
don't misinterpret that verse. I'll quote it to you. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word, the words of person, the
words is person. Christ said, as many as the father
giveth unto me shall come into me. They're coming to me. What does he say? My sheep hear
my voice. See, the Lord makes it clear
that it's his choice in the hearing of his word. It's his choice
in the calling of his sheep. It's his choice in the salvation
of his people completely. It's his choice. It's all by
his doing. He just changes our mind, gives repentance, doesn't
he? Now we just say, I was blind, now I see. We sing that song,
Amazing Grace, don't we? We can relate. I once was lost,
now I'm found. I was blind, now I see. How did
you get found? How does someone that's lost
get found? Well, somebody's got to find them. And that's what
the Lord did. He found his people. He never
lost them. No, he never lost them. He gives metaphors, making
us see that we were fallen in Adam, but he always has. He always
has had his people. How does he reveal all that? It's all by grace alone. Now, Now we know that this grace
and this mercy and his goodness and his love, that's the things
that he gives to his people. Look at verse 12. Now we have
received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is
of God that we might know. I love the word know, don't you? It's something that leaves no
question. We're not processing the information. We're not trying to understand
the information. We just know it. We know. And
what do we know? The things which are freely given
to us of God. What are some of the things that
are freely given to us of God? What's revealed of His Spirit?
Righteousness, sanctification, justification, glorification,
Perfection. Those are the things freely given
to the Lord's people, all by the work of Christ, all by his
doing, all by the the electing of the father, the redeeming
of the son and the calling by the spirit. It's all his work.
He did it all. Those are the things freely given
to us. Salvation has been given to his people. We've been given everything you
could just say that everything in Christ, everything in Christ. You have some that's trying to
earn favor with God, but God's people don't try to earn favor.
They rest in the revelation of Jesus Christ. He's all, isn't
he? He's all to his people. He is.
We no longer have, you remember, if anybody's been in religion
before, we had, my experience is different than yours probably
to some degree. We used to have Bible studies. You ever had a Bible
study trying to figure out something new, trying to figure out something
that, man, we've never seen that before. That was, something totally
different. It's just an intellectual puffing
up is all that it is. People, look what I know that
you don't know. And they're like, oh yeah, well
look what I know that you don't know. Paul says in our text very clearly,
I determined to know nothing among you, but one thing, Jesus
Christ and him crucified. We never grow past that, do we?
We're not trying to tickle our intellect. We're not trying to
look puffed up. We're not trying to look down upon people. We're simply declaring Christ
is all in God's salvation. And he successfully redeemed
all those for whom he died. And we don't get tired of that,
do we? He never grows old to his people. He's brand new every
morning. I'm reminded in the wilderness,
the children of Israel, they got tired of that manna, didn't
they? They grew weary of it. We loathe this light bread, they
said. We hate it. Every day eating
the same thing. Our flesh, our flesh, I was,
maybe there's somebody that's always, you know, there's always
a, exemption to every statement. There's going to be somebody
that's going to correct me. I eat this every day. But for the most part, we
don't eat the same thing every single day for breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, do we? Because our flesh gets tired of the same
thing over and over, not our spiritual man. He wants one thing,
Christ the bread of life to eat. He wants one thing to drink,
Christ the fountain of living water. And that's good enough.
He just wants the blood of Christ. That's what the new man wants.
Give me Christ lest I die. And every day it's, he's crying
out, Lord, I need another portion from you. I need another taste
of you. I don't understand that, but
that's the truth, isn't it? That's the truth. It's what the
Lord said. That's the mystery that's been
revealed. Now, we can't explain that because
it's spiritually discerned, but we believe it, don't we? We believe
it. Our new creature, and that's
what the scripture calls us. We're new creatures in Christ.
Old things, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are
become new. I can relate to that in a lot of ways when I look
around and see nature. That big storm that happened
last night, I'm sure it affected all of us. It woke me up many
times. It was thundering and lightning
and loud. I thought somebody was beating on my door at one
point. I thought, man, this world is so minute. It's so microscopic,
isn't even the word, compared to the awesomeness of our God,
compared to his If I can use that word, he talks about measuring
the waters in a hollow of his hand and yet that storm shook
my insides when the thunder happened. He talks about thundering. He
talks about when he speaks it's the sound of many waters, rushing
waters. He talks about him speaking and
it being his thunder. He's just inexplainable, isn't
he? We get shook up by these little
things and I can't even imagine It's not entered in, that's what
he says in our text. Neither has it entered into the
heart, the things which God hath prepared for them. We can't enter
into that. We can't enter into what he's prepared. We can't
enter into what he's done. We just believe him. We just
believe him. If we do believe, we find ourself
believing, he's revealed the mystery of God to us. Now, others
don't have a need for Christ, and the answer why is simple.
They don't. The mystery has not been revealed.
It's hidden. It's been hidden from the foundation
of the world at his disposal when he chooses to reveal it. I was. Talking to someone recently and
they. they were saying they didn't want to die and go to hell. I
don't know of anybody that really has an understanding that hell
is the eternal judgment of God. They would be foolish if they
said, I want to go to hell. That's their song. You remember
ACDC highway to hell and different things. If they really knew the
meaning of hell, they would not want to go, but speaking to someone
that has some conception, some understanding, some notion of
what hell is and eternity and heaven, and we can't enter into
those things, but people say, I don't want to go to hell. I
want to escape the pit. Well, we all do. We all do, especially
if you have an understanding of it. But the Lord's people
are not saying, Lord, save me from hell. Lord, save me from
hell. Lord said, no. What do we cry
out more than anything else? Lord, save me from myself. I
know that I deserve hell. I know that I do. Lord, save
me from myself. If you did not endure hell on
the cross of Calvary for me, I have no hope, no hope of eternal
life. I cannot fix what I am. You're
going to have to. Unless God reveals our sin, we
will have no need of that Savior. We will have no need of the substitute.
We will have no need of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ told the followers that
came to him, they were hungry. He said, you didn't come to the
bread of life. You didn't come that you might receive spiritual
things. He said, you came to get your belly full. That's what
he told them. You came to watch the miracles be performed as
if it's a circus or a charade. And he said, you're not interested
in eternal life. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. Why? Because he's the bread of
life. Because he's the fountain of
living water where all life comes from. We don't come begging to
escape hell. We do, but we do it by saying,
Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. We see what we are. Lord, save
me from myself. Save me from what I am. And in
doing so, he does save his people from hell. He reveals that he
endured it on the cross for them. We need to be, it must be revealed
and we beg him to reveal that he is our savior, my savior. Lord, show me that you're my
savior. Let me see your face one more time. Cause me to rest
one more time in you. Reveal this mystery one more
time. My question this morning, has
God revealed his mystery to you? And has God, has he revealed
this mystery to me? We can't take for granted just
because we hear natural words. Yeah, I've got that mark down,
checked off. I've nailed that down. I believe
the gospel. No, it says, blessed are they
which hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall
be filled. Who put the hunger there? He
did. He did. And he fills his people
with his bread, with his Christ. Did you know faith never, if
when we hear this, have we heard this before? It makes us say,
well, the disciples, when the Lord said, one of you are gonna
betray me, what'd they all say? Is it I? Lord, is it I? Do I believe you? Am I looking
unto you? Are you gonna leave me to myself? Is it I? You know, faith doesn't
say that. Faith never says, is it I? Faith
believes God. Faith believes God. So in saying,
is it I, it's unbelief. It's unbelief. Look to Christ.
Look to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trust in, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You ever find yourself saying,
is it I? Lord, am I yours? Lord, I can't
see any good in myself. That's a good thing. If you did,
we'd be confident in that, wouldn't we? I know I've passed from death
unto life because I'm doing this right. I'm not doing this anymore.
No, it's not what we see in ourself, is it? But we see Jesus, who
is made a little lower than the angel. Looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, we see Christ. Why? Because God
has revealed that mystery. Christ is all. Christ is all. Romans chapter 16 tells us, now
to him that is a 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. Now, we've
already heard what a mystery is, but Paul uses the word secret
there to describe the same thing. A secret is something not known
or seen or not meant to be known or seen by others. Not known
or seen or not meant to be known or seen by others. See, his ways
are past finding out. He can't be understood. Faith
just believes him. Faith doesn't give an explanation
why we believe. Faith just believes. The gospel
of good news is in Psalm 25 says, the secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him and he will show them his covenant. He will show them his covenant.
Why? We have his secret. We have his mystery revealed
to eternal life. He will show his people, those
that fear him, those that he's been given repentance to, he
gives faith to also and faith believes Christ. First Timothy 316 says, and without
controversy, great is the mystery in 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. We don't understand it, do we?
And that's, it's not controversial. We're not, the truth of it's
not controversial. It's mystery, great is the mystery.
Without controversy, great is the mystery, we just believe
God. We just declare this mystery in truth and love. And God gives
the increase. God allows some of that gospel
seed to fall on good ground, good ground. And he brings forth
his fruit by the faith of Christ given to his people according
to his will. Now look in verse one again of
our text, 1 Corinthians 2. I, brethren, when I came to you,
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. When
we were talking about moving up here, I realized I was a boy
from East Tennessee that had a southern accent, and I say
words that you might not understand, and I know that you say words
that I don't understand sometimes, but I'm learning. And I thought,
Lord, who am I to go tell these people about your gospel? I don't
have the right words. And Lord brought me to Moses
when Moses was standing before. Do you know Moses had a speech
impediment? Moses couldn't talk plain. He had a problem talking. He said, Lord, how am I going
to stand before Pharaoh? I'm going to get up there and stutter the whole
time. I'm going to look like, I mean, you can imagine what
all he thought. The Lord said, who taught the
dumb to speak? Who taught the lame to walk?
who talked the blind to see, did not I? Now go. And he said these words to Moses,
and this was the comfort to me in coming up here, for I will
be with you. I thought, Lord, if you're not
with me, I don't wanna go. And is that not true for all of us?
No matter where we go, no matter what we do, Lord, if you're not
gonna go with me, I don't want to go. I got to have you, got
to have you with me. Not by my side, I've got to be
in you with you. You've got to be in Christ. That's
the heart that the Lord gives his people. That's the mystery
revealed, isn't it? Paul said he didn't come with
the excellency of speech or of wisdom. I'm not trying to impress
us here with words of wisdom by man's standard. I don't have
excellency of speech. You're gonna hear me say y'all
and different things that don't even, I guess they're in the
dictionary now, but they weren't for a long time, I know that.
It's just a man-made word that, I guess, you get what I'm saying.
I'm trying to declare Christ Jesus. I've determined, like
Paul said, to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. That is my obligation, that is
my duty, and that is the greatest honor and the most impossible
task that a man can ever do, is declare the truth of this
mystery. Declare the truth of this mystery.
Let's read on, and I was, verse three, and I was with you in
weakness. Can you relate to that? Can you relate to your flesh
being weak? Scripture tells us plainly the
flesh is weak. Spirit and deeds willing, but
the flesh is weak. He said, I was with you in weakness and in fear
and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching was not
with enticing words. It wasn't persuasive words of
man's wisdom. He said, I wasn't trying to trick
you into believing this, convince you into believing this. He says,
it was by demonstration of the spirit and with power. He did
all the work. And here's the reason, that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men. That your faith should not be.
The word stand is the same word as be. In the wisdom of men but in the
power of God. Our message is not popular because
we don't tickle ears. I'm sure I could get a dictionary
out and start learning long words and sound like a really intelligent
man. The truth of the matter is, is I want our message to
be as plain and as clear and as simple as it can be, just
as Paul is describing here. We're not trying to persuade
in a sense of using long words and impress people and they say,
wow, that guy, he's got it. He's got the words down. He's
got the lingo down. No, I'm going to try not to have
improper grammar, but I do. Forgive me for that, but I want
the message to be clear. That's the only way the Lord
reveals this mystery. The message is clear. Christ is all in salvation. Don't do one thing thinking that
you're justified before God because it's not true. There's nothing
you can do. Not one thing. When he said,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the one that has to give
the faith to believe. He gets all the glory in this salvation,
all the glory. Paul said, I determined to know
nothing among you, say, Jesus Christ. Those that know him,
I believe there's people here that know him, I do. Those that
know him, what else do you want to know? Those that have him,
what else do you want to have? He's all, isn't he? Lord, give
me Christ. Now, I understand that we are
praying for our children and our grandchildren and asking
the Lord to call and save them, but you understand what I'm saying.
If you have Him, He's all to you. Christ is all. Christ is
all. Everybody left Christ at one
point, except for the disciples, and He turns to the disciples
and He says, will you leave too? You're going to go away also? He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal
life. You're the only one that can reveal this mystery. We're
going to die in our sin and go to hell unless you speak, unless
you tell us the truth, unless you reveal your gospel. Whom
else should we go? You have the words of eternal
life. Can you relate to that? Lord, I can't go to the other
churches. I have to have the truth that
Christ is all. Christ is all. Have you ever
asked the question, I was speaking to someone recently that we were
talking, and this statement was made. It's frustrating sometimes. You ever ask the question, why
don't my loved ones just believe? Why can't they just believe?
You ever thought that? It's a desire because we love
them. We do. We want them to believe. We want them to hear.
And it's the best thing we ever heard, isn't it? That's why.
That's why. But we know the answer to the
question. It's the same reason we didn't
believe. It wasn't our appointed time. Look to Christ in that. Believe on Him in that. He will
call every single one for whom He lived, for whom He died, and
for whom He was resurrected in His time. He's the only one that
can reveal His mystery. He's the only one that can enlighten
us to his secret. He does it in his time. He does
it his way. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage, look to Christ, he'll strengthen your heart. That's
what the scripture says. And then he repeats himself,
wait again, I say wait. How does he enlighten his people? It's all by the preaching of
his gospel, isn't it? According to his will, according to his
spirit, he reveals that God elected a people. God did the electing. God chose to save some people. God made a decision. When did
he do that? Before time ever began. God chose to elect a people. Those people would have otherwise
perished in their sin And rightfully so, if he had not elected them,
but he chose to elect a people. Christ Jesus chose to redeem
those people in honoring his father. He said, father, I will
go, I will become a man. I will die for those people. I will become what they are and
put away their sin. And he did that by the sacrifice
of himself on Calvary's cross. He did that by his own blood.
He purged our sin. We know that God was satisfied
because He resurrected His Son. That's the sign that we have
that God was satisfied, isn't it? The Holy Spirit then in His time,
the appointed time, in God's time, calls every one of those
whom the Father elected, whom Christ redeemed, and gives them
the revelation of Jesus Christ by His faith. And then you know
what He does? He keeps us. He has kept us He
is keeping us and He's going to keep us. We are kept by His
power. And who's gonna threaten God? Nobody can. No, we're kept by
His power. We are kept by His power. This
is His gospel. This is the only source of life.
This is the only source of light. Christ is all. This is the mystery
that must be revealed. Now in closing, look with me
in Romans 11. Romans 11, look at verse 25,
"'For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of
this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits.'"
Now that's an interesting statement, isn't it? If they're ignorant
of the mystery, they're wise in their own conceits, then there's
pride there. Ignorance is pride. Is that interesting? They say
ignorance is bliss. Well, to men, ignorance is pride.
They don't know God, so therefore they justify themselves by what
they think they know, but they don't know God. He says, I would
not have you ignorant, brethren, lest ye should be wise in your
own conceits. That blindness is part has happened
to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become. And so
all Israel shall be saved. And it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob, for this is my covenant, and everything I just told us
about God, that is the covenant of grace, the election, the redemption,
the sanctification, and the calling. This is my covenant to them,
which I shall take away their sins. How is all Israel saved? He took away their sins. How
is all, that's a mystery, but it's true, isn't it? It's a revealed
mystery to his people. Not in our ability, how are we
gonna take away sin? If the blood and bulls of goats
could not take away sin, how are we gonna take away sin? We
can't. That is the impossibility of being a sinner. We cannot
take away our sin. It's not what we do, it's what
we are. God said, I shall. take away
our sin. Men say, but I thought that I
could... No, we don't think that anymore, do we? No. Well, what
if I... No, we don't think that way anymore.
No, it's not about letting Jesus into our heart. It's not about
walking an aisle. It's not about shaking a pastor's
hand or praying the prayer. They used to say, A, B, C, one,
two, three, repeat after me. It's that simple, A, B, C, all
you gotta do. Accept, believe, confess. You
ever heard that before? If the Lord gives faith, We don't
think that way anymore. We say, Lord, you did the saving. You put away sin by the sacrifice
of yourself. I was blind, now I see this mystery. It was hidden. It's black and
white written right in front of me, but I couldn't see it
this whole entire time until you said live. There it is. Next page, there it is. The next
page, there it is. Some of you can testify to that,
can't you? The Bible rewrote itself. I don't
know, he did it. Lord rewrote it to, he revealed
it. That's the word. He revealed
it. That's what he does. He reveals this hidden mystery
to his people. If he's revealed his mystery,
we know that it is finished. It is finished. Isaiah 45 says,
I have given thee the treasures of darkness. I have given thee
the treasure, how did he give the treasures of darkness? He
shined the light of his gospel into the heart of his people,
revealing, what does that light shine to? The face of Christ,
the face of Christ. I have given thee the treasures
of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest
know that I, the Lord, which call thee by name, am the God
of Israel. We believe in and we believe
on God. We used to think that there was
a distinct separation from Jesus and the Father, and there is,
there's the three parts, but we know that Christ is just as
much God as the Father is just as much God as the Spirit is
just as much God, don't we? That's a mystery revealed, all
three. These three are one. And now we are one in Christ
Jesus. One in the Father because of
Christ Jesus. Aren't you glad the Lord said,
I have hidden these things. Lord father, I think that thou
has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have
revealed them unto babes. What does a baby know? What does
a baby know? I'll leave you with this. A baby,
when they're born, we had three, we've had multiple daughters,
as you all know, and each one of them, they had distinct knowledge
of my voice and my wife's voice at birth. We would walk up to
them. They say the babies can't see
hardly anything unless it's right in front of their face. That's
one reason peekaboo is their, well anyways. What does babies
know? They know the sound of their
parents' voice. They were in the womb in darkness,
complete darkness. They'd never seen the light of
day before. Baby comes forth. Now everything's brand new. Now
they're seeing all this for the first time. Everything, it's
overwhelming to the baby. The baby don't understand what's
going on, but what does the baby know? The sound of its parent's
voice. That's exactly what the Lord's
people know. Whenever that baby was crying
earlier, right before service started, that baby wanted one
thing. It's mama. It's mama. You and I are made
to want one thing. Christ. and we are desiring to
hear one thing, Christ. Is that not true? You know why? He's revealed his mystery. He is all, he is all.