But I'm not going to preach very
long. Terry will just add this one on to that other one. But
I have some things here that I think ought to be said for
several reasons. One reason is this. Let's say
another word for the glory of God. Number two, let's declare
one more time from this pulpit in the event that this is the
last opportunity we have His glory in Christ Jesus. And let
me give to the younger preachers in the congregation an outline
that preaches. 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. This is one of the greatest preaching
texts in the Bible. And if you're a preacher or a
teacher, and haven't preached on it, my question is, why not?
Somebody called it the summary of true religion. That's not
original. I read this from the very summary,
the very essence of true religion. This is what people need to know.
And without controversy, without argument or debate, great is
the mystery of God. In six natural points, God was
manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of the angels,
preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received
up into glory. Did you notice, first of all,
there's no idle boasting of denominationalism or sectarianism here? There's not a word here about
the greatness of the Baptist Church. There's not a word here
about the greatness of our denomination. Not a word. The message to all
men everywhere is that God has come to the earth to redeem sinners.
That's what this is all about. Another thing I noticed, the
absence here of ceremonialism, the complicated ceremonies of
religion. I've said this over and over
again. But religion is the most complicated mess I've ever had
to deal with in my life. But here there are no drops of
water. There's no standing and sitting and kneeling and prostrating
ourselves. There's no processionals. There's
no solemn assemblies. There's no uniforms. There's
no high-ups and low-downs. There's no ecclesiastical powers
and superintendents and bishops and cardinals and archbishops
and popes and reverends and doctors and elders and deacons and officers. All in the world I have here
is a message to all men of God's naked mercy to sinners in Christ.
That's all that's here. If this is the sum and summary
of godliness, if this is the mystery of godliness, And most
of what we call religion is ungodliness today, because it's not here. You can't even read it in. And then there's nothing said
here of rules and regulations and laws and whipping people
into line. It's the coming to earth of a
person, not a system. There's no system here. It's
a person. It's a person from beginning to end. God was manifest
in the flesh and received up in the glory. It's Christ all
from beginning to end and all in between. There's no rulebook
here, it's a person. The message to all men is not
cold logic, but a living person who has come to the earth. That's
what this is all about. This is the sum and substance
of true religion. And not a word of speculation
about prophecy. I listened to a preacher last
night, a local preacher last night, and he had this thing
all figured out. All the future is taken care of. All I got to
do is buy his book. And I know everything's going
to happen. There's no predictions here. There's no speculation.
There's no prophecy. There's no effort here to predict
what's going to be. There's a bold declaration of
what has taken place. And that's really all you ought
to be concerned with, what has taken place. Because if you believe
and rest in Him who came, you don't have to worry about His
second coming. It'll bring nothing but good. If you've rested in Christ and
trusted in Christ, you can forget tribulation, millenniums, and
everything else. There's no problem for you. God was manifest in the flesh. Look at the first word here.
Without controversy, without debate, without argument, grace
is the mystery of God's image. Someone said this is the most
amazing truth. This is the most astounding revelation. This is the greatest declaration
that's ever been spoken in human language or heard by human ears,
or this is the most astounding deception that's ever been put
off on the human race. Which is it? This is the most astounding,
amazing revelation that a man's ever heard. As I stand here before
you tonight and I say, and this is without debate, argument,
quibbling, discussion, great! Great is the mystery of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
That's the most amazing, astounding declaration or the greatest Jewish
deception that's ever been put off on the human race. Which
is it? Man can't afford to be indifferent
about this. If it's true, I've got to believe
it. If it's false, I've got to know. I've got to know. Well, I'll
tell you one thing. The matter is great, all right,
he said, without controversy. Great. This is great. It's great. It starts with God's plans and
purposes and winds up with the exaltation of our representative. It's great, all right. Boy, I
tell you, it's great. It deals with mercy, pardon,
eternal life, a guilty center. It's great. And you know, I look
at the word mystery. I was talking to Milton Howard
the other day, and he said he got into a village in Mexico where there
was a lot of witchcraft and strange happenings. I'm not going to
tell you all of it. It's not important. But he just got out
of there. He went a couple of times, and
some very unusual and strange things happened. And he used
the word in his preaching The word mystery, the mystery of
the gospel, the mystery of the church, you know, it's used several
times in the scripture, and boy, that caught their ear like that.
That's the only thing that they said, tell us about this mystery.
Mystery. We want to know about this. Well,
let me tell you about this word. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. Number one, And you write this
down, this is true, it's not a mystery because men have not
heard about it. God manifest in the flesh, that's
not a mystery because men haven't heard about it. They've heard
about it. You know, even Paul said to Agrippa, he said, this
wasn't done in the corner. Why, you know as well as I know,
Jesus Christ came into this world. Paul didn't believe on it, but
he still knew he came into the world and died on the cross. So that's
not the mystery of it. It's not a mystery because people
haven't heard about it. They have heard of it. Secondly,
it's not a mystery, a lack of witnesses and information. The prophets wrote of him. Everything
he did is in the Old Testament. And there are numbers of witnesses. On one occasion, our Lord appeared
after his resurrection to 500 people at one time, and many
more. So it's not a mystery for lack
of information or witnesses. And it, what's this? God came
to earth. It's not a mystery because it
requires great intelligence to comprehend. The Bible talks about
the simplicity of Christ and talks about revealing it to babes.
When we say God came to earth, I know what you're saying. That's
what the Jews, when they took up stones, to stone him. They
say, we know what you're saying. You're saying you're God. You
say, that's not complicated. Well, you say, what is the mystery?
The mystery is the fact that such things could take place.
The mystery is the fact that God could come to earth. Now, that's the mystery. See
what I'm saying? They told Thomas, after he'd
risen from the grave, Thomas saw them take him down to the
cross and put him in the tomb. They said, the Lord's risen.
He said, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. This man, Jesus Christ, born
to Mary, you mean that's God? I don't believe that. That's
the mystery. That's what I'm talking about. You mean that God Almighty's
dwelling in human flesh? I don't believe that. I tell you, the only person that
really believes this is either somebody that's got a problem
up here or got grace in here. That's a fact. That's an honest
fact. You mean the Son of the Highest
became a man of sovereigns? He who made woman was made of
woman? He who is higher than the heavens
was made lower than the angels? He who gave the law became in
subjection to it. The king of kings is now in the
form of a servant. The one who is L-I-F-E, life,
died. I don't believe that. I don't believe that, people
say, and I understand why they don't believe it. The very fact
that such a thing could take place is a mystery. See what
I'm saying? That's what I'm saying. I'm saying
that the manger in Bethlehem holds the God of glory in human
flesh. And I'm saying the curtain to
shop at Nazareth is the workshop not only of Joseph, but the one
working beside him is literally the one who made this universe. Now that's a mystery. how he
could confine himself, whom the heavens can't contain, how he
could confine himself to a human form. It's a mystery. We walk
by that cross and see, hanging on that cross, a man whose visage is so marred
he doesn't look like a man, beaten and battered and bloody, his
bones sticking through the skin, nearly stretched, beyond imagination,
with a crown of thorns on his head, just a mass of bleeding,
bruised flesh, dying while people laugh and mock and spit and scorn
and make fun in helplessness and weakness. You mean that's
God? It takes grace to believe that.
And that's your salvation? That's how you're cleansed? That's
how you're redeemed? That's how you're made righteous
before a holy God? That's all it takes is to look
and believe in Him? See what I'm talking about? It's
a lot easier for the human mind to believe that a preacher says,
now you do the best you can, and God will take you to Heaven
when you die. Now you work and labor and do good and make clothes
for the naked and give food to the hungry and take care of your
family and mind your own business and do all these things and it'll
be all right with you. That's a whole lot easier for
the human mind to comprehend than substitution. But see, what
the human mind doesn't understand is that the character of God,
the holiness and righteousness of God, and the law of God, and
the justice of God demands that death for my sins, demands that
transaction in order that He may be just and justify me. That's what the human mind doesn't
comprehend. They rule out. They rule out.
God's law and justice and holiness, but God was manifest in the flesh. All right, the second point is
this, this mystery of Godliness. He was justified in the Spirit. Now, what does that mean? It
means that He was vindicated by the Holy Spirit. Everything
He did was vindicated by the Spirit of God. Turn to John chapter
5, verse 31. Listen to Christ here. John 5,
31. Listen to what he says here in
John 5, verse 30. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not
true. Now, we know the Lord Jesus Christ
cannot lie. The Lord Jesus Christ is true.
But everything he did as a man in the flesh was according to
the Scriptures. And he said you don't believe one witness. The
Scripture says over and over again, let every word be established
by the mouth of two or more, two or three witnesses. And this
is what our Lord is saying right here. If I'm the only witness
of who I am and why I came and what I came to do, then you've
got no right to believe me. But he said, the Father bore
witness of me, and the works that I do bear witness of me,
and John the Baptist bore witness of me, and the scriptures bear
witness of me. But here in our text, it says
the Holy Ghost bears witness of him, vindicates his claims. The Holy Spirit justifies all
his claims. Now watch this. Underneath this
heading, he was conceived in the virgin's womb by the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God came upon Mary and he was conceived. At his baptism,
John the Baptist said, I was told this from heaven, that upon
whom I saw the Holy Spirit descending, that was the Christ. And he said,
when I baptized Jesus Christ and brought him out of the water,
I saw the heavens open and the Spirit of God come upon him and
abide upon him in the form of a dove. The Holy Spirit vindicated
his claim. He was raised from the dead by
the Spirit of God. Now watch this. And when our
Lord went back to glory, the Holy Spirit at Pentecost came
upon his disciples and they preached his gospel in the fire of the
Holy Ghost. Everything Christ did was vindicated
by the Holy Ghost. And he said, when the Holy Spirit
comes, he shall not speak of himself, but he shall take the
things of mine and show them to you. And my friends, I'd hate
to ride an issue or keep bringing up something, but it's quite clear to me that today's
religion that keeps emphasizing the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Ghost, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and tongues,
and the Holy Ghost. It seems quite evident to me
that that is not of the Holy Spirit. When Christ said, The
Holy Spirit shall glorify me, he shall take the things of mine
and show them to you. And I really believe this firmly.
with all my heart, that where you hear people singing, praising,
reading, and preaching about Christ, they have the Holy Spirit. And where men are emphasizing
gifts and the Holy Ghost, I believe it's another spirit. He was justified
in the Spirit, justified, vindicated. And then it says here he was
seen of the angels. Has it, somebody said this, has
it ever occurred to you that the religious doings of men do
not attract much attention from heaven? All the commotions and claims
of all the great meetings and denominations and assemblies
have never had any heavenly recognition. You ever notice that? Now they
organize it. It would amaze you at the organizations
that these great revivalists have. They come into town, and
they get it so organized it cannot fail. They get all the churches
organized, and all the preachers working, and all the officers
in the church working, all the choirs working together, and
they have all the seats assigned, and when they move into a football
stadium, or move into a great revival center or a great convention
center, the place is full because they've been working on it for
six months, getting it together. But that which is of God doesn't
need man's organization. If God's in it, God will honor
it and God will own it. Now here's what I'm saying. Everything
Jesus Christ did, was attended by the angels. At his birth,
God hung a star over the manger. And the angels of God came down
to earth and said to the shepherds, in the city of David is born
a Savior, Christ the Lord. In the wilderness of temptation,
when our Lord had fasted forty days and been tempted of Satan
and battled the prince of this world, when he sat down after
that battle was over in weakness and And faith, it says, the angels
of God came and ministered to him. When the women came to the
tomb on that Sunday morning, the first day of the week, who
greeted them? The angels of God. They said,
He's not here. He's not here. At His ascension, when our Lord
was taken up into heaven, out of their sight, who stood and
talked to the disciples? and said, ye men of Galilee,
why are you standing around here? Why are you standing around gazing
up into heaven? They're angels. And at His second
coming, the Scripture says, the trumpetal sound and the voice
of whom? Archangels. Let all the holy angels of God
worship Him. I tell you this, I believe if Christ is glorified,
and Christ is revealed, heaven is going to pay attention
to it and honor it. Some way, heaven's going to honor
it. Because everything he did was
honored of heaven, presence of God. And then he said this in the
fourth place. He was preached to the Gentiles.
You say, isn't this sort of strange? Here we are talking about great
is the mystery. How can these things be? God
in the flesh, the Holy Spirit, vindicating Christ, Spirit of
the living God, sovereignly sent angels appearing here and there,
and angels speaking, honoring Christ, pointing to Christ, glorifying
Christ, exalting Christ. And then we come down to the
gospel preached to Gentiles. Oh, my friend, I'll tell you
this. If you want to ask a fellow that'll bear witness to the fact
this is a miracle, ask the Apostle Peter. It took God everything but pulling
his fingernails out to get him preached to the Gentiles. He
wasn't going to do it. You know, somebody said one time,
the nearest thing to God These folks believed the nearest thing
to God was an angel, and the farthest thing from God was a
Gentile. That's what they thought. They
called them dogs. Dogs. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
when that woman, the Gentile woman, the Canaanite woman, came
to Him and said, Lord, have mercy, He just looked at her. He didn't
even answer her. See, the Gentiles had no priesthood. They had no
tabernacle. They had no law. They had no
prophets. They were heathen, pagans. That's our ancestors. That's our kinfolks. And she said, well, Lord, have
mercy. He said, I'm sent to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. She said, have mercy. He said,
it's not right to give children's bread to dogs. That's what he
was talking about, Gentiles. Oh, but she said, I'm your dog. And the master, the dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from their master's table. He said, great
is your faith. I tell you, you and I, you and
I ought to really praise God for that miracle, that mystery
that Christ is preached to Gentiles. You take Abraham's seed over
there, there's not scarcely any of them that believe this gospel.
You can't find a Jewish church anywhere preaching the gospel.
And here we are, a bunch of Gentiles, worshiping Christ. Got a high
priest, got a tabernacle, got a mercy seat, got all these things
in the Jews. That's the mystery. See what
I'm saying? Great is the mystery. How can
this be? All right, look at the next one.
Believed on in this world. believed on in this world. Incarnation is a miracle. The
witness of the Spirit is a miracle. The presence of angels is a miracle. The calling of the Gentiles is
a miracle. But let me tell you something. Faith in Christ is
a miracle. I'm not talking about covetous
faith and materialistic faith. And this religious faith, I'm
talking about real, genuine faith in Christ, is a miracle. See, all men know of His existence,
but His essence and His glory is revealed to those who believe
Him. You see, most all men know of His works, but His wisdom
and His will in Christ is known by those who believe Him. Most
all men know of his power, some power, but his purpose to redeem
in Christ is revealed to those that believe. Most all men know
of his miracles, but his mercy has to be revealed. Most all
men know of his judgments, but the fact that he is just and
justifier has to be revealed to those who believe. And the mystery of faith lies
in this. And I just don't know exactly
how to say this. I don't know how to word it. But those who believe in Christ,
believe in Him and love Him and rest in Him to the exclusion
of everything and everybody. That's right. I'm telling you the truth. I'm
talking about believing on Him. That's what He meant You see,
this is what Christ meant when he said, He that cometh to me
must hate his mother and father, brother and sister, husband and
wife, and his own life. That person who really believes
on Christ believes Christ to the exclusion of everything and
everybody. And that's the reason I say not
many people believe Christ. I know there are a lot of people,
I know there are a lot of people who have a mental acceptance
of some religious facts. They believe it's a heaven, they
believe it's a hell, they believe it's a God, they believe the
Bible's the word of God, they believe that life after death,
they believe that Jesus died on a cross, buried and rose again,
and they believe you have to believe in him to be saved, and
all of the general fundamentalist evangelical facts. But what I'm
talking about here is a union with Christ and a faith in Christ
and a believing in Christ and resting in Him and being
brought by the Spirit of God to Him, to where if there's ever
a conflict between Him and your love for Him and your relationship
with Him and your identification with Him, It doesn't matter if
it's your own mama, she has to go. That's what I'm saying, and
that's a mystery. God manifested in the flesh is
a mystery, but man becoming one with God is a mystery too. God
becoming a man is a mystery, but a human being being one with
God, and it's what Christ said, I in them, and thou in them,
and you love them like you love me." That they may be one in
us, and that's what I'm saying. And that's faith, and that's
saving faith. And it comes down to this. It
comes down to a man, if he comes to his own life in Christ, then
his life dies. If it comes to the dearest, if
it comes to his job, that's the reason I never could understand.
I never could understand how a person could leave the gospel
and the fellowship of Christ and the fellowship of his people
and Christ's glory where it's manifested and go anywhere else
for gain or profit or promotion. I can't understand that. You
see what I'm saying? That's just not clear to me at
all. I can't understand if a believer... That's the reason I can't understand
believer marrying an unbeliever. I'd be perfectly honest with
you. I can't understand that. I can't understand how a person's even
thinking who does that. That'd be like me marrying the
devil. I don't have any intention of marrying the devil. What fellowship
does light have with darkness? There's no way. You say, but
yeah, but I love her. But I love Christ more. That
don't make sense to me. And this is the reason it's called
a miracle. God manifest in the flesh is a miracle. But for a person
like you and me to be, by the Spirit of God, brought to a union
with Christ to the point that we love Him, trust Him, believe
Him so much that nothing, Don't come between us and Him. Nothing
and nobody. And if they do, they're gone.
Now, that's a mystery. And then the last one is received
up into glory. And I want to read you what I
wrote down here. Received up into glory. This is a man. This
is a man. A man. It's like flesh of our
flesh and bone of our bone. Jesus Christ is God, but he was
a man, as if he were not God. He was born of a woman. His navel
was tied, and he was washed and swaddled and dressed and diapered
and nursed and just grew up in stature and favor with God and
men, a man. And he lived in the flesh, and
he hungered and thirsted and was weary and bled and sweated. was tempted in all parts as we
are. He was a man who died, was buried
in a grave, and he was raised by God and accepted by God in
his life, in his work, and he was taken up into heaven. This
man was taken up into heaven. This man who was born of a woman
and lived on this earth, who died, was taken up into heaven.
and accepted, and they even blew trumpets when He came in the
golden gate. They said, Lift up your heads,
O ye gates, the King of Glory is coming home. And they welcomed
Him, all of heaven and all of the seraphims and cherubims and
the Father. And the Father said to that man,
Take your seat on My right hand. Now you think Now, brother, you talk about
mystery. Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,
seated at the right hand of the invisible Spirit, the eternal
God, is a man, Tom. He says, the man Jesus Christ. That's what the church members
and preachers don't know anything about. They talk about heaven
and playing hearts and streets of gold and the circle. Oh, it's
a mystery. The fact that any man can walk
in that place. And I'll tell you this, this
man has hope of being there because that man is there. That's what
I'm saying. And this man would never be there
if that man were not there. Because that man is this man
by God's choice. That man is this man by God's
own decree. And that man fulfilled what this
man couldn't fulfill, and did what this man couldn't do, and
is what this man ain't never going to be in himself. That's
what I'm saying. And that man is my forerunner. And that man has occupied that
seat for me and for you. Now, that's a mystery. How can
these things be? Again, I repeat, the mystery
is not for lack of information, it's not for lack of witnesses,
it's not because you hadn't heard it. The mystery is that it can
be so, and not many folks believe it. Not many folks believe it. And if we really believe that
the next breath may usher us right into that wherever condemnation,
despair, or glory, be a whole lot of attention given to what
I've been preaching. I mean real attention. Real attention. For great is the mystery of Godliness. Now, Father, we're flesh in a tabernacle of
flesh. Our limitations are indescribable. Our ignorance born in ignorance,
born in confusion, born in darkness, deadness. We desire, we need, we crave
a revelation of the person, the glory, the work, exaltation of
the Lord Jesus Christ to these hearts. Lord, give us light. Give us the light of the glory
of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Enable us to see Him,
to believe on Him, to love Him, to rest in Him. I pray for every
person. I pray for myself, and I pray
for every person here tonight. I pray for this congregation. Lord God, we want to know Thee. We want to know Christ. We call
upon Thee. We look to Thee. Lord, leave
us not to ourselves, or to the wisdom of men, or to the traditions
of religion, or to the customs about us, but reveal to us this
glorious mystery of godliness. Let us know Christ, not be ashamed. Separated, dedicated, obsessed
with Him, whom to know is life eternal. Enable us to love Thee,
and loving Thee we'll love one another. To see Thy glory, we pray in Christ's name and
for His sake. Amen.