The title of this message today
is The Mystery of Godliness. The Mystery of Godliness. I'll
be speaking from 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. If you'll take your
Bibles and open them to 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. I'm going to read
the text and then make a few remarks by way of introducing
the subject and then come back to the text. So just keep your
Bible open to 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. This is what Paul says. And
without controversy, Great is the mystery of godliness, the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of the angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Now, my friends, one of the words
that we hear quite frequently in religious conversation in
preaching and teaching is the word simple. We hear it all the
time. We hear people say things like
this, the simple plan of salvation. And I've heard others say this,
heard this just a night or two ago on television. A preacher
was talking about the gospel and he said it's very simple,
very simple. All you do is believe. It's just
that simple. And then we hear other people
say, well, he preaches a simple gospel. He preaches simple gospel
so simple that a little child can understand it now this over
simplification of the gospel has led to four errors and I
want you to listen carefully now I've given a lot of thought
to this and I know this is true you listen to it first of all
this over simplification of the gospel the simple plan of salvation
the simple way of life and so forth the word simple first of
all this position has led many natural men, and when I say natural
men, I mean unregenerated, unsaved, unbelievers, many natural men,
to believe that there are authorities on the Bible. That's exactly
right. We have declared that the way of life, the way to God,
the way of salvation is so simple that even a little child can
understand it, so that's led natural men to believe that there
are authorities on the Scripture. They've read a little Bible,
They've memorized John 3, 16. They've memorized Psalm 23. Now they are authorities on the
Word of God. They'll argue with you about
Scripture. They'll argue with you about doctrine. They'll argue
with you about the church. They'll argue with you about
anything because they are authorities on the Bible. After all, it's
so simple that even a natural man can understand it. And yet
God said in 1 Corinthians 2, 14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of God. They're foolishness to him, neither
can he know them. They're spiritually understood.
He does not have spiritual life, nor the Holy Spirit, and cannot
understand. The natural mind is enmity against
God. The preaching of the cross is
foolishness to them that perish. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them who are blind, blinded by Satan. But we've oversimplified
this thing, and everybody's an authority on the Bible. A man
will study to be a doctor for 8 or 10 years. A man will study
to be a lawyer for 8 or 10 years. A man will study to be an electrician
for 4 or 5 years. He'll study to be an automobile
mechanic. But in 5 minutes, he's an authority on the Word of God.
Every mother's son is an authority on the Bible. That's sad. And
the fault is that we've declared that it's so simple. So simple. Nothing to it. Anybody can understand
it. Alright, here's the second error.
This position has created an unholy familiarity with the Holy
God. The holy, eternal God has become
everybody's buddy. The holy, eternal God, who inhabits
the heaven of heavens, whose footstool is this earth, is everybody's
buddy. We hear statements like this,
well, God is my partner, or God is my co-pilot, or me and Jesus,
we got a good thing going. I heard a song not long ago that
went like this, build me a mansion next door to Jesus, and tell
the angels I'm a coming home. No fear, no awe, no reverence,
no fear of God before their eyes. After all, it's just so simple.
There's nothing to it. In oversimplification of the
gospel, we reached up and brought Almighty God down to our level.
And we've ignored Scripture like this. Listen to Ecclesiastes
5, 1 and 2. keep your foot when you go to the house of God, and
be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with your mouth,
let not your mouth be hasty to utter anything before God. God
is in the heavens, you are upon the earth, therefore let your
words be few. Suffer not your mouth to call
your flesh to sin. Oh, yes, we've got an unholy
familiarity with God. We felt like God is the man next
door, our buddy, our co-pilot, our partner, all of these things,
and we fail to recognize that God is in His holy temple. Let all the earth bow down and
worship Him. Holy and reverent is His name. But this simple gospel has brought
God down to our level. I'll tell you the third thing.
This insistency on the simple plan of salvation has given millions
of people a carnal refuge, a carnal refuge, a carnal hope in decisions,
in experiences, in church membership, in religious ordinances and rituals,
and taken away from them the desire and need to continually
seek the Lord, to continually come to Christ. to continually
search the scriptures. We're just all sure. Are you
saved? I saved 20 years ago. I got no
cause to search the scriptures. I got no cause to seek the Lord.
I got no cause to give diligence to make my calling and election
sure. I went to an old-fashioned altar. I prayed through. I shook
the preacher's hand. I was baptized. I've joined the
church. I've been a deacon or a preacher all these years. Me
lost? Why, impossible. If anybody makes it, Lord, surely
I will. The Scripture talks about this,
to whom coming, to whom coming. In other words, we continually
come to Christ. You are the house of Christ if
you hold fast your profession of faith. If you hold fast your
confidence firm until the end. My friend, faith is not an isolated
experience. Repentance is not an isolated
experience. Faith is a state of being. Repentance
is a continual state and condition of the heart. We have repented.
We are repenting. We shall repent. We have sought
the Lord. We are seeking the Lord. We shall
turn to the Lord. We shall continue to look to
Christ. But this simplification of the
gospel has given people a hope, a carnal refuge in a decision,
in an experience, in church membership, in baptism. And they say, I'm
all fixed up. I got it signed, sealed, and
delivered, and put away in a safe somewhere, along with my Social
Security, along with my insurance policy, along with my last will
and testament, and when I need God, I'll go open the safe, and
I'll get out my experience, and we'll take off for heaven." That's
sad, because this thing of coming to Christ is a continual coming. Paul tells us all the time, examine
yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Give diligence to
make your calling and election sure, said the Apostle Peter.
Now let me show you something else. This insistence upon the
simple gospel, this oversimplification of the mystery of godliness.
I want you to watch this. Now listen to me. It has given
religionists the notion that there's nothing profound in the
gospel. There's nothing mysterious in
the person and work of Christ. There's nothing deep and mysterious
and high and rich in the gospel of God's grace, so we just cast
it aside. We cast the gospel aside as unworthy
of our time, unworthy of our thought, unworthy of our study,
unworthy of our preaching. Like one fellow said one time,
do you preach the gospel? Oh, everybody knows that. I preach
prophecy. Well, don't you preach Christ
and Him crucified? Everybody knows that. I deal with future
events. That's the reason. The reason
that preachers major on prophecy and future events and politics
and education and cleaning up society is they've got the idea
that the Gospels, it's simple. Everybody knows it. There's nothing
to study, there's nothing to seek, there's nothing to learn,
there's nothing to grow in. You wonder why so many preachers
today on television, radio, and from the pulpit major on prophecy?
and on what's happening in Israel and what's happening in Iran
and what's happening somewhere else, and the programs and education
and politics, I'll tell you why. They see no beauty in the gospel.
They see no glory in the gospel of Christ. They see no mystery
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they've
turned their attention, they say, to more important things. My friend, the Apostle Paul did
not share that opinion. When he came to Corinth, now
Corinth was the nation, Corinth was the city of philosophers,
the city of debaters, the city of arguers, and all the fellows
it met to examine new thoughts and new ideas. Paul stood before
them and said this, I am determined to know nothing among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul didn't come to Corinth with
some new philosophy and say, well, everybody knows about the
crucifixion, everybody knows about the resurrection, now we'll
go on to more important events. He said, we preach Christ and
Him crucified. God sent me not to baptize, but
to preach the gospel. And then to the Galatians, what
did he say? He said, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of Jesus Christ. Why, he said to that same church,
I prevail till Christ be formed in you." What did he say to the
Corinthians or to the Colossians? He said, Christ in you, that's
the hope of glory. What did he say to the Ephesians?
He said, I preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. What did he
say to the Philippians? For me to live is Christ and
to die is gain. My friend, there's nothing greater
than the gospel. There's nothing more important,
there's no subject more important than the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everything that God has for men is in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When our Lord gathered his disciples around him after he'd been crucified,
buried, and risen from the grave, he gathered his disciples around
him, he was going back to the Father, and he commissioned them
and sent them forth. To do what? To clean up society,
to reform the world, to establish a kingdom, to get everybody to
go to church on Sunday, and those that didn't go, put them in stocks,
to change the parliaments and Congress and Senates of the nations,
to dethrone kings, to get Crusades together and conquer the Holy
Land. What did He send them to do? He said to His disciples,
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, that's
your job, that's your commission. Go and preach the gospel. And
the Apostle Paul said, Woe is unto me. if I preach not the
gospel." And then when Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ
on the Mount of Transfiguration, now here's Moses representing
the law, and Elijah representing the prophets. And they, on top
of that mountain, before the eyes of Peter, James, and John,
our Lord was transfigured. He was glorified. His face radiated
the glory of God. Even his clothes glistened white.
And Moses and Elijah appeared with him, Elijah the prophets
and Moses the law, and they talked. What did they talk about? Well,
they must have talked about the millennium or the battle of Armageddon,
something important like that, you know. What did they talk
about? The scripture says they talked about the sufferings which
he would accomplish at Jerusalem to redeem his people. When Christ
the Messiah and Moses representing the law, And Elijah, the greatest
of the prophets, met together in a summit meeting on the Mount
of Transfiguration that talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'll tell you, Peter said, listen
to this, in 1 Peter 1, 10 and 12, he talked about the prophets
of old. We're talking about Jeremiah
and Ezekiel and Elijah and Isaiah and all these prophets of old.
He talked about them inquiring and searching diligently into
what? Into what? You read 1 Peter 1,
verse 10, into the sufferings of Christ. That's what they inquired
and searched diligently into, into the sufferings of Christ
and the glory that we should follow. And then verse 12 says,
and the angels desire to look into these things. Oh, there's
nothing so great and nothing so rich and nothing so glorious
and nothing so beautiful and nothing so important as the person
and work of Jesus Christ. And I'll say this. that a man
who does not spend his time preaching it, that is taken up with other
things, and I say majoring on minors, has not himself seen
the beauty and glory of Christ. Because John 12, 41 says, when
Isaiah saw his glory, he spake of him, of Christ. Now, Paul saw his glory, and
he preached Christ. Look, if you will, I want to
show you several words, isolated individual words from the Word
of God which describe this so-called simple gospel. Now listen to
some words. First of all, in Ephesians 3a,
Paul says, unto me who am less than the least of all the saints
is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles, listen
now, the unsearchable riches of Christ. The what? The simple
plan of salvation. No. that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ." You
know what Job said about this? He said, can you, by searching,
find out God? Now, you can find out your idols
and your ideas of God and your opinions of God, but we're talking
about the living God, the high and holy God, the eternal God,
the God of creation and providence. Can you, by searching, find out
God? Can you find out the Almighty
to perfection? Listen, it's high as the heavens.
What can you do? It's deeper than hell. What can
you know? The next time someone says, well,
there's nothing to it, it's as simple as A, B, C, you know,
all is sin, believe on Jesus, confess Him. There's nothing
to this thing of salvation. There's nothing to this thing
of the personal work of Christ. It's high as the heavens. What
can you know? It's deeper than hell. What can
you do? Listen to Paul in Romans 11,
33. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past
finding out. Unsearchable. Spend a lifetime. Spend a millennium. Spend twenty
millenniums on the person and work of Jesus Christ, and you'll
just touch the hem of the garment. Listen to this word in 2 Corinthians
9, 15. Thanks be unto God for His simple
gift. That's not what that says. It
says, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. His unspeakable gift. Talking about Christ. His unsearchable,
unspeakable gift. Does that sound simple? Does
that sound like first grade work? You know, when Paul was taken
up to the third heaven, He said, I knew a man, whether in the
body or out of the body, I do not know. It's over in 2 Corinthians. He said, who was caught up into
the third heaven and saw things that when he came back, it wasn't
possible to put them into words. In other words, Paul said, when
I went into the presence of God, into the third heaven, I saw
unspeakable things. Unspeakable. And we're talking
about the same thing here in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I see this to be true in regard to God's eternal love for sinners.
You know anything about God's eternal love for sinners? Why
he loved them? How he loved them? Well, you
could spend a hundred years just talking about God's love. Could
we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made?
where every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above would drain that ocean dry, nor
could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from
sky to sky, just the love of God." One subject in reference
to Christ's coming. What about His divine election?
He chose some, the Scripture said that He did. He predestinated
some to be conformed to the image of His Son. What about spending
a lifetime looking into, studying, Why God was pleased to take on
him the seed of Abraham and not the nature of angels? Why did
he choose Israel and pass by the Egyptians? Why did he choose
you and pass by someone else? Or what about the incarnation
of Christ? The Word, God, became flesh. Have you studied that? Have you looked into the treasures
of the Word? He who made woman was made of
a woman? The ancient of days became an
infant of days? You mean he who made the river
said, I thirst, and he who planted the trees hung on one of those
trees? And he who wrote the law became
subject to it? You understand those things?
Simple, somebody told me. What about Christ's obedience
to the law? What about His going through
the trials of life? What about His being tempted
and all? God tempted. Satan subjecting God to temptation. You figure that one out. Or God
in human flesh hanging on a tree between two thieves. Or God the
Father turning his back on God the Son. Martin Luther said,
God forsaking God. No man can understand that, but
they tell me it's simple. The resurrection of the dead.
Dead men live. Men who have laid in the tomb
for three days come forward. in a spiritual body, in an immortal
body, a body that does not depend upon food or drink or sleep or
rest, but a body that's a quickening spirit and lives forever. And
Christ said, we'll be raised in these same bodies, spiritual
bodies, though. That which is corruptible will
put on incorruption. And then his ascension to heaven
and the fact that right now on God's right hand there's a man
called Christ Jesus. Now my friends, there's nothing
simple about this. Paul says that the merit and
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, listen to this, will present you and
me. Now think about this word. The
merit and sacrifice of Jesus Christ will one day present you
and me, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight. Now you think
about that for a moment. We're sinners by birth, we're
sinners by choice, we're sinners by nature. Can you fathom the
depth of this glorious truth? That through Jesus Christ's own
blood and through Jesus Christ's own righteousness and obedience,
this sinner right here stands now before God unblameable? That's unsearchable. This sinner
stands before God unreprovable, justified, white, pure, clean,
holy, without sin, just as sinless as God's own Son. For with His
spotless garments on, I'm as sinless as God's own Son." You
figure that out? That's unspeakable. That's unsearchable. That's not simple. It takes the
blood of God to cleanse a guilty soul. It takes the righteousness
of God to make us holy. What about this word? He is unchangeable
priesthood. Unchangeable. Now, everything
I know changes. Change and decay in all around
I see. O thou who changest not. Unchangeable. The priesthood of Christ. Unchangeable. The love of Christ. Unchangeable. The person of Christ. The same
yesterday, today, and forever. I am the Lord. I change not.
Unchangeable. Or maybe this word. He shall
burn the chaff. with fire unquenchable." When
I think of the word simple, I know we preach the simplicity of Christ.
That's the oneness of Christ and the singleness of Christ
and the one way of redemption by Christ. But that singleness
of Christ and person of Christ and oneness of Christ and one
way of Christ is anything in this world but simple. It's as
profound as the very wisdom of God Almighty. Now, you add to
all that I've said. The words of the Apostle Paul
to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3.16, in which he says, without controversy,
without doubt, without argument, without room for argument or
indifference, without doubt, great, great, monumental, is
the mystery, the mystery, not the simple God, the mystery of
godliness, the mystery of redemption, the mystery of the salvation
of sinners. And this is not the first time
that he's used the word mystery. Paul uses it frequently. This
is not the first time we encounter this word in reference to God's
grace. In Colossians 1.27, listen to this, "...to whom God would
make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery,
this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you." This
is a mystery. The hope of glory. Ephesians
5.32, this is a great mystery. I speak concerning Christ in
the church." Ephesians 3, 4. When you read, you may understand
my knowledge of the mystery of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15,
51, behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall be changed. Now, I want to take this. I'm
not rattling the change of denominationalism. I'm not dusting off the bones
of dry doctrine. I'm not feeding curious minds
with prophecy and future events. I'm not enforcing rules and regulations
for a bunch of self-satisfied, egotistical Pharisees. This is
living truth for dying men. This is grace for guilty men.
This is mercy for miserable men. This is hope for hopeless men.
This is truth. Great is the mystery of godliness. Now, you could spend a few millenniums
right here. God was manifest in the flesh. God became a man. Here's what
we're saying. Let it be loud and clear. We're
saying that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. John
clearly says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God, and all things were made by Him.
And that Word, who made all things, who created all things, in whom
all things live and move and have their being, was made flesh
and dwelt among us. God became a man. Thou shalt
call his name Jesus. He shall save his people from
their sins, which is a fulfillment of the writings of the prophet
Isaiah, when he said, Behold, the Lord himself will give you
a sign. A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son. Thou shalt
call his name Emmanuel, God with us. He said, I and my Father
are one. God was manifest in the flesh.
Now watch the second thing. He was justified in the Spirit. What does that mean? That means
that Christ, his personal work, was vindicated by the Spirit
and the Word of God. The claims of Jesus Christ, now
listen to me, the claims of Jesus Christ only demand my attention
as they are supported or vindicated by the Spirit of God and the
Word of God. Christ said that himself, he said, if I only bear
witness of myself, you don't need to believe me. But the Father
has borne witness of me. The works I do bear witness of
me. The prophets bear witness of me. The scripture bears witness
of me. And when the Holy Spirit is come,
he shall not speak of himself, but he will glorify me. He shall
take the things of mine and show them to you." Vindicated by the
Holy Spirit. Watch this. Scene of the angels.
Mystery. Let me ask you a question. Can you name any religious person
or any religious event which in the history of men has commanded
the attention or announcement of an angel, not one. And yet our Lord Jesus Christ
whole life, from his announcement of his birth to Joseph, Mary
and the shepherd, to his ascension on the Mount of Olives, was attended
by angels. Everything was announced by the
angels. He was preached to the Gentiles. Is this a miracle?
Only one thing lower than a Gentile to a Jew and has a dog. But he's
preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received
up in the glory. Now, if you'd like to have this
message, great is the mystery of godliness, and the one I'll
preach next week on Paul the preacher. You write to me. It
costs two dollars to make these tapes and send them to you. We'll
be happy to mail one to you. Write and ask for this morning's
tape. Until next Sunday, may God bless
you, everyone.