Verse 26, even the mystery which hath been heard from ages
and from generations, the gospel of redemption is the mystery
of mysteries. Paul said here that it hath been
hidden from ages and from generations, but is now revealed, is now made
manifest, is now presented clearly by the Spirit of God to the saints.
When I looked at this verse of scripture, I thought how terrible
it must have been to live in the days of the Philistines,
in the days of the Egyptians, in the days of the empires of
the Medes and Persians, with no Bible, with no revelation. with absolutely no knowledge
of God in any shape, form or fashion. Without God speaking
or revealing himself in any way, as the scripture said, every
man did that which was right in his own eyes. Blind, lumbering,
stumbling, fumbling, falling humanity without any revelation
of God at all. It was a mystery which was hid,
totally hid from ages and ages and ages and generations of people. whole generations perished without
any word from God. Heaven was silent, totally silent. And then I thought about living
even in the days of the Israelites. I wouldn't have wanted, I wouldn't
want to have lived then either. They had some prophets, and they
had some revelations, and they had the law. But the revelation
of God which they had was only a limited revelation. The revelation
which they had was the smoke of sacrifice and the veil of
tithes. The revelation was so dim and
so difficult, I just wonder how much of the gospel, the gospel
of redemption, they really knew. We live I believe in the best
time to live. We live in the day when the gospel
is clearly revealed in the word of God. It's here for all who
want to read it. The gospel, the mystery of God,
the mystery of mystery, that which has been hid from ages
and generations, is now clearly revealed. It's manifest in the
word of God, and it's pressed forward by all faithful ministers
of the gospel. Now what troubles me about our
day is this, is the gospel is so commonplace and the blessing
is so commonplace that men are prone to undervalue it. They're
prone to take it for granted. They're prone to hear the word
of God so much And the mystery of the gospel preached so often
that it becomes commonplace. When the Israelites were in the
wilderness and God fed them, he fed them on what someone called
angel's bread. They'd come out every morning
and they'd find the manna, the beautiful manna, the bread from
heaven. And they ate it so much and so
constantly that they began to despise it. They began to despise
it and they began to call it light bread. Now I hear people
talking today about the old, old story and the way that they
talk about the old, old story is it leads me to believe they're
talking about a stale, old story. And the gospel is so commonplace
that in churches today men are clamoring for novelties. They're
clamoring for entertainment. They're clamoring for sensational
preaching, and the gospel has become so commonplace that people
do not want to hear it. It's like the light bread of
the wilderness. Well, that has not happened to me, for which
I thank God. While you were singing the last
song, I was standing there thinking to myself, do I get weary of
singing these songs? That song, Saved by Grace, I
guess I've been singing it 35 years. And as I was singing it,
I thought the words are just as sweet and just as precious
and just as wonderful as the first time I ever heard that
song. The song, One Day, One Day When Heaven Was Filled With
His Praises, One Day When Sin Was As Black As Could Be. Jesus
came forth to be born of a virgin. My example is he, my savior is
he, my redeemer is he. Do you get tired of singing that?
I get weary of the songs written by men. I don't want to hear
the same songs over and over again, but that song I've been
singing over 30 years, and the words were just as fresh and
just as new and just as wonderful as the first time I tasted it.
Now, you've been hearing the Bible read and the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Have you become weary of it?
Has it become the stale old story? May it never happen to us that
we grow weary of the gospel of Christ. I grow weary of the novelties
of men. I grow weary of sensational preaching. I grow weary of entertainment,
but I never get weary of hearing about Christ. And I never tire
of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Back many years ago, back before
the world became so small, today the world is not as big as it
used to be. And I mean by that that with
television and communications and people traveling abroad,
that the world is not quite as big as it used to be. And when
a man left the shores of his own country and went to another
country and then came back, he was kind of an oddity. And people
would gather around just to see the man who had been abroad,
and especially to hear the man who had been abroad into some
foreign country. Well, the great Judson, who was
one of our pioneer missionaries, who had served for years in Burma,
in the jungles of Burma, came back to this country. He had
been in Burma for many, many years, and he was scheduled to
preach in one of the large cities of this nation, and people came
from miles to hear him. He had been in the jungles, he
had suffered, he had been a sick man, he had labored, he had preached,
he had translated the Bible, people had heard about him, they
had read about him, and now they were going to see and hear. the
great missionary, Mr. Judson. And that night the auditorium
wouldn't hold the people. That old man was sitting on the
platform. And after they'd had the preliminaries,
they introduced the great Judson. And they gave a long introduction
about his service in Burma and about his sacrifice and about
the success of his ministry and all the things that he had done.
And then he came to speak. And the people gave him a standing
ovation. Everybody in that great congregation,
in the balcony and on the lower floors, all stood and gave that
great old missionary a standing ovation. And when they sat down,
Mr. Judson began to speak. And this
is a true story. He began to tell about how God
loved sinners, and how that God in mercy sent his Son into this
world. to suffer on the cross of Calvary
to save men from their sin. And now that he bled, and he
died, and he was buried, and he rose again, and after his
resurrection he appeared to many, and then he went back to the
Father, and at the right hand of God he serves as our high
priest and mediator, from which we look for the return of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who will take his people home to glory. And
after preaching about twenty or twenty-five minutes of the
glories of Christ and the sufferings of Christ and the blood of Christ
and the salvation of Christ, Mr. Judson sat down. On the way
to the hotel that night from the auditorium where he had preached,
he was walking along with a young man who had served as his host,
the one who had introduced him the one who had arranged the
meeting and all these things. And the young man was walking
in utter silence beside this great old missionary, and Judson
detected that something was wrong. And he turned to the young man
and he said, Young man, is something wrong? And the young man stammered
and stuttered for a few moments, and then he said, Well, quite
frankly, Mr. Judson, the people who came to hear you tonight
were disappointed. And the old man stopped and looked
at him, and he said, why were they disappointed? Well, he said,
Mr. Judson, he said, you've been
over in Burma as a missionary, and you've gone through all this
ordeal and agony and suffering and sacrifice, and the people
wanted to hear something unusual. They wanted to hear something
spectacular. They wanted to hear something
great from a man who had been so many years in the service
of God in another country. And Mr. Judson looked at him
and he said, son, there's nothing greater than the story of Christ.
There's nothing more unusual than that God should become a
man and give his life for sinners. That's the most spectacular,
that's the most wonderful, that's the greatest, that's the most
miraculous thing that has ever taken place in the whole universe. I told tonight the greatest story
a man can tell. The greatest story a man can
tell. Which had you rather hear tonight,
the adventures of a missionary or the redemption of Christ?
Has it grown stale? Has it grown old? Have you grown
weary of the good news? Has the good news ceased to be
good news and is now old news? I hope to God that never happens
to me, because the day when Christ's sacrifice becomes stale, I will
fear that I have departed from the faith of the living God.
When it becomes wearisome, when it becomes a burden for me to
come to the house of God, I'll ask them to remove my name from
the roll because I will feel no more part of their fellowship.
If I ever get tired of worshiping my Lord and sitting at his feet
and adoring his matchless name, I'll ask the congregation to
get them another preacher. This is the story, this is the
mystery. We have in our text the mystery
with which heaven did prevail. We have in our text the mystery
that moved God to send his Son. We have in our text the mystery
that will turn an old sinner into a new creature. We have
in our text the mystery that will transform this old world
into a new heaven and a new earth. A mystery. We have in this word
a mystery that angels desire to look into. We have in this
word a mystery that kings and prophets have searched through.
We have in this text here tonight the mystery of mystery. that
God Almighty in his grace and condescension has been pleased
to reveal to you and to me. It's the greatest story in the
world. Are you tired of it? Do you not
see any beauty in it? Do you not see any magnificence
in it? Do you not see any glory in it?
Does it not captivate your attention? Does it not bring you to this
verse of Scripture with a deep hunger and thirst not to stop
at the black words on the white paper, but get out into their
ways and mysteries and truth of the character and love and
grace of a living God? One time over at the Pollard
Baptist Church when Brother Barnard was there in a meeting, He turned
to me, I was the pastor then, and he said, How about reading
some passage of scripture before I preach? I said, All right,
anything you want me to read? He said, I don't care, read a
psalm. So I turned to the hundred and third psalm, and I began
to read. And I read, Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. And
I got down to verse 7, and I read, He made known his ways unto Moses,
his acts unto the children of Israel. And I read on, but then
I went back and sat down, and the song leader got up and was
leading the singing. Roth leaned over and he said, Have you ever
taken a good, hard look at verse 7, Psalm 103? I opened it back there while
they were singing. We were sitting back there looking at the Bible.
I said, Well, not really. He said, Look at it carefully.
He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. He said, There are two revelations.
All the children of Israel saw was the hand of God in Jerusalem. All they saw were the miracles
of God and the acts of God and the judgment of God and the deeds
of God. He said, God let Moses into the
secret chamber and let him see his way. Why he did what he did? Why he did what he did? All those
people outside saw, all they saw were acts, judgment, deeds. Moses was permitted into God's
study, into God's personal communion, and God revealed himself to Moses. I wonder, have you just stopped
at the foot of Calvary, or have you gone on up there into the
study? Have you stopped outside the
tomb and said, Or have you gone inside there
and found out who emptied it and why he emptied it and what
it meant for it to be emptied? Have you stood outside the veil
and looked in, or have you gone in there with the high priest
and gazed upon the holy law and looked upon the solid gold mercy
seed and saw the blood as it dropped on the mercy seed and
trickled off onto the ground and entered into the ways of
God? The fellow on the outside can lose interest pretty quick,
but the fellow on the inside has got a whole lot to look at.
It will take him eternity to look at all of it. The fellow
on the outside takes one glance at everything and he says, It's
pretty! And he turns to hunting something else of interest. But
when God lifts the veil and lets you crawl underneath and come
there into his holy presence, Oh my, oh my. You never get your soul satisfied
because it's a daily renewal of all the magnificent things
that God's got to reveal. His ways, His ways, His thoughts,
His purposes, His plans, His glory, His character, His mercy,
His grace, it never gets old. That's been our trouble. As L. R. Shelton said, we've been playing
church. We hadn't come inside yet. We've
been standing on the outside looking in, and we hadn't come
inside yet. When you get inside so much,
you're overwhelmed sometimes. Have you ever been reading the
scripture and studying the scripture and become so overwhelmed by
the majesty of it that you just had to put it down and say, I've
got to rest a minute, I can't take any more? I can't take any
more. There's too much to see, there's
too much to learn, there's too much to know, there's too much
to find out, there's too much to take in. Never gets old. The mystery which has been hid
from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to somebody. Somebody's going to get inside.
Somebody's going to see more than the acts of God. They're
going to see the ways of God. Somebody is going to behold more
than these natural eyes can take in, and his soul is going to
be flooded with the glory of God. And when he does, you talk
about getting tired of this old world. Boy, when he has to go
back out there into the mess, and when he has to go back out
there into the confusion, and when he has to leave the light
of God's presence and go out there into darkness, he dreads
it. It's a lot sweeter there where God is. The quietness. Blessed quietness. Blessed quietness. I want more of it. I don't want
less of it. I don't want to grow weary of
it. I want more of it. More of himself. Not more of
his judgment. Not more of his acts. More of
his ways. That's the reason I think we
read the Bible, we read it too much. We read too much Bible. Let's put it that way. I know
people sit down and read several chapters at a time. You can't
do it. There ain't no way. Now, you might sit down and look
at several chapters. You're not going to read them.
You may read a few verses, but you're not going to read several
chapters. There's just too much there. There's too much there.
That's like driving 70 miles an hour through Grand Canyon.
You can't see it that way. You've got to walk slow. You've
got to walk slow. And you've got to ask God to
reveal each step, each word, each sentence, each paragraph.
Let's look at this just a minute. Right here, the essence of the
gospel is Christ, the very essence of it. It says down here in verse
27, the last line, which is Christ. Which is Christ. I went back and looked at verse
25 and 26, and it has four words. It has the mystery, it has the
riches, It has the glory and it has the
hope. It has the mystery, the riches,
the glory and the hope, which is Christ. Now the word which,
which is Christ, may refer to the mystery. The mystery which
is Christ. It may refer to the riches. the
riches which is Christ. It may refer to the glory, the
glory which is Christ. It may refer to the hope which
is Christ. For Christ is the essence of
the mystery. A few Sundays ago I preached
on the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. You know the reason the world
misses the mystery of the gospel? I can tell you. The reason the
world, the reason the church leaders, the reason state leaders,
national leaders, the reason reasonably intelligent men and
women miss the mystery of the gospel is this. You don't look
for a God in a manger. Now, you might look for a sweet
little baby Jesus in a manger, but not God. You may look for
an example in a manger, you may look for a great preacher in
a manger, you may look for a great leader in a manger, but you don't
look for God in a manger. And you don't look for a king
in a carpenter shop. Why, they said, we know who he
is, he's Jesus, he's Joseph's son, he's the carpenter. He's
no king. He's no king. You don't look
for a king in a carpenter shop. You look for a king on a phone,
or riding on a white horse. And you don't look for a religious
leader among sinners. If you want to find great religious
leaders, you go to the great temples. You go to the great
synagogues. You go to the great cathedral.
That's what you think right here, and most people think. If you
want to find God's prophet and God's spokesman for the day,
and you want to find the man whom God has sent, you don't
go among sinners, common people. You look for the man who's successful,
who's recognized, who has the credentials, and who is recognized
by religious leaders as a religious leader. You don't look for a
religious leader down sleeping in a boat. You don't look for a great religious
leader down sitting on a stone, teaching a bunch of people sitting
around him, holding a little child in his lap. You don't look
for a religious leader among publicans and sinners. You find
them in grey, golden synagogues and cathedrals. That's the reason
the world's You don't look for a Messiah
sitting on a well asking a harlot to give him a drink. Uh-uh, not
the Messiah, not the Christ. You don't look for a conqueror
on a cross. You don't do it. And that's the
reason the world missed the mystery of the gospel. That's the reason
it was hidden from generations and from ages, is because they
weren't looking for him that way. Christ is the essence of
the mystery. Then look at the word riches,
the riches which is Christ. The mystery, that's Christ. The
riches, that's Christ. Paul said in Ephesians chapter
3, listen to this, verse 8, Ephesians 3, 8, Paul said, unto me who
am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. What had you rather have? My
wife teaches the little fellows in the first, second, and third
grade over here in Sunday school. And one Sunday she asked that
group of boys and girls what they had rather have than anything
in all the world. Anything. If God Almighty would
give you anything, what had you rather have? Well, you'd think
one of those boys would say, I'd rather be the greatest baseball
player that ever lived, beat Babe Ruth's home run record,
be a great football player, immortal as Red Greens, or be a great
President like Lincoln or a great King or a rich man like Hunt
or Rockefeller. But do you know what nearly every
one of those little fellows said? And one was very strong in his
contention. She said, What would you rather
have than anything in all the universe? He said, I'd want to
be saved. I'd want to be saved. What about
you? Turn to Hebrews 11. That's the
riches, that's the unsearchable riches of Christ. I'd want to
be saved. What shall it profit a man if
he gained the whole world? and be damned to hell. In Hebrews
11 verse 23, by faith Moses, when he was born, or verse 24,
by faith Moses, when he was come to He refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter. You realize what that meant?
That meant he would have been the pharaoh of the richest country
in the whole world. That there would be no way of
counting his wealth. That there would be no way of
weighing his gold. That there would be no way of
measuring his power. And yet with one word he refused
every bit of it. Choosing rather to suffer the
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures of Egypt." Where is Moses now? At the right hand of God in Christ. What would it matter now if Moses
had been the pharaoh? He would have been forgotten
like all the other pharaohs. What would it have mattered if
Moses had been the richest man in the world? He'd be in hell
with all the other rich men of the world. But Moses chose the
reproach of Christ, knowing that it was greater riches than all
of the wealth of Egypt. So the essence of the riches
of God is Christ. And then I see the word glory.
Glory, the glory which is Christ, the mystery of Christ. God manifests
in the flesh. The riches, that's Christ. Now
the glory. In John 1, 14. Now when we're
talking about the glory of God, we're talking about the character
of God. God's holiness, God's mercy. God's truth and God's grace. God's righteousness and God's
love. and every bit of it is in Christ. It's all revealed in Christ.
It says here in John 1.14, And the word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the
only begotten of the Father. Brethren, when you look at the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're looking full into the Shekinah glory
of God. When you're looking at the Lord
Jesus Christ, you're looking at the pure, matchless glory
of God's holiness. The matchless glory of God's
love, the matchless glory of God's truth, the matchless glory
of God's mercy is all in Christ. In Him dwelleth the fulness of
God's glory. In Him is the mystery, in Him
is contained the riches, and in Him the glory of God. You
want to partake of the glory of Christ, you partake of Christ. And then last of all, there is
the hope, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. When we stand before the law
as condemned and guilty sinners, Christ is our righteousness. When we stand at the mercy seat
of God, Christ is our sacrifice. When we stand at the place of
prayer, and call on the Father. Christ is our mediator and our
advocate. When we stand at the door of
disease, Christ is our physician. When we stand at the door of
sorrow, Christ is our comfort. When we stand at the door of
hunger, Christ is our bread. And third, Christ is our water. When we stand at the door of
death, Christ is our life. When we stand before the grave,
Christ is our resurrection. When we stand at the judgment,
Christ is our lawyer. And when we stand at the gates
of glory, Christ is our King. He's everything. He's everything
from the day that God chose me by his grace. He chose me in
Christ. He loved me in Christ. He redeemed
me in Christ. He called me in Christ. He justified
me in Christ. He sanctified me in Christ. He
accepted me in Christ. He keeps me in Christ. He's looking
for me in Christ. And I'm going to be presented
holy and without blame before Christ. Before Christ. So he is the glory. He's the
essence of glory. He is the essence of hope. Christ in you. Not Christ in
the book. Not Christ in the pulpit. Somebody
says, Brother Mann, keep Christ in the pulpit. Well, I'm going
to, but you've got to have him in your heart. It ain't enough
to have him in the pulpit. That won't keep you out of hell.
That won't get you in the glory. You've got to get Christ in your
heart. Christ by faith and Christ by possession and Christ by experience. Brother mayhem, keep giving us
Christ. I can't give you something you
don't want. I can't give you something you won't receive.
I can't give you something you don't have time for. You slow
down on your road to hell and stop a little while, open your
ears and your eyes and your mouth and your heart and your arms,
and you seek the Lord. I can't run you down. I'll give
you Christ from the pulpit, but Christ It doesn't say here, which
is Christ in the pulpit, it says Christ in you! That's the hope
of glory. That's the hope of glory. You've
got no hope, you've got no riches, you've got no glory, you've got
no grasp on the mystery, so Christ is possessed and experienced
in you. Just like wasn't anybody else
here a child of God but you. You've got to experience him
and possess him and receive him and submit to him and believe
on him and own him. A man came to a famous doctor. He had a particular disease,
a rare disease. And this doctor had made a study
of that disease and had attained a great measure of success in
healing that disease. And this man came from many miles
to see this famous doctor, and he got to the office, and the
nurse said, I'm sorry, the doctor is not in. And the nurse, the
man said, the sick man said, well, then I will wait for him. And she said, his assistant is
here. Would you like to see his assistant?
And the man said, I don't care about his assistant. I must see
him. And he sat down in the waiting
room, and the nurse came in and said, Here are the doctor's books.
Would you like to read his books? He said, I'm not interested in
his books. His books can't help me. I've
got to see him. And she returned in a few moments
and said, Well, the doctor's just not here, and I don't know
when to expect him. Here are the medicines that he
uses. Well, he said, I can't make heads
or tails out of that. I've got to see him. And she
said, Well, I can give you the name and address of a man who
was killed by him. Would you like to go and talk
to him? He said, No, ma'am. I came to see him, and I'm going
to stay right here while I see him. Now, my friends, it's Christ
that you must have, not his books, not his doctrine, not his assistants,
not his friends, not those he'll buy. You've got to have him. Him. You seek the Lord. And stay
right there until he answers. He that knocketh, to him it shall
be opened. He that asketh, receive it. And
he that seeketh, find it. I read recently about people
back in Martin Luther's time who were unbelievers. And Luther
said that many of them, when they knew that they were going
to die, They would send over to a monastery and they would
secure a monk's robe with the head covering and everything,
and they would ask their relatives or loved ones, when they died,
to bury them in that monk's clothing. Unbelievers, wicked men, rebels
against God. And yet when they faced death
and faced God and faced the judgment, They wanted to be buried and
clothed in a monk's robe, hoping that they would fare better in
the judgment. My friend, what you want to be buried in is the
righteousness of Christ. What you want to be robed in
at the judgment is not a monk's robe. You want to be robed in
the righteousness of Christ, Christ in you. That's the hope
of glory. Christ in you, that's the riches
of his grace. Christ in you, that's the mystery
of the gospel. The living Lord of glory in your
heart by faith. Have you received him? Have you
believed on him? Have you confessed him? May God
lead you to Christ. May God lead you to Christ. To
die out of Christ. Christ said if you die in your
sin, you can't come where I am. You can't come where I am. Blessed
are the dead who die in the Lord. But if you die in your sins,
you can't come where I am. Our Father, take the word and
make it a sharp sword. We cannot open hard hearts, but
the gospel of Christ can break the hardest lower millstone. And we cannot make light to shine
and darken understanding, but the glorious light of Christ,
the glory of the living God, can turn darkness into day, into
the noonday sun. We cannot wean men and women,
boys and girls, from the love of this world. But, O God, if
you give them a glimpse of Christ and his beauty and his glory,
everything else will fade into insignificance, and the things
that they thought were so important and the pleasures of sin which
they've enjoyed, they'll see it for a season. And they'll
be willing to turn their backs on all of these things just to
know Christ. So may it please you to reveal
him to every heart and make believers out of unbelievers and make saints
out of rebels. We ask it for Christ's sake and
in his name. Amen.