Religion Revealed from Heaven

And Lord, we want to also pray for Gary in particular, who is just in a bad way. Lord, open his eyes. Lord, protect his life. Bring him to yourself, Lord. Have mercy on him. We ask these things all in Jesus’ name. Amen.

What we want to concentrate on this morning is verse number 16, verse number 16, which says, And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Now I’ll start by saying that there’s a certain mystery in this phrasing of this verse to begin with, this mystery of godliness. But obviously this verse 16 is obviously at its core, at its essence, is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And of course this is a verse that is often cited when we get close to this time of year, which is when we think about the advent of Christ, how Christ came into the world to save sinners and how he was incarnated. And that’s what this verse describes. It says that God was manifest in the flesh. And it’s important, you know, I don’t know if the verse that you’re looking at, I sure hope that the verse number 16 in your Bible actually says the word God somewhere in that verse.

That matters. This is an example of a difference that is not insignificant. It matters that it says God. Because this is a plain declaration of who this person is, that this person that’s being described who was manifest in the flesh, who was justified in the spirit, who was seen of angels, who was preached unto the Gentiles, who was believed on in the world, and who was received up into glory is very God.

It is a declaration of the deity of Christ. So it does matter. It does matter about that. I want to draw your attention first of all to the word mystery, to the word mystery. Now this word mystery, great is the mystery of godliness. I’ll get to the word godliness in a minute because I think the Lord is revealing something here. But the word mystery tells us that, you know, when you think of a mystery like there’s a murder and there’s a mystery involved in that.

You know, some people like those kinds of things. They like murder mystery books. My kids read books like that sometimes. But the idea of a mystery is you don’t know who did it, right? There’s a part of it, an element of it that is veiled. But in scripture, the reason why there is the scripture is to reveal mysteries. It’s not to just tell us there is a mystery and then leave it at that, but it is to reveal a mystery.

I want to show you some verses that demonstrate this. Look first if you would at Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8, we’ll come back to 1st Timothy so don’t lose that. But we’re going to look at Luke chapter 8 briefly. Luke chapter 8 and verse number 10. When the Lord Jesus spoke in parables, what He tried to do was He was trying to reveal to His disciples in verse number 10 the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

Verse number 10 says this, And He said unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand. So there are aspects of God’s kingdom that are veiled, that are not exactly plain. In other words, parts of it that are not readily understood. Look if you would at 1st Corinthians chapter 2.

Look at 1st Corinthians chapter 2. We see this word appear again and we’ll see it a number of times yet. 1st Corinthians chapter 2, verse 6. So a mystery is something that people don’t normally understand. They don’t know the answers. They don’t understand the nature of it. Verse 6, Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught.

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. In other words, not everybody in this world, not even the wisest of this world, understand everything that God has revealed. Understand some of them have no comprehension at all of what God has revealed. To them it is a mystery. Now they think they do, just like the people in this day did, but they don’t. Verse number 7, he says, We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom.

So a mystery is something that God has hidden. He has not revealed it to everyone universally. Now if you look at the sun and moon and the stars, there are things that are not mysteries. The fact that God is the creator is not a mystery. He has proclaimed it by His creation of the universe. By His creation of all the elements of the material universe, they declare a truth.

They declare God’s infinite power and the fact that God is God by virtue of that announcement. The heavens declare the glory of God. That’s not a mystery. That’s not a mystery. Keep reading here, it says this, Which none of the princes of this world knew. So they did not know the mystery God was revealing. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us. All these mysteries that God kept secret, the princes of this world did not understand it. They were veiled, yet God has revealed them. And that’s the third thing about the mysteries in scripture.

Mysteries are things that people don’t understand. Mysteries are things that God keeps secret. And then mysteries are things that God reveals. And it says this, But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Look if you would at Romans 16. To the left just a little bit, Romans chapter 16, last chapter of Romans.

Romans 16. Look at verse number 25. Now to him that is able, now to him, excuse me, now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation, notice what it says, the revelation, that means God is no longer keeping it secret, of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. But now, notice what it says here, now is, that is the mystery, is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known.

So this thing that God has kept secret He has now made known. And how did He do it? By the scriptures. You see it? God has revealed these things. Now, 1 Timothy 3 verse 16, as I said, is often referred to when we talk about the incarnation of Christ, and rightly so. But all the things we read in verse number 16 of that passage are things that were a mystery that God has revealed.

So if you go back to 1 Timothy chapter 3, I want to look at it one more time now that we have a little bit more understanding of this mystery. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. So what are we talking about here? We’re talking about, we’re saying that God has something, He has something that He is wanting to reveal. That He has, He has, He is determined to reveal it.

He’s going to use the scriptures to reveal it, because He doesn’t want it hidden anymore. There is a, there is, there is a secret that God wanted to show mankind. A revelation, if you will, that’s what we saw in Romans. We saw a revelation. And that secret involves the Lord Jesus Christ, just like everything in this verse is. Now it says in verse number 16, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

Great is the mystery of godliness. Now, that’s kind of a tough word. We think of godly usually as like the way somebody lives, right? That’s how we understand the word godly. You live in such a way that is maybe pleasing to God, or you live in such a way that is upright or moral. You know, we use godly in that term, although maybe those aren’t all exactly accurate.

But what does that, what does it mean godliness? What does it mean to be godly? Of course, godliness just is the state of being godly. So what does it mean to be godly? Godly refers to, godly refers to something that is of God. Something that comes from God. Something we might say that something that is revealed directly from God. When we talk about the way somebody lives and we say they live a godly life, what we’re saying is that that person lives in such a way that they’re living in accordance with what God has revealed.

In other words, their way of life is of God, right? Does everybody kind of follow me with that? So what am I talking about here? What I’m talking about is this revelation. This is a revelation of godliness. That is a revelation that has come directly from God. It is a revelation that emanates and has been revealed directly by Him. That’s why it’s called godly. This revelation, all the things we read in verse number 16, refer to the right way.

God’s way, the godly way, if you will, according to God’s revelation, that we approach God and that we worship God. If we can summarize it like this, I mean, let’s just read verse 16 once again, especially the beginning where the list begins. Here are the points of this divine revelation. 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.

What does that include? You know what’s being described here essentially is the whole of our faith. This is kind of a summary statement. For those of you that are Bible students, this is one of the summary statements in Scripture that kind of encapsulates a lot of truth into one statement. And this is a statement, number one, it’s about the Lord Jesus Christ, but number two, it encapsulates the whole of our faith.

Here’s what I want you to see. This is a divinely revealed faith. Now follow me now. This is a divinely revealed faith. That’s what it means to be godly. It comes from God. This faith that is described in verse number 16, which we’re going to look at in just a minute, this faith, if you want to say this religion, I don’t have a problem with that. The Bible uses the term religion in a good way, pure religion and undefiled.

The Cambodian Bible in this place actually puts the word, puts in place of godliness, it’s the word religion, our religion. That’s what it talks about. But what it’s driving at here is what we believe. Listen, the truths of Scripture that encompass our faith, right? The faith of the Scriptures that are listed here is a divinely revealed faith. It is not a faith that was assembled or thought of or invented by mankind.

Its origin is not from the earth. And I want to tell you something, every religion on the planet has its origin in man. It’s not a divinely revealed religion. Now many make claims to that point. They say, oh well, God gave Joseph Smith these, revealed where these plates were in New York, and he put on those special glasses and he read those plates, those reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics, which is not a thing, and he interpreted those and wrote it out in the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrines of Covenant.

You thought it was just the Book of Mormon? No, it’s not. So you have, you know, they make those claims, but what this verse is telling us is that this is a mystery, but God has revealed this. God has, he has revealed this faith, this way to approach him, this belief in him, but he revealed it. It wasn’t something that man invented by his ingenuity or philosophy.

I want to explain, I want to say something here. There is none of us that can come to God our own way or our own means. The only way that God is accessible at all is because he revealed himself. That he gave us, if you want to say the belief system, I don’t care what you want to call it, but he gave it to us. It is divine. It came down from heaven.

That’s what God was manifesting in the flesh. Is that not what that implies, right? He came down from heaven. And so any faith system, any faith system that has its origin in mankind is not of God. Absolutely not of God. And here’s the thing, in this verse, the Lord lists out the evidences of its divine origin. All the things that we hold to be true, all the things that we believe are essential and that are non-negotiable in our faith are from God directly.

And if they’re not, they’re not worthy of our devotion and of our faith. So we can summarize it like this. Our faith, according to the scripture, is a faith that was given to us by God directly. It is revealed by God directly. It was a mystery that he has given to us. It has not been passed down through our family. It’s not a part of our culture.

We go to the source. The source is God through the scripture. You know, it’s like Jesus said, he mentions the thieves and the robbers, right? All that came before me were thieves and robbers. They were not of the shepherd. They came in another way. And the things that God has revealed in verse number 16 that are the hallmarks or the key points of this faith that has been revealed by God, these things cannot be known by human ingenuity. These things cannot be known by human philosophy.

The only way they can be known is if you and I look at the scripture, the written word of God, because that’s where the mystery is revealed. He has preserved these things in written form for us. And so what are these things? Before we go any further, let’s go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We were there a minute ago, but I want to show you a couple of the things.

First Corinthians chapter 2. You see, there is a distinction here, okay? And I just want to make this clear. If you were to go to someone of any denomination or any religion and you were to say, is your faith, is your belief system, is it from God? All of them are going to say, yes, of course it is. But what they mean by that is that in some way it is associated with God. It claims the name of God.

But that’s not what we’re asking. That’s not what we’re looking at here. This is a mystery that God Himself directly revealed personally. And it can be proven with evidence that God personally revealed it. The religion of this world is not that way. The religion of this world is not from God. It is from the earth. It is from humanity. You know one of the features of it, and just as a comparative analysis, every religion at its basis teaches that man must perform certain works in order to be righteous.

In order for man to approach God, he has to meet a moral standard. And if he meets that moral standard, which is attainable, then he will be accepted by his God. And that is an element that contradicts God’s revelation. Every man has some, every religion rather, has some figure that they hold forth as the leader of their religion. But if that figure is not the Lord Jesus Christ, it is from man.

Because it was only the Lord Jesus Christ who was revealed, manifest in the flesh. And so with each point, you can look at it. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, chapter 2, I’m sorry. Verse number 1.

But in the power of God. You know I want to tell you, and this is true, this is true of Mormonism, this is true of Islam, this is true of Buddhism. Every religious faith system has some means to attract people to it, or some means to initiate people into it. Often in Buddhism, they don’t have like evangelism, and Buddhism is through the family. You’re a Buddhist, you pass that down.

In some religions, like in Mormonism, they proselytize. They go to all kinds of countries and they proselytize. And they use means. In other words, they’ll essentially bribe people. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You can’t tell me it’s not true. I’ve seen it. They essentially bribe people in subtle ways to attract them and their families into the religion. This is real. Islam, often through coercion or multiplication. This is true.

This is how it’s been done historically and how it’s been done to this day. So I want to tell you something. This is the way that they grow their religion. But when you talk about biblical Christianity, this faith, the only way it is spread is through proclamation. In other words, all we’re doing is saying, this is what God has revealed. That’s it. We’re not doing anything. We’re not bribing anybody. In fact, we’re telling people, yeah, you have to, yeah, it’s going to cost your sin.

You’re going to have to come to God as a humble, repentant sinner. And you have to just believe and accept by faith God’s revelation. This is what he has done. That’s it. You can like it or not like it. But what I’m saying is the revelation of God in this mystery stands alone. It doesn’t need our help. We proclaim it. We proclaim it. Go back, if you would, at 1 Timothy. Notice it says this, verse number 316, And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.

You know these verses, Isaiah 9-6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. This identifies the Son as the Almighty, the one who came, the one who was born. John 1, verse 1 and 2, you know these verses as well.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. Verse 14 takes that same Word with the capital W, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is very God, and says this, 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, full of grace and truth.

And of course you know Hebrews 1-3 says this, Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, And upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Philippians 2, verse 6, and there’s a lot more I could go into. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

God was manifest in the flesh. These are the essential truths. These are the elements of this faith. The first one is this, God came in the flesh. You see if you believe or I believe anything other than the correct identity of this person, the Lord Jesus Christ, If we are mistaken, we think he’s only a prophet, we think he’s just a teacher, or a leader of a religion, Maybe the son of God but not God, maybe just the son of, however it might be defined, if he’s not this, it’s not God’s revelation.

God, not only is this faith revealed, and it’s faith comes from God, but the central element in that faith is that God himself was revealed. Who being, who was in the form of God, and he came as a servant. He was the express image of God’s person, the Lord Jesus Christ was. God was manifest in the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is the whole essence of God’s divine revelation.

It’s all about him. That’s why if you tinker, you tinker with that, the whole thing comes down. You tinker with that one element. The Lord says, anathema. You’re cursed. In fact, 2 John tells us that if any abide not in the doctrine of Christ, he is not of God. You tinker with that one truth. That is the central truth of this faith, this revelation of God, is who this man Jesus Christ was, and is.

He is very God. He himself is the revelation. And any supposed divine revelation that denies that denies the entire revelation. The second one says this, justified in the spirit. Justified in the spirit. I want you to look at Romans 1, if you would. This is an interesting parallel. Romans chapter 1.

Verse 1. Romans 1, verse 1. Romans 1, verse 1. It says this, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, Now follow this. which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. You see the mystery. It’s hidden. Kind of veiled in prophecy. You see it? Concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, you see that? That’s God was manifest in the flesh.

Notice the flesh, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. You see this? The human incarnation of Christ. He was very God, eternally existent, yet he was manifest in the line of David, in the seed of David. You see it? It’s all right here. And declared to be the son of God with power. Declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

Back in 1 Timothy it says this, justified in the spirit. You know the greatest, think about it, the greatest of the great, In 1 Timothy it says this, justified in the spirit. You know the greatest, think about what that means now. Justified in the spirit. You know what that means? Justified means to be made just. That’s what it means. To justify means to make just, to make righteous.

In other words, it proves who he is. That’s what it is. Justifying the spirit means that the spirit of God acted to demonstrate that everything Jesus said that he was, he was. And the greatest demonstration of the identity, the greatest, if you want to say justification, you want to say vindication, that might be a good word to put there. The greatest vindication of the identity of that man, Christ Jesus, is his resurrection.

Which was performed by the power, what Romans 1 says, by the power of the spirit of God. That is the proof. Even if there was nothing else, that alone proves that Jesus came from God. That he was the divine revelation by itself. That’s another thing you can’t tinker with. You deny the whole faith when you deny the resurrection. The literal, actual bodily resurrection of Christ. But that’s not all. Listen to this, Isaiah 61, 1.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. The prophecy of Christ that he would minister by the power of the spirit of God. Matthew 12, 28. Jesus says, But if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is coming to you.

That means Jesus showed and vindicated himself by the spirit of God enabling him to cast out devils. Acts 10, 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with a Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. All the healings, we’ve studied this in Matthew, right? All the various healings, what did they show?

Jesus is who he said he was. He is vindicated. Matthew 3, 16. You know this as well. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. Here’s the spirit of God again, again appears, lighting on him, which is to say, This is he. This is my beloved son, right?

The spirit of God appears and empowers the Lord Jesus Christ, and he does things that no other man could do to demonstrate who he was, who he is. The next one says this, scene of angels. Scene of angels. Look if you would at Luke chapter 2, seeing how it’s seasonal. You’ve got to look at Luke chapter 2 in December, I guess, right? Is that a rule somewhere, right?

It’s like it’s not in the Bible any other time. When you read your Bible, you just skip Luke chapter 2, because they’ll get to it at Christmas time, right? No. Luke chapter 2 is a 365 day chapter. Look at verse 10. Remember what we’re talking about? We’re talking about scene of angels. Just an odd way to describe, okay, how do you know God’s revelation? How do you recognize it?

What vindication, how do you know that it came from God? Because angels were attendant. That’s why. You say, well, I’ve never seen an angel, but you have the Scripture. And in the Scripture is recorded the eyewitness of counts of those who, with their own eyeballs, saw angels attendant to the various events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a powerful truth of the divine origin of Scripture, of the Lord Jesus, and of this faith.

It is. It is. Just because, listen, there’s a lot of things you haven’t seen. God doesn’t show it to you. He shows it to select men that He has chosen, and then He recorded it. That’s why the revelation is revealed by the Scripture. Verse 10 of Luke 2, look what it says. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherd said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

Why did the shepherds believe that baby was supernatural? Do you know why? Come on, don’t be shy. Because of the angels. They saw the angels. But this is not the only place you see the angels. Angels are also seen at the temptation of Christ. Angels are seen at His trial right before, during His trial, His prayer in Gethsemane. Angels are seen at His resurrection. Angels are seen at His ascension.

In every major event of the Lord Jesus Christ, here you have the angels at attention. The heavenly marines, right? Setting at attention. Attendant. Their presence only comes at God’s commission. God sent them to be present at these events, and their presence vindicates the Lord Jesus Christ. The angels were attendant and visible at every major event. The angels themselves were a revelation of God. For they would not have been dispatched except for something that God was doing, because God is of course their Lord.

And so the fact that we have eyewitnesses of these angels is a powerful indication and evidence that this man and what he did was from God. Now hurry to the end. Back in 1 Timothy, the next one is this. Preached unto the Gentiles. Preached, the same God who is manifest in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, is preached unto the Gentiles. This is talking about the progression of this divinely revealed faith and Savior.

It was God’s intention from the beginning that this mystery that He revealed to us by means of His Word, by means of His eyewitnesses be spread throughout the whole world and not confined to one place only. And I want to tell you something. Throughout history, there have always been people who stepped up and said, I’ll go tell them. I will take God’s divinely revealed message. And you know, that is a powerful testimony.

Just like it’s a powerful testimony of people who are willing to die for their faith in Christ. I’m willing to give up my life to go tell people what God has revealed. This mystery of godliness. Why would you do that? Why would you throw your life away? Because it came from God. If it came from man, I wouldn’t be willing to do it. And I’ll be honest with you, I’m speaking of Adam Wood now.

You have these various NGOs that go to the other side of the world and they try to help people. More power to them. I wouldn’t do that for those NGOs. I wouldn’t do that for Doctors Without Borders or these other NGOs that go to these places to help people learn English or learn computer skills or this and that. I wouldn’t do that. It ain’t worth it. It ain’t worth it.

I mean, maybe that’s carnal, whatever. It ain’t worth it. But God’s divinely divine revelation is worthy. And throughout history, men have demonstrated it’s worth it. You show up on the mission field and you tell somebody, they ask, why are you here? Why are you here? Why did you leave your family? Why did you leave your homeland? That they can get. Like everybody understands coming to the United States, which is like heaven.

Everybody understands that. But why come here? You know why? Because of this divine revelation. The next phrase says, believe not in the world. As this faith, this divine revelation is spread, this mystery of godliness is spread. It is an amazing fact. People far removed from the events. Far removed geographically. Far removed temporally. Years, millennia have passed since the Lord first initiated this revelation. But people of all cultures, of all places and languages and walks of life, people in every crack and crevice and corner of this world have heard, not been coerced, not been threatened, not been bribed, but have just heard the declaration of God’s revelation in Christ by means of the scriptures, have heard it and have embraced it.

Even though it’s foreign to them, even though it’s different than them, even though it’s at the risk of persecution, people have believed on Christ and his revelation in this world. Those people demonstrate the truth of this divinely revealed faith. 1 John 5 says this, He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. Why?

Because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. People of every walk of life have come to embrace that fact. And believe that fact. And lastly, the last evidence or proof of this divine revelation is that Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, was received up into glory, Acts 1-9.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. You know, it is very, very significant that the disciples were watching Jesus as he departed. That’s not a minor trifle of a detail in Scripture. The Lord wanted to make sure that there were witnesses that saw him leave. And they watched him. These witnesses, chosen of God, watched Jesus return, think about it now, to the place from which he came.

He came, the Bible says God was manifest in the flesh, he came from heaven, revealed God’s revelation, and thus the revelation comes full circle. Because after he came from heaven, there were witnesses that watched him return back to that very place from which he came. And not only that, the angels were attending there too, remember? Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? So nobody can say, where did Jesus go? No.

Listen, they saw where he went. And then the angels, who are part of this revelation, stand there and say, oh by the way, this same Jesus is coming again. And that’ll be what I think is the ultimate fulfillment of this divine revelation. You know, it just reminds me of what Peter said. He says, we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we’ve made known unto you the power and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh no. But were eyewitnesses of his majesty this revelation. I want to ask you a question. Is your faith the faith that God has revealed from heaven? Is your faith of a divine origin? Is your faith resting in the Lord Jesus Christ? Let’s pray.