Man, the title of my sermon this morning is The Mystery of God's Will.
The Mystery of God's Will.
Here's the thing about this word mystery.
It comes up over and over again in the New Testament and it means something slightly
different the way it's used in the New Testament than the way that we would normally
use it in our everyday speech.
And that's why it's so important when we're studying the Bible to make sure that
we let the Bible define itself, right?
If the Bible uses a word over and over again consistently the same way, then we need to
make sure that we understand that that is the biblical definition of that word.
Now, when we talk about a mystery, we talk about something that's unknown or maybe
it's beyond our comprehension, something that's difficult to understand or impossible
to understand or just something that we don't know the answer to, right?
You think about a mystery, you know, who done it?
You know, who killed the bad, you know, who's the bad guy or whatever.
That's what we think of when we hear the word mystery.
But in fact, the word mystery in the Bible is consistently throughout the New Testament,
every time it's used, it's consistently talking about something that we do know,
something that we do understand but that either was previously unknown and now we understand
it or it's known to us that are saved and it's unknown to people that are not saved.
But it is not used as something that's unknowable or beyond comprehension.
But yet you'll hear people all the time use the word mystery that way about biblical
things or quote verses from the Bible and use this wrong definition.
So I really want to hammer this this morning because I want to make sure that we have
the right definition of the word mystery when we're studying the Bible.
And I'm going to show you, I think you're going to be surprised by just how consistent
this is in the New Testament.
So if you would, let's go back to Mark chapter four and we're going to do a lot
of page turning here throughout the sermon.
But if you could, I want you to turn with me and look at these and we're just going
to start and go through from the beginning to the end of the New Testament and look
at every time the word mystery is used and you're going to see how consistent this is.
So look at Mark chapter four verse 11.
It says in Mark 4-11, And he, that's Jesus, said unto them, Unto you it is given to
know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these things
are done in parables.
So notice what he's saying.
He's saying, look to you, you guys, you're saved, you're Christians, you're following
me, you're my disciples.
To you guys, it's given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.
But to them that are without, these people that are outside of the faith, outside of
the church, to them, it's not given.
I'm speaking to them in parables.
Things are going over their head, but I'm explaining things to you explicitly.
So the mystery is only a mystery to them out there.
It's not a mystery to you.
So that's the first time we see mystery used and you can see what I was saying earlier.
Flip over to Romans chapter number 11.
Romans chapter number 11, verse 25, we're going to go to Romans 11, 25.
And you're going to see how consistent this is.
Romans chapter 11, verse 25, it says, For I would not, brethren, that you should be
ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness
in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Notice he says, I don't want you, brethren, to be ignorant of this mystery.
So he's revealing the mystery.
It's known unto them.
Look if you would just a couple pages to the right at Romans chapter 16.
Romans chapter 16, I'll start reading it while you get there in verse 25 of chapter 16.
Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching
of Jesus Christ, watch this, according to the revelation of the mystery.
So notice the mystery is something that's being revealed to God's people, the revelation
of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest.
So again, there are two key points about the word mystery that we're going to see
over and over again.
One of them is that, well, it's a mystery to them because they're not saved.
It's a mystery to them because they're not in church.
It's a mystery to them because they don't have the Holy Spirit inside them.
This type of idea that we as Christians understand and the non-believers don't, that's one aspect
of mystery.
The other aspect is this is something that was previously unknown, but now it's clear.
Now it's revealed.
Now we understand it.
And that's what we see here.
It says the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, look
at verse 26, but now is made manifest.
Manifest means it's clear.
It's in the open.
It's easily seen.
It's made manifest, how?
By the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God,
made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
So again, why is it a mystery?
It's a mystery because we didn't used to know these things and now we know them, okay?
Look if you would at 1 Corinthians 2, just a couple of pages to the right, 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 verse 7, it says, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes
of this world knew.
See the worldly people, the unsaved people, they don't get it.
They didn't get it.
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 had prepared for them that love him, but
God has revealed them unto us by his spirit.
So notice, they didn't know it.
The princes of this world didn't know it, but God has revealed those things to us by
his spirit, for the spirit search with all things, yay, the deep things of God, okay?
Go to 1 Corinthians 15.
Notice how consistent this is.
I mean, we've already looked at many scriptures and we're seeing the same thing over and
over again.
So it's pretty obvious that the word mystery in the New Testament has this meaning, whereas
today when we use the word mystery, we're using it a little bit differently, aren't
we?
So what we want to do is we don't want to take the way that we use mystery in our
modern vernacular and then impose that idea into Bible verses.
And we're going to see in some later verses why that's important.
But I'm just laying the foundation right now by showing you how consistently this
word is used, okay?
Now where do we get our English word mystery?
The English word mystery is literally coming straight from the Greek language, okay?
It's the same word in Greek.
It's literally not even translated into English.
It's transliterated into English, meaning it's just brought from Greek letters into
English letters.
It's the exact same word.
It's a word that's used consistently in the New Testament.
Now outside the New Testament, it could be used in other ways.
That's not the point.
The point is that it's used over and over and over again in the New Testament and it's
consistently something that we do know, something that we do understand, something
that we can grasp, it's unknown to them.
Or it used to be unknown and now we know it.
Those are the two components.
Look at 1 Corinthians 15, 51.
Behold, I show you a mystery, right?
So again, the mystery is being revealed.
It's being explained.
It's being made clear.
It's no longer a mystery to those who are hearing this.
I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, twinkling of an eye,
etc.
He's explaining to them the mystery.
So it's not a mystery anymore in our sense of the word.
Look if you would at Ephesians chapter 1.
Now Ephesians is what I really want to focus on this morning.
Of course, over the last several weeks, I've been preaching a bunch of sermons out
of the book of Ephesians and this is one of those sermons.
And so I really want to focus on this issue in the book of Ephesians because the
mystery that's being revealed in the book of Ephesians is that the Gentiles are now
part of the people of God.
The Gentiles are now citizens of the commonwealth of Israel.
There's now one body for Jews and Gentiles.
God has broken down the middle wall of partition between us.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile.
We're all one in Christ Jesus and this is the mystery that is revealed in the book
of Ephesians over and over again.
And the idea here is that this is something that a lot of people didn't understand when
Christ came.
I mean think about how when you're reading the book of Acts, it's clear that even
a lot of saved Christians don't understand the fact that the Jew-Gentile distinction
does not matter in the New Testament.
Even Jews, after they get saved, are still mixed up on this.
They still think that somehow they are superior to the believing Gentiles.
So you can see how this would be called a mystery because it's something that a lot
of people didn't see coming.
People in the Old Testament, they didn't see this coming.
They're surprised by this.
Peter was surprised by this.
Paul was surprised by this.
They're all surprised by it.
Look at Ephesians chapter 1 verse 9 and we're going to get into several uses of
the word mystery in the book of Ephesians.
It says in verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will.
So when it comes to the mystery of God's will, this does not mean that we cannot know
God's will.
We can know God's will.
We do know God's will.
God's will is not a mystery in the modern sense of the word.
God's will is a mystery in the biblical sense of the word, meaning that it was previously
not revealed, but now it is revealed.
Meaning that them out there that are not saved, they don't get it, but we do get
it.
That's what it means when we talk about the mystery of God's will.
God has made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he has purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times,
watch this, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are
in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.
Now, this is not necessarily a super clear verse, but in chapter 3, Paul is going to
make this much clearer, exactly what he's talking about, so I'm going to explain it
to you right now, but then we're going to flip over to chapter 3, and you'll see
that Paul spells this out in chapter 3, and what's so funny is that you have these
people out there that are called dispensationalists, right?
And obviously, the English word dispensation is used a few times in the King James Bible,
but what's so ironic is that this verse that contains the word dispensation completely
demolishes their foolish dispensational doctrine.
Ironically, the verse that says dispensation actually destroys their doctrine, because
you see, the word dispensation, what they will say that it means is that it's
this period of time where there are these different dispensations, and in different dispensations,
you know, God is dealing with different groups of people in different ways, and according
to them, you know, we're in this dispensation where he's dealing with the Gentiles, but
then he's going to go back to the Jews, you know, it's like, well, yeah, now the
Gentiles are the people of God, but then, you know, we're going to go back to the
Jews like some kind of a retrograde motion of God's plan for the ages, and it's
garbage.
It's not true.
It isn't real.
Okay?
And often, dispensationalism will teach something that's damnable heresy, which is that salvation
is by different modes in different periods of time.
Now, most of your little watered-down vanilla dispensationalists don't believe this damnable
heresy, thank God, but, folks, it's damnable heresy.
I mean, how can someone say, oh, in the Old Testament, people used to be saved
by works?
Well, how could anyone ever be saved by a filthy rag?
All our righteousness is filthy rags.
By the way, that's a quote from the Old Testament.
So are you saying a filthy rag used to be able to save you, but now it can't, but
then in the future, a filthy rag is going to save you again?
Folks, works have never had anything to do with salvation.
And by the way, if you could work your way to heaven back then, why not just work
your way to heaven now?
And why would Jesus even have to die on the cross?
You just work your little way to heaven, you wonderful little thing, you.
It's garbage.
You can't work your way to heaven.
You couldn't work your way to heaven.
You'll never be able to work your way to heaven.
There's only one way to heaven.
It's through Jesus.
The Old Testament saints were saved by the blood of Jesus.
They looked forward to the Messiah.
We look back to the Messiah.
Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and no one could ever be saved.
No one could ever go to heaven without Jesus.
It's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
It's just not possible.
And so we see here that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, what does dispensation
mean?
Dispensation has to do with, like, think about our modern word, dispenser.
What's a soap dispenser do?
It's a dispensation of soap, right?
What's a PEZ dispenser do?
It's a dispensation of PEZ.
These are the dispensations I believe in, okay?
You know, a soap dispenser, a towel dispenser, a water dispenser, right?
It's things that give you these items, okay?
Dispensation can also have to do with the idea of administration, right?
So because an administrator or administration is someone who's basically giving things out,
if you think about it.
For example, if I'm a manager at an alarm company or something, you know, I'm, like,
giving people their assignments every morning, like, all right, you're going to go do this
job.
Okay, you do this job.
And then I'm giving them materials.
All right, here's the wire you're going to need.
Here are the devices you're going to need, right?
What does a parent do?
They give out food to all their children, gives out clothes to all their children.
They're administering the household, right?
They're running things.
That's also what dispensation can mean, okay?
So obviously, God is giving grace.
That's a dispensation of grace, okay?
But by the way, God gave out a lot of grace in the Old Testament.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
So you can't say, like, well, now in the New Testament, we're in the dispensation
of grace.
Folks, the dispensation of grace started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve
when God didn't just kill them and send them straight to hell right then and there.
But instead, he gave them coats of skins to cover their nakedness, and he provided
them a plan of salvation, telling them that one day the woman's seed would
bruise the head of the serpent and that Christ would come one day and be the Messiah.
And so that was a dispensation of grace right there.
When God spared Noah, the eighth person, that was also a dispensation of grace right
there.
He's dispensing grace.
He's administering grace.
He's giving out grace, right?
And so God is also administrating or administering time, history, right?
He has a plan throughout history.
And so in the dispensation of the fullness of times, meaning that when God felt that
the time is appropriate or when we get to the right point in time in God's plan
for history, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he, God, might gather
together in one all things in Christ.
Now what does that mean, that God is going to gather together in one all things in Christ?
What's he gathering together in one?
Okay, here's what he's gathering, and you don't have to take my word for this
because we're going to flip over to chapter three, and it's going to be explicit.
You know what he's gathering?
He's gathering the Jews and the Gentiles into one body.
Jews and Gentiles into one church.
Jews and Gentiles into one holy nation made up of all believers, red, yellow, black,
and white that are saved by Christ.
But notice, it's not just all things in earth, it's also all things in heaven.
So that means when we get to heaven, there's also not going to be some distinction between
Jews and Gentiles, like, okay, you're going to go to the Jew section over here,
you know, and then you're going to go to the Gentile section in heaven.
No, it's going to be one congregation, the church of the firstborn in heaven, all
of God's people, of every nation, kindred, tongue, and tribe that are going to be together,
united, singing praises to God, following the Lamb, and so forth.
And by the way, there's not a special Jew section in hell either.
They don't get to go to some non-smoking section in hell because they were Jews.
No, my friend, Jews go to the same hell as Muslims because anyone who rejects
Jesus as the Son of God is going to go straight to hell when they die.
That's what the Bible says.
And so it says, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, it's not a mystery to us, my friend.
He's made known unto us the mystery of His will, something that was previously unknown,
something that is still unknown to many of those out there, according to the good pleasure
which He had purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times,
He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in Him.
Now flip over, if you would, to chapter three, and let's see if I'm right about the way that
I'm interpreting chapter one.
Flip over to chapter three.
Chapter one is kind of introducing these things, but then in chapter three, Paul really
does a serious teaching on this.
Look at Ephesians chapter three, verse one.
For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles.
So he's clearly writing to the Gentiles.
If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to
you word, how that by revelation, He made known unto me the mystery.
So again, is mystery something that's unknowable?
I can't, we can't figure it out.
It's unknowable.
You know, I remember when I was a kid, if you asked a question to someone that was kind of just an
annoying question or something that they didn't want to answer, people would say this.
What's it to you?
Are you writing a book?
Have you ever heard people say, I put up your hand if you remember that one?
All the old people.
All right.
No, I'm just kidding.
But you'd say like, you know, somebody asks you a question and you'd just be like, Hey man, what's it to you?
Are you writing a book?
And then every once in a while you'd get some smart out.
They'd be like, yeah, I'm writing a book.
And then I would say, well, why don't you leave that chapter out and make it a mystery?
Okay.
So, because the, you know, that's the way we use mystery.
Not anymore.
That was 20 some years ago.
But anyway, the way that we use mystery is something that's, you know, we got to figure it out.
It's super hard to understand, super hard to figure out, right?
If you buy a book from the mystery section, you're trying to figure it out and a good mystery.
You're shocked by the ending, right?
When, when people complain about mystery books that they don't like, and they give it a, a review of one star, two stars, three stars.
Here's what they'll say.
This was predictable.
I was 20 pages in and I already knew who the villain was.
Right.
But then the five star review, here's what it says.
Oh man, this one had me guessing all the way to the end.
I was shocked.
I was floored.
So many twists that I did not anticipate.
That's a good mystery, right?
So when we say mystery, we're talking about sometimes something that's unknowable.
Only God knows we can't figure it out.
Or, you know, it's, it's super difficult.
We'd have to spend years studying to grasp these super complex things.
Is that how the Bible is using this word?
No, not at all.
Never.
When the Bible uses this word, it is something that was previously unknown.
Now it's super clear, unknown to the unsaved, super clear to us that are saved.
And in fact, Paul's constantly saying, here, I'm going to explain the mystery to you.
Other authors, it's not just Paul.
You know, Mark records Christ saying this.
I'm going to, you know, unto you, it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.
Uh, John uses this word and says, I'm going to tell you the mystery.
I'm going to show you the mystery.
And so it's consistently used by multiple biblical human authors, always the same way.
Okay.
And so these are not unknowable, difficult things.
Verse three, how that by revelation, he made known unto me the mystery.
As I wrote a four in few words, what's, you know, he might even be talking about chapter one there.
He might say, you know, I, I touched on this a little earlier in chapter one.
I briefly touched on this in chapter one.
That's probably what he's even saying here.
And then he says, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known under the sons of man, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.
What's the mystery folks that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
So notice in chapter one, when he briefly mentioned, Hey, he's going to gather all things in one in Christ, Jesus, both in heaven and earth.
He's going to gather them all in one.
And then he says, okay, let me go into a little more detail.
We're talking about the Gentiles are going to be fellow heirs and of the same body.
Now again, I don't have time to read for you the entire book of Ephesians, but the entire, you say, what comes between chapter one and chapter three?
Chapter two is all about this.
Chapter two says, you Gentiles, you, you know, you used to be strangers, you used to be foreigners, but now, and you were aliens, right?
Aliens in the sense of like a foreigner, you are aliens of the Commonwealth of Israel, but he says, now you've been brought nigh by the blood of Christ and you are fellow citizens.
Okay.
So again, we could read the entire chapter two, but that's what he's saying here in chapter three, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body because Christ is gathering in one Jew and Gentile.
This is why we should not have a messianic Jewish church.
That's garbage.
You know, Oh, this is a church for Jews.
This is a church for you, you know, little Gentiles over here.
No, no, no.
We are supposed to be of one body, meaning that if a Jew gets saved, if a Gentile gets saved, they both go to the same church, one body, one, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all.
And we don't distinguish between Jews and Greeks in the new Testament.
Look at verse nine and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery.
So again, the mystery is something that we want to explain to everybody.
We're going to make all men see what this mystery is, which from the beginning of the world has been hidden.
God who created all things by Jesus Christ, again, in the past, it was unrevealed to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places.
Might be known.
So it was not revealed back then, but now it might be known by the church.
So the church is proclaiming this.
The church is making this known.
And what are they making known?
The manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
What's the Bible saying?
God always knew that he was going to do this.
This was always God's plan from the beginning.
He knew it was going to be all about the Gentiles.
The Gentiles are going to be fellow heirs.
They're going to be one body with believing Israelites, and that's a mystery that he didn't let people know until the time was right.
So he kind of kept this a little bit obscured in the Old Testament.
But now in the New Testament, he's making sure everybody knows this, and it's the church's job to proclaim this.
But unfortunately, instead of the church making known this manifold wisdom of God, instead of the church proclaiming this glorious truth,
we have a bunch of self-hating Gentile churches talking about how, oh, you know, we Gentiles are dogs and we're trash.
We're, you know, we're so lucky that we just kind of get to ride the coattails of the glorious, wonderful, you know, magical unicorn Jews or something.
That's garbage.
It's a lie.
It's false doctrine.
We're not second class as Christians.
Jews aren't first class.
Jews are in the baggage area.
OK, we're first class.
And look, any time a Jew wants to get a first class ticket to heaven, all they got to do is believe on Jesus.
But until they believe on Jesus, they're like those guys when we were leaving Afghanistan, grabbing the wheel wells of the airplanes, trying to go.
That's the Jews.
That's their hope of getting to heaven.
Right.
We're sitting on the plane.
We got our seatbelt fastened.
We got our we got our all the works that we've done that, you know, our rewards in heaven.
We got that stuff.
We got a checked bag.
We got the carry on bag.
We've got the little dish with the heated up cashews.
Right.
And we're sitting there, you know, with our seats in the upright position.
And we're listening to the safety demo.
We're going straight to heaven.
The doors, the doors shut.
Nobody's getting off.
Right.
And then and then as we're taking off, the Jews are running and screaming, Lord, Lord, open to us.
They're grabbing on the landing gear.
It's not going to work.
Let's go to Ephesians five.
Ephesians chapter five, it says in Ephesians chapter five, verse 30.
So that was the big mystery in Ephesians, right?
Chapter one, chapter three, chapter two.
They really hammer this thing, you know, of the Gentiles are now accepted in the beloved.
The Gentiles are now of one body with the believing Jews.
Unbelieving Jews, of course, are damned.
The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So let's move on to other mentions of mystery just to show that we have the right definition.
It says in Ephesians five, verse 30, for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones, talking about Jesus Christ.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh.
Now, this is a famous verse from Genesis chapter two.
So this is something that people have already known for a long time.
Genesis chapter two is obviously a scripture that was written, you know, over a thousand years before this is being written here in Ephesians.
It's something that people are very familiar with.
Obviously, it's a big scripture that even unsaved people have all heard this and it was popular at all times.
But he says this, this is a great mystery.
Now, what does he mean when he says this is a great mystery?
Well, he tells you what he means in the next breath.
He says, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
What's he saying?
He's saying that the original readers of Genesis two would have had no clue that Genesis two is about Christ and the church.
Think about that.
I mean, the original reader of Genesis chapter two reading this hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ came, they're reading this as a verse on marriage and it is a verse on marriage.
But there's another mystery.
The fact that this is also about Christ and the church, that was a total mystery to them.
Here's what that means.
It wasn't revealed yet.
People back then would not have known it and would not have understood it.
Now, when we go back and read Genesis chapter two, thinking about the New Testament, thinking about Christ, thinking about the church, now we see that marriage is a beautiful illustration of Christ and the church, because what is a mystery?
Something that was previously unrevealed, but now it is revealed.
So what is the great mystery?
Christ and the church.
Does that mean, well, you know what?
We just can't comprehend Christ and the church.
We just, we just don't know what to make of it.
It's a mystery.
Can you explain, uh, Christ's relationship with the church and it's a mystery.
See how that would be a wrong use of the word mystery.
The right use of the word mystery would be, well, you know what?
It's a great mystery, meaning that this is something a lot of people don't understand and that no one used to understand, but that now we do understand the fact that marriage is a picture of Christ and the church and that we are now.
Actually in Christ and just as the husband and wife are united in marriage, we are in some similar manner united with Christ and he will never leave us nor forsake us.
Now, here's the thing, when we talk about being united with Christ, we are not talking about this other weird heresy of the East Orthodox Church of like where we become one with God or something in the sense of like losing our own personal identity and like merging with God or something where we like become God or something.
This is Hindu.
You know, the problem with the East Orthodox Church is they've been hanging around too many Hindus.
Right?
And so they got all that Eastern mysticism and they got a bunch of Aryan mumbo jumbo, you know, from the Hindus.
Okay, because it's the same devil that's controlling all these false religions and that's why you'll find a lot of commonalities between them.
We're not talking about, let me ask you this, when I got married to my wife, did she become me?
Did I become her?
Did she lose her separate identity and separate consciousness?
No, but did we become one?
Yeah, the two shall be one flesh, but that doesn't mean that we have the same brain.
It doesn't mean we have the same mind.
It doesn't mean we have the same center of consciousness.
It doesn't mean that we have the same exact identity.
She has, of course, taken on my identity in the sense that she has my last name and she's my wife.
I'm her husband.
We are united.
We are a unit.
We are the Andersons.
But we're still separate people as well.
Okay, so when we talk about being united in Christ, don't make it weird.
When we talk about being united with Christ, here's what we mean.
We have an inseparable tie to Christ.
An inseparable union.
He will never leave us or forsake us.
And over and over again in Ephesians we see this term, in Christ, in him, in whom, in whom, in whom, in him, in Christ, in Christ.
We're in Christ.
I'm in Christ.
You're in Christ.
We are united to Christ.
It's like a marriage in a sense, but don't make it weird.
There are other ways to make it weird.
Don't go, don't do those things either.
You know, just, just, just keep it simple.
My wife and I have made a lifelong commitment to one another.
Christ has made an eternal commitment to us that he will never leave us or forsake us.
And so that's what it is.
And so it's a great mystery concerning Christ and the church that, that marriage pictures Christ and the church.
That's, that's a new thing, you know, to the reader of Genesis in the first century AD, who's like, wow, you know, I didn't know that.
How could I have known that?
That's a mystery that's being revealed through the apostles and prophets of the New Testament.
Flip over, if you would, to chapter six, Ephesians chapter six, it says in verse 18.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
And for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador and bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Notice I'm going to make known the mystery of the gospel and I'm going to speak it boldly.
Why?
Because people out there don't know the gospel.
But we do know the gospel is the gospel of mystery is a mystery in the sense that it was previously unknown to them, and we're going to make it known to them.
It's a mystery in the sense that save people get it.
Unsaved people often don't.
That's what it means that the gospel is a mystery.
Colossians chapter one, few pages to the right, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, look at Colossians chapter one.
And of course, it's always important to remember that Colossians and Ephesians are parallel passages, meaning that for almost everything that's taught in Ephesians, you have an analog in Colossians.
So, you know, the part about husbands and wives, you're going to have it in Colossians, you're going to have it in Ephesians, the part about, you know, obeying your parents, the part about, you know, psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, right?
Those things are all going to be parallel because these two books are very closely connected to one another.
Look at Colossians chapter one, verse twenty six, even the mystery, which have been hid from ages and from generations, but now it's made manifest.
Folks, manifest is the exact opposite of being hidden.
Now, folks, how many examples have we seen of the word mystery so far?
Let me quickly count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.
I might have missed one, but, you know, we're looking at like fourteen, fifteen times so far.
Has it been consistent?
Has there been one where you were like, no, I think mystery is something that's unknowable, something that's beyond our I mean, have you seen anything that made you think that or was it really consistent, extremely consistent?
I mean, it's like spelling it out to you that that's the definition of the word mystery.
The mystery that have been hid from ages and from generations, but now has made manifest to his saints, look at verse twenty seven, to whom God would make known God wants to make known the Bible saying.
Whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, right?
Christ is in the Gentiles, they are saved, they are of the same body, they are fellow heirs, this is now revealed, look at chapter two, verse two, that their hearts might be comforted, Colossians two, two, being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.
Is a mystery something that we don't understand?
Something that we do understand to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
See, we need to acknowledge the truth of the mystery that we do understand is no longer hidden from us.
Look at chapter four, verse three, with all praying also for us.
And this is going to sound really familiar to Ephesians six, because again, it's a parallel passage, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ.
How can we speak the mystery of Christ if we don't even know what it is?
We do know what it is, they don't, we're going to tell them.
We may speak the mystery of Christ for which also I am in bonds, that I may make it manifest.
What did Ephesians six say?
That I may speak it boldly.
Right?
When you speak boldly, you're speaking in clear terms.
The opposite of speaking boldly would be to beat around the bush and speak in a way that's kind of confusing and ambiguous and nobody's quite sure what you're saying.
Boldly is manifest.
Make it manifest as I ought to speak.
Go to second Thessalonians chapter two.
We're almost done.
We are leaving no stone unturned this morning.
We are looking at every single mention of the word mystery and leaving no stone unturned.
We are already almost done.
We only have a couple more passages to look at.
Let's finish this second Thessalonians chapter two verse six.
And now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time for the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Now preaching on all the end times ramifications of this verse is outside of the scope of the sermon.
Here's what I want to point out to you, though.
Look at verse six.
What does it say?
Now you know.
Now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time for what is the word for mean?
What's what's a synonym because now you know because the mystery of iniquity doth already work again.
The mystery is something that you know.
That's the point I want to make here.
Obviously, we'll save the interpretation of this for an end time sermon.
Look at first Timothy Chapter three, first Timothy Chapter number three, first Timothy Chapter three verse eight.
Likewise, must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
Notice the mystery of the faith is something that the deacons possess, something that they have.
It's not something beyond their reach, beyond their grasp, beyond their understanding.
Look at verse 16.
And here's where it's going to get interesting verse 16 because you'll hear a lot of people use the word mystery about this to act like the Trinity is something unknowable or impossible to understand.
Look at first Timothy three 16 without controversy.
Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
You know, I think I've probably been, I don't know for sure, but I've probably been guilty of reading this verse and thinking of the word mystery in the wrong way in this verse.
But do you really think for one second that God is all of a sudden using the word mystery differently than he's used it everywhere else?
You think you just use it 20 times, totally consistently, and now all of a sudden the Trinity is unknowable.
Now all of a sudden we can't get, and look, I remember back when we were having a big controversy about this when we had a bunch of damnable heresy creeping in our church.
There were people that were spreading this secretly, this damnable heresy called modalism or oneness doctrine or the Jesus only doctrine.
Or whatever, Jesus only baptism or whatever.
This heresy that denied the Trinity, and people were teaching that the Trinity was a false doctrine.
And I remember during that whole controversy people would just say, well, you know, it's a mystery, and just kind of throw their hands up and act like, well, we just don't really know.
And it was a way to just sort of punt on this issue of the Trinity when in reality the Bible is super clear on the Trinity.
And the Trinity is not unknowable at all, and if you think it's unknowable because it's a mystery, well, then you're just proving that you have not been listening for the last 40 minutes because we just looked at so much evidence that says that the mystery is something that unsafe people don't understand or that the mystery is something that people used to understand.
Now, look, think about this.
In the Old Testament, do you think people had a firm grasp on the Trinity?
Of course not, because the Trinity is not clearly taught in the Old Testament, but once you know about the Trinity, you'll see the Trinity all over the Old Testament, all over the Old Testament, everywhere.
I mean, we're talking Genesis chapter one.
It's already there.
Genesis chapter three is already there.
Genesis 19.
It's there.
I mean, it's just, it's just there.
It's there.
You're going to see it everywhere once you know about it.
Just like you're going to look back at marriages in the Old Testament and see Christ in the church.
When you're looking at Isaac and Rebecca, you're thinking about Christ in the church, but wait a minute, is that what the original readers are thinking about is a mystery to them?
That mystery has now been revealed unto us.
Great is the mystery of godliness.
Now, what does that mean?
Great is the mystery.
You know what the Bible's, the Bible's not saying here is that super mysterious.
That's not what it's saying.
It's not saying super mysterious, like super beyond our comprehension.
Rather, it's just saying this is a huge truth.
This is an incredible truth.
This is an enormous truth, sort of like what a big deal the great mystery was of Christ in the church about about the husband and wife.
That's a big deal.
The mystery of godliness is great.
This is big stuff.
This is big stuff that was previously unknown now is known big stuff that's not known by them out there is known by us.
God was manifest in the flesh.
I mean, this is amazing.
That's incredible.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit.
And remember, God is the subject of all of these verbs.
God was manifest in the flesh.
God was justified in the spirit because not changing subjects.
God was seen of angels.
God was preached unto the Gentiles.
Watch this God was believed on in the world and God was the last ones the most important God was received up into glory.
Who's the only person we could possibly be talking about Jesus Christ.
So if you're going to say God was received up into glory, you're saying Jesus is God.
And that's why this is one of the most powerful passages on the deity of Christ.
I mean, there are lots of great passages on the deity of Christ, but this is one of them.
The Trinity is not unknowable.
It's not beyond our comprehension.
It's not something that we can't understand.
The divinity of Christ is not unknowable, you know, because the specific statement is great as the mystery of godliness.
The fact that Jesus is God, you know, the fact that God was manifest in the flesh and that he was, you know, believed on in the world, preached under the Gentiles, received up in the glory.
You know, everybody in the Old Testament didn't know these details.
They didn't fully understand how the Messiah is going to save them.
How Christ is going to save them.
They didn't understand things necessarily like the Trinity, right?
They saw through a glass darkly.
They did not have the full picture, but we are not in the dark.
And look, I'm not going to preach a whole sermon on the Trinity right now because I don't have time.
I've done lots of sermons on the Trinity for you to listen to.
But here's the bottom line of the Trinity.
The Trinity is not a complicated doctrine.
Okay.
There are just certain facts that the Bible explicitly states.
And if you believe all these facts, then you're Trinitarian.
And these are not things in the Bible that are not clear.
The things that are very clear.
Here's a clear fact in the Bible that Trinitarians believe.
Jesus is God.
Is that clear?
Any questions?
You know, Jesus is divine.
Jesus is deity.
Jesus is God.
Okay, fact number one.
Fact number two is that Jesus and God the Father are not the same person.
Fact.
Jesus and God the Father are not the same person.
Jesus said, you know, I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
That's not the same person.
Oh, sorry.
To sit at my right hand.
That's not for me to give.
That's for the Father.
Oh, just kidding.
We're the same person.
Jesus didn't say myself, myself.
Why have I forsaken me?
He said, my God, my God.
Why is thou forsaken me?
That's a first person pronoun.
My God, why has thou second person pronoun forsaken me?
Even the pronouns are telling you first person, second person.
Okay.
How about Hebrews?
Jesus is the express image of his person.
Why didn't it just say, just kidding.
Jesus is the same person.
No, Jesus is the express image of God's person.
Okay.
Does everybody understand?
No man has seen God at any time.
Have we seen Jesus?
The Bible says, no man has seen God in any time.
The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him.
So who has no man seen at any time?
No man's ever seen God, the father at any time.
See all throughout the Bible, the word God is used sometimes to refer to God in general, sometimes specifically to refer to God, the father.
Sometimes specifically to refer to Jesus, but that's why in the new Testament, you'll often have clarifications like God comma, even the father, just letting you know, Hey, when we say God here, we're talking about the father just to make sure you understand.
We're specifically talking about the father.
No man had seen God, the father, anytime, you know, uh, the, the, the bozos that were teaching these lies in our church many years ago that got thrown out, uh, said no man's ever seen Jesus.
The guy said, here's what he said.
He said, you know how I came to this oneness doctrine.
You know, I came to this teaching was I figured out that no man's ever seen Jesus.
Who heard him say that, but if you remember that, yeah, lots of people remember that that was just, that was his aha moment was a perverted understanding of first Timothy six, where it says whom no man has seen nor can see.
He thought that was talking about Jesus.
Whereas if you actually delve into the grammar and look at it more carefully, you'll find out it's God, the father, whom no man has ever seen nor can see, which is consistent with John one.
And it's actually grammatically impossible for that to be referring to Jesus in first Timothy six.
I've done complicated breakdowns of this.
I've done a breakdown of it in English.
I've done a breakdown of it in Greek.
I've shown six ways to Sunday.
But really, you shouldn't even need me to do that because if you have two brain cells to rub together, you should know that people have seen Jesus.
Am I right?
I mean, he was seen of over 500 brethren at one time.
He walked among us.
And so the third fact is that there's only one God.
So these are three biblical facts that you really can't get around.
You have lots of scriptures saying that there's only one God.
I mean, does anybody dispute that?
You have several scriptures saying that there's only one God.
You have even more scriptures than that saying that Jesus and the father are not the same person.
Where you are clearly distinguishing between the two and you're using different personal pronouns, first person versus second person.
This one is the express image of his person.
And so forth.
And on and on, just all kinds of verses that would make no sense if Jesus and the father were the same person.
That would just be madness.
Okay.
And then you also have a giant stack of verses saying that Jesus is God.
Okay, so here's the thing.
All of these three truths are well attested.
If you deny any of these three truths, you would be ignoring huge chunks of the Bible.
So what are the three great truths again?
Great truth number one, Jesus is God.
Great truth number two, Jesus and God the father are not the same person.
Great truth number three, there's only one God.
Now, how do you reconcile these three truths?
If there's only one God and Jesus is God, but Jesus and the father are not the same person, but the father is God too.
How can both Jesus and the father be God and the Holy Spirit be God, but yet there's only one God, yet they're not the same person?
Well, here's how.
You have one God that consists of three persons.
Now, look, I don't think that's super complicated.
Is it unknown to some people?
Yes.
Is it misunderstood?
Is it lied about?
But my friend, you cannot deny these three truths.
Now, if you try to deny the truth that Jesus is God, then you're a heretic because you're denying the divinity of Christ.
And that's what some people who reject the Trinity do, right?
They say, no, Jesus isn't God.
He's a created being and he's not really God or whatever.
He's just a man.
That's damnable heresy.
Okay.
Or if you deny the fact that Jesus and God the father are not the same person, then you end up with the heresy of, I'm not trying to flip off the
modalists, you know, but, you know, then you end up with the heresy that, you know, the Jesus only movement or the oneness,
Pentecostalism or modalism type of a doctrine.
When you say that Jesus and God, the father of the same person, you end up with another heresy that denies the truth because then
you're, you're in essence, ultimately denying that Jesus is the son of God.
And that's actually the cornerstone of our faith is that Jesus is the son of God.
In fact, there's more scripture that Jesus is the son of God than that Jesus is God.
They're both true.
We were supposed to believe both, but guess what, which one has even more verses?
Jesus is the son of God.
So don't, don't deny the sonship of Christ.
That's super important.
Now you say, what about Christians who deny that there's only one God?
Okay.
First of all, this, the only Christian group that I know who denies that there's only one God would be either the Mormons or the
Jehovah's Witnesses, right?
Because the Jehovah's Witnesses will say that Jesus is a God.
And then the Mormons will say that, uh, that there are as many gods as there are stars in the sky, that there are millions and
billions of gods, right?
And you can go back and find their old prophets telling them how God used to be a human and we can become gods and there are
millions and billions of gods.
So, you know, no evangelical or Baptist or Pentecostal or Protestant or Catholic or Orthodox, to my knowledge, I don't
know of any other Christian groups, quote unquote, that would say there's more than one God.
I mean, does anybody, can anybody think of one right now?
Like the only ones I can think of that would call themselves a Christian and claim that there's more than one God would be the
Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.
Anyone else?
Anyone?
Anyway, you know, I don't think there is, I think that's it.
So it's not really a big deal because those groups have so many other problems that, you know, most people realize that
those are weird groups.
And so we're done there.
All right.
I'm out of time and I, and I promised we'd look at all the mentions.
So we just have a couple in Revelation.
We're going to be done in two minutes here.
Revelation chapter 10, verse seven.
I'm going to start reading it while you get there, but in the days of the voice, oh, wait, I'm sorry.
You turned to chapter seven.
I'm going to read from you from chapter one, verse 20.
It says the mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
In Revelation one, he says, oh, the mystery of the seven candlesticks, but then he just tells you what they are.
Mystery of the seven stars.
Here's what they are.
Chapter 10, verse seven, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.
You know, this mystery that none of us can understand.
No, as he had declared to his servants, the prophets, servants, the prophets, they've already got it and they're preaching it to everyone else.
Chapter 17, verse five, and upon her forehead was a name written mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.
But look at verse 17 or chapter 17, verse seven, and the angel said unto me, wherefore didst thou marvel?
I will tell thee the mystery of the woman.
So, oh, she's a big mystery, right?
No, I'm going to tell you the mystery.
I'm going to tell you the mystery.
That's it, folks.
We just looked up every verse that used the word mystery.
Let me ask you this.
Do you think 1 Timothy 3 16 is the only verse where it's used differently than everywhere else?
Or do you think maybe people have been misunderstanding what that word mystery means?
And in reality, mystery is something that we know very well.
We just didn't used to know it or humanity didn't used to know it or unsafe.
People don't know.
Let's borrow isn't a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for making known unto us the mystery of your will, the mystery of godliness, the mystery of Christ and the church.
Lord, help us to be smart enough to actually take advantage of all of the gifts you've given us in your word.
Help us to read the Bible and not just sit around in the dark like like the unsaved world is in the dark.
Help us to walk in the light, to be sober, to be awake.
Help us to know these mysteries through studying your word in Jesus name.
We pray.
Amen.