1 Timothy for the life of..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Okay, if you have your Bibles with you, and I can see that most of you do, let's open them up to 1 Timothy 3. 1 Timothy 3.

And our Bible reading will be in verses 14 through 16. 1 Timothy 3. Verses 14 through 16. This is Paul speaking to Timothy. I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you might know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and a buttress of truth.

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh. vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory. Amen. This is the word of the Lord.

Now, brothers and sisters, as we're all aware, the section that we just read here is three verses. And last week, we've already addressed two of the three verses, verses 14 and verse 15. But by the grace of God, this evening, we will look at verse 16. Now, last week, when we looked at the previous two verses, we can pretty much say that the Apostle Paul had indicated in verse 14 why he has put pen to paper. why in fact he's written this letter of 1st Timothy now we know his intention he tells us in the passage that his intention was that he would come in person to Ephesus this is where Timothy was so that he can proclaim the the truths that we find in this glorious first first epistle that he's written to Timothy, but we know Paul is riddled with persecution.

Wherever he goes, we know in the book of Acts, as we trace his steps throughout Asia Minor and throughout the known world, that Paul is met with persecution wherever he goes. So he knows that his plans may be either delayed or even postponed indefinitely. So he writes this glorious letter to Timothy for the churches in Ephesus and for all the churches because it is in scripture. So it's for all the churches of all the church of Jesus Christ throughout all the generations. The question is, why does Paul find that there's a sense of urgency for him to write this letter?

Now, why does he not say, okay, I may be delayed, but I may still be able to make it out there to Timothy. Why does he find the express urgency, the real need to write this letter? And I believe he gives us the answer in verses 14 and 15. And it's not so much centered or the answer is not so much centered around what Paul thinks or what his reason is, but rather I believe it's because of what the local church is. what the local church is.

And that was the essence of what our Bible study last Wednesday night was on, verses 14 and 15. And we explored those truths, the truths that we found in those verses, where Paul tells us what the local church is. Now, I suspect, and I think many of you will also, that there are many Christians in the world that unfortunately don't have the same view of the local church that Jesus Christ has. They don't have the same view that our God has. Not the same view as what the Apostle Paul shows us in these verses.

Because, beloved, the local church and its presence in this world is very important. It's significant. In fact, I would be quite comfortable in saying that the most significant and important entity in this world is the local church. And Paul, the Apostle Paul, gives us really the reasons why that is. And we went through them.

There's three distinct reasons we found in verses 14 and 15. And by way of summary, I'll just tap on them before we head into verse 16 and open that up for our consideration. So what was the first reason? The first reason is the Apostle Paul tells us the local church is the household of God. It's the family of God, the eternal God, the limitless God, the one who is all-powerful and all-knowing, the one who has created the heavens and the earth, has through his Son brought a people into his family.

A people who were previously rebels against God. Enemies against God. God haters, the Bible tells us. They were enemies against God. Yet through the death and the resurrection of his beloved only begotten Son, he brings us into his family.

Christ becomes our brother. and we become partakers, heirs with him, and he gives us the spirit that cries out, Abba, Father, and we become adopted sons and daughters, no longer enemies, no longer separated from God. Paul says it this way in Ephesians 2, he says, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. But as a family, as the family of God, when we gather, when we gather like this in the name of our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ, we don't gather because we have common interests. We don't gather because we like to do the same things.

Beloved, we gather because we are truly brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the family of God. We are called by His name. As a family, we ought to love one another as our Father is love. We ought to act like a family.

We ought to love one another as a family. We ought to strive, as Paul says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That is the goal of the church as we gather with one another, of course, for the glory of our Triune God. And the second point Paul gives as to what the church is and why the church is important is that it is the church of the Living God.

The church of the Living God. So what does that mean? That is to say that the Living God makes His dwelling in and among the church. And last week we had a look at the presence of God in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament. We spoke about how the camp would come around this man-made temple that the Lord had given to Moses, exact details, and it was called the tabernacle.

And inside this temple was the Holy of Holies, and there was a curtain that separated all that concealed the holy of holies from the other priests and the people on the outside couldn't see within the temple because it was quite high. It was fabric, a big fabric wall that they couldn't see. They knew that the manifest presence of God was among them, but they could only see that presence from a distance. They may have been able to see the cloud in the day and the pillar of fire through the night, but they did not have access to the immediate manifest presence of God. That was only reserved for the high priest.

And only once a year he would enter into the Holy of Holies with blood in his hands. Sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat. That blood is from a sacrifice that was sacrificed on behalf of the people of Israel in the camp who drew near in faith. They knew that God was among them, but they did not have their direct access. But beloved, we are New Testament Christians.

in Christ. Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest. He's both the sacrifice, that is the sacrificial lamb, and he's also the sacrificer, the Great High Priest who enters into the Holy of Holy in the heavenlies, the real throne room of God with blood in his hands, the blood of his own sacrifice. and He purchases with that blood our redemption, the redemption of His church, the redemption of His people. He makes us priests with Him, a priesthood of believers with Him, whereby in His sacrifice, the curtain was split from top to bottom, and the Holy of Holies was opened, and thereby giving the presence of God entrance for the people of God to come into the presence of God and to enjoy His immediate presence.

So God dwells in his people and among his people in a special way when the local church gathers together. We trust this is truth. It's biblical truth. The third point that Paul gives us in those two verses which we spoke about last week was that the church is also the pillar and the buttress of truth. Now the context is that Timothy is in Ephesus And we said this last week, in Ephesus, there's a big structure there that was known to the whole world.

In Asia Minor, it had one of the biggest temples, and it was the Temple of Artemis, or the Temple of Diana. And it's a big structure that stood tall, big round pillars, 127 of them, holding up the marble ceiling. They were two meters wide, laced with gold. There was no expense spared. Gold, silver, marble, you name it, this temple was opulent.

And it stood in the city because the people thought it would give prosperity to their city. And the goddess was Artemis and they believed that she would bring prosperity to their city. So when people could see this temple, they knew exactly what the temple stood for. It stood for wealth. It stood for prosperity.

It stood for physical riches. That's what it stood for. The gold would be shining. People could tell. And Paul says, but the church doesn't stand for this.

The church ought to be the pillar. The pillars are what uphold the structure in the middle. And the buttress is what? The columns that hold the structure on the outside. They're normally on an angle in the old buildings, but it could also depict foundation.

So it could be one or the other. And we are to uphold truth. That is to say that the Church of Jesus Christ is to uphold the truth of God's Word. We are to guard God's Word from false teachers. We are to guard God's Word from corruption.

And we are to uphold God's Word. And we are to proclaim God's Word. This is being entrusted to the people of God. This is being entrusted to the Church that we uphold and that we guard. the word of God.

This is like the temple. You could see from a distance what it stood for. Paul saying, hey, you are the household of God. You are the pillars and the buttress of truth. When some, when people look within, when people see you, do they see a people who are concerned for truth?

And beloved, that truth is from God alone. Truth is found in the being of God. He has revealed his word from his heart and he's given us his word and we as his people ought to preserve, guard it, and proclaim that truth. So now we move on. We move on to verse 16.

And in verse 16 what we find is we find some really sublime truths. Now there are many scholars who would suggest that this is a This is a first century hymn that was sung by the Christians, or a creed, like a creedal statement. And it could be, because the grammatical construction and the way the rhythm is of the words in the original language does suggest that that's quite a possibility. But what we find here is something far more valuable than a simple hymn or a creed. Because what Paul speaks of here is what is the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ.

And beloved, the foundation of the Church is the cornerstone. himself. He's the one who keeps the structure together. He is the foundation, that is the person in the work of Jesus Christ. So Paul begins by saying these words, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness.

This is actually rather a difficult verse to be able to understand when we just first read it. It doesn't always make a lot of sense to our minds. It's not that clear until we really start to unpack the meanings of the word and then bring them back together to see hopefully what the Apostle Paul is saying. But the first thing I want to make you aware of is that the word that is being translated, we confess, in the Greek, and I'm not going to pronounce it because it's quite a long word and I've tried to practice but it didn't work. But in the Greek, the word actually, it's unique in the New Testament.

Actually, there is no other occurrence of this word in the New Testament, but Paul has captured that word to use. Now, there is in ancient writings other Greek texts, and in particular, Plato and Xenophon have, in their writings, used this word, and what it does connote Confession is good. We do confess. It's a confession. But it more embraces an all-out confession.

In other words, it's something that we all confess without dispute. It's an undeniable confession. Some translations actually translate it without controversy. It's like an axiom that is held by all. So what Paul is saying is simply, the truths I'm going to proclaim in this verse Those transcendent, glorious, Christological truths that are to come are held by the church and they're not contested.

This is what the apostles believe. This is what the church believes. This is the truth of God and this is what the church in all ages must hold to and must believe. But before we get to those six truths, those truths that ought to be undeniable and held with the highest authority among the people of God, we ought to look at what this clause means. The clause mystery of godliness.

Mystery of godliness. Now, a few weeks ago, our brother unpacked what it means, what the New Testament means when it speaks of mystery. So we have the word mystery, we have it occurring throughout the New Testament, and it doesn't really mean what we mean when we talk about mysteries in our day-to-day conversations, because we would say a mystery is something we could never know, it's something that we could never really find out, it's just high and lofty. But the mystery in the Word of God simply means that it is something that was hidden in past, something that was hidden, that is now being revealed. Something that was concealed, it was always in the heart of God, but it was concealed to maybe the saints of past, but now in the fullness of time, that mystery has now been revealed.

It's been revealed to the people of God, it's been revealed in a special way, in special revelation, to the saints, to the people of God. And Paul gives an example throughout. Actually, he uses this term quite a few times in his writings in the New Testament, but he gives a good example in Colossians 1.26. And there he writes about the indwelling of Christ in both the Jews and the Gentiles, and he writes there, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints, hidden before, now revealed to the saints, to them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope.

You see what he's saying is this was revealed now, but it was concealed before. So the saints might have looked through the scriptures of the Old Testament and knew that God's promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was a promise that all the nations of the world will be blessed. But did they know to what extent that blessing would be? No, they didn't know to what extent. And again, Paul says something similar in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 6.

He says, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. You see, it was always in the heart of God to redeem a people, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. It was always in the heart of God to break down the dividing walls of hostility, to make the two people one. But this is a mystery, a mystery that has now been revealed in Christ Jesus and through the apostolic writings that this is God's intention all along. But it was concealed before and now it's made known.

Now, however, what we also need to look at is we need to look at how Paul uses the term godliness. And see, it's quite easy for us to miss the point of this verse because the six propositions that come are just so wonderful and so lofty that we may actually skip over the first bit, which is quite important, that we just take our time and unpack so we know what the mystery is. But what does Paul mean by godliness? And the reason why I'm stressing this is because the object of the mystery is not Christ. Paul's not saying, great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of Christ.

He's saying it's the mystery of godliness. And you see, that term, godliness, is used of God's people. It's used of the believers, the saints, as they grow in Christ-likeness, as they grow in holiness, as they grow in righteousness. It's used of the saints. It's not normally used.

It's not used of Christ, who is God. And so what does the term godliness mean? It's used 15 times in the New Testament and it must be one of Paul's favorite words because 11 of those 15 is used by Paul and here's the stat. 11 out of the 15 is used by Paul but 9 times it's used in this epistle. So 9 times out of Paul's writings the word godliness is used in the first epistle to Timothy.

And as the word construction suggests it means Godliness is Christ-likeness. Christ-likeness. It suggests, or it's to be like God, to display godly virtues and behaviors. And throughout the New Testament, we have many examples of this. Paul exhorts the Corinthians, for example, towards godly sincerity.

That is, that they would be speaking truth, that they would not be deceitful in their speech. God is truth. Paul also exhorts the Corinthians to display godly grief. What is godly grief? Well, it's a displeasure for unrighteousness and that which is evil.

God hates unrighteousness. God hates evil. And then he exhorts them towards in Titus, towards renouncing ungodliness and pursuing self-control in righteous living. So self-control and righteous living is a godly attribute. It's godliness.

In other words, to be godly is to be righteous. It's to do the things that are right in God's eyes. And so when we look at that, we also got to realize that in the New Testament, when the term godliness is spoken, or godly, it's never just a product of the human will. Godliness is not something we conjure up all our will and all our strength and all our human ability and then we become godly. It's always an outward expression, an outward expression that is rooted in an inward reality, an inward devotion to God.

It's an inward devotion to God. So what does that mean? It means that the believers are able to produce godliness or godly behavior, not in and of themselves. Because if you were going to produce works in and of yourself, that would be manliness. Because we are people or humanness.

But godliness is because God dwells in his people. And when God dwells in his people by his Holy Spirit, the work that is produced by the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested as godly. It's rooted in God. It is by his power, working in and through his people, that he's able to produce godliness. Because otherwise, it's human exertion.

And that's what the Pharisees were doing, right? They were trying to observe the law by their own strength. And doing that doesn't produce godliness. It's fake. It's disingenuous.

That's counterfeit. And God hates cold religion, which is just a product of the will. Paul warns against such false teachers in 2 Timothy verse 3, when he speaks about the false teachers preaching and teaching that which is not of God. This is what he says. He says, they have the appearance of godliness.

So the external appearance, they look godly. They sound godly. They look like they're producing works of righteousness. However, they are denying its power. And Paul says, avoid such people.

How come they're denying its power? Because that godliness is not rooted in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the product of the will. And the product of the will does not please God. Because the natural man is unable to please God.

The natural man does not seek after righteousness. The natural man does not do good. This is what Paul tells us. So in order for us to produce righteous works, it ought to be rooted and grounded in God himself. So what does Paul mean by the mystery of godliness?

Well, we need to look at the context. And the context here is Paul's writing to a predominantly Gentile church in a very superstitious, pantheistic place, city in Ephesus. Pantheistic simply means that it's a place that has many gods. If you were to go in first century Ephesus, you'll find it was shrines and temples all over the place. Now the main one was the Temple of Artemis that was the main goddess of the city, but they had shrines and temples everywhere.

The city was known for its licentiousness. It was known for their sexual immorality. It was known for their carnal searching and endeavors after the wealth and other things. If we read through the book of Acts, we'll also know that the city had a lot of problems with magic. It was very superstitious.

In fact, when the Christians, when Paul went through Ephesus and preached the gospel, many Christians came to the Lord. And when they did, they had their superstitious magic books, and they decided that we need to get rid of these, because these are opposing to God. This is against God. So what they did is they brought all these books and threw them in the square in front of all the people of Ephesus, and they lit them afire. And the Bible tells us that the collective total worth of all those books was equal to 50,000 days of labor.

That's a lot of money. And these people weren't compelled. They didn't feel like they needed to sell their books to their neighbors or to the others. They knew this is against the things of God. So they quickly brought those books, put them in a square and burnt them up.

This is the city, this is the city. It had the temple that we said, that we spoke of before. They had countless priestesses that were working within the temple. And they also had shrine prostitutes that were working in the temple. So we know that Ephesus was an ungodly place.

So the question is, what is the secret behind godly living in an environment like this? Because the Ephesian Christians were saved from that environment. This was their life. They were a people who were steeped in this sort of immorality. Now that they know Christ, how is it that they're able to turn their back on such immorality that they lived in for so many years?

How is it that they're able to, as I said before, put those superstitious books in the middle of the square and just put them ablaze and burn them in front of everyone rather than try to get some money back on their investments? How is it that the women who are living amongst such immodesty and immodest dress are able, as Paul would say in this letter, to dress modestly? How are the women who are living in a context where feminism was rampant in first century Ephesus, how is it that they're able to have the power within to submit to their husbands? submit to the elders' teaching, who were men, when everything around them, when the culture around them was just saying, don't do that, that's crazy, don't do that. How is it that they're able to do these things?

How is it they're able to give up the world and its pleasures and turn their back and follow Jesus Christ, this resurrected savior? He's despised by the world. And they were respected probably among their peers, but now they're ridiculed. How is it they're able to do these things? What do the Christians see?

What are the Christians now able to see with their eyes? What has been revealed to them that is still concealed, that is still hidden from the eyes of the unbeliever? Well, Paul gives us the answer. And beloved, I want you to note this because this is very important. Paul does not give them a list of do's and don'ts.

Paul doesn't say, doesn't say, great indeed, we confess is the mystery of godliness. Now I want you to do these things. No, Paul doesn't say that because the answer is not in the do's and the don'ts. The answer is in a person. And it's the very next word that comes in our text.

And it comes in the form of, if you have an ESV Bible, it's he. He was manifest in the flesh. Now, some translations would say God, because the manuscripts do differ. Some say He and some say God, but I don't really think it's all that important to the doctrine of the text, because how can we mistake manifest in the flesh? I mean, what does John chapter one say, the gospel of John?

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And then verse 14, what does it say? And the word became? flesh and dwelt among us. We can't get that one wrong, can we?

Because that's what he's speaking to. He's speaking to that very, very thing. So the mystery of godliness, beloved, is Jesus Christ. It's Christ. So the mystery of how Christians can live a godly life in an immoral, dark, sinful world is Christ.

That's the secret of Godness. That's what was concealed. That's what is now revealed in the eyes of the believer. Because with the salvation of Christ, through faith, through trusting in Him, We are, as the believers, given His Holy Spirit. We have the life of Christ flowing in and through us.

The very presence of God is manifest in and through us to produce godly works. You see, Paul is not saying, look to your circumstances. Paul is not saying, look to your dispositions, look to your sinful tendencies and try to work it out. He's not saying these things. Paul is saying your treasure ought to be Christ.

Your only hope for godliness is Christ. Christ is the only one who is able to relieve you, to give you the desires and the power and the strength to overcome the world, to turn your back on worldly desires and follow Him. The world doesn't understand this. The world cannot possibly understand the words of Paul when he says, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. In other words, as long as I have breath in my lungs, I'm going to live for my Savior.

They're going, what are you doing? The most valuable commodity you have is time, and your time is limited. And you're saying that you want to live your life and give of your time for someone else? That's so anti-world. unnatural to have these desires.

And I think honestly that, I honestly believe that as Paul was writing this letter to Timothy, that his experience of Ephesus was coming back to his mind. See, three to five years earlier, Paul's writing this letter, most likely he'd just been released from prison in Rome. So he's probably writing a letter around the 62-64 AD mark. Now, Paul had visited Ephesus on his third missionary journey, and that would have been probably around the 59 AD mark. So it was just slightly before he got imprisoned in Jerusalem, which is around the 60.

So we're talking three to five years ago when Paul did visit Ephesus, there was a great disturbance among the people, a great disturbance. And that disturbance was in the form that Paul was preaching the gospel and the Lord was pleased to save many people in that city. Many people were coming into the faith. And what was the result? We said before, people coming into the faith are now turning to Christ to live godly lives.

So what do they do? Well, the city was known for its idol manufacturing. It had an idol industry. So the silversmiths got pretty upset because their business was going downhill. They were probably on the brink of bankruptcy, and they're going like, we don't want this Paul around, and we don't want these conversions, because our business is going down.

People were buying idols to put in their household, because they were very superstitious. So there's a great disturbance. They hit the streets, and the crowds were everywhere, and in fact, the disciples didn't allow Paul to go outside, because they knew, had Paul gone outside to be among the crowd, that he would most likely be killed by the crowd. They were very aggressive. But do you know what they were chanting?

They were chanting something. These people hit the streets and they were chanting these words. Great. This is in Acts 19. Great is Artemis.

Great is Artemis. This is the goddess of the city, right? Great is Artemis. And hear this. They chanted those words two hours straight, the Bible tells us.

For two hours straight, they were chanting the words, Great is Artemis. What does Paul say here? What's Paul saying in our text? He's saying, great indeed we confess is the mystery of Godness. He was manifest in the flesh.

It's not Artemis who is great. Paul's telling Timothy, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is great. And so Paul, now that he's turned Timothy's attention to understand what the mystery of godliness is, it's not in our own performances, it's not in our own exertion, it's in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

It's to look to Him, to fix our eyes upon Him, to study His Word, to consume His Word, to commune with Him. and to allow Him to give us the desires for Him, and that He would produce in us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, work that is pleasing unto God, work that is truly righteous, work that is God-like, godliness. Then he turns our attention to the six propositional truths that we find in the latter part of this verse. And beloved, these truths are the substance of the Christian faith. As I said before, Paul uses a word to say that there should be, there can be, no denying these truths.

These are uncontestable. There is no negotiation with these truths. In other words, if you want to be called among the true church of Jesus Christ, these are truths that we must uphold. And as he said previously, in the previous verse, that the church ought to be the pillar and the buttress of truth, upholding the truth of the gospel, upholding the truth of Jesus Christ and who he is, he now gives us six of those truths that the church ought to preserve, guard and hold. And the first is, he was manifested in the flesh.

Jesus Christ is manifested in the flesh. As I said earlier, the he, is sometimes translated in some manuscripts as God. But either way, we do know that it speaks of Christ. Because as I said, 1 John, the Gospel of John says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The eternal Word, the Son of God who existed with the Father from all eternity.

He has no beginning and he has no end. He was face to face in communion, in loving communion with the Father and with the Holy Spirit from eternity past. became flesh. Now this is an incredible truth. As Christians, we know this, we say this, and when we proclaim the truths of Christ, when we minister in the gospel, we always say to people that God became flesh.

But if we sit down and think about that reality, this is incredible. This is amazing. This is why the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. This is why people who have not had their eyes opened by the Spirit of God cannot understand these truths. They are folly to them.

Why? Because how is it that the eternal God, the infinite God, the limitless God, the God who Solomon says in Chronicles, When he's praying his dedication prayers after building the temple, he says, the heavens, even the high heavens are not able to contain his glory. Solomon's saying even the known universe cannot contain the glory of God. Yet Paul tells us, he says, and Paul says to us, Here we go. Paul says to us, in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

In Colossians chapter 2 verse 9. Solomon says the whole universe cannot contain his glory and yet Paul says that that God, the only true God, the God who is infinite, is found fully in the person of Jesus Christ. Now that is a mystery. That is beyond our comprehension. That is a mystery in the sense of how we use the word mystery, in that our limited human minds cannot fully understand this transcendent truth.

But it's true. And he became a real human being. He became a person just like you and I experienced the things that you and I experienced, of course, without sin, the temptations we experienced, he experienced, yet without sin. He was born just like you and I, a natural birth. He was in his mother's womb for nine months, yet he had no original sin, because the Bible tells us he was over-married, was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.

Her conception happened not by man, but by the Holy Spirit. No original sin. He grew up. His skin stretched. His bones grew.

Jesus tired. He felt sleepy. He felt hungry. He knew what sorrow was. He experienced the real human experience, not as some people say, he was like a human, a mirage, or like in the day of Paul, where the Greek philosophy would say that, you know, it's not possible that God will become flesh because matter is evil and the spirit is good.

So therefore God could not become that which is evil. No. Now the Bible tells us Jesus became a true man, fully man. fully God, so he became man like you and I. This is a truth, Paul says, that is undeniable.

We cannot detest it. We cannot deny it. It's not open for negotiational discussion. This is a truth that the church holds to, the apostle holds to. That is because it is a truth that is found in God.

This is the truth of the incarnation. And beloved, he then goes on to say that Jesus was vindicated by the Spirit. Now, as I was preparing for this for this message, the Bible study. The section of three verses probably should have been, they're a collective, so the three verses from 14 to 16 could have been taught in one session, but we've split them up. And as I started to open and think through the week about these truths, honestly, it was almost, I was In my heart, I was almost tempted to, we could sit down for a week on every one of these.

It is incredible how wonderful and how important these truths are for the Christian faith. And listen to this one. Paul says he was vindicated by the Spirit. You see, some translations also say he was justified by the Spirit, and we ought not to take that as we understand justification for us. In other words, you and I need to be justified, so we are acquitted, we need to be acquitted from our unrighteousness as sinners.

Now, Christ never sinned. So the justification or the vindication spoken of in this passage certainly is not speaking about sin, but rather the vindication of the Spirit is in a sense that all that Jesus did, all that Jesus claimed to be was verified and approved by the Holy Spirit. So it was verified and proved by the Spirit to be true. The Spirit of God verified the life, the birth, the life, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of it was true.

Now if we think about it, we know that his whole earthly ministry was verified by the Spirit because he was empowered by the Spirit. A moment ago I told you about the conception, the Holy Spirit we're told in Matthew overshadowed Mary. So the conception was by the Holy Spirit. We know that when Jesus was starting his ministry that he was anointed and filled by the Holy Spirit. We know that the miracles and the wonders and all these things that Jesus did, we know that they were all by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So we know the Holy Spirit was vindicating Christ throughout all his earthly ministry. But the main vindication is in the resurrection. You see, because what happened in the resurrection was A resurrection of Christ was a vindication that Jesus Christ is sinless. That he was all he claimed to be. You see, all sinners are deserving of death.

The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. We know that. But in Jesus' situation, he actually died a real death, a death that we would die as human beings in his body. He bore our sin in his body and he died a real death. And then they pulled him off the cross, they put him in the tomb.

He remained in the tomb for three days, but then he rose from the dead. You see, beloved, we need to realise that if Jesus Christ committed even a single sin, if Jesus Christ had even one lustful thought If he committed even one lie with his lips, even if in his heart he angered towards a brother or a sister, then Jesus Christ would have remained in that tomb. Because the wages of sin is death. And by the resurrection, The Spirit of God is vindicating not just that Jesus is the sinless Lamb of God sent to save his people from their sin, but the vindication also means that everything that Jesus said, everything that Jesus did is true. All of it.

Remember, if he lied even once, he would remain dead. That means, beloved, that when Jesus says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, no one comes to the Father but by me. What's he saying? What's he saying? It's true.

It's true. It's a testimony of God. When Jesus says that I am the bread of life, he who eats me of me will have everlasting life. What does that say? It's true.

When Jesus says, I am the shepherd who lays down my life for my sheep. It's true. And when Jesus says, I am, that's true too. Jesus claimed to be God. The spirit of God raised him from the dead.

He vindicated everything that Jesus said. So beloved, everything we find in the text of Scripture, the very words of Jesus Christ are true. And we can predicate, we can build our lives on that truth. We can die for those truths, vindicated by the Spirit of God. seen by angels as the next one Paul brings up his resurrection was also seen by angels and you remember when the ladies went to the tomb early on that Sunday morning and they came to the tomb what they find they find that the rock had been rolled away that had spices for the body of Christ but he wasn't there the tomb was empty He had a bodily resurrection.

No one in the tomb, but what did they see in front? They saw two men in dazzling white clothing. They were angels. And what did the angels say? They looked at the women and said, why do you seek the living among the dead?

He is not here, but he is risen. He is risen. You see, the first witnesses of the resurrection of Christ were the angels themselves. And of course, the angels don't have omniscience. They're not all-knowing, but they do know that Jesus is the eternal Son of God.

They've been ministering to God all along. And they were always, the Bible tells us in 1 Peter, That they were interested in observing God's plan of redemption also. They didn't know all the steps. They didn't know what the future holds. But they were very interested in knowing.

And all the while the angels were involved, they could see the ministry of Christ. They could see that this is indeed the Son of God in flesh, in His birth. Because when He was born, they went to the shepherds. And what did they do? They sang.

They sang, Glory to God in the highest and on the earth. Peace among those whom He is pleased. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, what does it say? It says, then angels came and ministered to him. Now that in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was contemplating what he is about to do, he's about to bear the wrath of God upon the sins of all the people that belong to him.

That is a horrible thought. And as Jesus was troubled in his spirit, he says, The angels came to him and they comforted him. The angels were comforting their master and their God. The angels could see that this is the son of God and they bore witness to him. And of course, beloved, we know that the angels also bore witness to his ascension.

Because in Acts chapter one, when the disciples were gathered and Jesus ascended into the heavens, what did the angels say to the disciples? Do you remember the words? They looked at the disciples and they said, this Jesus who was taken up from you in heaven will come back in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. And beloved, when Jesus does come back, he doesn't come back alone. He comes back with his angels.

Because in Matthew 25, we read, when the son of man comes in his glory, all the angels will come with him. Then he will sit on his glorious throne. It's glorious. He was manifested in the flesh. He was vindicated by the spirit and he was seen by the angels.

First three of those propositions are the glorious propositions that Jesus accomplished in his earthly ministry. But then the next three, and we'll go through these very quickly, the next three are what Jesus accomplishes in his heavenly ministry. And the first of these is that he is preached or proclaimed among the nations. You see, Jesus is at the moment at the right hand of the Father, but he's still building his church. Beloved, we are.

Remember how Jesus said, I will knock down, I will destroy, I will destroy the temple, he said, and I will rebuild it in three days. Speaking about his body, who is the body of Christ? It's his church. This is why it's so important that we preserve his word. This is why it's so important that we guard his word and we proclaim the gospel, because the church is the presence of Jesus Christ on the earth.

It is the only light unto a dark world. And as his church proclaims the gospel to the nations, Jesus Christ builds his church. We see this in the book of Acts very early that the gospel went from Jerusalem and through persecution after the stoning of Stephen it goes into Judea and then to Samaria up above and then we're told to the ends of the earth. How do we know this? Well the book of Acts ends in Acts 28 and we know that Paul is preaching the gospel in Rome.

The gospel is preached throughout the nations and this is to We know that the Jews won't be very happy with this, right? Because the Jews think that salvation belongs to them, but how glorious is it for the Gentiles? Beloved, most of us in here, I think we're all Gentiles. I don't know if any of us have any Jewish roots, but we're all Gentiles. The message of salvation has come to us.

The glorious plan of redemption has come to us because the gospel has been preached to all the nations. That was God's intention, that he would gather unto himself a people from all languages, tribes, peoples and nations. And this is why the church must, beloved, this is why the church must continue to preach the gospel in truth. That we must not compromise. We must be bold in our proclamation in a society, in a culture, in a world that pushes us to compromise on these truths.

We must stand our ground because apart from the truth of God, there can be no salvation. Apart from proclaiming the true Jesus of the Bible, what hope does the world have? And the fifth proposition Paul makes is it's something that ought to give the church really boldness and comfort to continue to proclaim the gospel. Because although previously we heard that the gospel of Christ is being proclaimed among the nations, the beautiful thing is he is believed on in the world. In other words, God is in the business of saving people, even still.

The gospel is effectual. It saves people from their sins. It redeems them from being under the wrath of God. He has power to bring from death to life, as it's been demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now it's true that the majority of people will reject Christ.

This is a biblical truth, and it's a sad truth. And Jesus experienced this, because in John, we're told, in John chapter one, we're told, he came to his own, that's Christ, and his own people did not receive him. This is a disheartening truth that Christ endured, but the passage goes on, because it goes on to say, but all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." I love that passage, because that passage tells us that salvation is of the Lord. That the Church's responsibility, the individual Christian and the Church's responsibility, is to proclaim the gospel, the truth of Jesus Christ.

Knowing full well that the salvation that pricks the heart of a man is by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not because of our convincing abilities. It's not because we've been able to persuade people. It's not because we've been able to conjure up the understanding of how we can present the gospel in a way that we're sure people will come to a favorable agreement with us on. No, it's a spiritual truth.

The Bible says that the people we're proclaiming to are dead in their transgressions, which means we are preaching the gospel to graveyards. But the Lord, the Lord is in the business of saving people. And when he brings life to a dead person, he brings life through the means of the gospel and beloved into the church. It's the church that proclaims the gospel. You take the gospel away, and this world has no hope.

We ought to remember this, and we ought to take courage that God is still saving people. He's believed upon in the world, and finally, He's taken up in glory. Finally, He's taken up in glory. You know what? His work is done by His blood, He's purchased salvation for all his people.

And now he ascends back to the right hand of the Father, hear this, to enjoy the glory he once had with his Father before the world began. Isn't that what we're told in John 17? He enjoys that glory. But beloved, I wanna just turn your attention to one thing very quickly. Something's changed.

Because Jesus ascended into heaven. as the God-man. See, he was eternally with the Father as spirit. In the incarnation, Jesus takes upon himself a real body and a real soul. He is fully man.

And he's fully God. And remember, his divine attributes have not changed. He hasn't added anything to his divine attributes. How can you add to God and how can you take away from God? That's not a possibility.

But what he has done is he's added a human nature. And so now Jesus is forevermore human. He's fully God and he's fully man. So his ascension into heaven is as the God man. Beloved, that means that not only has humanity been redeemed by our Savior, but that means also that we will always have a human representative in the Trinity.

Think about that. We have a human representative in the Godhead. Have you ever thought about that? This is incredible. What Christ did for us, what it cost Him to redeem a people.

This is incredible. This is incredible. And it always be. And as the book of Philippians tells us, and this is a verse I just want to, I want to tell you, I want to, I want to, I want to quote in Philippians. It says, and now the father has bestowed upon Christ the name that is above every name.

Work is done. And now he sits at the right hand of the Father. He has the name that is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The God-man is glorified. He will eternally be glorified.

And we will one day enter into his real glory. Even now we've been redeemed. We are not more justified now than we ever will be. We are as justified now as we forever will be. Jesus has done it all.

These are six glorious truths that the church has to hold to. These are six glorious propositional truths that every individual must believe upon, because they are the truths about our Lord and our Saviour. These are the truths of our salvation, about our religion, about the truth of God, are found in these six propositional truths. And beloved, we need to remember that Paul is still speaking about godliness here. See, he hasn't gone back and addressed you and I at all.

Like he's saying, what is the secret? What is great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. Yet he hasn't addressed you and I when he's speaking about the fruit that he produces, godliness. Why has Paul gone straight to Christ? Because beloved, Christ is everything.

See, Christ is our Redeemer. He's our Savior, but He's also our Sanctifier. See, in Christ, He sanctifies us. In Christ, we become more holy. We produce more righteousness because of the power of Christ in us.

You see, it's not about human exertion. It's not about human effort. It's not about rolling our sleeves up and doing our best. It's not that at all. To live Godly lives, To live in godliness, we ought to fix our eyes and our hearts upon Christ.

Beloved, this is what we ought to do. Fix our eyes upon Him. It means to commit to study His Word. It means that His Word will dwell in us richly. It means to commune with Him in prayer.

It means to get to know Him. Beloved, this is basically the essence of what we're talking about. that God in Christ Jesus is glorious. And the more we know Christ as we study his word, the more we love him. And beloved, the more we love him, the more we become like him.

You see, we ought not to look at what we want to do and strive for those things. Because the moment our eyes are taken off Christ, who is the mystery of kindliness, then we are using our own human efforts. And our own human efforts will fade and fall, and God is not impressed in our own human efforts. They must be rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ. And for them to be rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ, beloved, our eyes and our hearts must be fixed on Him always.

We must trust Him. He is our all in all. Let's trust Him for everything. Amen.