Well, grab your Bibles and go to 1 Timothy, but we're going to skip on over to chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. When I was preparing my two sessions for the True Church Conference, I was very aware as I was preparing them that I was going to have to preach this to you guys because this scratches where we itch. This really is another statement of the foundation of what we're about and what we're committed to here at Grace Life Church or any truly biblical church. So few of you were here for the morning sessions, and I understand that. You have to work and do other things.
And plus, I had to rush some in those sessions. I want to plow through this again and unpack it for us and charge you and challenge you to grasp what God is telling us in the end that no matter what happens, good times, bad times, prosperity, despair, whatever happens, these truths hold us. And it's enough for us to be about God's purposes for God's glory. I've simply entitled this God's Great Glory and God's Greater Glory. God's Great Glory and God's Greater Glory. Now, if you looked up the word glory in a dictionary, particularly dealing with the biblical etymology of the word, whether it's Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek for the New Testament, you're going to get a lot of facets and a lot of aspects. It's a very dynamic word, glory or to glorify.
It's a multifaceted gem. But for our purposes, I want you to think this thought. To glorify is to deem from your heart one as worthy of honor and praise.
It's to sense it, to be convinced of it, to have a settled resolve. Yes, He is worthy of honor and praise. Now, in back of that, if you consider one worthy of your honor and praise, then you consider that one worthy of your service and devotion and obedience. All of those are part of our worship.
We do worship together and here together we worship as we sing together and we worship as we preach the word and soberly and attentively receive the word of God. And as we heard in our conference this past week, we say to ourselves, Lord, what would you have me to do? You haven't worshiped here at Grace Life Church on Sunday, unless during the preaching you constantly say to yourself, Lord, what would you have me to do?
Is there something I need to repent of, something I need to rejoice over, some behavior or attitude I need to change? Lord, what would you have me to do? That's worship. Because you can't say, I deem Him worthy of all honor and praise and then say, but now how I'm going to live my life's come up to me. No, that's worshiping you. That's not worshiping Him. Now, so as we think about giving God glory or worship, we think about deeming Him worthy of all honor and all praise. Now I want you to look at 1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 15 and 16. Paul writing to Timothy about Timothy's work of ordering, structuring, and fashioning the church at Ephesus says this, verse 15, 1 Timothy 3.
But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. And then this interesting verse, verse 16. And before I read verse 16, it's amazing to me how many scholars take verse 16 and just run off with it and play with it by itself.
Kind of like a child would take their toys and run off and play by themselves. You can't take verse 16 away from verse 15, 14, 13, and all the way back through the beginning of 1 Timothy. It has a purpose for being in the flow of what he's trying to get across. Verse 16, by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Now just looking at verse 16, notice he says here by common confession, the phrase common confession means there's no real controversy here.
There's no real argument of those of us who've come to faith in Jesus Christ, which means we've received the new birth and we are spiritually regenerate. All of us agree that great is the mystery of godliness. What does that mean?
We all agree on it. What does that mean? Well, great is the mystery. The word mystery there simply means something that was hidden, but is now revealed.
And that is that salvation and all of God's purposes are in his son, Jesus Christ. That was beforehand veiled, at least to an extent. Christ is revealed in the Old Testament, but not as clearly, of course, as in the new. So in the old, he was coming back and he was concealed and the new, he's revealed. In the old, he's contained and the new, he's explained. And so he says here, great is this mystery that everything is encompassed in Jesus Christ.
No one really saw this, but now those of us who saved get it completely. It's not about Jesus plus the law of Moses. It's not about Jesus plus circumcision. It's not about Jesus plus baptism. It's not about Jesus plus the sacraments of the church.
It's not about Jesus plus ethically and morally cleaning up your life. No, the mystery is Christ does it all. And salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone.
That's something that's now been unfolded. And we see it and we grasp it. Now the phrase there which says by common confession, in other words, we all agree on this, great is this mystery.
We just didn't see it unfolding like this, that it's all is centered in Jesus Christ. Great is the mystery of godliness. Now the word godliness is an interesting term.
As a matter of fact, the Greek scholars pretty well universally say godliness is probably not the best translation. It means piety or devoutness. Great is the mystery of true piety is what it means. Great is the mystery of a truly devout one. Great is the mystery of a truly godly one.
Here's the point. There's only been one truly devout one. There's only been one truly pious one.
There's only one truly godly one and his name is Jesus. So we just didn't see all of that and now the only way you and I or any human being will ever be considered a truly devout one or truly pious one or truly godly one before God is to come through Jesus Christ. You don't come through works. You don't come through church membership. You don't come through some sort of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and going in a new direction of ethical moral purity. None of that matters as far as you're standing before God. It all comes through Jesus.
So the point is as the Jews of the old covenant, if you will, labored and were striving and keeping laws and developing all of these minute laws on top of the given laws, all the ceremonies, all the practices, all the rituals, hoping this made them a devout one. Those who know Jesus Christ know it's been a great mystery, but we finally figured out the only way God considers you truly upright, truly devout, truly pious or truly godly is if you come through Jesus Christ. Do you have faith in him? That's a great, great mystery.
It all centers in him. Now, two sides to the same coin. If God's going to look at you and if God's going to consider you an upright one, a godly one, a pious one, a devout one. Two ways he views this.
Number one, positionally. Positionally, God looks at you and says, if you've believed on my son, then you stand as one who is justified. You stand before me as a truly devout one. Nobody else does, but only those who love my son, only those who put faith in him will stand, have a standing of piousness or devoutness or truth and godliness before me. Now, there's a practical side of that. Now, we're supposed to be down here, though we have the standing, we're supposed to be living, serving, and striving to live out as a pious one, to live out our lives as a truly devout one, to live out our lives as a godly one.
And here's the point. We go to verse 15, and what is he talking about? In what context are we to be living out this piousness, living out this true godliness? In case I'm delayed, verse 15, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church.
The Greek word there is ekklesia, his called out ones. Everyone who's a member of a local church should only be those whom God's called out of the world to himself through his gospel. The church of the living God, the pillar, and the support of the truth. The point is, you live out true piety, you live out your true devoutness in the context of your local church family. The church, he says, it's the pillar and support of the truth. The church, it's the household of God. It's the church, the called out ones of the true and living God. This isn't dead religion.
This is a living and true and wonderful thing God is doing. So everything Paul's writing to Timothy, of course, is about the local church, and so is this section. It goes right into the practical aspect of we're to be devoted to serving our God, i.e., bringing him glory by serving him faithfully as his word prescribes in our local churches. God hasn't left you orphaned as to wonder, well, what's my ministry out there? He may give you wonderful ways to spread the gospel. He may give you wonderful ways to influence others and edify others out in the world, wherever the Lord's providence may put you. But you know for certain the foundation stone is to serve him in your local churches.
Now, then there's this unveiling thing. As you get to verse 16, you get past the common confession, which is we all agree on this truth, what truth we agree on that the mystery has been unveiled to us now, that true piousness is obtained only in Jesus Christ. And then you go to verse 16 to these phrases. He who was revealed in the flesh, of course that's Jesus, was vindicated in the Spirit. I think that's pointing primarily to the Spirit bringing him to life and raising him from the dead. Seen by angels, that's a powerful truth, the angels themselves were learning of God's great mystery as Jesus became incarnate and grew up and began his ministry and died on the cross, was buried, rose again and ascended into heaven. The angels were learning, but at the same time we were watching and learning. So he said this is a glorious thing for the angels to observe as God unfolds it. I don't know how much they knew before he came, but it's evident and we have other passages we can look at to prove this, the angels themselves are astonished at the wisdom and the power of God to unfold this plan of salvation the way he has. Proclaimed among men, that's what the apostles began to do, of course preaching Jesus everywhere.
Believed on in the world, that means those who are believing on Christ and becoming part of local churches all over the globe. And then of course as he ascended he was taken up into glory. So the point is this is an unveiling. Christ was veiled, we couldn't see, we didn't understand how is God going to do this.
The best of man's understanding when all of this happened was we just have these rules and these laws and these rituals and we try to jump through these hoops and keep these laws and hopefully we become a devout one and God just know you've got it wrong. I'm going to reveal something. I'm going to unveil my son. He's coming to earth born of the virgin Mary. He'll live a sinless life. He will go to the cross and take the sins of the children there and through his unveiling and his work I can make you truly pious ones.
I will make you truly devout ones. I will make you truly godly ones through him and through his unveiling. Now all of this is about God's glory because God is doing things in a way that man couldn't fathom or grasp if he had a million years to contemplate it. It was a great mystery and it's a marvel beyond all marvels.
It's a wonder beyond all wonders and the church glories over this. Now this is one unveiling but there's coming another unveiling. There's coming a time at the end of time when he will be unveiled before all as he descends from heaven. He'll come on a white charger the Bible says. King of kings and Lord of lords will be written across his chest and what's going to happen at that unveiling? In the first unveiling he justified us and began sanctifying us.
Are you with me? When he came to earth the first time he died on the cross he inspired holy men to write the finished Canada scripture of the new testament. He sent the spirit of God to accompany the preaching of the gospel that he might save us justified, justified, justified. In the moment you believe justified before God you stand as righteous in his sight you become a truly devout one at that point. You become a truly pious one at that point. That's when his first unveiling accomplished that and then we're to be living our lives now in the communities of local churches, sharpening, equipping, encouraging, upholding, showing compassion for one another and holding each other accountable, exercising church discipline. All the things the Bible says we're to do for one another and all this helps sanctify us to live more like the truly pious ones he sees us as.
Are you with me? Positional sanctification but progressive sanctification. He got all that done in his first unveiling. There's coming a next unveiling and when that one happens he's not just going to justify and sanctify us. He's going to, you know the word, glorifies, glorifies. Jesus, you know what I like about Jesus?
He never fails. He's just not going to quit until every single solitary member of his church has his glory all over them. He's going to resurrect those whose bodies lay in the grave. He's going to bring with him those who've already departed. Their souls and spirit are with him and then he's going to bring us all together. We'll all be cleansed and perfected and wonderfully glorified.
Now here's what I want you to get. Whether it was the first unveiling when he went to the cross for us and he justified us or the final unveiling at the end of the time when he appears in the heavens and calls us to meet him in the air and we're all glorified with him. All of it is for his glory and for his church's good. Now listen, in both cases he talks to us as a collectivity.
He didn't talk to you as an individual. Right here he says you're the household of God. You're the called out assembly. In the end of times we'll all come together, all of us individual assemblies, Grace Life Church at the Shoals and all the rest of them, then we'll all come together as one big great whole bride of Christ, all glorified. But whether it's the first unveiling centered in the cross, death, burial, and resurrection, or the second unveiling when we meet him in the air, it's all about him being glorified and his church benefiting greatly. What a great mystery this is that God's unfolded and he's accomplishing it all through Jesus and Jesus being unveiled and brought to us.
Now let's go back behind and let's see the big picture, something of how all this has unfolded through the ages. Now I begin with the great glory of God, what I call room number one, the preliminaries. God's great glory through Israel and even her foes. So all through the narratives of the Old Testament dispensation, God is bringing himself great glory through Israel and even through Israel's enemies. Because you know it's all about the glory of God. It's all about people deeming him worthy of honor and praise.
That's what it's all about. That's why you breathe is so that he might be deemed worthy of honor and praise. That's why you've got a mind that you might contemplate him and think, aha, I've thought on many things, but when I think on the things the Bible tells me about God, only he is worthy of all honor and praise.
I've got feet and I want to use them to serve him in my local church because only he is worthy of honor and praise. It's all about the glory of God. I've told you this before, you know God loves being God. He just loves being God. And he deems that he himself is worthy of all honor and praise.
Now listen, so if we do any less than what he deems is right, we're sinful because he can't do wrong. He can't choose to be crazy about, to be enamored with anything less than what's truly worthy of being crazy about or being enamored over. So we should be enamored with him. But here's the catch here, you need to learn about his purposes, learn what the Bible says about him as a person, learn about him what the Bible says about his wisdom, learn about him what the Bible says about his works and his acts, so that as you learn these things, the Spirit of God illumines your understanding and you go, man, I've never seen anything like this.
He is worthy of honor and praise. So let's go back and see how God has unfolded these things. So we're building on the preliminaries, God's great glory through Israel and our foes. I said it like this in the conference, there is one fully logical, fully appropriate, fully perfect, fully righteous desire in all the universe covering both time and eternity, and that is God's desire to glorify himself.
It's axiomatic. You can't be the one true God and not want to glorify yourself. It's self-evident that he should be the only one deemed worthy of honor and praise. He's the one true God, thrice holy, immutable, invisible, invincible.
He is the one of inestimable wisdom and beauty and power. He must be glorified. He is being glorified and he will be glorified both in time and in eternity because he's decreed it to be. Don't you think somehow God's missing? I know we used the phrase, and I'm not saying it's wrong because we have a difficulty putting words with the truths of how God works, but you know, we'd say that we've thrown God out of our country and we've thrown God out of our schools. And yes, that's true in a sense, but God hasn't been thrown anywhere. God doesn't disappear from anywhere that he don't leave on his own voluntary free will. If God's no longer in our country, it's because he said, I don't want any longer to be in your country.
He does what he decrees, and he's decreed to be glorified. It's an interesting passage of scripture. Our Lord said this before his death, and he's contemplating his coming death on the cross. And in John 12 verses 27 and 28, what a powerful truth this is to me. Jesus says, now my soul has become troubled.
He's speaking as a man, always a sinless man, but as a mortal as such. My soul has become troubled, what shall I say? Father save me from this hour? I'm not looking forward, and I don't want to be too speculative about what was in the mind of Christ, because we don't know what all is in the mind of Christ. We're not God. But he's facing the cross, and one would assume that the greatest apprehension in Christ's heart is, when I go to the cross, the Father will forsake me and turn his back on me, and I'm not relishing that.
Father, you know, what am I going to say about this? Because, you know, he and the Father planned this before the foundation of the world. Jesus didn't come to the earth, do good works, try to help us understand how to cure social justice, and then all of a sudden he died on a cross to show how unselfish he was.
Absolutely blasphemy. Every second of everything he did every day while he was in his incarnate state on the earth was foreordained by him and his Father before the worlds began. The ambulance or rather the cross is not an ambulance sent to the scene of an accident. The cross was foreordained by God. So he's saying, this is the purpose, isn't that what he says here? Verse 27, but for this purpose I came to this hour. So it's almost like Jesus grabs himself up, closed himself back in the divine purpose that he and his Father ordained, and said, all right, let's get on with what we're about.
What are we about? Father, glorify your name. Through what I'm about to do, Father, going to the cross, what matters, Father, is that you be deemed worthy of honor and praise. That if people, as people begin to grasp, as this mystery is unfolding, that I'm going to make men righteous, I'm going to make men truly pious ones, I'm going to make them truly godly ones, I'm going to make them become truly devout ones by my death for them.
They can't do it themselves, they can't achieve it in their own works and energies, but I'm going to do it for them. And Father, I just want to verbalize to you again, we know why we're doing this so that when mankind and even the angels watch this unfold, they will say, only he is worthy of honor and praise. Glorify.
That's what he means. Glorify your name. Name, of course, means the character of a person. Father, we're going to unfold something about the greatness of our love, our grace, our forgiveness, our mercy. We're going to unfold something about the character of who we are before people. Through this death, I'm going to die for the church.
And people are going to see more of who we are, and they're going to deem us worthy of honor and praise. And then the Father enters back to Jesus, the Son. Then a voice came out of heaven and said, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again. In an anthropomorphic package here, as we're seeing Jesus and the Father described as if they were humans.
They're not humans, but it's an anthropomorphic description of like humans would talk. The Son says, I know I came for this purpose. Oh, Father, that you would be glorified through it. And the Father says, oh, don't you worry about glorification. I'm all about glorifying myself.
I have been glorified, and I'm going to be glorified some more, because that's what God's all about. Now, folks, and this is the point. Here you sit on these church pews. What in the world are you doing here?
What in the world are you doing here? There better be one answer. Are you listening to your pastor?
There better be one answer. I'm sitting on this pew in Grace Life Church of the Shoals, because I am convinced on the basis of scriptural truth and the leadership of the Holy Spirit, I'm to be in this church family serving the Lord that my Lord might get glory. That's why your rear end is in that seat, so you can be a tool in God's hands to serve in this church for God's glory. I'm sorry, I said a word I shouldn't have said. I thought for a moment I was out at the deer camp with David Young. Sometimes it takes strong words when you hang out with David Young.
Do you get my point? Are you listening to your pastor this morning? I can't pamper and pet and prod and support and stroke your flesh and make Christianity easy enough so you can pursue all your lust for the world and be a Christian too. You got to be in here because you want to see your God glorified, and this is His ordained means to do it.
My job is to lash myself to this book and to lead our elders in this church so that we are thoroughly biblical, so that as you give yourself here, you're not involved in some counterfeit, faddish, flash-in-the-pan thing, but a real true biblical eternal ministry that'll bring glory to God. Can I just as a side note this morning say that I'm so glad, so so glad that God uses imperfect vessels. Do you know the times as your pastor I've had to repent, change course, say that that wasn't quite right, let's get it over here, and that wouldn't cry, we better get over here.
And to your credit, you've loved me and followed me through it, but don't get too righteous on me. You've done a bunch of repenting too on the journey and changing course, but isn't God good to we get over here in this ditch or get in the edge of it, and He yanks us back again. We overreact to our unbiblical excess over there, we run over here and about getting this ditch, and God yanks us back again, and lets us grow and mature enough together, so hopefully by this time instead of going to the ditch, we just kind of go that way, and then we go that way, and then we go that way, we don't get all the way over there. I believe that's where God has grace like church. We're still repenting, we're still growing, we're still learning, but we're not going way over there and way over there. We've got people in this church right now who are here because they're tired of going to congregations that are chasing one excessive unbiblical fad after the next. Are you here for the glory of God? That's the only thing that keeps me going, and I love you, and you're special because you are special. You're good to your pastor, and God will honor you and bless you for that, but you're not worth it.
You're just not worth it, but God's glory is, and see I want to love you because He loves you, and that glorifies Him. Well, Jesus said, Father, I'm headed to the cross, and this is the purpose we've ordained, and as I head to the cross, may you through what I'm about to do be deemed by so many people as worthy of honor and praise, and the Father said, oh don't worry about your son. I have been glorified, and I'm going to be glorified.
Through this turn of events, we're going to bring great honor and praise to our name. Now in the Old Testament, it's interesting, and I think Pharaoh in Egypt, and Israel as they were enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt, and then finally delivered, that whole narrative shows us something about God's great passion for His own glory. In Exodus 14 verse 4, God says, thus I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after them, and I will be honored through Pharaoh, and all of his army and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. God says, I've just decided I've had enough of the Egyptians worshiping the frog god, and all the pagan gods that they've been able to dream up, because they've dreamed up some pagan idols that serve their flesh, and God said, I've had enough of them deeming these idols are almighty and worthy of honor and praise. God says, I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he'll do a bunch of stuff, and in doing this stuff, it will be proven to Pharaoh and the Egyptians that I, the one true God Jehovah, am the only one worthy of honor and praise.
That's what he's saying. So you know how it unfolds. Plague comes upon Egypt. Plague comes because Pharaoh would not let the children of Israel go free, and a plague would come, and Pharaoh will say, okay, time out Moses, time out. Go get Moses. I've got to talk to him.
I've had enough of these frogs everywhere, and these gnats everywhere. All right Moses, you can go do what God told you to do. Then Pharaoh would think it about a little bit. God would harden his heart, and he said, no, I'm not going to let you go.
I'm going to hang on to you. Exodus 11, verse 9, then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh knows the things that are coming upon him came from a God other than the idols he serves in Egypt, and I'm going to keep sending these things on Pharaoh and on the Egyptians, so they'll know that the God of Moses, Jehovah, is worthy and deemed worthy of honor and praise, not their idols. I mean God played the Pharaoh and all the Egyptians like a master conductor leads an orchestra, all to the end of his own glory, honor, and praise. Now here's Israel within Egypt, and God's told Moses some very specific things. He says, Moses, I have a prescribed way I want my people to worship me and bring me glory. Here's what you're to do. You're to leave Egypt three days journey. You're to take the men and the little ones and all your livestock, and go sacrifice to me out there in the wilderness.
That's kind of peculiar to me, is it not to you? Why three days journey? Why not four?
Why not a day and a half? Why not part of the livestock, but maybe not all the livestock? Why not leave the little ones and the women back? And you know, there's a lot of things, and that's the way the church is today. We begin to think through God's commands and think we're smarter than God. There's a lesson in here for the church. There's a lesson in here for the church. You know, God said, Moses, three days journey, take the men and the little ones, which included the women, take all the livestock and sacrifice.
That's the way I want you to worship me and glorify me. Well, some plagues came, and you know what Pharaoh did? Pharaoh said, okay, all right, all right, I'm going to let you go, but only the men can go. The little ones and the wives, they can't go. The livestock can't go. I'm not going to risk losing all of this. And I'm giving you some Jeff Noblitt amplification Bible right now.
This didn't really happen. It wasn't said this way, but in effect, Moses says, Pharaoh, you don't understand something. God ordains how we worship Him. God ordains how we serve Him.
I don't get the right, Pharaoh, to devise a plan that makes the culture happy. God said, go three days journey. God said, take the men and the women and the little ones. God said, take all the livestock, and that's the only way we can do it.
Do it that way or not at all. Pharaoh said, well, ain't none of you going there. God sent in some more plagues. Pharaoh's humbled, but then God hardens his heart, and so he decides, okay, here's what you can do. You can take the men, you can take the little ones, but you can't take any of the livestock. Moses, in effect, says, Pharaoh, you don't understand something. God has no plan B. God said, go three days journey, take the men and the little ones, which would include the ladies, take all the livestock.
Pharaoh said, you're not going there. Well, finally, we have the final plague. Remember the final plague? The death angel comes to Egypt in the night. And the death angel visits every household in Egypt, and the firstborn in every household is killed by the death angel. But God told the children of Israel to take the blood of a spotless lamb and put it on the doorpost in the middle, and every house where the blood was applied, what a picture of Jesus, every house where the blood was applied, the death angel passed over and didn't visit that home, and the Israelite children were not killed. After that plague, then Pharaoh finally said, okay, Moses, you can go, the men can go, the little ones can go, and all the lives can go, get out of here.
So they go. God hardened his heart again, and what did he do? After they're already out there, he thought, you know what, I've lost a lot of free labor and a lot of wealth in livestock.
I just can't afford to lose this, so he sends his army after them. You know how the story goes. Moses lifted up his rod by the Red Sea, the waters parted on the Red Sea, and the children of Israel passed through on dry land, and then after they passed through, the Egyptian army chased after them, and the waters closed up over the whole Egyptian army and drowned them all. The old liberal scholars say, well, it wasn't really the Red Sea, it was called a Sea of Reeds, and it wasn't really high water, just kind of like a little marshy place, and the wind kind of blew the marsh, marshy waters back, and let them walk through on dry land. Well, how in heaven's name did God drown the whole Egyptian army in a little old marsh?
Anyway, after God delivered Israel through the Red Sea, after he killed all the Egyptian army, then Moses got together, and Moses began to sing a song, and he led the children of Israel in this song. In one of the verses, Exodus 15 11, is, who is like thee among the gods, O Lord? Who is like thee majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?
In other words, you alone are worthy of honor and praise. God's getting glory. So he gets glory through Egypt, and he gets glory through his children of Israel, but in all ways, God is getting the glory of Israel.
But in all ways, God is getting the glory. Then God gives the law. They get settled out there, and they're trying to set up their life as a new nation, and God sends Moses up on Mount Sinai, and God gives him the law up on Mount Sinai. And the law was given to Israel for one primary purpose, to bless them, yes. But the people of the other nations could see how they walk in God's law, and they can see that it's superior to their laws.
It's more ethical, it's more upright, it's holy, it has a righteousness to it. A lot like sacrificing children to Molech. That was very common in this day, and many of the pagan nations worship the idol Molech, and they would sacrifice their babies to this idol. But God forbid, in Leviticus, chapter 20, God prohibited Israel for performing such child sacrifices.
Why? Because he said, because you serve a God that's ethical. You serve a God that's morally upright, and people will see the superiority of your God when you do not act as they act.
You act according to my laws. So God says, I'm going to get great glory through my children Israel, and I'm even going to get great glory through her enemies and her foes. Now, Roman numeral two, and we'll chop this thing off in just a moment, finish it next week. The great glory pointed to the greater glory, Christ in His church. All that was happening to Israel, and all that was happening to the Egyptians that would cause men, pagans, and the Israelites to say, only He is worthy of honor and praise.
When we see His wisdom, when we see something of His beauty, when we see something of His power, only He's worthy of honor and praise. But all of that was pointing to the greater glory God was going to bring to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, coming to the earth, unveiling, revealing Himself on earth, and saving His church. In Mark 9, 5 through 7, the Bible says, And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, it's good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Now, they're on the Mount of Transfiguration, and it was a terrifying event. The glory of God just enveloped the whole scene, and Peter and the disciples are just terrified.
Peter, reminds me of me a little bit, spoke up trying to say something. So let's just build three tabernacles. Let's just do three special things. Moses has appeared here, supernatural. Let's build one for Moses.
Elijah's appeared here, supernatural. Let's build one for Elijah, and let's build one for you, Jesus. Verse 6, for he did not know what to answer, for they became terrified.
Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, this is my beloved son, listen to him. Moses spoke for me, but he's not my beloved son. Moses is on this level right here. I want you to listen to the one that makes Moses devout. I want you to listen to the one that makes Moses a truly pious one. I want you to listen to the one who makes Moses a true godly one, and that's my son, Jesus Christ.
He's on a different level. He's gonna, I glorified myself through Moses, I glorified myself through Elijah, but I'm going to glorify myself through my son in greater ways than you'll ever fathom. Listen to him. John 1 45, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. He's saying everything that happened in the five, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament and all the prophetic writings pointed to this one, the one of greatest glory, Jesus Christ. John 5 46, for if you believed Moses you would believe me, for he wrote of me. He said everything Moses did was to point to me. While the old preacher said one day before he got to preach, he said, all right take out your hymn book. They all grabbed their music, hymnals, and he said, no, no, I mean the Bible, it's all about him. From Genesis 1 1 to the end of Revelation, it's all about Jesus, it's the hymn book. And that's what that's what Jesus is saying here.
Everything in the Old Testament pointed to me. Hebrews 3 3, for he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. Now you got to understand something, that's a powerful statement for a Jew. Nothing was greater than Moses who gave us the law, except the one who created Moses, except the one who was God incarnate, who would die and pay for the sins of Moses. For he's been counted worthy of more glory than Moses by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. And he's been counted worthy of more glory than Moses more honor than the house.
Moses was a part of the house, Jesus is the builder of the house. So as we pause here, as we're treading into with, we were over here and we're dealing with Egypt and Israel of old, and we were in about knee-deep water. Well that's a fitting illustration for today, isn't it? We're in about knee-deep water. He says, now I'm about to unveil and unfold something I'm doing through my son, my beloved son, and it's not knee-deep, it's not even waist-deep, it's not chest-deep, it's not chin-deep, you just got to dive in and swim in this water.
It's greater than all the other. Now young lady, listen to me this morning. Young man, listen to me this morning.
Single adult, middle-aged, middle-aged, senior, listen to me this morning. You came here this morning to come to church, and I've given you Jesus. What are you going to do with him? Have you embraced him? Do you know you're a truly pious one? Because you know that you know I put all my confidence and hope in Jesus Christ. You better not go to heaven one day, or listen, let me put this, you better not face God one day and said, I did what brother Jeff told me to do.
I jumped through this hoop and that hoop. I'm not telling you jump through, I'm telling you turn to Jesus. Turn to Jesus. In faith from your heart, embrace Jesus Christ.
He's greater than Moses. Cash in your counterfeit church membership and embrace Jesus. Cash in that hollow trust in baptism and trust Jesus.
Cash in clinging to works. Well I've cleaned up my life, I tried to give tithes, get rid of it. And take Jesus. He is the mystery of godliness. He's the one that makes you truly godly in the eyes of God. All take Jesus, take Jesus, take Jesus, take Jesus.
And he is mighty to save. If you turn to him, he will in no wise cast you out, the Bible says. If you'll believe in him, the Bible promises you will not be disappointed. Now if you believe in Baptist methods, you're going to be disappointed. If you believe in Episcopalian methods, you're going to be disappointed. If you believe in Methodist methods, you'll be disappointed. But if you'll put your trust in Jesus. If you're believing in, well I walked down the aisle, that's not all bad, but that can't get you into heaven, that just gets you down here to these steps that will burn in the judgment. There's no magic spot down here that gets you to Jesus.
It comes from your heart believing in Jesus. Only Jesus. Only Jesus. He is better than Moses.
Everything. He is the mystery of godliness. He makes you righteous in the eyes of God. Now here's what you bring to Jesus. Filth, rot, wretched, vile, worthless sins and total moral bankruptcy.
That's the only money He takes. Hey, you don't want your silly self-righteousness. You just come to Him bankrupt as a sinner. Say, oh Jesus, would you take me? Yes, I've been trying to get you to realize you're the only kind I do take when you see yourself as a wretched unworthy sinner. Come, you sinners, seek His grace whose wrath you cannot bear. Flee to the shelter of the cross and find salvation there. Maybe you're visiting today, I don't know, and you think, well I'll just go to church this morning and you ran into me. And you're not sure what that train looked like that just ran over you. But I can tell you this, I love you and I care for you. If somehow the Holy Spirit of God can rattle you up, rattle your life so that you'll see that I need Christ, then it's worth every fiber of my being to see you get there.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-02-06 01:40:18 / 2024-02-06 01:57:37 / 17