The Mystery of Godliness

Where you get the power to say no to sin and yes to right is by the instruction of grace. Dr. Tony Evans says the secret of becoming godly is found in what Jesus Christ offers. He is the master key that opens up the lock to godliness. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative.

There are some great foods out there that simply can't be made when the recipe omits a key ingredient. Likewise, godliness will never be realized in our lives if we leave out the essential component. Today, Dr. Evans explores just what that special ingredient is as he unveils the mystery of godliness. Let's join him. Common confession means everybody's saying the same thing, everybody understanding it the same way.

It's common to everybody. So I want to explain to this fellowship the mystery. Whatever this mystery is, it's a beast, because he says great is the mystery. He says there is a mystery about godliness that was unclear in the Old Testament, that now has been made clear in the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 8, we're coming right back here to 1 Timothy, but Hebrews chapter 8 is one place that summarizes this. In verse 6 of Hebrews 8, it says, But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, but as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. Verse 10, For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law into their minds, I will write them on their hearts, I will be their god, they will be my people.

They shall not teach everyone his fellow citizens and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all will know me, from the least of the two, the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their iniquities, I will remember their sins no more. When he said a new covenant, New Testament, he has made the first obsolete, Old Testament, but whatever is becoming obsolete is growing old, is ready to disappear. So, God says, I'm making a new arrangement, covenant, testament, that will make obsolete the Old Testament covenant, and the New Testament covenant is better than the Old Testament covenant. Which means, if you're living in the Old Testament, you're missing the New Testament. If you're living in the Old Testament, you're living under something that has been made obsolete.

Now, I'll explain what that means in a moment, because of something better that has come along. The mystery between the two covenants, Old Testament, New Testament, is a mystery related to how you become godly. It's the mystery of godliness.

It's the mysterious understanding of how we consistently are to reflect the character of God in our lives. In the Old Covenant testament, you were told what you must do, and you were told it negatively. Let's take the Ten Commandments, which is a summary of the Old Covenant. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. So you were told in a negative way what you ought not do in the Old Covenant. But in Hebrews 8, the scripture we just read, we went from you must and you shouldn't to I will. He says, in the New Covenant, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. In the Old Covenant, you better not, you better not, you better not, you better not, you better not.

He says that the New Covenant, which is a mystery because it wasn't revealed fully in the Old Testament, is better. Many years ago, before the advancement of technology, your grandparents or great-grandparents cleaned their clothes with a scrubbing board. They got the scrubbing board out, they got the pail of water, and they would scrub and scrub and scrub to make dirty clothes clean.

And every week, or how often they did it, they would have to roll up their sleeves because they were trying to make something dirty, clean, for their children themselves or their mate to wear. And the way they did it was by scrubbing the mess out. Then along came washing machines. The goal of the washing machine was the very same goal of the scrubbing board, but the power to pull off is different. The scrubbing board that grandmother used to use depended on elbow grease and her ability to go up and down, up and down, wring it out, twist it.

Then came another piece, go up and down, up and down. The power to get it clean depended on her. But in the New Covenant called the washing machine versus the Old Covenant called the scrubbing board, while the purpose was the same, the power was different. Because the power to get it clean was residing in the machine, not in the elbow grease of grandma. The Old Covenant is elbow grease.

It's, I'm gonna make myself better, I'm gonna stop doing this, I'm gonna try to do better, I promise. I rededicate, then I rededicate my rededication that I rededicated the last time I rededicated. And so I'm scrubbing and I'm scrubbing and I'm trying and I'm trying and I'm getting tired because every week I gotta clean this thing up again. That's the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is the washing machine. Which means that the power in the New Covenant, the washing machine, is greater than the power in the Old Covenant, my elbows. Because the washing machine, New Covenant, was built in such a way that it has more power to clean things than my effort can ever do on my own. I dare say, once grandma got a washing machine, she discarded her scrubbing board. Because to go back to the scrubbing board was now to go back to something obsolete.

It was to go back to something that would not produce what this new thing, this new invention. If cleanliness is used for godliness under the New Covenant, which is better than the Old Covenant, it's what God will do, not what you do. One of the problems is Christians who dance between covenants. They use the washing machine this week and the board that week. The washing machine this week and the board that week. And they wonder why some weeks I'm really clean, godly, and other weeks I'm not so clean, godly, because you're shifting covenants. He said, once you have a washing machine, you do not go back to the board. You don't go back there, because to go back there is to retreat to something inferior. And that's why it's a mystery, because it was not clear like this in the Old Testament.

Let's go a little further. He says, under this mystery that's awesome, he calls it great, and it has to do with being godly. That is, lifestyles consistent with the manifestation character of God, he says, has to do with a person.

Please notice. He says in 1 Timothy 3 verse 16, He was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among nations, believed on in the world, taken of the glory. So he speaks about Jesus Christ. He never wrote a song, but there are more songs written about him than any other human being that's ever lived. He never wrote a book, yet his book has sold more than every other book, and there have been more books written about him than any other person who has ever lived. He is proclaimed worldwide, believed on in the world, and that's why on Sunday in churches all around the world, they are there to give recognition to Jesus Christ because of his uniqueness, taken up the glory that is, having raised from the dead, ascended up to heaven, seated on the right hand of the Father, in a position of exaltation.

This is the mysterious one. The mystery of becoming godly is centered on the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. He is, if you will, the master key that opens up the lock to godliness, to being godly.

Stick with me now. Godliness is not tied merely to your belief in God. Godliness is tied to the mysterious one, or the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.

He is the centerpiece of understanding what it means to be godly and the enablement to use the washing machine, and no longer the scrubbing board. Now everyone here who's a Christian, who's received Jesus Christ as their sin-bearer, should want to become godly. The one thing God has put in you is the desire to be godly, which means that you hate the point that you are not godly. Now if you love being ungodly, then you need to raise a whole other question, and that is whether Christ is living in you. Because the one thing that comes with salvation is a desire to be godly even if you are ungodly.

I may have the addiction, but I hate that I have it, and I want to get rid of it even if I fail to get rid of it, that's all. Because there is this desire to be godly. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment to share the mystery ingredient in godliness.

Don't go away. Even though we love for life to be pleasant and happy all the time, that's just not how life works. We will have difficult seasons of life, winter seasons. As Crystal Hurst and Priscilla Shire explore in the new Lois Evans Legacy Bible study, Seasons of a Woman's Life. The winter season is also an opportunity for you to be driven into the safe place, and for you to find that you can, even in that difficult season, take refuge in Him.

Get your copy of this powerful book, workbook, and DVD series now with your generous gift to the Urban Alternative. Find out more about Seasons of a Woman's Life when you visit us at TonyEvans.org. And while you're there, be sure to check out Tony's popular book, God Himself. It's a probing look at the many characteristics that make the Lord who He is.

His nature, His goodness, His love, and much more. We serve an infinite God, so there's always more to learn. But Tony says the deeper our understanding, the richer our worship.

And since we're made in God's image, knowing who He is defines who we are. We'd like to send you a copy of this book as our thank you gift when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Along with it, we'll include all four full-length messages in Tony's current teaching series, In Pursuit of Godliness. It's a deep dive into the meaning and mystery of godliness, and we'll give you the motivation and means of living a more excellent life. Get all the details at TonyEvans.org or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Right now, let's join Dr. Evans for Part 2 of today's lesson. The mystery of godliness is tied now to the person of Jesus Christ.

Now, how is it tied? Titus chapter 2, verses 11 and following. For the grace of God, verse 11, has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness, there's our word, and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly, there's our word again, in this present age. He says the grace of God has appeared. It appeared when Jesus appeared. In John 1 it says, The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So with the appearance of Jesus came the appearance of grace. It's not that grace didn't exist in the Old Testament, it's that when the New Testament opens up and Jesus is introduced on the scene, the grace of God has now appeared to all men. And now it is universal in its expression. Many people don't know it, but they go back to the Old Covenant every time they go back to self-help.

Every time they go to, I promise I'm not going to do it anymore. That's Old Covenant talk, that's Old Covenant thought, because it depends on you. He says the grace of God has appeared. Romans 6.14 says you are no longer under the Mosaic law, you are now under grace.

And it has appeared in a person, Jesus Christ. He says where you get the power to say no to sin and yes to right is by the instruction of grace. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, He who knew no sin became sin for us, bore our sins on the cross, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Let me say it another way. On the cross, Jesus died on credit. Jesus never sinned.

He was a perfect being. So what God did is He took all the sins of the world, bundled them together, and put them on Jesus so Jesus was credited with our sin. That's what took Him to the cross, and that's what killed Him. He didn't die because of His sin, He died because our sin was credited to His account. So He had to pay the bill.

When He paid the bill, His last word was testelestai, which means it is finished, paid in full. Everybody, watch this, who accepts Jesus, the righteousness of Christ, was credited to His account. Well, how much righteousness is that? That's righteousness that fulfilled all the requirements of the Old Testament. So the law that condemns you and me has already been fulfilled in Jesus. But when you accepted Jesus, God credited the righteousness of Christ onto your account. So you not only go to heaven on credit, but the righteousness that God expects you to live as a godly Christian, you also have credited to you. In other words, the righteousness you're looking for, you already have. Most Christians who are serious Christians, we're not failing because we don't know what's right, we're failing with powerlessness to pull it off, which means one thing, watch this, that Christ in us has not been expanded.

Okay, watch this. When a woman gets pregnant, she has the life within her, but in order for that life to be revealed, that life must grow inside of her. And you know when that life is growing, because her belly is getting bigger, the life inside that was only a little teeny seed once it got fertilized, now begins to expand and take over room inside of her belly.

You can accept Jesus as savior, but if there is no expansion of Christ inside of us, Christ in us, the scripture says, which is the hope of glory, if there is no expansion of the life, that's why you will discover how to expand the life within so that you're living more godly without. Because just hearing more sermons on, you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that, you shouldn't do that. The Old Testament was you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do. The New Covenant was done, done, done, done, and done.

It's taking something already done and magnifying it, not whipping yourself up. That's why when we hear a sermon, you get all whipped up. Okay, I'm ready to live for God now. I'm ready to serve God now. I'm ready to get rid of this addiction now.

I promise I'm not gonna do that anymore now. And you get whipped up in the flesh. You get whipped up because you get all excited. And less than 24 hours later, die down. Because you were influenced from the outside without any change on the inside.

If the baby's not growing inside, it doesn't matter how whipped up you get on the outside. And that's why you can go to church and not change. Jesus Christ brought grace out of the shadows and into the public square for the purpose of transforming us. The only thing I wanted you to understand now was the mystery. The mystery is Christ in you. God revealed in the flesh inside of you. And the job of the Holy Spirit is to make the indwelling Christ expand within you so that you are naturally becoming more godly. You're not scrubbing it.

You're putting it in the washing machine and getting cleansed by it. God wants to reveal His mystery within each of us, but there's a requirement on our part. It begins with acknowledging and receiving it.

Dr. Tony Evans is here with a word about how to start. If you've been listening to the broadcast and you have yet to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, we can resolve that right now. I'm going to say a little prayer. I want you to pray it after me, but you've got to mean it for yourself. Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner, and I know I need a Savior because I can't save myself. So right now, I trust You alone because You died for me and arose for me to be my sin-bearer. You are now my substitute, and I'm believing You to forgive my sin and to give me eternal life. Thank You for the free gift of salvation that You have given to me.

Help me to live a life to please You. In Jesus' name, amen. Welcome to the family, and we'll keep ministering to you for your spiritual growth through our broadcast. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer right now, let me encourage you to visit TonyEvans.org and follow the link that says Jesus.

There you can download some free follow-up resources that'll help you get your brand-new life started right. Well, today's lesson was the second in Tony's current series, In Pursuit of Godliness. Don't forget, all four full-length messages in this collection can be yours with our thanks if you'll help us keep bringing you Tony's teaching each day with your generous contribution. You'll receive the complete series on CD and downloadable MP3s, and as a special bonus, you'll also receive Tony's popular book, God Himself, A Journey Through His Attributes. To take advantage of this limited-time offer, be sure to call for details 1-800-800-3222.

Resource team members are on hand 24-7 to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Or make the arrangements and get your digital downloads right away at TonyEvans.org. Again, that's TonyEvans.org. Having a lifestyle that's consistent with the character of God sounds like a great idea, but it may be easier said than done. On Monday, Dr. Evans will tell us how we can turn godliness from an abstract theory into an absolute reality. Right now, though, he's back with this thought-provoking story. There was a man one day, a father who loved his son. His son died. The father had drawn up a will, and so when the father died, the lawyer came, read the will that all of his expensive things are to be auctioned. So he came, and the auctioneer said, the first piece that we're going to bring out is a picture of the man's son. He says, do I have a bid? Well, nobody bid it, because they didn't come for that.

They didn't come for an old picture of the boy. They came for some expensive art pieces and all these artifacts and stuff, so nobody was bidding. Out of the shadows from the back of the room came an old man, and the old man said, sir, I was the servant of the man who died, and if nobody will take the picture of the boy, I want to know if I can have it. The auctioneer said, one more time, is there anyone who will bid on the picture of the son? Nobody bid it. He said, sir, you may have the picture to the servant. Then he picked up the gavel, hit the gavel down, and said, the auction is over.

Everybody's looking around, saying, what? You haven't brought out any of the expensive pieces that are supposed to be auctioned off? How can the auction be over? He said, let me read the will.

The will said, you are to auction off all of my expensive properties, starting with a picture of my son, and whoever gets the picture of my son gets everything else in my estate, because I value my son so highly that he, that half the son, gets everything else. We're going around looking for everything else. We want this. We want that. We want this book. We want this person. We want this trick.

We want this trade. Give me this. I'll pay for that. Let me watch this television show. Let me go to this place. This'll fix me. That'll fix me. This other thing will fix me. And God is out here standing and saying, I have come to give you life and to give it to you more abundantly, because he that hath the son hath the life, the godly life that I have prescribed. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.