All right, well, good morning again, and open your Bibles, please, to the letter of 1 Timothy. This morning we'll be reading 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14 through 16. 

I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long. 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. 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. 

We've come to the heart of this letter, the part of the letter where Paul tells the purpose statement. Here's why he wrote this letter. And it's not only the heart of the letter, but what's in this passage describes what should be held at the heart of your being. And so it's actually a very fitting message for the Lord's Supper. We've come here to observe the Lord's Supper together after we hear from his word. 

And The topic of the passage is godliness, godly living. And that's actually what the letter's about. So when he tells the purpose of why he wrote this letter, he really sums up godly living. So this morning, what I wanna give you is two glimpses into godly living. a glimpse into the purpose of godly living and a glimpse into the source of godly living. 

So the purpose, what is godly living for? And that's found in verse 14 and 15. And then the source, where does godliness come from? And that's in verse 16. And whatever your struggle for godliness, and you know what it is, maybe it comes from chapter three and the discussion that Paul had about the requirements for elders and deacons and deacons' wives. Maybe it's all that it means to be a one-woman man in every aspect of your being, or peaceable, or not a slanderer, or not a gossip, and that's the struggle with godliness. Or maybe it comes from chapter two, where we're commanded to be devoted to prayer. Or maybe it comes from chapter one, where it just simply says the goal of all of our instruction is love. All of those are a part of what it means to be godly and to have a godly life. 

And it's easy to get discouraged. and to lose the threat and to say, what's the point of this? Or do I really have what it takes to follow through on pursuing godliness in this way? And so I hope both of these will be a help and encouragement to you to look from this passage about the purpose of godliness and then also about the source of godliness. 

So first, the purpose of godliness, and that's found in verses 14, 15. I should say a glimpse into the purpose of godliness. There's more purposes than this, but this is one of them. So verse 14 and 15, let me read it. So Paul says, why he's writing this letter. He says, I'm writing these things to you. That's the letter of First Timothy. And I'm hoping to come to you soon, but in case I'm delayed, that's why I'm writing. So Paul did make plans, travel plans, but his travel plans were always subject to the will of God. And so Paul didn't know what each day would bring and where the Holy Spirit would send him for each day. Paul would have rather given the contents of this letter to Timothy in person. He says that, I'm writing these things hoping to come to you before long, but it's in case I'm delayed. that I'm writing you this letter." So if Paul had his preference, he would have just sat down with Timothy eye to eye and his heart was full of everything that was in this letter. And he could have just talked to Timothy and the letter would have come out. And that's what Paul preferred. But he says, in case I'm delayed, I wrote it and I sent it so that Timothy would have this right away. 

So he says this, and I'm writing, he says why he writes now, and then why he writes what he writes here. 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. He says, I'm writing to tell you about conduct, conduct in the church. And this letter has mostly to do with right conduct. The letters in the New Testament often will have a section on doctrine and then a practical section, sometimes it's kind of evenly divided. This letter, it has doctrine in it. as well, but it's mainly about conduct. It's mainly about the conduct in the church. 

And do you remember the problem? It's kind of traced out in chapter one of this letter and why Paul sent Timothy here, why Paul sent this letter after him as well. The gospel should be at the center of the church ministry. The gospel tells of what Christ has done for you graciously. And that should not just be compartmentalized somewhere, well that's a section where we talk about how we're saved. That should actually touch everything that's involved in the life of the church. It should touch your view of God, how you view him every day, and it should touch how you serve him, how you obey him. 

And instead of the gospel being at the center, Of everything in this church in Ephesus, the gospel was pushed aside. Remember the teachers came in, the false teachers, and they didn't want to be teachers of the gospel, they wanted to be teachers of the law. And so they emphasized and made something the center, something that's much more natural to the human heart, something much more familiar. which is the principle of law. And the gospel was shunted to the side. Christ was shunted to the side. 

And so Paul came to this church in crisis. He came recently before this letter had been written. And I think he kind of straightened out the problem with the teaching of the church. There were some people who left the church. There were some people who were put under church discipline, leaders as well. And I think Paul saw to it that gospel ministry was restored to the church. But he knew it was going to take some time for the conduct to match the gospel. When the gospel was put to the side, godliness was put to the side as well. And instead of seeking to follow Christ, people got caught up in seeking to win arguments. with one another and fruitless discussions as well. 

And so Paul not only straightened out the teaching that was going to take place at the church, but he also left Timothy there. And Timothy was to remind them of the conduct that fits the gospel and to instruct them in the conduct that fits the gospel. He was to take the time to correct their bad habits and instill in them new habits, or maybe I should say old habits. from when the gospel was front and center at this church. 

So Paul says, I'm writing to you, it's urgent that I write to you, I'd like to do it in person, but I'm writing this letter in case I get delayed. And what I want to write to you about is conduct. And that's why there's so much about Timothy being an example to this church of right conduct and appointing leaders who are going to be examples of right conduct as well. I'm writing so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself. in the household of God, which is the church of the living God. 

Now, when Paul says, I'm writing so that you'll know how a person is to conduct himself in the house of God and in the church, there is a wrong impression today that can, come into your mind, and that is this, that he's writing about how we should conduct ourselves when we're together in this building. Writing to tell how one should conduct himself in the church of God, and you can think of a building, or the house of God, he says that too, and you can think of a building. I don't think that would have been a problem, that misconception would have been a problem in the time that this was written, because churches didn't own property. back then. They just met in somebody's house and didn't own a church together. And so I don't think they had expressions like we do, like when I'm at church or in church. We are the church. And they understood that. from that. 

I should say I'm all for churches owning property. I think that's actually a help today. But I think it's sometimes good to remember that in New Testament times, the churches did not own property. And so they probably didn't need to remind each other that the church is not a building. but it's a people that would have been very obvious to them. 

So when Paul says here, I'm writing so that you'll know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, what he's talking about certainly includes what we do when we're all in this building together, but it also includes when any of us are together anywhere, and it includes what we do when we are apart from one another. We are the house of God. We are the church of the living God. And so Paul writes for how we as the church are to conduct ourselves. 

And so when Paul talks about conduct in the house of God, he's not talking so much about a house as what lives in a house, which is a family, a household. And so he's saying, this is how you're to conduct yourself if you're part of this family, if you're part of this household. And that's why he's writing this letter. Okay. So he writes, for how one ought to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. And then he puts this final picture, this final picture, and this is where you get. a purpose, a glimpse into the purpose of godliness, of conducting ourselves in a godly way as the church, is because he calls the church, this is the final picture, the household of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. That's what the church is. And so when we're behaving as the church, when we're acting in a godly way as the church ought to act, when we're acting as the family of God, we are a pillar and support of the truth. And that's the purpose of godliness, or a glimpse into the purpose of godliness. 

Now, this verse, especially this part of the verse, is a favorite of Roman Catholic theologians, and they have a different view of the church. They have a different view of authority, and this was hammered out in the Protestant Reformation where it became really clear the difference between two views of where authority resides. It didn't start out that way. That's not how the Reformation started, but it got there really quick when they had two different understandings of salvation. They said, well, what's your authority? What's your authority? And it became clear that those on the Roman Catholic side were saying, well, the authority is scripture, but it's also the church. It's what the church says. It's just as authoritative as scripture. And those who had the true gospel and recovered the true gospel and were resting on it, it took them a little while, not long, to figure out. You know, this comes only from the Bible. It doesn't come from the church. In fact, the church has corrupted it.

So there's a difference in authority. And so for us, on the Protestant side, the Bible is the infallible authority. That's it. The truth. For them, it's the Bible. And the church, so what the church teaches, like what the Pope teaches or what the church hierarchy teaches is equally authoritative and tradition is an authority for them. And they'll point to this passage, see the church here is the pillar and support of the truth. And so they say the church must be infallible. because the truth can't rest on a fallible foundation. Church is the pillar and support of the truth. And so they'll point to this verse and say, it's the church, not the Bible, that's the final arbiter of truth, and you all have it backwards. You're saying that the church rests on the pillar of the truth, the Bible, but it's actually the other way around. The church is the pillar and support of the truth.

Well, they misunderstand the picture that Paul's making. I misunderstand the point of the picture that he's making when he calls the church the pillar and support of the truth. By making this picture, Paul's saying, he's not saying that the church originates the truth or invents the truth or alters the truth or adds to it. The church doesn't do any of that. What he's saying is the church holds up the truth for the world to see. The church displays the truth so that it can be seen. And the illustration that I think of for this is a engagement ring for a woman. It has a diamond and the gold ring and the gold setting. shows the diamond for the world to see, and that way is a pillar and support of the diamond that's there. It doesn't mean that the golds originated the diamond, it actually didn't, but it sets it forth in order that it might be displayed. And that's actually important to the whole point of an engagement ring, for what it does, the point isn't just for that diamond to exist, or even to be owned by the wife, But the point is for the world to see it. And the people know that she's married, of course, when they see the engagement ring. And the world won't see it. unless it's in that setting. So it'll be a loose diamond rattling around in a jewelry box or something like that, unless the gold ring acts as the pillar and the foundation for it to set it forth. Not to make it what it is, but to set it forth.

And this is why godly conduct is so important in this household, in this family. It's not just for you. It's not just for us, it's because of what the church is. The church is what sets the truth on display for the watching world. And so your struggle with godliness. how you're to conduct yourself when you're part of the family of God, and you struggle with that, and sometimes you fail to live as you should live as part of the family of God. It's not just for you. It's not just for you. And it's not just for us that would be easier to live with one another, but it's for those outside of the church as well, because the church is the pillar and support of the truth. In fact, it's the only pillar. and support of the truth in that sense. No one is gonna hear the truth or see the truth if we don't present it to them. There's no charity or government program that is gonna give the gospel. That's the church that is what the Lord has put in place in order to do that. So this is why godliness is important. this is a purpose of godliness, is to be a pillar and support of the truth. 

Now in saying that, I'm not confused as to what causes a soul to be transformed. It's not our lifestyle or our example that's gonna cause an unsaved soul to be transformed, it's the truth. that we present to them, the truth of the gospel itself. That's the seed that causes the new life. It's not just the people watching our lives and then it rubs off on them. But when the message of the gospel The message of undeserved love, that's what the gospel is, and holiness as well. When that's presented to someone, when it's given to them with a heart of love to them when they're undeserving, and a life of holiness as well that is on display, that is through and through with us, and a heart of worship to God, it's powerful. It's powerful. and it's something beautiful as well. It's like the proverb, chapter 25, verse 11, like apples of gold and settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances. And that reminds me of the way in which the gospel should be spoken in something that's fitting. And it sets forth the gospel in the way that it should be set forth in that way. 

So that's a glimpse into the purpose of godliness. And it's a nature of the gospel itself that it's reaching out always to the unworthy. That was something that got kind of eclipsed at this church, the gospel itself. And because of that, they became a bit insular. And so Paul's, first thing Paul tells them, you need to pray for salvation. And then he tells them here, you need to conduct yourself in the house of God as a Christian should in a holiness and do it in order to put the gospel on display to others as well. So that's part of the purpose of godliness, is to put the truth on display. 

So where does this godliness come from? Where does this godliness come from? And as Paul is touching on his purpose, restoring this godliness to the church and what it's for, so the church might be a pillar and support of the truth, he also tells where this godliness comes from. And so a glimpse into the source of this godliness as well.

Verse 16, by common confession, Great is the mystery of godliness. And I'll stop there. There's more to it. We'll get to that as well. But he says, by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness.

There's kind of a... slogan-like quality to this verse. Great is the mystery of godliness. It's kind of a triumphant ring to this, and it reminds me of the, remember the mob that formed when Paul was actually in this city of Ephesus that he wrote this letter to, and the silversmiths stirred up a bunch of the people, and then they started chanting, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, and they were impressed with her great power.

And so it's almost as if Paul is saying, and they might be remembering that, say, no, not great is Artemis of the Ephesians, but great is the mystery of godliness. That's the power that you should be impressed with, this great is the mysteryness, sorry, the mystery of godliness. We will talk about the mysteryness, that's a good, I should have made that part of my outline.

Great is the mystery of godliness, and that's what they should be impressed with as well. In other words, if you know this mystery, if you know this mystery, it's not gonna be a small help to you, it's gonna be a great help to you in godliness. Great is the mystery of godliness.

So what is mystery? We talked about this last time, because one of the requirements for a deacon is he's to be holding to the mystery of the gospel with a clean conscience. So we talked about it there as well. 

The Greek word for mystery is mystery. It's mysterion. It sounds the same as mystery and so a lot of times the translators will just carry it over. It's kind of a safe thing to do. Let's just use the same English word as is there in the Greek and that's good because it lets you know about this word and it's an important one in the New Testament. The problem is that the Greek word mystery doesn't mean exactly the same thing. as the English word mystery. In fact, there's a way in which it means something quite different. 

The English word mystery means something that's difficult or even impossible to understand. So you might talk about the mysteries of outer space, and it's mysterious. We're never gonna understand it totally, because we can hardly see it out there, and understand how it all works. And so that's how we would use mystery, something unclear, something that is difficult to make clear. 

The Greek word for mystery means simply this, something that can't be known unless it's told. When it is told, you know it, and you know it totally, and it could be something really simple, but it's something that can't be known unless it's told. So a good translation for it. would be a secret revealed, a secret revealed. That's what a mystery means. So it means it's something where there's not enough clues given to figure it out and to kind of reason your way to it and say, well, I know this and I know this. And if I put two and two together and it makes four, now I got it. That's not a mystery. That's not that kind of knowledge. A mystery is something in order to be known, it has to be told. 

So the password to your computer or your bank account on your computer is a mystery, is a mystery. In order to know it, it has to be told. And so you might want somebody to know it, like somebody from your family, and so you tell them what it is, and now they know. They know it as well as you do. But your password shouldn't be something that someone's able to figure out. Even if they know you really well, well, I can guess what his password is gonna be. If that's your password, you should change your password, because it shouldn't be, it should be a mystery. It should be a mystery in that sense. 

And so scripture uses that concept a number of ways. I'll just read you one of them, one other one from here. 

First Corinthians 15, 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. So Paul's talking about a moment that's gonna come. In the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet is gonna be blown, and there's gonna be a whole generation that doesn't die, because they're immediately glorified in that moment. There's no way to know that. There's no, you know, nothing you can, study or observe in science or something that's gonna tell you that moment is coming. And so that's why Paul says, I'm gonna tell you a mystery. I'm gonna tell you something you couldn't learn in any other way, unless it's just revealed, unless it's just told to you in that sense.

I think of this, It's kind of an important idea in scripture. I think of this for the lepers that were cleansed. When Christ was on the earth, there were many lepers that were cleansed, not because they figured out something about their leprosy, became leprosy experts. or figured out something about healing, how healing works, or figured out their personal experience of leprosy, how they contracted it, or how it came to them. But they were healed because someone told them a mystery. Someone told them something they couldn't have found out in any other way, and that is there's someone named Jesus. and if you go to him, he'll heal you. They just hear that, okay, and they accept it and they go to him. They've heard a mystery in that way and been healed because of that as well.

And that's important, I just used that illustration because it's important that the message of salvation is a mystery as well. It could be no other way, in fact, it's kind of a scandal that it's a mystery, it's just something you have to be told in order to be saved, because not everyone hears. And that's a scandal to those that it kind of goes against people's idea of fairness in that way. But it corresponds with how lost in sin we are. You can't just figure out something about the human condition. and put two and two together and then figure out how to be saved, how to save yourself. No, you need to hear about someone else coming to save you. And that's why scripture says there's not many mighty, there's not many wise, there's not many noble that are saved. It's just, it's not the smartest people who figure something out. It's actually a lot of people who are not smart and they just hear the message. It's a mystery. It comes to them in that way and they're saved.

And so it's, this word is something that's important in the New Testament and there's good reason why it's important. It could be no other way. The gospel could be nothing else than a mystery.

And it's also that way with godliness, with godliness. There's a mystery to godliness. And it's slightly different from a salvation because godliness is a long journey. It's a long journey. There's many ups and downs. There's many hard-fought lessons learned along the way in the journey and the pursuit of godliness.

But the most important thing you can learn about godliness, the greatest, actually, that's what he says, great is the mystery of godliness, the greatest thing that you can learn about godliness that will sustain you every step of your long journey is the first thing that you learn about godliness as a Christian. And that's why he says, by common confession. Everybody in the church is confessing this, the greatness of the mystery of godliness. All Christians confess it, mature and immature. The most seasoned and the most new.

And that is this, it's simply this. that Christ is the source of godliness. The source of your godliness, the most important thing and the thing that has great power to it for your godliness is to understand that Christ is saving you. Christ is saving you. He's transforming you from sinful in all your habits and all your behavior to godly in your behavior. Not all at once like he did for some of the lepers that came to him, but step by step he's doing this. He's the good shepherd. He's leading you. He's guiding you through all the circumstances of your life, through trouble. he makes a way through the trouble. And as he's doing this, he's leading you in paths of righteousness for his namesake.

And so, The greatest thing that you can learn about godliness is a mystery. It's something that you could learn in no other way unless you were told, and that is that Christ is a savior who's bringing this about in you. So he says, great is the mystery of godliness, and then he gives this poem, which I suppose encapsulates the mystery of godliness, and we're gonna briefly kinda look at each line of this poem, but it's all about Christ. Christ is the subject of every line in this poem. 

Great is the mystery of godliness and it's all about what Christ has done and what has come about through Christ. It's why the church is called the Church of the Living God. Christ himself is at work in the church here to bring about godliness in us with his great power. 

Okay. He says, great is the mystery of godliness. And then he starts speaking about Christ and all the things that are accomplished in Christ. He gives, in verse 16, six lines in a scripture. It's sort of set off in my translation. And it seems to be poetic. It seems to be poetic. So there's a structure in lines. There's a rhythm to it. There's a rhyme to it, even, in Greek. 

Some of the commentators say, or speculate, actually, that maybe Paul didn't coin this poem, the rest of verse 16, right on the spot, but maybe he's quoting something they already knew. And maybe they already knew it because they sang it. And that actually makes a lot of sense. I don't think we can really know for sure that sort of thing. We can't get behind scripture. We'd have to ask Paul and we can't, but it makes a lot of sense. And if so, it would be a good way for Paul to tell them, look, you already know this. This is something every Christian knows. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness, and you already sing about it. Let me quote from how you sing about it. You sing about the great power of Christ and what Christ has accomplished in his person and work, and that's the power working in you for godliness. That's the source of godliness as well. 

I like to think that. I like to think what some of the commentators are speculating. This is a hymn that they sung in the church. It's a reminder to me of how important our singing is. Pay attention to the words. They're wonderful words that we sing here at this church and full of meaning. It's a reminder that we should be singing something worth paying attention to, that you'd get into a crisis and somebody could remind you of what you sing every week, and it's kind of familiar to you, and it reminds you of something very valuable. And so when we sing, it's important. Singing can do things that preaching can't do. The Lord brings it back to you in a song, in a hymn, and hits you at just the right time with that. So we'll look at the individual parts, but I think his purpose, when you just look at the whole thing of this hymn that he gives, is that the mystery of godliness is not to figure out how to squeeze godliness out of yourself, you'll run out of power if you do that. It's found in the person and work of Christ. It's found in being caught up in the great sweep of his victory, which is about what this hymn is about.

There's power in the name of Christ, in his person, and when you call on that power, There's power for godliness, and it's great power. It's overflowing. It's abundant power. It's power that doesn't run out. Great is the mystery of godliness.

Okay, let's look at these lines to this hymn. It says, he who was revealed in the flesh, was revealed in the flesh, use the word manifested, or made visible, and Christ, speaking of Christ, He was manifested in the flesh, and that's what we celebrate at Christmas time, is that God became man. He shared in flesh, He shared in everything that makes us human, except for sin, in order that we might share in everything that he has as well.

And so in order to do that, he became visible in the flesh. We pray for the ladies that are pregnant. I try to keep track of who's who. Try to keep current so we can pray rightly for that. But we don't pray like this. We don't pray for the babies to be made manifest in the flesh. We don't even use that kind of language because for them, being born or being conceived is the beginning, is the beginning. But for Christ, his birth, his conception was not the beginning. He preexisted. And so it makes sense for him to say he was made manifest in the flesh.

Some translations follow a different reading in a manuscript that says God was revealed in flesh. And a better reading is what my translation says, he who was revealed in flesh, there's just a couple of little pin marks that distinguish between those so they can become easily confused. But the, What's expressed by that other meaning is true. God himself was revealed in the flesh. All the power of God was revealed in Christ because Christ is God.

He who was revealed in the flesh was justified in the spirit. was justified in the Spirit. Now, we're used to that word for how it applies to each one of us, that we are justified by faith alone. That means we are declared righteous in the sight of God by faith alone. The same word is used, but probably used a little bit differently. It's not that Christ was declared righteous in the sight of God in that sense, but rather that he was declared to be in the right for all of his claims. especially in the sight of God, but before all. And it's really His resurrection that did that.

And so my translation uses the word, and this is right, was vindicated in the Spirit. And so Christ's resurrection vindicated His claims to be the Son of God. vindicated his claim to be the Savior of the world. It looked like everything had come to nothing, and the Savior had been crucified on the cross, but he was vindicated by his resurrection from the dead.

So he who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the Spirit. And it refers to The flesh is how he's made visible. The spirit is how he was vindicated. Both of those are synonymous with his person. He's revealed in his person. He was vindicated in his person as well, but flesh and spirit bring out different aspects of that. So his flesh is his person in the aspect of being made visible in flesh. The spirit is how his person, his spirit, interacted with the Holy Spirit. and is how he manifested the power of God as well, and it's involved in his resurrection as well. So he's revealed in the flesh, was vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, and the angels were the first witnesses of the resurrection of Christ, and were those who told others as well, and brought about the whole chain of his victory being told to others as well.

And then the next two, proclaimed among the nations. believed on in the world. And so now we have the victory of Christ, it's a total victory of Christ as it advances through being revealed in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, and now the preaching of the gospel goes throughout the world. He's proclaimed among the nations successfully by the church, and they receive a reception. It doesn't just fizzle out and become nothing. It's believed on in the world as well.

And so this is Christ's power, as manifest in the church. This is actually what Paul's been talking about, about why he wrote this letter. I write so that you'll conduct yourself rightly in the household of God so that you'll be a good pillar and support of the truth and it's Christ's power at work. It's the same power of his resurrection that's at work as the church does this, proclaims the gospel among the nations and it's believed on in the world.

And then the final word that's here about Christ is he's taken up in glory. Now, that one, it's the last one, it's out of order chronologically, because the gospel didn't spread to all the nations and wasn't believed on in the world until after Christ was taken up into glory. So it's out of order chronologically. But there's a huge significance of Christ's ascension into glory for the task of his triumph going out in the world.

You remember the great commission where he says, all authority has been given to me for this purpose. that the church might take the gospel and make disciples of all nations and I'm with you with that authority as you go about this task until the very end of the age. So there's a great significance, it sort of sews up the victory of the gospel going out successfully and it's not going to fizzle out and come to nothing at any point until Christ returns. It's gonna be successfully completed and that's the power that is in the person of Christ and it's shared with the church as we spread the gospel and become a pillar and support of the truth in the world.

So it's a picture, I don't wanna get too caught up in all the details of that, and I'm sure someone else would do it slightly differently, but it's a picture of great power of Christ, and it's the mystery of godliness. It's that same power that's on display in the huge sweep of the victory of the person and work of Christ that's on display in your life as well as the Lord works out his purposes for your godliness as well.

So how are you doing? in the struggle, in the journey to be godly? Are you discouraged? Are you bogged down? Well, remember the purpose of godliness. It's not for yourself. It's for others, there's a larger purpose in it. It's not just that you might be godly, get the joy of that, and there is joy in that, get the reward of that, and there is reward in that as well, but it's that you might take your part in being a pillar and support of the truth. And the gospel itself, when it's front and center as it should be, should always be propelling us outward to the least deserving, to those who are unsaved like we were before Christ showed us the mystery of the gospel and gave us the grace to accept it.

So remember the purpose of godliness. Remember the purpose of godliness. It's to be a pillar and support of the truth to display it to others. And then especially as we come to the Lord's table this morning, remember the source of godliness. It doesn't come from you. If it came from you, it wouldn't be a mystery. It'd just be a project of knowing yourself better and better and figuring out how to live.

But the mystery of godliness, the great mystery of godliness is something you have to be told. Something you have to be told because you can know it in no other way. And at the Lord's table, you're not only told what the mystery is, but you're shown it because it's hard to get it through to us in order that we might actually believe this. And the mystery is this, Christ died for you. Christ's blood was shed for you. The forgiveness of sins is for you and the power of Christ for godliness is for you as well. The power and victory that's in Christ is for godliness in you and it is great power.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. And we thank you that you've shown us this mystery. It's a profound mystery, but in a way it's a simple one. And that is Christ is powerful to work out his purposes in us. And he's put us on a path for godliness, for righteousness. He's given us a mission of being a light to the world through spreading the truth of the gospel and through living a life that matches it. And he's given us the power to do it.

We thank you that this power comes not from ourselves. If it came from ourselves, there would not be enough of it. But it comes from Christ. And so there's more than enough. There's more than enough for each one of us and for others through us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.