Gooding, David: 10 - The Secret of Godliness

This is now the tenth and the last of our studies in the first and second Book of Kings. Thank you for the way you have attended, and those who have managed to attend all ten deserve a special congratulations for not only their persistence of interest, but their extraordinary powers of endurance. At least, I hope I have convinced you that the stories in first and second Kings are not just things that various writers happen to mention, and remembering them, put them down somewhat haphazardly, leaving us to make the best we can of them. They are deliberately Deliberately written, written. as it is apparent from one at least of the predominant themes in the book that we have tried to follow in these ten talks. That is the provision that God made for the maintenance of his people, and where necessary for their recovery spiritually, after the death of the great and famous King David. That provision, as Solomon enunciated, was the building of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. And not only the building of the house, but the promised presence of God Almighty. It wasn't that the ancients had a very childish view of God. At the inauguration, Solomon explicitly mentioned the fact that the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, he said to God. How much less this little house that I have built. It is, of course, a problem, not a serious problem, that we have still to this very present day. How can Almighty God, whom the heavens of heavens are not sufficient to contain, should dwell in our individual hearts. So we have followed in these talks the use that may of that Israel made of the house of God, that God himself provided for their maintenance. The general lesson has been this, that when they took advantage of the spiritual power that God provided in those far off days through that house, then they prospered. When, as so often happened, they not only neglected the house and the God who dwelt in it, but went to whoring, as Hebrew would put it, after other gods and goddesses of the nations around them, they came into great and grievous trouble. We are, in fact, tonight to see how it all ended up. Not only with the house itself destroyed, but with its lovely furniture, those beautiful pillars with their attractive and delightful capitals, and the elaborate laver on the backs of oxen, and the ten subsidiary labors, with their panels embossed with figures of cherubim, smashed under the hammer, taken down to Babylon as mere material to be used in other projects. It is, in one sense, a melancholy tale. But we noticed at the beginning of our studies that there is a little passage in the New Testament that talks to us in the same terms and terminology as does the house of the Lord that Solomon built. The passage comes at the end of chapter three of Paul's first letter to Timothy. And it says of this, in this fashion, great is the mystery of godliness. So Paul writes, hoping to come to Timothy, but says he, if I tarry long, that you may know how people ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, pillar and ground of the truth. Using in that last phrase, the same symbol as we have found in the house of the Lord that Solomon built. Standing in front of the building were two pillars with their grounding and their capitals. And Paul proceeds, as we must consider later on this evening. Great, says he, is the mystery of godliness. He who was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up with welcome into glory. If Solomon's house was in fact glorious. How much more is the house that God is nowadays building, where the stones are not made of elaborate concrete or even from Irish marble. But the stones are living stones. And I, for one, confess to a boy-like interest. I'm hoping I get, when I get to heaven, I shall get chance to look around the great city. There's no temple in that, because there will be the immediate presence of God himself in the city. But if Peter be true, and the city is built up of living stones, ah, I hope to be able to walk down the golden street and nudge one or two stones in the ribs and say, tell me, how did you ever consider coming here? Well, I've got a whole eternity to hear the answers anyway. Who polished you? Who prepared you? But with that, we must come down to detail this evening. So let us read a few verses. First of all, from one Kings, chapter seven. One Kings, chapter seven and verse twenty three. And he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about. And under the brim of it, round about, there were knobs which did compass it for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about. The knobs were in two rows, cast when it was cast. It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and the sea was set upon them above, and all their hinder parts were inward. And it was an handbread thick. And the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It had, it held two thousand baths. And he made the ten bases of brass. Four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height thereof. These were the ten subsidiary labors for use around the whole courts of the house of the Lord. Thus, for the directions, for making the big molten sea that here s- stands here, with the oxen underneath, their hind parts inwards, and the whole thing being carried by oxen, uh, you'll see twelve of them in all. One more example, that the imagery in the temple itself, uh, all around the walls was, uh, of cherubim, living creatures with flowers, palmettes. This was the house of the living God, not just a collection of doctrines, though doctrine be important. It was the house of the living God. The throne of God, the Creator, as John was given to see it in his vision in the Isle of Patmos and recorded in the Revelation chapter four. The very throne of God was resting on cherubim. These, as Ezekiel tells us, were the living creatures. Their faces representing four different types of life. This is the living God. Would God we knew more of it, so that a stranger coming into the church would sense that God is here of a truth. Anyway, this was how it was, uh, to be built, and you notice the labor on the oxen. Let's look at two Kings, chapter sixteen. two Kings, chapter sixteen. verse seventeen. And King Ahaz, who at one stage was King of Judah, cut off the panels of the bases, the ten subsidiary lavers, these things here. He cut off the panels and removed the laver from Ortham. That is the laver here, for instance, and here is a panel with various embossed, uh, uh, animals on it. And he took down the sea from Orth the brazen oxen that were under it and put it upon a pavement of stone. That is this, another representation of the big le- laver, so big that it was regarded as a sea. Here are the oxen, and here are a a as a subsidiary laver. Ahaz took it down off the oxen, put on a lump of concrete or something. Uh, you know the, the copper was brass, was very valuable. Could be used for all sorts of things that His Majesty was interested in. And why would you waste all that stuff under a laver? He didn't design the laver, of course. God happened to do that. Ahaz took, uh, the liberty of changing the design. Let's read now and finally two Kings chapter twenty five, Verse 1, 2 Kings 25, verse 1. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all his army against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, and they built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. Eventually, the Babylonians took Jerusalem. You'll see. Let's read from verse thirteen. And the pillars of copper that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases and the copper sea that were in the house of the Lord did the Chaldeans break in pieces and carried the copper of them to Babylon. And the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the spoons and all the vessels of copper wherewith they ministered took they away. And the firepans and the basins, that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the guard took away. The two pillars, the one sea, and the subsidiary labors, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord. The copper of all these vessels was without weight. And you see the writer who is writing this thing, recording perhaps the emotion of someone standing and watching the Babylonian workmen smash these things to pieces. Ah, they had been so beautiful. The height of one pillar, it's now in fragments, of course. The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the capital of copper was upon it, and the height of the capital was three cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capital round about, all of copper. And like unto these had the second pillar with the network. Gone now. Smashed up. You feel the throb of his emotion coming through. So tonight we must spend our first time in thinking about the significance of the laver, and then the ten subsidiary lavers, this large laver here called the sea. What was that saying? Now, if for a moment we may be the antiquarians and go back beyond this period to the tabernacle that Moses built, you would have found in that tabernacle, in the court, two vessels. There was an altar and then a laver. They both offered cleansing. At the altar, there was cleansing by blood. At the laver, there was cleansing by water. It is an interesting thing that, uh, in the New Testament, Christian salvation offers us likewise cleansing by blood and cleansing by water. It is written in Hebrews chapter nine and elsewhere to the effect that the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Or to quote Hebrews, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living and the true God? What does blood cleanse? It cleanses the conscience. How? Well, not as like some detergent. It cleanses the conscience because when we human beings sin, we are so made that our conscience registers guilt. Doesn't matter if we forget it the next hour, it'll be on our minds for the rest of life. How does the blood of Christ then cleanse that conscience? Because the blood of Christ is the symbol as the result of the fact he died for us. He died for our sins, according to the scriptures. He bore our sins in his body on the tree. He paid the penalty of sin. And when I perceive it, that is the love gift of God to us. God has given his son to the extent of dying for us and shedding his blood, so that God's forgiveness shall not appear to be some shallow thing. Don't bother about it, it doesn't really matter what you have done. It matters what we hu- humans do. The view that takes the, uh, the, the, the idea that it doesn't really matter what people do is, of course a disgrace to human beings. It lowers them. Well, I step on an ant or two in my back garden. Well, I don't get broken hearted. Perhaps I should, I don't know. But what do they matter, thousands of them like that? Do we matter? Does what we have done matter? Yes, says God, it matters, and what is more, matters eternally. We're made for eternity. God cannot forgive in the sense of just saying, well, forget it, it doesn't really matter in the end. That would be to diminish us, would it not? He says what we have done matters. But when it is a question of breaking his law and sinning against our, our neighbor as ourselves, then God has an answer that he might be just as well as the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. For Jesus, God's son, paid the price, the ransom price for our forgiveness and offers it to us free and for nothing. Cleansing by blood, therefore. It deals with our conscience. It removes guilt. But, as the, uh, later temple in Jerusalem, Moses' tabernacle had a laver with water. That also was for cleansing. And it is a fa- a fact, not always remembered as it should be, that the New Testament offers us cleansing by water. Not by being baptized, of course not. You'll see. It is written that Christian men ought to love their wives, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might cleanse her by the washing of... Oh, pray not. People are never washed in blood in the New Testament. Never. Clothes can be washed in blood, not people. If you find a tomb in Britain, an ancient Britain or some other, now here, and it says on the tombstone, washed in blood, you'll be certain that that isn't a Christian. It's a follower of Mithras, where soldiers, they liked Mithras for some reason, and uh, they would dig a pit and get down under it and have a bull knifed and sacrificed, and so the blood ran down and washed them, covered them all over. That's washed in blood. The, uh, blood of Christ, as I say, cleanses our conscience from guilt when we see he's paid the price. The water, what does that do? Well, to continue my parable, men ought to love their wives as Christ loved the church. He gave himself for her that he might sanctify her by the washing of water through the word, that he might present the church to himself, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And you say, what on earth are spots and wrinkles and other such like? Well, sir, if you don't know, you should. The whole industry is based on covering up those things. From the humble powder puff to other such serious matters. Yes, but the spots and blemishes that Paul is talking about in Ephesians are not pimples on the face. They're pimples, all right, and sometimes boils and carbuncles and other such things in the personality. Selfishness. Envy. Quick-temperedness. And it's not only the ladies that have it, is it? Does it matter? Has God any provision for it? Yes, of course he has. But don't be misled by an ancient hymn. It's a lovely hymn, and I sing it with all my heart to the extent my lungs will empower me. Do you see? Would you be free from your passion and pride? There's power in the blood. Pity the poet put it that way. That should be there's power in the water, not in the blood. The blood deals with guilt. The print, the pimples, carbuncles that spoil my character are dealt with by washing with water, so to speak. There is a once and for all such washing with water. And then there is a constant rinsing in water, which our Lord demonstrated the night before his crucifixion to his apostles as he filled a basin with water and girded himself with a towel and began to rinse their feet. Peter protested, said, oh Lord, not only my feet, but my hands and my head and all over. No, no, no, Lord, our Lord said. He who has been bathed all over only needs thereafter be to have his feet rinsed. There are two great cleansings by water, to use now the parable language. One is the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Except a man be born of... What did our Lord say? Yes, of water, not of blood. Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. This is the work of the gracious Holy Spirit within, convicting us of uncleanness, coming in to expel it and give us, as he trains us, increasing control of our personalities, to do away with the spots and the blemishes. There is regeneration, therefore, and thereafter a constant rinsing by the use of Holy Scripture. Thus our minds and our characters are gradually purified. That was the Old Testament tabernacle that Moses built. Here in the directions for the furniture in the court, can we go back one? There is no mention of the altar anywhere. They did have an altar. It is referred to in subsequent chapters of the books of Kings. But the two things that are noticed are the big pillars at the beginning with their capitals, two of them, and then the enormous great laver here with washing. And what do they represent? Well, for time's sake, I shall now be very arbitrary. I shall say the pillars, with their delightful capitals, represent Represent objective objective truth. Where do I come up at? Well, they stood outside the door. Whose house was it anyway? And all this symbolism. Was it true? It represent anything real? And the God who presents himself according to the text in the holiest of all, was he real? Or is this a mere legend? The pillars here, Yakin and Boaz, they are named. He will strengthen in it his strength, stand in front of the house with their delightful capitals, and go to s- suggest that they stand for the objective reality of God's revelation of himself in this building. And I'm encouraged in that idea by the N- New Testament's use of the same, uh, symbol. Says Paul, he got the gospel direct from the Lord, not from the other apostles in Jerusalem. But eventually he went up to Jerusalem, and they compared notes, do you see? And they found that they agreed on all the basic principles of the gospel, there there b- though there had been no consultation between them. And he says, you know, James and John, leading apostles, of course, who were reputed to be pillars. Men who stood for the truth. Men who not only stood for the truth, but were used of God as inspired apostles to convey the truth of God to us. It's a question that faces everybody that opens the New Testament. Why should I listen to Peter? And why on earth should I listen to John, let alone Matthew? Why? Because, as Paul would put it, I am an apostle of Jesus Christ, chosen as an instrument for the revelation of God's word and his gospel, of God's truth. Truth. The objective truth. Uh. The labor, I'm going to say, in that context, represents subjective truth. You say, what on earth do you mean by those terms, objective truth and subjective truth. Well, to take a lesson from nature, the fact there is a sun up in the sky, I'm now about to assert it. There is a sun up in the sky, even though you can't see it, there is a such a sun up in the sky. That is true, whether I like it or I don't like it. Whether I would change it or I would leave it as it is. I haven't decided to change it yet. But it isn't to be changed. Not until God consents. It is the objective fact. Do you see? There's a subjective truth that comes from the fact. So I'm advising you now, if you go out on a scorching summer day with the sun shining, you'd better have some ointment to put on your noble forehead, because if you don't, you'll be sunburnt, and it could lead to cancer. That's subjective application of the truth. It requires both kinds of truth. The objective, and therefore then the subjective. Last week we followed the history. Having studied a little of the fifth division of the instructions for the building of the house, we studied one of the kings by name of Hezekiah. Hezekiah becomes famous, in spite of the various wobbles that he made from time to time, like we all do. Famous for his stand against the Rabshaki from Sennacherib, the Assyrian emperor. The Assyrian emperor, to extend his empire, came and circled Jerusalem and went down south, southwest to Lachish, captured the place. The record of it is in the British Museum to this very present, in bas relief, showing the horrible tortures that the Assyrians engaged in. From Lachish, Sennacherib sent up a Rabshakeh. He was a provincial governor to call on Hezekiah to surrender. Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria. Come out! I'll give you, every one of you, horses, chariots galore, Rolls Royces and any other thing, Daimlers and Bentleys. Come out! Don't let Hezekiah deceive you, saying Jehovah will look after us. That's a lot of old wives' tales. There is no Jehovah, and if there is, well, I'm, I've dealt with gods galore in these many cities I've come to. None of them were able to save the city. Your God is no different. Come out. And Hezekiah strengthened by Isaiah the prophet, stood firm. And some disaster came and afflicted the forces around Jerusalem. And they went home, what was left of them. They never did take Jerusalem, not the Assyrians. The Babylonians eventually did. They came right up to the neck, as Isaiah said they would, but they failed to take Jerusalem because Hezekiah dared to stand for the reality of the one and only true God of heaven. But that leaves the labor. It's a very interesting thing. Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, reigned for fifty five years also, and was most of the time an absolute filthy rotter. Then he got converted, according to Chronicles. None too soon. There followed a king called Josiah, and when he came to the throne, he He ordered that the temple of the Lord be renewed and set the workmen to repair what was broken down in it, and so forth and so on, and that it should be thoroughly cleansed, and that the workmen did. Well, all of a sudden, one afternoon, or was it a morning, I don't know, they found a book. So the chaps who found it gave it to the priest, and the priest eventually brought it to the king, and uh, the king had to get an expert, Huldah the prophetess, to read the thing. It was so ancient. Turned out to be what we call the book of Deuteronomy. We didn't even know it was in the Bible anyway. Do you have any religious friends that wouldn't know whether Jeremiah is in the New Testament or the Old? So they read this book. The result upon, um, King, uh, uh, Josiah was, he feared and quaked in his shoes. If this was the word of God, then they had offended God ten thousand times. By ignoring his commands. And very often doing the opposite. So they began to read the book. And as a result, reestablished some of the ancient ceremonies. One is noticed in particular, they kept the Passover. Just you imagine. I've heard of, in Judah at any rate, at that stage, what? Literally keeping the Passover. I mean, like it says in the Bible. Why not? So they did. And according to Chronicles, it was attended with much joy and singing. What a thing it is, when even in our modern world, churches rediscover the book of God and dare to carry out what it says should be carried out in Christian churches. There's a day coming when we might be hard put to it to explain to Christ why, if we have done so, why we have neglected to do what Christ's apostles have told us. But now we come to those final verses that we promised ourselves to consider at the beginning of this particular series of studies. The verses are to be found in one Timothy and chapter three from verse fourteen onwards. These things write I to you, hoping to come to you shortly. But if I delay long, that thou mayest know how people ought to behave themselves in the house of God, the, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Let's concentrate then on the six phrases in chap- in verse sixteen. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up in glory. And these two verses, as you see, introduced by the phrase, great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. Let's be clear in our mind that the term mystery in the New Testament doesn't mean something mysterious. It is a secret that has now been declared. It is an open secret. The secret of godliness is as follows. And when we look at these things here, these are descriptions of our blessed Lord. The secret of godliness in the church is Christ. You will notice that there are three pairs of couplets. Manifest in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit. One couplet. Seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations. Believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Interesting, isn't it? There is no reference to the death of Christ. Why is that? Isn't that the foundation of the gospel? Yes, of course it is, but it's not mentioned, is it? By implication, the resurrection and ascension are, are, are, are mentioned in this final phrase, taken up in glory, but otherwise not. What are these things stating? Well, presumably they are what this says it is going to be, the secret of godliness. What on earth is godliness, if ever you met it? How would you tell what it was? Yeah? Godliness in Greek simply means well respect, and the f- it is for God, of course. Well respect for God. And in all ma- life's major decisions and in behavior in the church, we should always first start by what God thinks and what God says. Mercifully, then we have the example of Christ. How did Christ interpret God's attitude? In one um Timothy chapter two, for instance, we read that God would have all men everywhere to repent and come to the knowledge of the truth. All. That is God's attitude. So Christ will do what about that then? Well, a supreme example of godliness. If God would have all men to be saved, Christ will give himself a ransom for... for all. Of course. Perfectly representing God. We are to take up the rear and pray for all men. Yes. That is godliness. This is an example of Christ's godliness. We can run through it very briefly, but I submit it to your further cogitation and reflection, and where you perceive I'm, I'm wrong and missing, pray tell me eventually. The first principle of godliness is it has to be manifest in actual living. Manifested in the flesh. Oh, praise God for it. Not just theory, not even doctrine, however marvelous doctrine is. He came and showed us what God was like by his incarnation, manifested in the flesh, but vindicated in spirit, not vindicated in flesh. In fact, by the time he'd lived to thirty three and a half years, the verdict of the religious authorities was that his life was so corrupt, he better be crucified. Yes. So much for the world's opinion. Just manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and his ascension and seated at the right hand of God. Seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations. A godly life? What of the publicity? Now, I don't know what you think. This is seen by angels, not that he saw angels, though he did from time to time. He was seen by angels. We're told by the, uh, introduction to the book of Job, are we not? That it came to pass one day when the, uh, uh, angels of God came to present themselves, and Satan came among them, and God said to Satan, have you, uh, by any chance considered my servant Job recently? Ah, says Satan, well, I, it so happens I have, yes, mm-hmm. You think God, don't you? You got the idea that Job is a very good, pious man. Let me tell you what the facts are. You have feather bedded him. He doesn't mind singing a hymn or two in church on a Sunday for you. Yes, you've fe- feather bedded him. Let him suffer disaster, bereavement, persecution or something. You'll see how he'll change his tune. Scene of angels. I hope God doesn't call Satan's attention to me. I think God knows better than that, perhaps. Dear me. To be called to the attention of the angelic hosts. Ah, yes. But you see, this life manifested in s- in the flesh and justified in spirit. How God opened heaven, he couldn't resist it more than once, and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. God has seen to it the maximum publicity. Scene of angels preached not simply among the Jews, preached among the nations throughout the whole world. As a result of which, some have actually believed on him. They include, of course, the notorious Saul of Tarsus, who thought he ought to do many things contrary to Jesus of Nazareth and set about doing it with strong determination. Got converted. I now believe in him, says Paul. I've committed my everything to him. Believed on in the world. And if you, sir, and you, ma'am, live a godly life as Christ did, then some people will come to believe in you. Taken up into glory. Well, if the world doesn't want you, the angels and God himself, ha ha, when Christ rose from the dead, they shouted their hallelujahs and received him up into glory. Such will be the end of truly godly lives, lived in the church and in the world, for Christ's sake, received up in the end, in glory. Let's just commit our study to God in prayer. Our Father, we feel like an ancient scribe who said, I have engaged in things too wonderful for me. But we thank thee for thy word. We thank thee for revealing thyself to us. And for the humility of Christ that comes alongside us, each one, to lead us further and to teach us thy word. For this we thank thee. We bless thee for him. We thank thee he sits enthroned at thy right hand. We thank thee for the almost incredible promise that he's coming, and one day we shall be with him in glory. So we thank thee for thy word. Help us to obey it and carry it out in our lives and in our churches and in the world. And now we thank thee for the refreshments. Bless our fellowship together, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.