Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Friday Night Live. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just ask that you would be here in a very special and present way through your spirit and that your spirit would teach us. Spirit to spirit. Telepathically. Beneath the surface between the lines and above the consciousness. That's the way that you communicate with us and get your word to stick. Father, I pray that we would perceive the Word of God, that we would metabolize it and have it available for application And it's a gracious process so that faith would become hope and hope would become love. For the end of the commandment is love from a pure heart. Father, may we reverence the Lord Jesus Christ this evening, worship him in spirit and in truth, receive from him the exact things that we need And we need to hear so that we might be those who are the godly ones, that is those who glorify God, devoted to the glorification of God by grace, that is by receiving all that you have for us. We thank you for these things. Magnify the person of Christ in our midst this evening, who is our special guest of honor, where two or three are gathered together in his name. And we welcome you, Lord Jesus. by your spirit, look into our hearts, take us apart by your word, and put us back together in a way that glorifies you. Thank you for these things as we proceed, Father. And for the sake of Christ, we pray, amen. It's Friday night mystery theater tonight, mystery theater. First Timothy 3.16, you can turn there. It's February 24th, right? 2017, four more days in February. And Mike reminded me that there's still three and a half weeks of winter. Dang. There is. So we can't expect it to stay longer. Of course, the naysayers are saying, oh, we're gonna get a big snowstorm. I don't know if we will or not. That's up to the Lord. He controls the weather. So 1 Timothy 3, 16, I'll read it to you and then we'll take it apart. By common confession, homo leguminos, you know that, right? Great or magnificent or awesome is the mystery godliness he what's the mystery of godliness he who's he Christ it's the mystery man he who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated by the Spirit viewed by angels I've changed a little bit because it's I think more accurate proclaimed or preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. It starts with the connective conjunction, coordinating conjunction, chi, which is and, and it continues the thought from the previous verses. Then it says, in our verse it says, In the English rendering, the New American Standard says great, or no, it says by common confession. Here the word is homo legato, just like confession. Confessing your sins is homo legato. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us, purify us from all unrighteousness. That's homo legato. It's to say the same thing. Homo means the same, like homo, same sex, and logos, which is to say, it's to say the same thing. And so it means in this context, admittedly or by common confession, or all agree, anyone who knows the mystery, this mystery of godliness agrees. And it is without dispute or contention, without controversy or debate. Everyone who knows says the same thing. That's what it means. Admittedly, by common confession, then it says mega. Mega means astonishing, astounding, or of the greatest significance. It's a superlative, like good, better, and best. Astonishing, astounding of the greatest significance. To know, to perceive, to understand that which is the subject of this passage is to be astounded, amazed, even flabbergasted. There's a good one, flabbergasted. It must be an old word. I don't think people use flabbergasted today. Placed in a state of awesome wonder. Then it says is. which is present active indicative views the verb, the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality. That is, it's making a statement of fact. It is as real as it can get. As real as it can be. This is according to the Bible, reality. And those who hear it will see it and know it to be reality. Then we have the Definite articles, the godliness or of the godliness, that always comes first. The adjective comes before the noun. So it says we have the of godliness mystery, the of godliness mystery. Godliness is usabaea, means devoted to worship, means good worship, literally. It's conduct becoming, which means appropriate conduct. Due reverence, careful conduct, governing awe, well and wise comportment. That means that you conduct your life well and wisdom. Motivation and animation commensurate with profound gratitude because that's what it evokes, is profound gratitude. And people that are grateful are not depressed. No. outside of themselves, expressing their thankfulness and their gratitude. See, your gratitude determines your spiritual status. And I don't know if any of you studied any of the materials that Colonel Thiem used to put up. He had the gratitude gauge, and it went from one to 10. And if you were 10 on the gratitude gauge, you were making great progress. You're not thinking about yourself. You're thinking about how wonderful God is and how much he's blessed you. and you're grateful, you're eternally grateful, profoundly grateful. The result, it is the result of continuous careful and connected hearing and humble adoration directed toward the person of Jesus Christ. It is the skillset of receiving grace to the point of being saturated with God's grace. That's his blessing, his favor, his goodness, his kindness, his mercy. That's all contained in the term grace. God's riches at Christ's expense, which is the acronym. Or God's righteousness at Christ's expense, but God's riches at Christ's expense also. He did it all and you have it all. And It's all to result in the manifestation of Jesus Christ, that is His fullness in us. In Him, the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form and we're filled full in Him, Colossians 2, 9 and 10. We are, whether we realize it or not. The idea is to realize it, to recognize it, to appreciate it, to have it, to use it. As such, godliness is devotion. to the glory of God by grace, by receiving His grace. Not of works, not by doing, although doing always results, but by receiving through believing. By becoming or being, all God has made us to be in Christ. So I say, you should be a eusebia. You should be a eusebia, eusebi. a godly one. We're to exercise ourselves unto godliness. That means that there is a regimen, a skill set involved so that we can be careful hearers, but we hear in such a way that we are focused and occupied with the person of Jesus Christ and not with ourselves and how well we're doing. but how well he's doing in us, and he's doing quite well. So that on that day we might hear, well done, you good and faithful servant. I hope to hear that, do you? And I fear that after I preach to others, I'll be disapproved. That's a healthy fear. And I'm gonna get like Paul, who at the end said, I know there's a crown of righteousness laid up for me, because I ran the race, finished the course, fought the good fight, And now I know for sure, there's a crown of righteousness awaiting me that the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who love his appearing. If you love his appearing, then you conduct your life in a certain way. If you're looking for his appearing, you conduct your life in a certain way. All who have this hope, that means that they're looking forward to Christ appearing. It says, purify themselves, 1 John 3, 3, even as he is pure. That's the greatest motivation for a life of purity. That's purity of thought life first and priorities in life along with it. That is nothing's more important. The only reason we're here is to become saturated with his word so that when we leave this world, we love what he loves and hate what he hates instead of the opposite. I'm afraid some will go leave this world hating what God loves and loving what God hates. And if they're believers, then they'll suffer loss. And if they're unbelievers, well, it didn't matter anyway, they couldn't do it. They don't have what it takes. It takes the word and the spirit. So, it's epitomized, this godliness and the devotion of Christ to the Father by the Spirit and through the Word. That's how he did it. It was his nth degree obedience evoked by love. Faith became hope and hope then resulted in love. From the full assurance of faith to the full assurance of hope and to the full development of love with the complete eviction of fear except. for the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom and the process of wisdom. And the end of wisdom is fear, the fear of the Lord, the footsteps of Jesus. We follow in his footsteps. He left his, he left footsteps for us to follow it so that we might be like him. The path of righteousness is the psalmist said in Psalm 23 leads me in the path of righteousness for his namesake, wherein we follow him. And that always results in a satisfied mind and a satisfied life. At the end of your life, you say, I'm satisfied. I'm ready to go. You need no one else and you need nothing else except him. And I'm talking about his word and his spirit. In Hebrews 5, 7, Jesus, in the days of his flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his ulevi, which is a very similar word. That is because of his piety, his devotion to God's glory by grace. He was filled with grace and truth. From his fullness, we've all received grace after grace, after grace, grace against grace. One grace benefit after another. As it was for him, so it is for us. 1 John 2, 5, whoever keeps his word, I mean, whoever does, in him, in this one, the love of God is fully developed or has truly been perfected, as it says in the New American Standard. And by this, we know that we are in him. You know that you're the object of his love. You've received his love. and you reciprocate. That's what it's all about, receiving until you reciprocate. And that's all the motivation you need in life is love. Love is perfect motivation. You can't get any more motivation than the motivation of love. Love for Christ, love for mankind, love for his word, love for the person. the perfect person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's perfect love, is loving the perfect person of Christ. There's nothing about him that is not lovely. He's altogether lovely. So 1 John 2, 6 says, the one who says that he abides in him, I guess I'm kind of saying I do. I abide in him. I want to, try to, aim to, ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. This is the mystery, the mystery of Godliness. Walking in the same manner that he walked. How did he walk? He walked by means of the spirit. Every step he took was according to the word of God. He lived by every word of God. He didn't live by bread, not by natural provision or natural ability, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That's how he lived. And that's how we're to live. We got ways to go? I hope to tell you. Is it possible? It's possible to do much better than we do. That's for sure. But we need to get into that word and let that word do its work. See, the word does all the work. That's what we don't get. You just make your mind and your soul available to the word of God and it will do all the work. It's miraculous. It'll save you, save your soul, save your life, save your marriage, save your kids, your relatives. Anybody do a new list of people that they're praying for? My list keeps growing. It's like on my blotter on my desk now, it's got all these names. I started out with a few names like people that I don't think are saved. I'm just praying for their salvation, you know? So I got them all listed there, you know, people in-laws and outlaws and all those people. And it's just growing and growing and growing. And then I'm praying for people that are saved, you know, that they would come around to see, you know, the importance of the word and get with the spiritual life. So now I got this thing and I've never been good at praying, but this is easy because all you do is just mention them to God by name. Okay, Father, today, here we go. This one, this one, this one, this one, go down the list, you know? And you're thinking to yourself, and then like Judy said, you know, sometimes the Spirit will say, well, pray for this. And then you do. But you don't assume that you know anything about them or, you know, it's not a situation where you really know what to pray for or how to pray for them. But you just, you know, present them to the Father. And He knows what to do. And if you do that, you'll see wonderful things happen. I'm sure of it. So I remember things I prayed for. And at first I didn't even think that they were, you know, spirit born prayers. And I prayed and lo and behold, every one of them came into being. So you can count on it. He's faithful. You know what? Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you and unto me. He's promised that. And if you pray for anything, believing that you've received it, you'll have it, you'll get it. If you ask for anything in his name that is in accordance with his will, the Father will give it to you. Especially when it has to do with your diplomat function or your ambassador function or your priestly function, even your spiritual warfare. your warrior function. Okay, so that's 1 John 2.6, the one who says he abides in him ought to walk around in the same manner as he walked. 1 John 4.17, by this love is perfected in us that we may have confidence in the day of judgment. Those who love God have confidence that they will receive a full inheritance and a full reward. And God did it, they didn't do it, God did it. And they're well aware of that. They're not taking credit for anything. As a matter of fact, all the credit is his, and they know it so well. Because if you look back at your life and say, how could I do anything like this? How could I be well pleasing God in any way? Well, you can't apart from Christ, but in Christ, very well pleasing to the Father. He's delighted with his children. You know, John expresses the father's attitude in 2 John where he says, I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in the truth. That's the father's heart. To see his children walking in the truth. He loves it. That means step by step, day by day. In all that they do, in all that they say. All the time, in every way. There's my new poem, I just made it up for you. 1 John 4, 18 says, there is no fear in love. Love's not afraid. But perfect love, fully developed love, casts out fear. You have great confidence and courage by love. Confidence directed toward God. and courage toward people and circumstances, not afraid of people. What can man do to you anyway? Jesus said, don't fear those who kill the body, but the one who can destroy body and soul in the fire pit. Not that that's what he's, he's not threatening, he's just saying he has the power over death and hell and man doesn't. All he can do is kill the body and get you to heaven quicker if God so, if God deems it so or allows it. So, but by this, love is perfected with us that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in the world. He's just like us and wants us to be just like him. He is the prototype and archetype of the spiritual man. and we are to follow closely behind him. We're to take up our cross, which is his cross. That means we die with Christ. We're buried with him in baptism, raised with him to walk around in newness of life, even as he did. And then our soul and our spirit will catch up with our body, our glorified body. All at once, everybody will receive their glorious bodies at the same time. Some will shine brightly and some will just twinkle. So make sure you have one that shines brightly. Because it's all grace, so you might as well go for all of it. Get it all, have it all. Which indeed you do, whether you know it or not. So there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment. And guess what? Our punishment is past, our judgment is past. Verily, verily I say unto you, he who hears my word and believes on him who sent me shall not come into judgment, but is already past from death. John 5 24 the one who fears is not perfected in love that means if you're fearing God in the sense that you know you're waiting for him to pull the rug out from under you don't do that that's not what he wants to do he wants to he wants to enfold you and include you and work on you you're not working for him he's working on you you're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus And he'll have the final result will be his. And it'll be the word that did all the work by the spirit. So the one who fears, fears man and fear circumstances in life, lives in fear, has all kind of phobias. They're not perfected in love. Sorry. So you say, well, I need to shed all those fears. Yes, you do. And so do I. So whosoever keeps or guards against loss his word. In this one, the love of God, for God, from God, all those are included, is fully developed, perfected. So we have of godliness or godliness of the mystery. Here we have of the mystery. The mystery, this is the mystery. Christ is the mystery. He's the mystery man. He's God who came in human flesh, who put on human flesh. Imagine that, that's quite a thing, isn't it? Think about it. You know, you think it's a strange thing that demons inhabit people. Here, God inhabits the body of a man, becomes a man, not just for a few years, not just for 33 years, but forever. He remains a human being in heaven. God and man in one person. The hypostatic union, which means he has two natures. Nature of man, sinless mankind, and undiminished godhood or deity in his unique person. And we know him, we handled him, the apostle said. He said, he's the word of life, and we saw him, and we watched him, and we heard him, and we handled him. He's God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. He's the only member of the Trinity you can know, that you can see, and that you can have a relationship with. God the Father's spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Philip said to, Jesus, he said, show us the Father. Jesus said, have you been with me for three years and you don't know me? What do you mean? He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, for the Father and I are exactly alike. There's no difference at all. He said, but there's Jesus and there's God. Isn't God mean and Jesus is nice? No, they're exactly alike. People are so mixed up about those things. I'm not. I know that they're exactly alike. Jesus is God, so how can he be other than, how can he be different than God the Father? He is God. That is a mystery, isn't it? The Trinity is a mystery. The Trinitarian unity of God, how one God could be manifest in three persons. And it's just so that we can understand him. because he's made us in his image. You're three distinct parts that make up one person. You have an invisible essence, you have a mind, a will, you have a self-consciousness, self-awareness, various dimensions of life within one person, and it makes up who you are. And then you have a physical being that's unique. And we recognize you by your physical being and by the expression of your person or personality, the invisible essence. And man is created in the image and likeness of God. He is a trichotomy. If he's a spiritual man, he's a trichotomy. If he's not, he's a dichotomy, which means he only has two parts because the spiritual part of him is dead until he's born again, and then he's trichotomous again. So you can only relate to God if you're like him, trichotomous. That means you have three dimensions of life. You have the biological dimension of life, you have the psychological dimension of life, and the spiritual dimension of life, all functioning properly, in its proper order, with the spirit operating above and the mentality of the soul operating above anything else, the reactions and emotions. which is like an empty bag because emotion can't think and the body can't think. Only the mind can think and the soul is the only party that can choose. The body can't make you do anything. Urges and impulses can't make you do anything. Only the mind and the will can make choices. Think thoughts and make choices. So make sure that's functioning at 100% or as close to 100% as you can get it. So here's the mystery. The mystery is Christ. What's a mystery? The musterion. That is something that was hidden, but it's not hidden anymore. It's revealed. It's the revealed secret. And not only is Christ a mystery, but the mystery is also Christ in you. the hope of glory. This is the church-age pastor's goal and objective to communicate by the Holy Spirit the mysterious reality of who Christ is and who you are in Christ. Turn to Colossians 121. I'll show you what Paul has to say about it. Under inspiration by the Holy Spirit, speaking for the Lord Jesus Christ who told him what to say. controlled his writing to communicate spiritual truth and reality that was beyond him. He didn't even know the great impact it would have. He was writing letters to churches and all this is contained in letters. This one was written to the Colossians. He says, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, remember those days? I hope nobody still is, but some are. Engaged therefore in evil deeds Yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body Through death that is his substitutionary atoning death In order to present you before him before God the Father holy Without sin and blameless without shame beyond reproach because of what Christ has done for you, who he is on your behalf. If indeed you continue in the faith, you have to continue in the faith. You can't back off and peel off, you can't. You have to plug on and God will allow you to plug on. If you want to, if you don't want to, he won't make you, but it's to your advantage to do so. There's a great benefit in it. and great disadvantage if you don't. His soul takes no pleasure in those who back off. You know that, don't you? I just wanna make sure you know that. If indeed you continue into faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, that is the hope related to eternal life and the blessings of eternity. You're part of the inheritance and the rewards and your proximity to Christ for all eternity. And the privileges that some will have and some will not have. There's no equality there. The only equality there is, is here. It's equal opportunity and privilege. For salvation and after salvation, for sanctification, which is being set apart from all of the nasty things and set apart unto all the wonderful things that God has decreed and declared and requires of his believers and does in them as he wills and works in us for his good pleasure. That is eudaikeia, which is also like related to eustobia. Eudaikeia means his good pleasure is good for you. He works all things together for the good to those who love him. Not to those who hate him, but to those who love him. Those who are called according to his predetermined purpose. And that is that you would be conformed into the image of his son in some measure while you're here. And that you'll leave this earth loving what he loves and hating what he hates. You know what he said about Jesus, don't you? You know what the scripture says about Jesus. It's a quotation from the Psalms. It's also brought out in Hebrews 1.8 says, to which of the angels did he say, your throne of God is forever and ever. And the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom for you loved righteousness and hated iniquity. You hated iniquity. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above all your contemporaries. Jesus is the happiest person who ever lived, highly exalted at the right hand of the Father. So, firmly established and steadfast, not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed, preached, caruso, by proclamation in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a steward or a minister. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh, I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's affliction. In other words, what Paul's going through will capacitate him to be a maximum benefit to the believers because God's gonna reduce him down to where he needs the Lord and he hears from the Lord, and he writes from the Lord, and everything he does, the Lord's doing in him and through him. That's why I gave him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, and Paul said, please take it away, and he said, no, my grace is sufficient for you. Why would I take away what keeps you humble, what keeps you moving forward, what makes you of great benefit and advantage for those who have given you? Why would I take it away? It's providential, it's preventive suffering. He needed that. God's not gonna take it away. And you say, there's certain things I want him to take away and he hasn't taken away. Or maybe he said, my grace is sufficient for you. It is sufficient. It was sufficient for Christ. It was sufficient for Paul. It's sufficient for you. It's all sufficient. And those things that he has, you thank him for them because they're the reason that you're here. And it's a reason you're continuing. If he took it away, you would not be here. You would not continue. And that's just the way it is. Thank him for the weakness. Paul says, therefore, glory in my infirmities and my weaknesses, my distresses. Because when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. For this power pitches a 10 over me. Skinapo, a 10 of skin. That's what he did for us. So I'll continue here. I'm going to get bogged down. I'll never get done. And I really thought I don't have enough here for tonight. I was kidding, I thought I had a five minute message, it's already, and I haven't even touched it. Anyway, let's move on. He says then in verse 24, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, and filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions of this church, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit that I might fully carry out. That's not what it says. And you see, it says preaching of the word, that's not in, that's italicized, that's not in there, they added that. That I might fill full, fulfill the word of God. What Paul had was the capstone revelation of the mystery, the mystery of Christ and his body, the church. That is the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints. Who are they? You and me, those who are set apart, sanctified ones, saints, agnos, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, that is the nations, which is Christ in you, Christ living inside of you, Christ dwelling in you, which is the hope or the certain expectation in anticipation of your glorification, your living for eternity while you're here in time. And we proclaim him, not ourselves, Paul says, but him. admonishing every man and teaching every man so that we might present every man complete, finished in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. So here we have the mystery of Godliness is astonishing and magnificent. Then he says, here he is, Christ, the mystery man, who, or the one who, was revealed, phaneracho, which means was revealed, unveiled, made manifest, made visible, knowable, tangible, communicable, and relational. That's the only reason we know God is because Christ came, put on flesh. He says, the one who was revealed, unveiled, made manifest, made visible, knowable, tangible, communicable, and relational in Sarki, the flesh, in the flesh. The Lord became flesh, he put on humanity, became a human being, a relative, a descendant of mankind by incarnation, the personification of God himself among us. That's why he was called Emmanuel, means God among us. He's akin to us, he's related to us. qualified redeemer. He had to be just like us to redeem us. A voluntary substitute, an antecedent, that is a target for the judicial or forensic or legal charge and blame for individual collective charges of sin with their blame in order to blot out every last one of them, which he did. for he appeared once in the end of the age Hebrews 9 26 to blot out sin by the offering of himself and that he has done he did a good job so you don't have to worry about that honestly you don't if you do you're choosing to do that and it's not right to do that to live in guilt let it go forgive yourself when you sin confess your sin and let it go if you don't You won't go anywhere. You'll go backwards instead of forward. You'll stall out and then regress. He's the one who was revealed in the flesh. This he did in the midst of human history by suffering eternally in what seemed to be a three hour period. on the cross from noon until three, April 4th, 30 AD, approximately. It's around, that's within a day or two of when he died, actually died, April 4th, 30 AD. So he was 33 and a half years. Well, there's a difference in the calendars, that's why, and it's a difference of three years. The 4th of July is the day that we celebrate our freedom in this nation, independence from oppression and tyranny, the oppression and tyranny of Great Britain. But far beyond anything of that sort is the freedom wrought on our behalf by Jesus Christ, who suffered indescribably in a wormhole in a time warp, equal in duration and intensity to all eternity. The unbridled penalty of inflexible justice to free us from the cruel bondage of sin and its consequences. I personally celebrate April 4th and esteem that day far more highly than the 4th of July, so much so I wrote a poem about it. It's called the price of freedom. This day we call the 4th of July, the day of independence, a celebration in the sky for us and our descendants, hearkens to a greater day, the 4th of April, long ago. Freedom had a price to pay, a greater cost than we can know. No fireworks up in the sky. Dark was that day from noon to three. Out from the darkness came freedom's cry on the 4th of April, 30 AD. Our freedom from sin and death he provided. Becoming a curse, he was hung on a tree. leaving history divided on April 4th, 30 AD. Have you seen what happened there? Do you know the one who paid? Have you heard and do you care? No fireworks, no grand parade. For all that know and come to see will worship him on bended knee for what Christ did for you and me on April 4th, 30 AD. So next we have in our passage, he was declared righteous or vindicated or justified Acts speak louder than words. He was shown to be wholly innocent. The testimony of Pontius Pilate, Herod, and finally the centurion, at whose order his soldiers crucified our Lord, April 4th, 30 AD, said, this is an innocent man. Truly, this was the Son of God. And it says he was declared righteous or vindicated in or by the Holy Spirit. Vindication by resurrection because death was unable to hold him. He was unable to be held by death. Romans 1.1, Paul, a born servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures, concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh, he was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness. Jesus Christ our Lord. I don't know why I love that verse so much. I just do. It's so clear and so lucid. Having fully accomplished our redemption by his vicarious, that means he stood in for us, atoning sufferings and deaths, God raised him according to the scripture and after modeling his resurrection humanity for all to see, was received up to be super eminently exalted above and beyond all men, and angels as a man putting on deathless and sinless humanity in a spectacle that none can deny. Though they may try, they'll see it's true when they die. That's when they'll see it. Have this attitude in yourselves, which also is in Christ Jesus, who although he existed, As God, in the very form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God desirably exalted him and bestowed on him the name and royal title, which is above every other name and royal title, so that the name of Jesus, every knee, should bow of those who are in heaven on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He's vindicated by the Spirit, raised from the dead. And then next, he's seen of angels. Hurrah, seen by angels. All of this was viewed by both fallen and elect angels, who learn of God's grace by observing the events of spiritual history, when as a man, this man, who is indeed the son of man as well as the son of God, voluntarily gave his sinless skin for the sinful skin of all others. The one who put on a tent made of skin to pitch that tent of skin among us to place his over ours in order to make us acceptable to God, which indeed he has done. And that we are for no other reason, he's the reason. Job 2.1, again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, where have you come from? Satan answered the Lord and said, I was cruising the earth, roaming about on the earth, and walking around on it. I was just walking around, smart aleck. And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God, turning away from evil, and he still holds fast his integrity. Although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has, he'll give for his hide. You think that's true? Nope, Jesus Christ proved that that was not so. And all this Job, then what he did was he afflicted him with boils and Job still did not sin with his lips. And his wife said to him, why don't you curse God and die? He said, you talk like one of the foolish women. Should we only accept good from God and not adversity? And he wore him down after a while. And Job, you know, you can't judge him for anything that he said, unless you're in the same situation and you have people like Eliphaz, the Temnite, Bildad, the Shuhite, the shortest man in the Bible is a Shuhite, and Zophar, the Namathite, making appointments with him and going and criticizing him. They're gonna sympathize with him and comfort him. They're miserable comforters. So next he's proclaimed or preached to the nations and then believed on buyer in the world received up or taken up and away in glory. And we will follow in the same footsteps. So that mystery applies to the mystery man and to the mystery entity, which is the church. The body of Christ is the mystery of Christ and the body of Christ, the corporate body of Christ, which we are the many that are one in Christ. And that's my message for tonight. That's the mystery. This is Friday Night Mystery Theater. And I'm glad you were here. And it's my great privilege to speak to you. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these things. Mother, may the rest of the night be wonderful fellowship in the word and just in love, expressing love. And we just thank you for Dan and Judy's hospitality, Cornelius and Cornelia. And for those who come out expectantly to hear the word of God, which makes all the difference in the world, because if there is no demand, then there is no supply. But when there is demand, there's great supply. You are so faithful, Father. Thank you so much for these things. And Father, bless this evening and the remaining time together in Jesus' holy and precious and matchless name, amen.