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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/kevin-gull/14-mystery-doctrines-of-the-new-testament/
I'm sure I wasn't on anybody's list of expectations to speak today but I have something that I've studied for about four years that I feel is very important. My message is 14 mystery doctrines of the New Testament.
The word mystery in the Greek is mysterion, a secret. It also means to shut the mouth. It's 27 times in the New Testament but these are the 14 mystery doctrines. I spoke on this several years ago in Garneville.
I trusted my 67 Schofield Bible and he had 11 of them and I found out there was a book on my shelf that I hadn't read by T. Ernest Wilson. He's an Ulster evangelist to Angola. He wrote a book and I found it most helpful after some study.
His great granddaughter is the daughter-in-law to Sharon Hamilton Fleming who has connections to the La Crosse Assembly. So she is married to Sam Hamilton's great-grandson as a local connection. I met her in the restaurant in Garneville and I met her in Dubuque a year ago.
So anyway, these in my mind and why I'm here, these doctrines are essential for careful scripture study. They are hidden from other ages, not revealed in the Old Testament. Only one is taught by Jesus himself.
Eleven are taught by Paul who was caught up to the third heaven in 2nd Corinthians 12 and 2. And he heard inexpressible words. Please note that Paul's revelations go way beyond these 11 mysteries. One mystery overlaps with John.
Where did John get his information from? John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, was given the revelation of Jesus Christ, Revelation 1 and 10. So there's 14 mysteries. If you're interested, if you want these to mean something to you, you're probably going to have to either buy the tape or write them down.
So before I get into my message, I'm going to list them so you can write them down and you can go through them afterwards. First one is doctrinal. It's number one is the mystery of the faith. The mystery of the faith.
Number two, the mystery of the gospel to all nations. Number three, the mystery of Jew and Gentile in one body. Number four is the mystery of the bride. Number five is the mystery of the seven stars and the seven churches.
Number six is the mystery of godliness. Number seven is the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. This is the only one given by our Lord Jesus. Number eight is the mystery of Israel's blindness. Number nine is the mystery of the rapture of the church.
Number ten is the mystery of God's will. Number eleven is the mystery of God. Number twelve is the mystery of the indwelling Christ. Number thirteen is the mystery of iniquity. Number fourteen is the mystery of Babylon the Great.
So I'm going to go through them for my convenience and to spare me going through all the verses in my Bible. I have written them out for you. So the first one is the subject. It is doctrinal. It's the mystery of the faith.
First Timothy three and nine, holding the mystery of faith in a good conscience. In the context, it is the requirement for overseers and deacons with respect to the local church. What would be the other mysteries of the faith?
It's Luke one and one. Those things which are surely believed among us. Acts two and forty-two, the Apostles' Doctrine. Second John nine, the mystery of Christ, the perfect sacrifice of Christ, the Trinity, the divine inspiration, the divine person of the Holy Spirit, the eternal punishment of the loss and the eternal bliss of the redeemed.
These are things that the world around us has forgotten the religious world doesn't pay any attention anymore. So these things are doctrinal that should be part and parcel of us. But they're a mystery hidden from the other ages.
All those details. Number two, the mystery of the gospel to all nations. You go through the Old Testament, you find everything having to do with Israel. There's a odd Gentile here and there that comes to hear the gospel or comes to believe and then ends up being part of Israel.
Romans 16 and 25, now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began.
Verse 26, but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, main tone to all nations for the obedience of faith. Ephesians 6 and 19. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
Imagine a pagan world where only the Jews had the word of God, only the Jews had the prophets. And now in the New Testament, what is given to us in the church and in this age is the gospel to all nations.
Number three, the mystery of the Jew and Gentile in one body. Ephesians 3 and 2, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me towards you, how that revelation he made known unto me, the mystery, as I wrote before in few words, that verse five, which in other ages was not known to the sons of men, as is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.
Verse six, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. I marvel at how many groups, as you, in the, we look at the internet and all these different chat groups, we find out that people want to become more Jewish and to recognize the Sabbath and the law-keeping and the diet-keeping.
And they're trying to be something that God never intended them to be in this age. Brother Al was talking about people leaving, people that are unhappy. You know what, if people are spiritually grounded in what we teach, and I'm not talking about form and formalism and when to show up, I'm talking about the things that you should know, the essential things, and that's why I feel so strongly about this.
If our people are grounded in those things and they're taught in our weekly meetings, they're less likely to, well, he didn't look at me the right way and I didn't like the way he did this or that to me, to leave, to be disgruntled, to be unhappy.
Maybe, maybe, just maybe, if we saw that the big things are the important things in the scripture and the important things in the local church, maybe, just maybe, we'd have those that would stay with us.
Number four is the mystery of the bride. Ephesians chapter 5 and 23, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. He is the savior of the body. Verse 24, the church is subject to Christ.
Verse 25, Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water of the world. Verse 27, that he might present himself a glorious church, not having spot, holy and without blemish.
Verse 30, we are members of his body, his flesh, and of his bones. Verse 32, this is a great mystery, but I speak of Christ in the church. Brother Al has been talking about conflict, difficulties. If we're, if we see ourselves as striving together for the faith of the gospel, the little things shouldn't bother us.
And if we're trying to strive together for the faith of the gospel, we'll try not to have those little things that divide us. Revelation 19 and 7, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride hath made herself ready.
We have a, I don't know if it's the conflict in Israel now, but we have all kinds of so-called evangelical groups that are totally rejecting that there's a future for the nation of Israel. They're rejecting what we are told in Genesis, that we're, that those that bless Israel will be blessed.
And here we have the, the bride, we have the distinction of the bride, which is the church, which is separate from the believers of other ages. And we don't find that in the Old Testament, that's why it's a mystery.
Revelation 21 and 2, I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven out of, from God out of heaven as a, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Last references in Revelation 22 and 17, the spirit and the bride say come.
We have that, that distinction of the bride, that the Lord is not going to allow his bride to go through the great tribulation. I cannot believe what comes out of so-called evangelical circles. You know, when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, he suffered for all my sins.
I don't have to go through some other fiery business at the end of my life, or a select few of us at the end of the lives to, to burn off the dross. That's not there. Jesus paid for it. Jesus suffered for all those things.
Number five, the mystery of the seven stars and the seven churches. That comes from John the Apostle. Revelation 1 and 20, we have the mystery of the seven stars, which is sauced in my right hand. Seven golden lampstones, seven churches.
I'm, I'm sure Joel or, or William would be able to give us far more detail, but that's not my purpose. We go through the history of the churches, the church ages. Ephesus represents desirable. It's the apostolic age.
It's when all the light, the good things of the early church are there. Second one is Smyrna, it's AD 170 to 312. It's the persecution before Constantine brings the Christianity into the Roman Empire.
Number three, Pergamum means twice married, high tower. We have the church in the world, and that's from the fourth century with Constantine to the seventh century. We have a mixing of that which is spiritual and which is political.
Number four, Thyatira from 606 to the end of the age. It's the continual sacrifice, and that ends to the end of the age. I, I have lots of Roman Catholic friends. I'm not here to disparage anyone, but the idea of the offering of the mass around the world every day.
They've got a shortage of priests. They're shutting down three-quarters of the Roman Catholic parishes in Northeast Iowa because of a shortage of priests and probably money. But you know the Lord Jesus, get, get this right, when the Lord Jesus left the Mount of Olives, his body went to heaven, and he sits at the right hand of the throne of God.
When he was crucified on the cross, his blood was shed once for all. We don't reconstitute his body and his blood when we remember the Lord's Supper, and nor, nor does any priest or pastor on the face of the earth, because Jesus, when he comes again, he's coming physically back to the Mount of Olives.
He's not, he's not in material things today. Okay, number five, we have Sardis. Sardis, it means renewed, means escaping. It's from 1517 to the end of the Reformation, unless you're from England, and it happened a hundred years earlier because John Wycliffe translated the Latin New Testament into English.
Actually, there was people saved over a hundred years before there was in Germany in, in, in large numbers. Number six is Philadelphia. Love of the Brethren. So from about 1750 to the present age. So we have the scriptural testimony of believers that, that, that love one another and have recovered the simplicity of gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Number seven, finally, we have Laodicea. It's people's rule, people's rights. It's from about 1900 to the end of the age. I sit with another groups of people on two to three nights a week, and they're all about changing their church, what they do, and who can, who can minister, and who's in their communion, and all kinds of things that aren't in the Word of God.
Now, I'm there to have an opportunity to give them the gospel. Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not there to reform their church, and I don't make any comments about it. But the, the fact of the matter is, all around, everybody's changing what, what started out by, by, by great reformers that had the gospel, the essence of the gospel that left Mother Rome.
And what they're doing to now, they're coming closer to Mother Rome, and they're also, they're also doing their own doctrine. It's people's rule, people's rights. So that's, that's the, the mysteries that are contained in the seven churches.
Number six is the mystery of godliness. It's the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, that God became man. First Timothy 3 and 16, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached on into the, onto the nations, believed on the world, received up to glory.
The next section are those mysteries that are dispensational. Number seven, the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. The word dispensation in, in the, the Greek, and I, I, I know a little Greek. He runs Steel Mart down in Dubuque.
It's a great place to buy steel, but that's kind of a limit of my, my Greek ability. I have strongs on my, on my phone, and a bunch of, I have a Greek concordance. Cost me a hundred dollars for the Septuagint, but it's pretty hard for a guy like me to wander through.
Anyway, the, the dispensation is an organized system of order, of things that are organized system or method, and that is, occurs several times in our scriptures. Today there's people that totally reject the order of scriptures.
They, they, they talk against the dispensations. They blame Darby. They blame Mr. Schofield and us evangelicals for messing up what they always believed, but that's, we're here. We have light. We have truth.
Okay, so the number seven, the mystery of the kingdom of heaven is given to us by Jesus in Matthew 13 and 11. He answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Again, the kingdom is like a merchant man seeking fine pearls. That merchant man is the Lord Jesus. Verse 46, who when he found one pearl of great price, went, sold all that he had, and bought it. Christ is the merchant man.
The church, composed of Jew and Gentile, is a pearl of great price. So we have the, the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. Number eight is the mystery of Israel's blindness. How, how more up-to-date could we have in the news today than the fact that Israel is gathered in unbelief to their land that God has promised them, without recognizing God, without recognizing the Savior that they crucified, without recognizing that that Savior is coming again.
Mystery of Israel's blindness, Romans 11 and 25. I would not, brethren, to be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits that blindness is in part, is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Verse 26, and so all Israel shall be saved. It is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, that's the Lord Jesus, who shall tell, turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Hasn't happened yet. Does that mean no Jews are saved today?
No. I got a friend named Andy Feinberg down in Phoenix. I actually had several other Jewish believer friends in Phoenix in times past, and some in other places. So God saved, still saves Jews just like he did in the first century.
But the nation, as a group, these people do not recognize. They're looking for another Messiah, and they crucified the one that came to them. Number nine, the mystery of the rapture of the church. This is absolutely being assaulted in evangelical circles today.
They claim that we're kind of wussies, and we're looking for a deliverance so we don't have to go through the tribulation. And we've come up with this escape route, as though somehow we could change God's mind.
No, it's what the Word of God has given us. First Corinthians 15 and 51, behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. The we is the believers. The we is the church living at that moment.
Verse 52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. It's not on our abilities, it's on God's promises.
Then we have number 10, is the mystery of God's will. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. It's Ephesians 1 and 7. Ephesians 1 and 9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself.
Verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. So we have that word dispensation again.
It's the mystery of God's will. That's what he wants to do in this age. In Luke chapter 4, the Lord Jesus is standing, reading from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth, and he reads 61 and 1 and verse 2, first part of verse 2, and he actually is reading out of the Septuagint because he mentions the opening the eyes of the blind, and the latter part says, and the day of vengeance of our God.
The Lord Jesus didn't read that because he didn't bring the vengeance of our God. He brought salvation to us. The door is open, and we have that for us. First chapter, number 11, the mystery of God. Revelation 10 and 7, the mystery of God shall be finished as he hath declared to his servants, the prophets, that God has waited for thousands of years in love and patience for men to repent of their sin and turn to him in forgiveness.
2 ,000 years of gap between, well it's actually more than that, but there's 2 ,000 years from the time that the Lord Jesus read in the synagogue, and this is the day of grace, and it's coming to an end, and if you're not saved, you need to find Jesus as your Savior to have your sins forgiven, to be right with God.
That's another thing that's in the news, is we got to get ready for the tribulation, or this or that. Well, if you're saved, you're ready, and you're not going to see the tribulation, but if you're not saved, you will see it, and you will not get a second chance.
2 Thessalonians 2 tells us that God's going to blind the minds of those that believe not, so the ones that get saved in the tribulation are those that have never heard and rejected the gospel. Those of you that would be brought up in a Christian home, if you're not saved and you've rejected the Christ, yes, you will be in the tribulation, and you will believe the lie.
So we have the mystery of God. Okay, the next section is that which is devotional. Number 12, the mystery of the indwelling Christ. This is something that didn't exist in the Old Testament. Colossians 1 and 24, for his body's sake, which is the church.
Verse 25, of which I am made a minister according to the dispensation of grace of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God. Verse 26, even the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.
Verse 27, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. Christ in you, the hope of glory. We go far enough back, I think we're looking at primarily Anglo-Saxons in this audience, maybe some others, but not a Jewish audience that I can detect.
Our ancestors worshipped Christmas trees. We did all sorts of things in Europe before the gospel came. It's very curious that the Roman Empire, because of the power of the Roman Empire and the commerce that the gospel came to Northern Europe, and we at least heard some sense of the one true God in Jesus.
Even though our ancestors, many of them probably were not saved for generations, there was a Christian influence there. So we have that, and we have this before us, that we have the riches of his glory, the mystery of the Gentiles, Christ in you, where it's not by works, it's not by ritual, it's not by sacrament, it's through what the Lord Jesus has done on the cross through faith.
The final section that T. Ernest Wilson divides these in, number 13, is the mystery of iniquity. 2 Thessalonians 2, which I've already made reference to, 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 3, that the man of sin be revealed, who opposeth, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing that he is God, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
You know, we have all these people trying to figure out who the Antichrist is, and you know, I could vote for George Soros or his son or a bunch of other people, but we don't know, we don't need to know.
We're to look for a savior. We're not to look for who the identity of the evil one is, because he is not going to be active, he's not going to have the power, as long as this church is on the earth. So we have the mystery of iniquity.
We go to Daniel 11, we have a man that's exalted himself, seems to be the same man as what since 2 Thessalonians 2. And finally, the last diabolical thing that we're given in, it was the mystery of Babylon the Great, Revelation 17 and 5, upon her forehead was a name written, mystery, the Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots.
Well, the reformers and maybe a good many here say, well, that's the Roman Catholic Church. Well, we see the Roman Catholic Church, and we see the leaders of the Muslims coming together. I don't think it's restricted to the Roman Catholic Church.
I think it's, all false religion will be united during that time. Once the church is gone, there's going to be no one standing for the truth. Total spiritual darkness in the whole earth. I don't know if anyone even gets saved in the first three and a half years of that 70th week.
But there's going to be darkness, total spiritual darkness. And here's mystery, the Babylon the Great, whether you want to decide it's strictly the Roman Empire, but I'm convinced that it's all the evil religions coming together that are against God and his Christ.
So anyway, there's 14 mysteries. I suggest if you're interested in spiritual things, you look at them. They tell you how to look at the church, the body of Christ, that it's totally distinct from the nation of Israel.
It's distinct from the believer Old Testament saints. It's distinct from those that will come to faith in Christ in the great tribulation. It's distinct from those that would believe in the millennium.
The mystery of his coming shows us that it's restricted. It's a detailed thing. If we were go to John 14, I understand that was the Bible reading last Sunday, so I have no idea what was said. But we go to John 14 and he, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
You need to go to verse 16. From 16 to 26, the Lord Jesus talks about those that are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. That's in the future tense. Those are the people that Jesus is coming for in John 14, 1 to 4.
That's not some general resurrection. It's a specific resurrection of the church, which we call the rapture. So hopefully some of this has sunk in. Hopefully it gets those of you that are students or want to be students to look at it closer.
Thank you for your time. Likely you won't hear me for a while, but I appreciated what I found. I hope you do too.