For, Lord, we do desire to praise Thy name, because Thy name is wonderful. Thy name is above everything, and to Thy name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee for this precious name. How we praise and thank Thee that we can gather together tonight in this precious name. And as Thou hast promised us, that where two or three are gathered together unto Thy name, there art Thou in the midst of them, God, we praise and thank Thee because we know Thou art here.
We only pray that Thou wilt open our eyes, that we may see Thee; open our ears, that we may hear; open our hearts, that we may receive Thee. For, Lord, manifest Thyself to us.
We do commit this time into Thy hands, and ask Thee to bless it. We pray that Thou wilt open Thy Word to us, that Thou mayest be able to perfect Thy working in us. And we do together give Thee all the praise, the glory, and the honor, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I would like to read just one verse to start with. It is found in 1 Corinthians 4:1.
Let a man so account of us, as of ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Paul wrote this message to the believers in Corinth. He told them that they should consider him and his brothers—Apollos and Cephas, for that matter—as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
I think we can broaden it a little bit. Not only Paul and Apollos are stewards of the mysteries of Christ, but in one sense every one of us, every child of God, every believer, is a steward.
We all have been entrusted by God with something very precious. We are stewards of the mysteries of God.
When you think of stewardship, probably immediately you remember that parable that our Lord Jesus told. A man was going away to a far country, so he gave his possessions to his servants. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent. Then he commanded them to trade with these talents until he returned.
You find that these servants were given the master’s possessions. They were not proprietors or owners of these possessions; they were just stewards. They were managers, able to manage the possessions that their master had entrusted to them.
They were supposed to manage those possessions wisely. If they did so, then when the master returned, they would be rewarded. Otherwise, they would suffer loss.
So, brothers and sisters, that is a very real thing. We are all stewards. We are not owners. We are not proprietors. We are stewards; we are managers. God has entrusted us with something very precious, and we are commanded not only to keep it, but rather to use it and multiply it very wisely and very faithfully.
Our stewardship lasts only for our life on this earth. You remember our Lord Jesus saying, “If ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?” If you are not faithful with what little has been given to you, how can you be given much more at the return of the Lord? We are stewards.
Sometimes you find that the Bible, when it refers to stewardship, speaks of gifts—God-given gifts that have been given to each believer. We are to trade with them. We are to use these gifts faithfully and wisely, like these three servants.
In Luke 19, instead of giving five talents, two talents, and one talent to three servants, the master called ten servants to him and gave each one of them one mina. A mina is a sixtieth part of a talent. They were given equally one mina.
In like manner, the grace given to every one of us is the same, although His gifts are different. We need to be very faithful to the grace that we have received. One occupied it ten times; one multiplied it five times; another had not been faithful.
Sometimes the Bible refers to going into the field to work. The landowner comes out early in the morning and engages some people to go into his field and work, promising to give them their daily wage. At twelve o’clock he goes out again; at three o’clock he finds others still idle; and even at five o’clock he calls others into his field.
At other times, a parable refers to a servant working in the house, taking care of the food in the house—a housekeeper. So you find in the Bible many different ways of telling us that we are servants of Christ and stewards of God’s household.
But, brothers and sisters, what is in my heart tonight is this: we are stewards, but what is it that God has entrusted to us?
Paul calls us “stewards of the mysteries of God.” Above the thought of gifts and the thought of grace, there is this mystery of God. Underneath all the gifts and the grace of God, there is the mystery of God. We are stewards of God’s mysteries.
If you understand that, you will find it is a tremendous thing. God has not entrusted us merely with something small. Nothing that comes from God can be small, but what God has really entrusted us with is something beyond our understanding—something so tremendous, so precious. We are stewards of what? Of the mysteries of God.
Sometimes we think we are stewards of His gifts. That is correct. Other times we think we are stewards of His grace. That is correct. Sometimes we think that our life on earth is a stewardship, and we need to live for God and not for ourselves. Other times we think that our work and labor on earth are a stewardship, and that we need to work faithfully and wisely in serving God.
Now, all these are true and correct. But have we ever thought that we are stewards of something tremendously great, most basic, and that is the mysteries of God?
One day, God said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do?” God could not hide it, because Abraham was His friend. God would not hide anything from Abraham. He would tell Abraham what was upon His heart. He would share His secrets with Abraham.
He would not do that with other people; He would not do that with others. But with Abraham, His friend, He shared His secret. It is a privilege, but it is also a responsibility.
In John 15, you remember our Lord Jesus said:
No longer do I call you servants;
for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth:
but I have called you friends;
for all things that I heard from My Father,
I have made known unto you.
A master may say, “Go,” and the servant goes. The master may say, “Do this,” and the servant does it. The master never explains. But the Lord says, “I do not treat you as servants. I treat you as My friends. For everything I have learned from My Father, I have told you.”
When Paul realized what grace had been given to him—that God should reveal to him the mystery—oh, how thankful he was. He said, in effect, “I am unworthy that God has revealed this mystery to me.” Brothers and sisters, we are stewards of the mysteries of God.
Now, what is a mystery? It is not something strange. It is not merely something mysterious or secretive. It is a secret, yes, but it is something hidden in God’s mind, in God’s will.
No one knows the secret of God. No one knows the depths of God but the Spirit of God. The word “mystery” means a secret. It has been hidden for ages and centuries, and nobody knows the secret until God reveals that secret to us by His Holy Spirit.
God shares His secret with His own—with those who are open to Him, with those who seek Him. He will open His mystery, His secret, to them. With them it is an open secret; but to the world it is still a mystery, something hidden.
Paul says that we are stewards of the mysteries of God, in the plural. It is not that God has many mysteries. As a matter of fact, God has only one mystery, but it has many aspects. When you enter into the various aspects of the mystery of God, you find the mysteries of God.
This time we would like to share together on this one matter: we are stewards of the mysteries of God. Now, you cannot be a steward of something that has not been given to you.
In other words, you have to first receive what you are going to keep and use faithfully and wisely. We must know what the mystery of God is. What is it that God has given and entrusted to us? We must know that first. Then, knowing that, we should manage it faithfully and wisely, as God has given it.
Do we know what He has entrusted to us? We have to know. I think this is the first thing that we should know, because if we do not know, then we are not able to be faithful to it. We do not know what we have, and we do not know what we can work with.
So we do need to look to the Lord that He will give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may know the mysteries of God. And also, after knowing it, that by the strengthening of the Holy Spirit in our inward man, we may manage that which has been given to us faithfully and wisely.
As you read the New Testament, probably you will come to a few expressions that refer to these mysteries. We are not able to go into every one of them, but we will try to see the main points in the mysteries of God.
You find such terms as “the mystery of God,” “the mystery of Christ,” “Christ and His church,” and “great is the mystery of godliness.” All these terms are interrelated. They show us the various aspects of the mystery of God.
We will begin with the first one: the mystery of God. Let us read a portion from the Word of God first, Colossians 2.
For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding,
that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ,
in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.
For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
rooted and builded up in Him, and established in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ:
for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,
and in Him ye are made full.
What is the mystery of God? Why is God a mystery?
Isaiah 45:15 says:
Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself,
O God of Israel, the Saviour.
In Psalm 18, you find that God makes darkness His hiding place. Even in the tabernacle, God dwelt in the holiest of all. So far as this world is concerned, it was utter darkness. The sunlight could not penetrate into the holiest of all.
There was the light of the golden lampstand in the holy place, but when you entered the holiest of all, so far as natural light was concerned, it was total darkness. Yet, of course, we know it was not darkness, for the glory of the Lord filled that place.
Yet that glory was such that the apostle said that God dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man hath seen, nor can see. Nobody has seen God. Although He is light and dwells in unapproachable light, so far as the world is concerned, He hides Himself.
In other words, no one knows Him. He is the great Unknown. That probably is the reason why the Greeks, in the old days, had an altar with an inscription: “To an unknown god.” God is unknown; He is a mystery.
You may believe there is a God, and that God is somewhere, but you do not know Him. He is a mystery.
But God is not altogether unknown. On the very contrary, you find that God has revealed Himself to us. How can He be known? The Scripture says:
No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him.
The Lord says, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him.
What is the mystery of God? The mystery of God is Christ. God will remain a mystery to you if you do not know Christ. God can never be known otherwise, because all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in the Son.
In Colossians 1:19, we read:
For it was the good pleasure of the Father
that in Him should all the fulness dwell.
This verse actually refers to eternity past. Before there was time, before anything was created, in eternity past, all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in the Son.
Everything that is of God, everything that is the secret of God, all that God is and all that God has, is there in fullness. Why? Because the Son is the mystery of God. God’s mystery is in the Son. Everything is in the Son.
But thank God, this is not only true in eternity past. One day it became true in time and order. That is Colossians 2:9:
For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
In eternity past, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him. But in time, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily, because He took upon Himself a body.
The Son came into this world. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. In Jesus Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells.
Therefore, when you see Christ, you see God. Everything that speaks of God is expressed in Christ. Nobody has ever seen God; nobody knows Him. Yet when Christ has come, when you see Christ, immediately you begin to know God. That secret is given.
Brothers and sisters, this is a tremendous thing. As you read the four Gospels, you find that the way Christ spoke, the way Christ acted, all that He did, all that He said, revealed God. He declared God.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. He can be touched. He can be handled. As the apostle John says:
That which we have heard,
that which we have seen with our eyes,
that which we beheld,
and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life.
Brothers and sisters, that God who has been unknown in centuries past has now become known in Christ. If you want to know what God is like, look at Christ.
If you want to know the love of God, look at the love of Christ, and you see the love of God. If you want to know the righteousness of God, look at Christ and you see it. He is full of truth and grace.
That fullness which dwells in Christ is for us. The Lord Jesus did not come to this earth merely to demonstrate to us how full God is. It is more than a demonstration. It is a gift to us.
Therefore, you find in the Gospel of John:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father),
full of grace and truth.
For of His fulness we all received,
and grace for grace.
That fullness of God is for us. In eternity past, God’s fullness was unapproachable. But now the fullness of God is for us. Out of His fullness we receive grace upon grace.
Why is it grace upon grace? Because it is so great that you are not able to have it all at once. You experience it again and again, day by day, moment by moment, and continuing into eternity. There is no end to it.
God, who could not be reached, can now be received. He is life. As we read in the beginning, He has eternal life. He is the God of the living. How can we receive that life? He has given His Son, who is life.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and ye are made full in Him. There is nothing that is in God which is not for you. When God gives you His Son, He gives everything with Him. He has everything in His Son.
There is no other place where you can find anything. People try to reach God and try to know God. They seek in other places, thinking that they may find God somewhere or receive something from God somehow. But you cannot.
The Lord said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” If we do not come by the Lord Jesus, by the Son, there is no way to go to the Father. The Father has nothing to give apart from the Son. It is all in the Son.
God’s secret is Christ, and this Christ is ours. We are complete in Him. Everything that is in God is in Christ, and Christ is yours. Oh, brothers and sisters, this is the mystery of God. How we thank God for that!
There is a story I always like to tell. Some of you may have known it already, but it illustrates a little bit what we are trying to say.
A very rich man had many properties. He could not remember how rich he was or how much property he had. He owned so much land and so many possessions. He had only one son, but one day this old man was dying.
Before his death, he made a will. He consulted a very wise lawyer as to how he should make that will. He had so much property that he could not put down everything in the will, and he was afraid that he might miss something.
So when the son arrived, the father had already died. After the whole family had gathered together to read the will, the will stated: “I will bequeath all that I have to my chief steward, but I will allow my son to choose among my properties one thing, and that will be my son’s inheritance.”
The son said, “My father gave everything to the chief steward and left me with only one thing that I would choose. If I choose this, I will lose that. If I choose cattle, I will lose the land and other property. Something must be wrong.”
So he spoke to the lawyer. The lawyer whispered something to him, and immediately his face brightened. He said, “Now I am ready to choose. I choose the chief steward.”
You know, the father knew that if he should die before his son arrived, he had so much property that the chief steward would have to take care of it. Everything would be given to the chief steward, and therefore the steward would take very good care of everything. By choosing the chief steward, the son received all the property.
In a sense, that is the way it is with us. All the fullness of the Godhead is in Jesus Christ. God wants us to have everything, but He is afraid that we may miss something. So He put everything in His Son and said, “You just choose My Son, and you have Me.”
Even in our little experience, how true that is. Before we chose God’s Son, we may have known about God, but we did not have God. But when we believe in the Lord Jesus, God becomes real to us, and we experience love, joy, and peace.
Therefore, Paul says that with all the saints we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Not just a little bit of God, but the fullness of God. Of course, no individual can be filled with the fullness of God; this vessel is too small.
We need God to enlarge us, but however large we may become, it is still too small. It takes all the saints, with all the saints, that we may know the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height—the fullness of God.
So, in the first place, you find that the mystery of God is Christ, the Son. If you do not know the Son, you will never be able to know God. He is a mystery, but when you know the Son, the mystery is opened.
Secondly, the mystery of God is Christ because, according to Ephesians 1:9-10:
Making known unto us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him
unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times,
to sum up all things in Christ,
the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth.
To know the mystery of God is to know the mystery of His will. If anyone is to know your mystery, your secret, he is to know the secret of your will—that is to say, what you intend to do. If you know what he intends to do, then you know his secret.
God has a secret. He has a will. He has a purpose. He intends to do something. Nothing that God does is apart from that will.
We may do things accidentally, or we may be changed by our environment. We are like little creatures going in one direction, and suddenly something attacks us, and we turn around and go in another direction. But God is never like that.
God has a will. He has a purpose. He purposed in eternity past, and according to that purpose He laid down His plan. He works very steadfastly to complete that purpose.
Brothers and sisters, often we do not know what God is doing in our own life. We do not understand it. “Oh, God, why did You allow this? Why did You allow that? Why does God deal in this way or that way?” Even in our own lives, sometimes the things of God are a mystery. We do not understand why He should do things in that way.
And when you look more widely, you find things happening in this world, and you ask, “Why? If God is there, why should He allow all these killings? Why?” God is a puzzle.
God’s ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We do not know. But, brothers and sisters, that does not mean that because you do not know, God does not know either. God knows what He is doing. He is not influenced by circumstances—not at all.
Whatever God does, it is according to His purpose. Yes, His purpose, His will, is a mystery. But if only we can know what His will is—what the mystery of His will is—then we will not misunderstand Him. Then we will not doubt Him. Then we will begin to appreciate what He is doing.
So what is important is to know the mystery of His will. What is behind everything that God does? What is He really after—in you and in the whole world?
You find that the mystery of God’s will is to head up all things in Christ. That is the mystery. It is God’s will that everything should be gathered up together in Christ—things in the heavens and things upon the earth.
If you turn to Colossians 1, we will read from verse 15. This is Christ, the Son of God:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth,
things visible and things invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things have been created through Him, and unto Him.
Now, brothers and sisters, in the translation we need to be a little more exact. In verse 16, “for in Him were all things created”—the word translated “by” is, literally, “in.” All things were created in Him.
To our common understanding, when you say that all things were created in Him, we may not understand what that means. Therefore, translators use “by Him” so that we can understand. But literally the preposition means “in Him.” All things were created in Him.
And not only in Him, but the verse continues: all things were created through Him and for Him. So you find that all things, whether things in heaven or things upon the earth, were created in Him, through Him, and for Him.
What do we mean by “in Him”? A carpenter makes a chair. When the carpenter makes the chair, the chair is created in him. He has in his mind a design, and that design is according to his character.
Everything you make has the imprint of your character upon it. If a carpenter is careless, probably the chair he makes will be a rough chair. If you sit on it, you may fall. It may have only three legs instead of four. It reveals his character.
But if the carpenter is a wise and careful person, then you find that the product of his work is very fine work. He is expressing his character in it.
God created all things in Christ. That is to say, everything takes its character from Christ. The sun takes its character from Christ—His glory and His brightness. The moon takes its character from Christ—His purity.
Everything in the universe was created in Him. It represents Him. It is His creation, just as a painting represents the artist who painted it. Whatever is in the artist is expressed in the painting.
That is why the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. The whole creation reveals His wisdom, His power, and His character. Whose character is it? Christ’s. Everything was created in Him.
Then, through Him: He was the instrument. God created everything through the Son. The Son was the master builder. He built it; He created everything. And all things were created for Him.
The end of all creation is Christ. It is for Him. Now, brothers and sisters, think of that. Everything was created in Him, through Him, and for Him, that He might be the firstborn of all creation.
Some people have difficulty with the expression “firstborn of all creation.” Remember, Christ the Son being the firstborn of all creation does not mean that He was created or that He was the first thing created. No, it does not mean that.
He created all things, so He cannot Himself be a created person. “Firstborn” here has a specific meaning. It is like the Book of Psalms, where God says that David is His firstborn and that he shall be king over the nations. It is like God saying that Israel is His firstborn.
It does not mean that He was the first created. No, He created everything. “Firstborn” simply means that He has priority and sovereignty over all things.
The word “firstborn” in Greek has this specific meaning: He has priority over all things, and He has sovereignty over all things. Who is He? This is the Son. This is Christ.
The same thing is true when you come to the new creation. He was the firstborn from among the dead, because all the new creation takes its character from Him. It is in Him, through Him, and for Him.
Brothers and sisters, everything was created in Him and through Him. He has priority and sovereignty over all things. But something happened when sin came into this world and disrupted everything.
The whole creation has gone into chaos. Everything was smashed into pieces. This is not only true with human beings, but it is true with the whole creation. Everything disintegrates.
Does that mean that God is defeated? Does it mean that God’s will is finished? Not at all. The mystery of God’s will is that He will gather together—He will unite—all things in Christ.
In the beginning, everything was created in Him, through Him, and for Him. But now sin has disrupted everything. Everything has gone into pieces.
It is just like a potter. When the clay was marred in his hand, the vessel broke into pieces. But in Jeremiah, you find that the potter took up the broken pieces, remolded them, refashioned them, and made a new vessel out of them.
Oh, brothers and sisters, you cannot explain God’s work; you will never know what God is doing unless you see that the mystery of His will is to head up all things in Christ.
Why are you saved? Is it just that you may be saved and go to heaven? No, it is more than that. You are, by the grace of God, becoming an active element in the mystery of God’s will.
He is taking everything that has been broken into pieces, and He is making it into a new vessel. But remember, when He gathers all things into Himself, it is no longer the old creation; it is a new creation.
On the one hand, He gathers up the pieces—we are the pieces. But on the other hand, He gathers these pieces and makes them into a vessel, a new vessel.
As Paul says:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me.
That is the wonder. One thing we should know: there are things in the old creation that will never be reused. Some will be cast away.
You find even in the Book of Revelation that some will be cast outside; some will go into the second death. So this is not universalism—not that everybody will be saved or that the whole universe will be restored without exception. No. Some will be cast away.
You go to a potter’s field, and you find pieces of pottery all around that are of no use. Why? Because they refuse to be remolded.
But, brothers and sisters, how we need to be thankful to the Lord that He should take us up. We are no better than anybody else, but He has taken us. He has recreated us.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
the old things are passed away;
behold, they are become new.
But all things are of God.
This is the way that He will unite all things in Himself, so that all things will once again declare His glory and manifest His glory. This is the mystery of His will.
For us, brothers and sisters, the mystery of God’s will is Christ. It is Christ, and Christ again. Unless we see Christ, unless we know Him, unless we receive Him, God will remain a mystery to us. We will never know God, and we will never be able to have God.
God’s secret is His Son, and it is in His Son that this secret is fully revealed. Thank God, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He gave that Son to us, that we may become complete in Him.
So first of all, we want to stress this one point: the mystery of God is Christ.
Oh, brothers and sisters, how easily we are occupied, attracted, or distracted by many, many things instead of seeing Christ.
I think it is time that we should see Christ, because this is the mystery, and we are stewards of this mystery. We have to be faithful. We have to be wise.
In other words, we have to see Him, and we have to be occupied with Him. He is the One whom we will share with other people. This is our stewardship.
Let us pray.
Our Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast made us stewards of Thy mystery. How great a mystery this is, even Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, our Heavenly Father, we do pray that more and more our hearts may be occupied with Him. More and more may we see Him, and more and more may we be faithful to Him and share Him with others wisely.
Oh, Lord, deliver us from things that are isolated, scattered, and small. God, we pray that we may see Thou hast given Thy Son to us, and it is in Him that we are made complete.
Lord, we do praise and thank Thee for Thy mercy and grace. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.