High degree in boldness

In I Chronicles 17 David is desirous of building the temple. God tells him, “No, you can’t build the temple, but I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to build your house, the House of David, and I’m going to dwell in it. I’m literally going to live in your flesh and it’s your flesh that I’m going to use to sit upon the throne. The Messiah’s going to be your descendant.”

David’s response to this covenant God made with him is in verse 16: “And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and said, Who am I, O LORD God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?”

Jordan explains, “That verse is an illustration of Proverbs 18: ‘Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.
[13] He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.
[14] The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?
[15] The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.
[16] A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.’

“There’s a humble man’s heart right there: ‘Who am I? Lord, who am I for you to give this great honor to?’ I Chronicles 17:17 says, ‘And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O LORD God.’

“David says, ‘Lord, I see what you’ve done. You’ve placed me in a position of high standing in the congregation of Israel.’ Now, that’s the high degree kind of idea in I Timothy.

“He’s not talking about an academic degree; he’s talking about a man who goes out and does the work, and because of the work gets a reputation and earns--purchases for himself--a high degree and when he does that, he gets great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

“There’s a lesson there about where boldness comes from. You preach the Word with the clarity and understanding that right division gives it, but your life is also designed--that truth of grace is designed--to authenticate itself in the transformation that it brings about in the actions and attitudes of your life.

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“The deacon, as he goes about his work, among the saints, purchases a good degree. He purchases among the saints a standing in the eyes of the congregation, a spiritual standing of high esteem. That demonstration of the transforming power of God, the ability of God to work through him in the lives of the congregation, gives him great boldness. You see, there’s a power that comes into our ministry as our lives demonstrate the transforming power and reality of that grace.

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“Paul says you’re to ‘hold the mystery of the faith.’ Now that takes you to verse I Timothy 3:16, where he defines it for you: ‘And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.’

“So here’s the mystery of godliness that they’re talking about holding onto.

“Almost everybody that reads that verse, though, says immediately, ‘Well, that’s talking about Jesus, because Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. So we beheld His glory, the only begotten Son.’

“There’s God the Creator manifest in our flesh and demonstrates deity in human flesh. There’s no question that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. He didn’t quit being God, He just added on human flesh.

“But if this verse is talking about Jesus, look what it says: ‘Great was the mystery of godliness.’

“Now, a mystery was something ‘hitherto hidden but is now revealed.’ It was no hidden truth that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was going to be God in human flesh. There are at least half a dozen clear passages in the Old Testament talking about the Messiah being God in human flesh.

“So it wasn’t a 'secret previously hidden, now revealed. Beyond that, when it says ‘God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory,’ you notice there’s an order to those things?

“Now, I can’t figure out how in the world you’d ever put that order onto the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I got a problem when it says, ‘Preached unto the Gentiles.’ When was He preached unto the Gentiles?! That doesn’t happen until you come to Paul.

“Then it says ‘received up into glory.’ When was Christ received up into glory? That’s Acts 1.

“ ‘God manifest in the flesh’ would be the beginning of His ministry, and ‘received up into glory’ would be Acts 1 when He’s carried back up into heaven. All those things in between there was He preached unto the Gentiles and was believed on in the world between His incarnation and Acts 1?
 

“No, He spent His earthly ministry saying, ‘But I am not sent but to the those of the house of Israel.’ You see where all of a sudden you got problems? The easier way to do that is to come with me to II Corinthians 4 and I Timothy 3:15.

“Great is the mystery about what God’s doing today as He forms 'the church the Body of Christ.' There is a hitherto, unrevealed truth about godlikeness working in a local assembly. The first thing in the local church is God is manifest in the flesh.”