TD Jakes - The Mystery Revealed
The things of God that were once hidden are later revealed through Christ unto us. Okay, so when we start talking about a mystery, we're not talking about something that didn't exist, we're just talking about something that wasn't revealed. I have a gift. I have several gifts for different ones of my children that they don't know anything about. When I decide to let them know about it, I will let them know about it. When they know about it, that doesn't mean that I created it or I got it when they know about it, it was hidden from them, but it was theirs. When you start talkin' about a mystery revealed, it is amazing.
There are levels to revelation. Every preacher doesn't have the same level of revelation. Every person doesn't have the same level of revelation. Every marriage doesn't have the same level of revelation. Revelation grows, you can know it on one level and not know it on another. I was thinking about this whole notion of how I would begin to talk about the mystery revealed, and God gave me an image of a woman, and her cycle has stopped, and she's getting sick in the morning. She's getting sick in the morning, strangely, and she's not normally sick, and she's sick in the morning, and she can't figure out what's wrong.
What do you think might be wrong? Oh, she's pregnant, she's pregnant, she's pregnant, but she doesn't know it yet. But her not knowing it doesn't mean she's not pregnant. It hasn't been revealed to her yet, but that does not negate the fact that some living thing is growing inside of her body. When she knows about it, that doesn't mean that it started, it could've started before she knew about it. So, she goes, she gets a pregnancy test, and then she finds out indeed she is pregnant. That's a level of revelation. The moment she gets a revelation that she's pregnant, that is a level of revelation. She doesn't know what gender it is, she just knows that she's pregnant.
After months and months of formation, eventually she will go and they will do an ultrasound on her and reveal the gender. Whoo, that's another revelation, okay? And then she finds out I'm pregnant, and it's a girl or it's a boy, but she hasn't met 'em yet. After the third trimester is completed, she goes into labor, she dilates, her water breaks, she gives birth and travails. She pushes forth a baby, and the baby is revealed. Those are three revelations before she meets the baby. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? Now, she meets the baby when they lay the baby in her arms and cuts the cord, but she still doesn't know the baby. She doesn't know the baby just because. You don't know Boo Boo yet. You have to watch Boo Boo a while before you figure out whether Boo Boo is a liar or not, or whether Boo Boo can be trusted, or whether Boo Boo is dependable, and whether Boo Boo is loyal.
You don't know them, but the baby has been revealed. And then as you raise them, you get to know them. There are different levels of revelation. From the Book of Genesis all the way to the Book of Revelations, God is giving us different levels of revelations of what was hidden from the foundations of the world. It's comin' in stages. It's coming in phases. It's coming through revelation knowledge. It's coming through teaching. It's coming through word. It's coming through experience until Christ be formed in you. Just 'cause you came to the altar and gave your life to Christ doesn't mean that Christ is in full formation in you.
Paul said in Galatians, "My little children in whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you". He has to be formed in you. It takes a lifetime to live holy. Y'all ain't gonna talk to me. I mean, to really live holy, to really get it down, to get where holiness is more than long dresses, and not cutting your hair, and all that kinda stuff. Holiness is more then not fornicating, and not drinking liquor, and not smoking dope. Holiness is more than that. Holiness is where you don't think evil. Oh, yeah, you're gonna clap before it's over, yeah. The Bible said the very thought of foolishness is sin. It takes a long time. I hear people say, "Oh, I'm holy, yeah, but yeah, yeah". That's cute, that's nice, that's nice, but if everything you thought was played on a loudspeaker right now, you'd put up your finger and tip out of here right now, because it takes a long time for Christ to come into full formation in you. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you?
A mystery is that which can only be known through the revelation of God. That means that God cannot be proven, he cannot be explained, he cannot be fussed about, he can not be argued about, he must be revealed. The MRI revealed it's a boy. I didn't know it was a boy until they revealed, the ultrasound rather revealed it was a boy. I didn't know I was pregnant until the test revealed I was pregnant. I didn't know they were gonna have dimples like grandma 'til I pushed out the baby and it was revealed. If you have to be revealed, how much more does God have to be revealed? You are not here because somebody explained him to you, you are here because he revealed himself to you. He showed himself to you. He chose to let you see him. Some of it came through preaching, or some of it came through a song, some of you weren't even in church.
You might have been at the house, you might have been in the club, you might have been in the car, and he just gave you a sneak peak, and he revealed himself to you. And all of a sudden, you got convicted about things you weren't convicted about before, and you decided to change your life, and the more you walk with him, you are taking off stuff every day, changing habits, and changing behaviors because there are levels of revelation. Because our God is a mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness. That's why you ought not to judge one another. "In a great house," the Bible said, "There are vessels of honor and dishonor". I got five kids and only two of 'em are the same age 'cause they twins. The rest of 'em are all different ages, at different stages, at different stages of development. You don't have no 12 kids and all of them seven. Yet church will force you to act like you're the same age as everybody else, because we do not make room for the development of revelation which takes time for Christ to be formed in you.
So, you are seven having to act like you're 27, because everybody's judging your like your 27, but you're really still on a seven level. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm sayin.' I'm gonna make this thing clear. It is this God that has chosen to reveal himself unto us all through the Old Testament, through shadows, through types. He shows up in all kinds of ways. He's the fourth man in the fiery furnace. He the kinsman redeemer of Ruth. He's the day star of the Old Testament. He's the lover of my soul in the Song of Solomon. He's the voice of the Lord walking through the cool of the garden. All of these are quick glimpses and glances of him just giving us shadows of who he is, hallelujah. He is the tabernacle in the Old Testament. He is the brazen altar and the brazen laver. He is the mercy seat in the Old Testament. He is the veil in the temple. He is the bread on the table. He is the altar of incense.
All of these are little glimpses where he's giving you tests and you're coming through different stages of the revelation. He is the animal that was slain, that covered Adam's nakedness. We don't know yet that it's a lamb, it's just an animal. We don't find out that the animal is a lamb until we get to the Book of Exodus. And in the Book of Exodus, we find out that the animal is a lamb and a firstling. We'd find out that it's a lamb in Genesis with Able, but we don't know that it's a male and it's a firstling until we get to Exodus. And we don't know that it's slain and applied to the doorposts until Exodus.
And it's way over in the Book of Isaiah before we find out that the lamb is really a man. "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed". And we still don't know which man. It is only when John the Baptist is baptizing in the Jordan River that we know that the lamb that was a coat of skin in the Book of Genesis, the lamb that was offered up by Able in the Book of Genesis, the lamb that was painted on the doorposts in the Book of Exodus, it's only the man that was pointed out in the Jordan River with water running in between his legs. All of a sudden, John says, "Behold, this is the one. This is who Isaiah is talking about. Behold, the Lamb of God, which will take away the sins of the world". This is God being revealed. Jesus is God being revealed. Jesus is God incarnate. God was manifest in the flesh.
And Paul is teaching Timothy this is a mystery. You can't explain it, you can't argue about it. The church has been arguing about the godhead for years. I stopped arguing about the godhead because I think it's stupid, because you cannot explain what must be revealed. If you argue with me and tell me he's one, I can show you places where he was individually three. If you tell me he's three, I want to know are they're going to be sitting on top of each other in heaven? 'Cause there ain't but one throne. God cannot be explained, he must be revealed. He must be revealed. It's no need in arguing about it, he must be revealed. You need a doctrine to make you feel good, but it must be revealed. This is a revelation, not a doctrine. God was manifest in the flesh. "Behold, a virgin shall be with child. They shall bring forth a child and they shall call his name Emmanuel". God tabernacled with us.
Oh, wait, so that's what the tabernacle was about in the Old Testament, God playing peekaboo. God showing us. That's what the tabernacle was in the middle of the 12 tribes of Israel. The tabernacle is in the middle of the 12 tribes, and that is a picture of Christ being the dwell amongst us. Y'all ain't hearing. Benjamin didn't own him. Judah didn't know own him. Y'all didn't hear it. Ithamar didn't own him. Nobody could say that they owned God. He's the dwell-amongst-us God. Issachar couldn't say he owned him. He's the dwell-amongst-us God. In fact, he said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them". Glory to God. Not one of them, all three of them. He said I dwell in your unity. I'll come in the room if two or three of you gather in my name. I'll jump in the middle of you. I'll get in the middle of your praise. If you start talking about me, I will sit down in the middle of your conversation. That God would become intimately entangled with people like us.
Out of the same mouth comes blessings and cursings, and yet when we start saying hallelujah, he's worthy to be praised, hallelujah, he's worthy to be praised, out of our filthy mouth, God will come and sit down in the middle of the praise. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Saint John chapter 1 says it this way. I want to read verse 14 through 18. "And the Word was made flesh". Can you imagine sayin' somethin' out of your mouth that became physical? And the word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, word, person. Okay, did you see that? And the word, word, word, word, word, word, person. "The Word was made flesh". John 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. Light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not".
It's word all through one, two, three, four, five, 14, boop, is flesh. And why would he want to be flesh in the first place when the carnality is an enemy against God? And yet he took on filth so he could be kin to you. So he could be touched by your moaning and groaning. So that he could understand your frailties and your weakness. So he would know what tired was. Until he took on flesh, he didn't know what sleep was. He didn't know what tired was. He didn't know what irritated was. When he took on flesh, now he can be touched by the feeling of our infirmity. Now he can redeem us, because according to the law, he has to be kin to me in order to redeem me, and he wasn't kin to me as God, he had to become man in order to be a kinsman, so he could redeem me from the curse of the law and from sin and death.
"And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory as the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth". That's the only way we got to see God was through Jesus. Jesus expresses him. John bear witness of him and cried, saying, "This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me". He was before me. I'm gonna go back, go back to that Scripture. I wanna read that again. "He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me". Do you not know that Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I Am"? Are you following what I'm saying to you tonight? I'm going to go kind of deep with you, but you can hang, can't you? "And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace". "And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared him".
So, Jesus declares God to us. He is God's declaration. He is God revealed. Phillip said, "Show us the Father and it suffice with us". Jesus said, "Have I been so long time with you and you still don't know that I and my Father are one? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father". That is, God was manifest in the flesh. Hebrews 1:1-3, let's look at this right quick. God, God, God, God, God, God. Hebrews 1 and 1, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, who he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds". Watch this, this is what I love. "Who being the brightness of his glory," the brightness.
See, when I look at that light, I really can't see the light, I just see the brightness of the light. In fact, the brightness stops me from seeing the light. I can't tell you what size bulb is up there. I can't be sure of it, because all I can see is the brightness of the bulb. So, I can see the brightness of the light, but I cannot see the light itself. I couldn't tell you whether those lights were in brown encasement, or white casement, or black casement, because all I can see is the brightness of their glory. Christ is the brightness of his glory, the expressed image of his person, the personality of God. "And upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high".
Do you hear what I'm saying to you? This is God was made flesh. This is a simple explanation of the incarnation. You could spend weeks on the incarnation and not exhaust it. It has to be revealed to you that Jesus is God incarnate, dwelling amongst us, walking amongst us, riding ships with us, going in deserts with us, in the wilderness with us. "He dwelt among us and we beheld the wonder of his glory". Ooh, the brightness of his glory. Ooh, the expressed image of his person. The only way I can see the Father is the light shining from him. Christ is the brightness of his glory. I don't know how to make that any clearer than the brightness of that light, the brightness of the sun. Oh, it's hot today, the sun is so bright I gotta put on sunglasses. Can I see the sun? No, I see the brightness coming from the sun. That's what Jesus is, the brightness of God, the expressed image of his person. He is God's love made flesh, God loving us through flesh. The only thing he wanted from Mary was a tentю
He said, "Come here, girl, nobody touched you yet". He said, "Let me get my tent from you," so he got the tent from Mary, but that which is within her is conceived by the Holy Ghost, and he came out Emmanuel, God tabernacled with us. The tent is all human, and the glory is all God. To God be the glory for the things he has done. Is anybody getting any revelation in here? I want to teach this 'til you get revelation down in your spirit. "I found him whom my soul loveth". I know who my God is. Hallelujah, I've seen him, the expressed image of his person in Jesus Christ. When Jesus told them that he was God, they wanted to stone him. But he is absolutely God, and yet absolutely man. He is not the good man, he is the God man. He is man enough to be kinsman to me. He is God enough to redeem me. So, the Word was made flesh, because the Word had no blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And he needed Mary's tent so he could bleed out. He bled out so I could get in.
Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. I'm gonna keep on goin' 'til you get it. All he needed the flesh was, was so he could become a living sacrifice. And when the Bible says that he redeemed us by himself, it means he offered up himself. He is both the offeror and the offering. He is the Priest and the Lamb. He entered into the holy of holies with himself. Every other priest had to come in with somethin' else to offer up, but Jesus entered in by himself. He is just as much lamb as he is priest. Somebody online is listening to understand more fully a deeper revelation of your God. So, when you say, "Hallelujah to God," you know who you're saying hallelujah to. When you say, "All hail the power of Jesus's name, let angels prostrate fall," you know when you're talking to.