Turn in your Bibles this morning,
if you would, to the book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy and the
first chapter. And I'll begin reading in verse
12. This is, as you know, a letter
that was written by the Apostle Paul to a young preacher by the
name of Timothy. He says in verse 12, "'And I
thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that
he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.'" And then
we have that division that lets us know that what follows will
be descriptive of that statement. who was before a blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did
it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause
I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honor, and glory forever and
ever. Amen. I've called this message
the Sample Center. The word pattern that we read
there in verse 16 simply means something like sample. It has with it the thought of
a specimen. or a rough sketch, or an example. And the Apostle Paul is using
that word to refer and to describe himself. We know that, first
of all, God was pleased to save this man to glorify his grace,
to glorify his mercy, to glorify himself. But not only that, Paul,
by the Spirit of God, tells us that he is used of God. in showing us the kind of sinner
Christ saves. If you look back at verse 15,
he said, "...this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." He is
confessing his own self to be a sinner. And not only that,
but he goes on one step further, so as in his own eyes to describe
himself as the chief of sinners. And then beyond that, he is saying
that I am a pattern or an example or a sample of the kind of sinners
that Christ saves. Now, this man, the Apostle Paul,
was named Saul of Tarsus. And Saul of Tarsus was not saved
as a child. As a matter of fact, he had a
long history of unbelief. He could say with the old hymn
writer, I have long withstood His grace, long provoked Him
to His face. He had gone many years. And there, in the name of being
a Pharisee and a Jew, he had lived as a sinner in unbelief,
defying and rebellious against God. When you would stop and
think, why did God, if He was going to save him, why did He
not save him at an early age? Or you might even stop and think
about the thief that the Lord Jesus Christ was pleased to save
in his dying hour and ask, why did he let him go on? all his days, become a criminal,
become such a horrible person in the eyes of the world, and
then, if you will, at the last minute, save him from his sins. Well, like I said, everything
God does, He does to glorify Himself. And he does it, according
to what this same man writes in Ephesians 1, he does it all
to the praise of the glory of his grace. And Paul says here
that he shows his long-suffering. He speaks of the long-suffering
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look down in verse 16, "...howbeit
for this cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ,"
not that He was the first man ever to receive mercy, but that
he might be this example wherein God shows great mercy, he says,
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering."
You see, he is a pattern and an example and a sample of the
longsuffering of God. Why was God long-suffering to
this man Saul of Tarsus? Why did he put up with him? Why did he endure what he did? Why did he let him go on in this
course of sin up to an hour when he was pleased to save him? Well, what we find in this book
is that God demonstrates His long-suffering to every sinner
He saves. Look over in 2 Peter and that
third chapter. 2 Peter and the third chapter. Peter writing to these who are
of like precious faith, these who he describes as the elect
of God, and he speaks in the midst of all that goes on in
this earth in response to what men say about how things have
been allowed, as they say, to go on, and look at what he says
in verse 9. He says, "...the Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness,
but is longsuffering." He is long-suffering, Peter says, to
us-ward, these elect of God, these sinners that he saves. He's long-suffering to us-ward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He's long-suffering to his people. He is not willing that any of
them will perish. He's not willing that any of
them die in their sins. His will is that He brings them,
every one, to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look on down in the 15th verse. He says, "...in account that
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation." The Lord, as those
old writers used to say, is not in any hurry. He cannot be rushed. He cannot be hindered, His purpose
cannot be thwarted, He dwells in the leisure of the eternal. account that the longsuffering
of God is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also
according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you."
It is the longsuffering of God. And not only that, but if you'll
turn back to Romans chapter 9, Listen to this. Here is the long-suffering
of God again, Romans 9, beginning in verse 14, where Paul writes
here, he says, "...what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid!" That is, there can
be no unrighteousness with God in His dealings especially with
men in those that are being saved and those that are lost. For
He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. In other words, the cause of
God being long-suffering to this man Saul of Tarsus, was the sovereign
will and the sovereign mercy of God who describes himself
in this way, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. In other words, just like Paul,
everyone that God saves, He has mercy on them simply because
He will have mercy. He doesn't see any reason in
them, or cause in them, or worthiness in them. As a matter of fact,
mercy is that which is shown toward those who have shown themselves
to be your enemies. He says, "...I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
wills, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."
For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth."
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why dost he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will?"
Always fallen man's natural response, that is to blame God on his own
sinfulness and vileness and expect something from God based on his
worthiness. No. Nay, but, O man, who art
thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter Power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering? Here's the longsuffering of God
again. Here are all these men and women
in their defiance. Here is God who will have mercy
on whom He will have mercy. Here are those that He describes
as the vessels of wrath and the vessels of mercy. Why does he
endure what he endures of these vessels of wrath that is so contrary
to himself? Why is he longsuffering in all
these things, he says, enduring with much longsuffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction? Why is it? That he might make
known. Here it is. that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which
he had aforeprepared unto glory." Paul said, the reason that God
was longsuffering to me, The reason he's long-suffering to
usward, as Peter says, he's long-suffering, that he might make manifest to
us the vessels of mercy, the glory of his grace and mercy
and salvation in Christ. Because he had aforeprepared
these vessels to glory. Even us. whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." God was longsuffering
to him. And him being the sample or the
example of those Christ saves, the reason he saves us, the reason
he endures what he does, is because he's long-suffering, because
he's purposed to save a people to his glory. Now, what does
Paul say? Two times in our text, He says,
I obtained mercy. Now, unless you and I would ever
imagine, or anybody that ever hears this would ever imagine
that he did something to obtain mercy or that he was worthy of
mercy, that is completely contradictory to the whole notion of mercy. He's saying here, I received
mercy. And I ask myself this question,
do I need mercy? Now, when you say you need mercy,
you put your hands totally in the hands of the God of mercy. When you are brought, if you
ever are, to confess a need of mercy, you're confessing yourself
as one who is unable to obtain it of himself and one who does
not in any way deserve mercy. I can remember riding around
in my truck as a religious person and listening to one of those
old 8-track tapes. riding along and almost weeping
at the sound of a song that was being sung on it that said, I
might be worth saving, Lord, don't give up on me. My friend,
you and I have never been worth saving. We've never been worthy
of the least of God's grace or His mercy. And it comes down
to this, am I one of these who really has been brought to see
and to feel and to understand and know of a certainty that
I need mercy? You remember there was a blind
beggar as the Lord Jesus Christ was passing out of a place. And
his state in this world, his blindness and his deformity had
left him in such a wretched state. But when he was brought to hear
that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he cried out with such a
fervor that they could not silence him. Jesus. Thou Son of David,
have mercy on me." Do you need mercy? Well, the psalmist who,
as we read in Psalm 51, was a man who found out he needed mercy. I don't like what the translators
added to that psalm. That little quip right in the
beginning in most of the King James, they say, this is what
David wrote after his sin with Bathsheba. I don't know if that's
the case or not. But I know of a certainty this
is the attitude and confession of every sinner who's been brought
to see his sinnerhood by the Spirit of God and to acknowledge
that it isn't one great sin here that we've sinned, it's all our
sins. But he says in Psalm 86, "'For
thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in
mercy unto all them that call upon thee." Plenteous in mercy. In the same psalm, he says, "...but
thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious,
longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth." You know
if you ever have mercy, you'll have to get it from God. As a
matter of fact, Daniel in the 9th chapter, he records these
words. He says, "...to the Lord our
God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against
Him." It's His to give, it's His to withhold. Paul said, He
had mercy on me. He had mercy on me. But let me
ask you this, why did Paul, or as he was then Saul of Tarsus,
why did he need mercy? Because if you had asked most
folks in his days, most of his contemporaries, They would probably
have said that, well, if there's one man that's surely right with
God, who knows God, who is surely to enter into God's holy heaven,
it'll be Saul of Tarsus. That's right. But do you know
what? When men say, now listen, when
men and women say, surely, oh so and so, they'll surely enter
into God's heaven, you can just about count on it they won't.
Because they're looking on the outside. Why did Paul need mercy? I'm going to give you three things
quickly. Number one. because he was a
lost religious rebel sinner against God. Look back up at verse 13. I've often said that this man
Saul of Tarshish, just like every sinner, only knew what he was
before, after. Isn't that right? You ever look
back at your past life. This is one thing that happens
to a lot of people when you get older. Young eyes see no danger. Seems like old eyes see nothing
but danger. But with those old eyes, oftentimes
I'm found looking back And I can only now see what I was then,
the most stupid, the most foolish, the most ignorant of individuals
in some of the things I did. You know, we talk about the good
old days. But when you look with an honest
eye at the good old days, the only reason you weren't destroyed
then is the grace of God. Stupid. Careless, foolish, ignorant. I'm just talking about in the
natural realm now. But it is doubly true, much more
than doubly true, that we only find out what we were when God
enables us to see and believe what He says that we are. You say, I just don't feel like
I'm all that great a sinner. What you feel doesn't matter
one iota. I am what God says that I am. As far as what I am in myself,
I only know what I am in myself as a sinner by virtue of what
God says that I am. And on the other hand, I am only
what I am in Christ and know that when He enables me to believe
what He says that I am in Christ. Do you understand that? I am
a sinner. He said I'm a sinner. I don't
even know what sin is. Oh, I give these great definitions,
you know, about sin as breaking the law, sin as being unequal
to what God required, all these things. But to really know what
sin is, you know why I can't know that altogether? Because
that's all I am. It's like being all your life
in a tar bucket. And somebody come along and talk
about cleanliness and purity and whiteness, that's like holiness. I don't know anything about holiness
except that God's holy. How do I know He's holy? He said
He was. You see, He needed mercy because
He was a lost, religious, rebel sinner. Look at verse 13. He
said, "...who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious, but
I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." Do
you realize that this man who was a Pharisee, who was a Bible
teacher, who you might say was a professor in religion, a preacher,
almost a prophet in the eyes of men, good moral man, could
quote scripture. He said, I was before a blasphemer. You know what that word blaspheme
means? It means to vilify. It means to defame. It means to speak evil against. Paul, who are you vilifying? Who are you speaking evil against?
Who are you defaming? God. the true God, and most especially,
God manifest in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. You mean to
tell me that's who needs mercy? Exactly. You see, we blaspheme
the living God when we speak of Him in terms contrary to the
way He says that He is in this book. When we tell men and women,
as most of religion does, when we tell them that God loves everybody
and He's trying to save everybody and Christ died for everybody,
we are vilifying God. We are defaming God and speaking
evil against God because we're attributing things to God that
He denies in His Word. Boy, that's vilifying to God
when you say He loves everybody and yet the majority of people
are going to die and perish in hell. That's a defaming statement. All through this book, He tells
us who He loves, who He chose, who He died for, who He'll save. That's not what we want. It's
always pretty much standing before men and saying that God only
loves this Jewish people. If not that, he was basically
bringing it down to the fact that God had a special look upon
the Pharisees, because they appeared outwardly righteous. Turn over
to Philippians 3, though. Because in Philippians chapter
3, here is the Apostle Paul speaking in that language of repentance. Why did he need mercy? Was it
because he was a lying murderer? an adulterer, fornicator. I don't
know. He may have been all those things
and more, but the Bible doesn't mention it. And neither do you
hear him outwardly speaking in repentance of it. What do you
find Saul of Tarsus now? Listen to him in Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 4. He said, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh. In other words, if you want to
talk about confidence in the flesh, He said, I might have
more confidence in the flesh than most other people. If any
other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the
flesh, I more. That's pretty strong, isn't it?
You think you've got something to toot your little horn on?
I've got a loud trumpet I can blow in my camp. And that's just
what we do. We think we're something in the
flesh by nature. And then most of us come along
at an early age, and there is false religion waiting for us. I don't believe there's many
people in this world, I can't really even say that I've ever
known one, that has not, at some time, in some way, been tainted
by false religion. Maybe it was when they were as
a baby, they didn't even know anything about it, but their
parents had somebody to sprinkle them, at an early age, confirm
them. You say, well, they didn't know
anything about it. They found out about it. And what did they
do? They looked back toward it. They
trusted in it. They relied in it. They said,
maybe that's good enough that God will accept me now. Or they've
been bombarded in a Sunday school class or a Bible school or some
religious group as young people, a revival meeting. They've been
hit with this notion that if they do something, make a decision,
sign a card, go into the baptismal water, follow this, walk down
to the front, repeat a so-called prayer, and lost. Oh, listen to Paul. He said,
"...circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the
law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching
the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." He's going
to confess here something. I was trusting in those things.
That's what flesh does. Flesh doesn't trust Christ. Flesh
trusts in what we do, what we feel, what we experience. Oh, I know what happened to me
in that revival meeting. Don't you tell me it wasn't real.
It was real. Real phony. Real deception. I've used this illustration a
lot of times. I remember when I was a young man, a young lad,
and they had that Walt Disney movie out, Oh Yeller. I sat there
and I watched old Yeller. And I cried. I cried. And my tears were real. And my emotion was real. And my feeling was real. But
old Yeller wasn't real. He didn't really die. See how
easily deceived we are? It's the same principle. People
sit in a pew and they listen to the most foolish garbage.
They don't listen to anything about the Lord Jesus Christ.
They get really moved and inspired and all this stuff. Paul's feelings
were real. His emotions were real. His sincerity
and his zeal were real. But he didn't know God. And the
only way he'd ever know God is if God in His sovereign mercy,
just because He would for His own glory, determined to have
mercy on him and save him from that. That'll be the case in
our day too. Secondly, he needed mercy because
he was self-righteous and not submitted to the righteousness
of God in Christ. Listen to what he says here in
Philippians 3. But what things were gain to me, I thought they
were gain. Have you ever had something that
you thought was an asset, only to find out a little bit later
it was a liability? That's what Paul is saying here.
What I thought was gain, I now count it as loss. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done that I may win Christ."
I found out that all these things that I thought were righteousness,
they were nothing but sin. I thought my going to church
was righteousness. I thought my reading the Bible
was righteousness. I thought my giving to the church
was righteousness, Paul is saying. I thought what I did in my good
deeds was righteousness. No, it was sin. Sin. Look over in Romans chapter 10
and listen to Paul. Paul is now with his eyes open
and understanding and faith and Christ. In Romans 10, he looks
back now at his own people. Why is he worried about them?
Because he knows they're just like he was. That's why I worry
about a lot of folks. I hear what they say, I know
what they believe, I know what they listen to, I know what they
support, I know where their hope is, and I know I once had the
same thing. Paul says, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Paul, you mean to tell me that
you're looking at your own people after the flesh, your flesh and
blood, your cousins, your uncle, your whole nation. Are you saying
they're lost? He said, they're lost just like
I was. How do you know it? He says, for I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God. They're very zealous for God. Very religious. Very active in
the church, if you will, but not according to knowledge. They
have no knowledge of the true God. They have no knowledge of
the true Christ. They're expecting an earthly
king and ease and health and wealth and all that when Messiah
comes, an earthly kingdom. They have a zeal for God. but it's not according to knowledge.
The way of righteousness they have not known. Listen, for they,
being ignorant of God's righteousness, they think that their morality
is righteousness. And they are likening God's righteousness
to the same thing and believing that since they are what they
think is righteous, God will accept it. He won't. For they
being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness. Going about. They're active. They're busy. They're working.
They're trying to establish a ground of acceptance before God based
on their worthiness, an act of their will, a decision of their
mind, an act of their flesh, but they have not submitted. I think that's an important word.
You're going to have to bow down for this righteousness. You're
going to have to bow to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
going to have to be humble down in His sight. You're going to
have to confess yourself a sinner. They have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes." In other words,
those who believe, who are enabled of God to believe the truth,
to believe the gospel, to believe on Christ, He's their righteousness. And that settles everything.
His righteousness. Alright, here's the third thing.
That's because he was blind, spiritually dead, and not seeking
the Lord. He needed mercy. He's like my
granddaughter. He can scare the life out of
me. I got a scare coming out my driveway
this morning. She had started to walk down
toward where we lived down the driveway. She lives close by.
And I just kept watching her. It was like she wanted to turn
and run out, run out that driveway, run out toward the road. That's
the way Saul was spiritually. All the foolish things that religion
uses and talks about The conversion of this man just makes it so
utterly ridiculous. Well, salvation is by your free
will. Well, where was Saul of Tarsus
with his free will? He was on the road to Damascus,
and he was there thinking he was sin of God to destroy the
very people of God, cast him into prison, have him stoned
and beaten, Like he held the clothes of those who literally
stoned Stephen, he wasn't looking for God. He thought he knew God. Well, we'll give a long invitation. Saul of Tarsus would have had
your head cut off. Well, we'll give a decision. We'll get him to make a decision. He'd already decided. He was
a lost sheep. Christ said of His sheep, I must
bring them. He said, no man can come. He didn't say no man may come,
did He? May has to do with permission. Can has to do with ability. No
man can come to Me. He has no ability. He's got a
will. But His natural mind is enmity
against Me. He's unwilling. Christ described
such a Saul of Tarsus. He said, you search the Scriptures,
and in them you think you have eternal life, and they speak
of Me, but you will not come to Me that you might have life.
I stopped my vehicle this morning, I jumped out, and I started going
toward my granddaughter, anticipating her every move. She's a child. She doesn't know. She didn't
see any danger. I suppose I'd say, well, I want
to protect her, I want to save her, but I wouldn't want to interrupt
her free will. I wouldn't want to do anything
against her. No love compels me to. You see,
that's why people who say such things as, God wants to save
you if you'll let him, and all this kind of stuff, They're vilifying
God. They're saying God's ability
and His actions are not harmonious with His love and His desires.
He wants to do some things, but He can't. No. God Almighty had
already said concerning Saul of Tarsus, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. The devil said, that scoundrel,
he's a wretch. You know he doesn't know anything.
You can't have mercy on him. I will. Well, Saul's over there,
he's so unwilling, but he's about to be made willing in the day
of God's power. I will have mercy on you, Saul
of Tarshish. You know what? He did. Paul said,
I'm a pattern. I'll never forget what Brother
Scott Richardson, how he kind of explained it in his own unique
way one time. He said, God saves his people
against their will with their full consent. That's right. They're unwilling, just like
he was. Turn over to Acts 9 for a minute.
Acts 9, here he is. He's still Saul of Tarsus. And
Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord, went unto the high priest. Now, he wanted the approval
of religion. He wanted to do it under the
guise of doing it in the name of God. And he desired of him
letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this
way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound
unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus. He's not seeking the Lord, but
the Lord is seeking him. He came to seek and to save the
lost sheep. And suddenly there shined round
about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?"
I've always thought that he's saying here in so many words,
I don't know exactly who you are, but whoever you are, you
are the Lord. And the Lord said, I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. Those were those sharp sticks
that they used to goad the oxen along. They'd get slow or stop,
they'd stick that sharp stick in the back of them and move
them along. They kick against it. Well, when
they kick, they just hurt themselves. Oh, you're just a rebel sinner,
lost and blind, and every time you kick against Christ, you're
kicking against your only hope. And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto
him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what
thou must do. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. and
Saul arose from the earth. And when his eyes were opened,
he saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him into
Damascus. And he was three days without
sight, and neither did eat and drink." God had sent a man by
the name of Ananias to tell him something. He's going to tell
him something. This man was so wicked that Ananias,
when he heard who the Lord Jesus was sending him down there to
preach to, he was afraid. But he went down to Damascus,
and he said, the Lord has chosen you. Here's what he wants you
to know, Saul of Tarsus. The Lord has chosen you, and
it is His will to save you, and the one that has confronted you
on the road here is none other than the risen Christ that you've
been persecuting through His people. Not only has He saved
you from your sins, but He's determined that you speak His
gospel. What did He need? He needed a
divine visitation and a divine revelation. That's what happened. He says when he writes to the
Galatians, "'But when it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb, and called me by His grace to reveal His Son
in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood.'" When Christ convinced
him, no man could unconvince him. He writes to those Ephesians
and he says, What happened to me happened to you, and you hath
he quickened. who were dead in trespasses and
sin. Well, how did he show mercy to
Saul of Tarsus? Through that way that I'm sure
Saul of Tarsus had talked about and described and explained so
many times, but was totally blind to it. How that under the Mosaic
law, as the tabernacle traveled with Israel through the wilderness,
And every time they would set up camp, there in the midst of
the camp would be the tabernacle, that tent raised up that looked
so ugly on the outside, badger skins. But on the inside, the
high priest would go once a year, and there, in the Holy of Holies,
he would take the blood, and sprinkle it on the Ark of the
Covenant, on that top of that box covered with gold, which
was the mercy seat, the mercy seat, which was a type and a
picture of the way God shows mercies to sinners through the
blood of the mercy seat, through the blood of Christ, who is Himself
called the mercy seat. Paul said, "...tied us not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us." Paul said, I know that now. And that
through the cross death of the Lord Jesus Christ. An old preacher
by the name of John Stephen said, Justice is honored and opportunity
given for a holy God to show mercy in a way consistent with
his unswerving righteousness. The message of mercy is written
with a pen dipped in the lifeblood of God incarnate. That's what
God is writing in the blood of Christ as He stretched there
between heaven and earth, mercy, the only mercy. Paul said, he
is the one whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. That same word in Romans 3.25,
propitiation, is translated in Hebrews 9.5 as mercy seat. whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God." He's the mercy saint. The only way you can have mercy.
Peter says, "...Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead." And you know what? It's to that living, resurrected,
and enthroned Christ that believers come for continual mercy. See, I've learned something else
too. I need mercy as much today as the first day I ever knew
anything about mercy. Paul says, let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. An old hymn writer wrote
a hymn that he called Depth of Mercy, much longer than the version
we have in modern hymnals. Some of the verses are like this,
"'Depth of mercy, can there be? Mercy still reserved for me. Can my God, His wrath forbear,
me, the chief of sinners, spare? I have long withstood His grace,
long provoked Him to His face, would not hearken to His calls,
grieved Him by a thousand falls. I have spilled his precious blood,
trampled on the Son of God, filled with pains unspeakable, I who
yet am not in hell. I, my Master, have denied. I,
fresh, have crucified, and profaned his hallowed name, put him to
an open shame. Whips to me this waste of love. Ask my Advocate above. See the
cause in Jesus' face now before the throne of grace. Jesus answered
from above, is not all thy nature love? Will thou not the wrong
forget? Permit me to kiss thy feet. If I rightly read thy heart,
if thou all compassion art, bow thine ear in mercy bow, pardon
and accept me now." Jesus speaks and pleads his blood. He disarms
the wrath of God. Now my Father's mercies move,
justice lingers into love. kindled his relenting czar. Me
he now delights despair, cries, how shall I give thee up? Let's
the lifted thunder drop. Lo, I still walk on the ground. Lo, an advocate is found. Hasten not to cut him down. Let this barren soul alone. There for me the Savior stands. shows his wounds and spreads
his hands. God is love, I know, I feel. Jesus weeps and loves me still. Pity from thine eye let fall,
by look my soul recall. Now the stone to flesh convert,
cast a look and break my heart. Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sins lament. Now my foul revolt deplore. Weep, believe, and sin no more."
I read a story of an actress in England who was walking down
the street, and she passed an open door where some people were
gathered, and they were singing this hymn. And she listened.
And then she heard somebody praying. And she became so interested
in the song that she went and found a book that had it in it.
And she'd keep rereading it. And no doubt, much more too. And the Lord was pleased to save
her. Well, when that happened, the man who was in charge of
the play or program or whatever it was that she was in, he pressured
her so much to at least continue to try and do this next production. And she got up on the stage that
night to sing the song she was supposed to sing as a part of
it. And the orchestra, the band,
whatever it was, played the prelude through and she appeared to be
in a daze or unable to speak. They thought maybe she had become
shy or something. So they played it through again
the second time. She never said anything. They
played it through a third time and she never said anything.
But after that she clasped her hands together and she stepped
up and she began to sing. Depth of mercy can there be,
mercy still reserved for me. I put a sudden stop. to the performance. And it was reported that there
were a lot of people who were visibly stirred by it. And then
a lot more people scoffed at it. But she never did it again. What I read was that at some
point she became a gospel preacher's wife. Is that my song? Depth of mercy, can there be? Mercy still reserved for me in
Christ. in Christ crucified, in the mercy
seat. Sovereign mercy. Mercy that has
to come to me in the same way that it came to the sample sinner. But you know what I especially
like about that verse? It's when a person makes a pattern.
That means they're going to do the same thing again and again. My prayer is that He do it again.
That His mercy would reach forth into the heart of someone here
or someone who hears this message. He brings them to Christ. Father,
this day we give You all the glory and all the praise. And we thank you for your mercy,
for that plenteous mercy that is in Christ crucified. He's
the mercy saint, and all the sins of his people are put away
through the shedding of his blood. How can we not give you all the
glory and praise and honor, both now and forever? Through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.