One of Vance's having some difficulty
with her AFib, so remember her in your prayers. Working on medication. Alice Dyer going for lung, looking
at her lungs in Nashville. Pathopathic, they lost a loved
one. Remember those. Marlene's out sick. Stan Teresa's
out of town. Remember these folks in your
prayers, seek the Lord's help for them. Today we'll observe
the Lord's table after we have the morning worship service,
and then we'll have dinner together, and then we'll break for the
evening. Let's begin our worship service
tomorrow, prayer number 256. It is well with my soul. When peace by the river flows. It is. with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should come, or
trials should come, control. Then Christ, my free
God, in my helpless estate, I have shed His own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul it is well it is
well with my soul I stand for the bliss of this glorious thought
I sing praise the lord my soul My face shall be sung! The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll, The drums shall resound, and the Lord shall descend! I love that song. a businessman named Spafford
Rowley. He was a businessman in the United States, but he
was from England. And his business began to fail
here, so he decided to go back to the UK. He decided to stay
back and sell affairs and send his wife and two children on
a boat back to England. Well, the boat sank halfway across
the Atlantic. And he got a note, a telegraph
from his wife. She lived, but the two children
died. And the note said, saved alone. Later, when he went to join his
wife, they were crossing the Atlantic. And the captain came
down to Spafford's room and said, we're crossing the place where
your children perished. And he went out on deck and looked
at the deep sea and went back. Wonderful. 1 Timothy chapter
1. But you know me, when something's
in my head, I've got to get rid of it or pass away. So I'm going to preach from this this morning,
verse 15. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this world to
save sinners, of whom I am and true thanksgiving and praise
for the salvation wrought by Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. We bow to your wisdom and thank you for your kindness
and generosity, your grace and your mercy. born of a woman, born under the
law to redeem us from the law. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. Born in Bethlehem, Judea. Lived in obscurity for 30 years. and set forth the truth of the
word of God. For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth
by Jesus Christ. Father, help us this day to take
to heart these words, to always remember our about. Grace did much more about
it. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, those who have been added to the prayer list, those
who have lost loved ones, those who must die, the Panther family,
for wonder. Ask your help for them. We ask for ourselves this hour as we hear and preach the gospel I would be mindful of two wondrous
truths set forth from Genesis 1 all the way through Revelation
22. And we are sinners. And Christ is all in all. Help
us now to pray in Christ's name. Amen. And number 128. Wounded for me. Wounded for me. There on the
cross, He was wounded for me. Gone my transgressions, and now
I am free. ? Because Jesus was willing for
me ? ? Dying for me, dying to be ? ? There in the cross, he
was dying for me ? ? Now he lives in my dreams ? Oh, because Jesus was dying for
me. Risen for me. Risen for me. Therefore, my friend, Jesus risen
for me. Living for me, living for me,
up in the skies, He is living for me. Daily He is weeping and praying
for me. All we ask is that He is living
for me. come in for me. When they do
her, each come in for me. Then with one joy each their
face I shall see. Oh, I praise Him each come in
for me. Father, again we approach in
the name of Jesus Christ, our great, glorious, sovereign Savior,
who rules and reigns and manipulates all things for the good of His
people and for the glory of His namesake. They were given freely all things.
Through eternity, that which belongs to you, let us do so
with joy and thanksgiving, that you have counted us poor sinners,
saved by grace, the privilege to have a part in the preaching
of the gospel here and in other places. What a privilege it is,
Father. you so so called Pastoral Epistles written
to the young pastor Timothy and Titus. Paul has met Timothy at
Ephesus to make sure that the preachers and the teachers
there teach and preach no other doctrine than what he has taught. And he says that some men have
swerved from the truth and are trying to bring the believer
back under the law and the old covenant. And by doing so, we're
saying that the work of Jesus Christ actually didn't accomplish
putting away sin. But once the law is introduced
into a person's life, that law condemns, sentences, and awaits
execution for all who have broken the law. And all men were born
breaking the law. We were born in Adam. We died
in Adam. We were made alive in the Lord
Jesus Christ. and in this verse he makes a
glorious statement and it stands as a banner for every sinner
saved by grace this is a faithful saint worthy of all acceptation
that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief these are a repetition of the words of the Lord that
the Lord spoke many times but in different ways I came to seek
and to save that which was lost. In Luke 15, He left the 99 that
needed no repentance to seek the one lost sheep and bring
it back home again. This is also the charge and indictment
that was laid against Christ by men like Saul and Tarsus. Everywhere the Lord went, He
didn't gather the religious to Him. He didn't gather the upper
echelons and hierarchy of religion. He gathered the worst of humanity
around him. And the worst of humanity felt
comfortable around him. They felt at ease around the
Lord Jesus Christ. There was something about his
character. Now I was raised in false religion and we just sort
of didn't want to hang around with folks that didn't act right.
But the Lord did. Publicans and sinners, and the
Pharisees are always saying, this man eateth with sinners. This man eateth with sinners.
Saul of Tarsus was one of the most interesting characters in
all the Word of God. He's responsible for a major
portion of the New Testament. He was an apostle born out of
season. He did not walk with the Lord
Jesus Christ in those three years of the Lord's ministry. He was
born after the Lord was resurrected and confronted him on the road
to Damascus. Now the church had already took
a vote, which is designed to divide, and named Matthias as
the new apostle since Judas had hung himself. But the church's vote didn't
count because the Lord had warned on the road to Damascus that
he was going to make a disciple. His calling differed from all
the other disciples. Most of the others, the Lord
said, follow me and they stopped what they were doing and followed
him. He was knocked down on the road to Damascus and blinded.
Scales were put upon his eyes and he was taken blinded to a
man's house named Ananias who And the Lord said, I've chosen
you to see the just one and be a witness for me to all the nations.
His history is cataloged, whereas the other disciples' histories
are not cataloged. Their history begins at their
calling when the Lord called them. This text and context is
notable for it describes the before and after of the saving
experience between the sinner and the Savior. It addresses
salvation. And that salvation that it addresses
does not fit the pie-in-the-sky scenario most want to call salvation
in this day. Today we hear Christians describe
this way as bold and powerful and strong and true. I've even heard people call it
super-Christians. But you will find no such blowing
adjectives. or from those who are inspired
to pen the words of Holy Writ. Can you imagine the Holy Spirit
inspiring Paul to call himself, or allow himself to be called,
a super-Christian? He never refers to himself with
such lofty allocates, just the opposite. This is a faithful
faith. all acceptation that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am, I am, cheap." He
doesn't say, I was. He said, I am cheap. The change
that Paul experienced after encountering Christ was a radical change of
mind as to what he was, not what he did. He was before a blasphemer
and injurious, he says, which spoke of what he did. injurious and a blasphemer. Those
are the things he did. And now he says what he is. I'm
the chief of sinners after he meets the Lord Jesus Christ.
One might say that before Paul was a vile preacher, doing wicked
things. And from the perspective of faith,
he was. He certainly had a storied career.
There's no doubt he held the coat of those who shed their
coverings to hurl rocks at the head of Stephen, the first martyr.
He held a He consented to his death. At that time, he believed
Stephen was the blasphemer, and he wasn't the blasphemer. Stephen
was injurious, and he wasn't injurious, so he held the coats
of those that stoned Stephen to death. He was a believer in
the necessity and the purity and tradition of the Jewish religion.
He despised any who would challenge his authority. He was not full of base and debauched
activity. He was on a mission to preserve
his religion and put away all that endangered it. One might
even call that a noble endeavor. He was a Pharisee, that's the
upper echelon of Jewish religion, and had deep and impressive credentials. He said that over in Philippians
chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 verses
5 and 6 he says this, this is my credentials. I was circumcised
the eighth day. That means he was keeping the
law before he could even say the word law. Christ, a Hebrew of Hebrews,
a Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law, I was a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, read that
last word, blameless. Blameless, that's some credentials
in there. By no stretch of any moral compass
was he a bad man. He was highly educated, studied
at the feet of Gamaliel. He was a member of the highest
judicial body of Judaism, the Sanhedrin. He had the respect
of his peers and was chosen as the high sheriff in matters involving
the sanctity of that religion. He went out zealously with arrest
and death warrants for all who followed the Nazarene sect. over
in Acts chapter 8, verse 3. It says, And Saul, as for Saul,
he made havoc in the church, entering into every house, and
hailing men and women, committing them to prison. Made havoc. Made havoc. And after he met
the Savior, this would be the charge that were laid against
him over in Acts chapter 24 when he was finally arrested. In Acts
chapter 24 in verse 5, it says, for we found this man a pestilent
fellow, a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world,
as a ringleader of the We also call it that way, and
it was that way, the way, the truth, and the life. He was by
Old Covenant standards a holy and a righteous man. In our text and context, he views
his former righteous crusade and all his theological stands
as blasphemy. He said, I was before a blasphemer. I can relate. I can relate. I can look back at my religious
activity prior to meeting the Lord Jesus Christ as blasphemous
and injurious, but at the time I viewed it as Christian and
righteous. I sought validation for my actions so people would
think I was righteous. Well, I might do something in
secret, or supposedly in secret, but couldn't wait until somebody
brought up something so I could tell them what I'd done in secret.
I remember one snowy night when I was a teenager. I'd made one
of my many trips down the aisle. They called me Mr. Rededication. I made one of my trips. I was
all 15, 16 years old. It was a horrible snowy night.
Six, seven inches of snow on the ground. Pastor Richard Everhart,
he showed up at church to see if anybody did. It was a local
church in a local community. Most people who went to that
church lived within a few blocks of it. I did. And so I put on
my galoshes and my suit and I marched the quarter mile of the church
through the snow. Richard took the pulpit and I
was the only one there. And as we were walking out, I
looked at Richard and said, nobody else showed up. He just looked
at me and kind of smiled and said, how about that? How about
that? I look for validation all the
time. All the time. It is ever the mind of
the sinner saved by grace to look at his former religious
life as useless and sinful. But today's Christianity so-called
teaches that a believer is changed to walk in personal holiness
and progress in that and righteousness and get better and better. And
if you ask any believer who's been a believer for a while,
they'll tell you that just ain't so. credentials. Verse four of that, he said,
though I might have also confidence in the flesh, I, if any other
man thinketh that he has wherever he might trust in the flesh more,
he says, you're going to trust in your fleshly religion, and
you think you're sovereign. I'm better in my flesh. I got more reason to boast. And
it goes on to say, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of
Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of Hebrews, as it
touches the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching righteousness, which is the law of the blameless.
But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ, Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ,
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dumb, that
I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness former life as a Pharisee is
being done. He's talking about everything
he does now. Things that believers do that
matter but do not count. Do not count. The only thing
that recommends me to God Almighty is the one who sits at his right
hand Even now, having purged our sin, sitting down at the
right hand of the majesty on high, ever living to intercede
for us. That's my hope. And nothing more. And nothing else. Paul was a blasphemer. Before
and after salvation conversion, all that matters is this. before
and after conversion. All that matters is this, that
I may know Him, that I may be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness
which is of the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. But knowing him brings about
a wondrous transformation. What some people would call a
backward transformation. Before he was a blasphemer and
injurious and now after being gloriously saved he considers
himself to be the vilest of the vile. The very chief of sinners. Verses
13 and 14 he speaks of mercy and of grace who was before a
blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy
because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And grace, the grace
of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is
in Jesus Christ. Grace and mercy and love, things
that a lot of people talk about. He was talking about it also.
And that grace and mercy and love resulted in him being saying,
I'm the vilest of sinners. the grace and mercy and love
of God. Because you'll find that the
word sinner almost always is somehow connected to these words.
That's the trinity of divine attributes did not make him to
see his personal merit, or his accomplished righteousness, or
his holiness of life. It made him to see the blackness
and darkness of his own soul. He saw that in him, that is to
say, Grace and mercy from God's love
is for sinners, and sinners only, and counts little on the scale
of self-righteousness. It counts none at all. Paul said
in the Roman church, in Romans chapter 5, he said this in verse 6, for
when we were yet without strength, that didn't mean we had some
strength, it meant we had none. And if you don't have any strength,
that means you're dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
For when without strength, in due time, Christ died, for whom? Ungodly. Not like God at all. Vile and unpleased. He said,
for scarcely, for a righteous man will one die, scarcely, rarely. You might someone die instead
of someone who's righteous. And that word righteous, that
means someone who always does what's right. The kind of people
you can't hardly stand to be around. Somebody might die for
somebody like that. Yet, peradventure for a good
man, some would even dare to die. A good man is a moral man
and a good citizen. Some might die for him because
he's a good man. He's a bud, and you see the word
bud. You find that what comes after is in opposition to what
came before. But God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Who did He die for? Sinners. And the ungodly. This is what
the elect learn when they receive the gospel, when they see the
Lord of Glory. Isaiah, that great prophet, learned
this over in Isaiah chapter 6. What happened when he saw the
Lord? People talk about coming down front and things like that
and the easy plan of salvation. You don't find any of that mess
in Scripture, none whatsoever. In Isaiah chapter 6, this is
a prophet of God. And he was like the right-hand
man or the PR man for Uzziah. Uzziah died of leprosy because
he wanted to try to be a prophet, a priest as well as king. He
was smitten with leprosy and died of it. And in the year that
King Uzziah died from leprosy because he had offended God,
he said, I saw also the Lord. So he took his eyes off the eyes
of Uzziah and he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the
seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face. With twain he did fly. With twain
he covered his feet. And one cried unto another, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. Well, I want to call the newspaper
and tell them I've had a wonderful experience with Jesus. I just feel so holy and so high
and so righteous and so full of laughter. Then said, I woe
is me. Judgment without mercy is due
me. For I am undone. Undone. where the lepers had to put a
rag across their mouth because of the foul mouth. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unblinked lips. What has caused all this? What
has brought about this, all of a sudden, this great prophet
who was the PR man for Uzziah, who was a man who for the first
four chapters said, woe is you, and woe is you, and woe is you.
What made him suddenly say, woe is me? For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of glory. Oh, if you ever see Him, you
won't be tripping the light fantastic, popping your glove gun coming
down some church aisle. You'll cry. Jesus Christ came into this world
and said, that he should be clean, and he which is born of woman,
that he should be righteous. If you're a man and you're born
of a woman, you can't be clean, you can't be righteous. You can't
be righteous if you don't know yourself. David learned this. He says, we're now in the pasture
watching the sheep. He looked up at the stars and
said, when I see your hand, the sun, the moon, and the stars,
what you did with your fingers, I said, what is man? That thou
art mindful of him, and son of man, that thou should visit him. What Saul did before he met Christ
was blasphemous and injurious. What Paul was after meeting Christ
was worse. Was worse. Paul's language is
salted with this truth throughout his epistles. Who is Apollos and who am I? We're just guys that preach.
That's all we are. We're nothing. It's God that
gives the increase. Read Romans chapter 7. This should
be required reading for every person who claims to know the
Lord Jesus Christ. I don't even require reading.
Probably a day's reading. Romans chapter 7, verse 18. mine, that in me, that in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
and God will, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would
not, then I do. Now if I do that which I would
not, it is no more I the good but sin that dwelleth in me.
I find in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. For I delight in the law after the inward man, and I see
no law in my members. Warring against the law of my
mind, bringing me into captivity to the laws of sin which are
in my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Galatians chapter
3, or Galatians chapter 6, right? Paul says in verse 3, chapter
6 of Galatians, for if a man think himself to be something, Then in Ephesians chapter 3 verse
8 he describes himself as less than the least of saints. Less
than the least. Sounds kind of like David when
he said man is lighter than vanity. Lighter than vanity. This is
a faithful saint and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And a man
like Saul of Tarsus. and were gathered around the
Lord Jesus Christ when people, sinners and sick folk It's just embarrassing. Our Lord
heard their thoughts and looked up at them and said, you know,
I didn't come for you. That's tough. I remember old
Barnard said one time he was preaching and some fella stood
up and said, I don't believe that. Barnard said, well, I wasn't
talking to you. Christ said, I didn't come for
you. I came not to call the righteous. But them that are sick, you don't
know what that means, you see. I will have mercy on sinners
and not the sacrifice of your religion. This is a faithful
saint, worthy of all acceptation. Jesus Christ came into this world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. There's a poem written, I've
got it written down on one of my Bibles. But it said that only
sinners are welcome at this table. Only sinners. Because these sinners are celebrating
the fact that 2,000 years ago in Calvary's tree, our Lord Jesus
Christ actually did something about sin. He made something
possible. probability, or you can, and
you're going to find out what was done. When Jesus Christ went
to the cross, something was done. Something was done. Our religion
has four letters. False religion has two letters.
False religion is D-O-N-E. True religion is D-O-N-E, done. He had to fulfill the law, and
he did that with his life. But he had to keep the law, and
he had to do that by dying in the room instead of his people.
You see, we all owe God one death. We owe that to God. The soul
that sinneth it shall die. He paid that debt. He died, and
we who are believers were in Him when He died. And so that
death is accounted to us. Because that's what the law requires.
So the law can look at Cora. We know Cora's an old sinner.
We know that. She's like us. The law can look
at her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet and
cannot find one fault, one blemish, one wrinkle, or any such thing.
Why? Because Jesus Christ paid her sin debt and satisfied the
law of God. And we gather as children of
God to this table to take the elements that our Lord used in
the last Passover, took the unleavened bread and break it and gave it
to his disciples and took the wine and they drank it. And he
did it for a purpose, to set up, to set an ordinance for the
church. There are three. This, baptism
and the preaching of the gospel. And he said, the church is to
do this, and as often as they do it, they're to do it remembering
me, He didn't say that. He didn't say when you do this you show forth
my example as a human being. He didn't say that. He says when
you do this as a child of God, you're remembering and showing
forth my death until I come again. We went through three hours of
darkness on the cross. We don't know what happened.
Psalms gives us some idea. The Lord said, I am consumed
with the blow of thy hand. God Almighty poured out His wrath
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And so horrible is the wrath
of the vengeance from God that He cut the lights off so that
nobody would have to sleep. And in those three hours, our
Lord suffered what would be the equivalent of an eternal hell
for us. But he came out on that lie out,
that lie, where he said, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la
ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma,
la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma,
la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma,
la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma,
la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma,
la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la
ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la ma, la You're discerning the
body and blood of Jesus Christ. There's nothing in these elements.
It's just bread and wine. There's no... show forth our only hope, our
single and absolute hope in this world, that Jesus Christ died
for me. Let me do it with joy and thanksgiving. In Christ's name, amen. Woo! It's going to be nice. On the night Iroh was betrayed,
he took bread, he didn't break it, and gave it to his disciples.
He said, take, eat. This is my body broken for you.
As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. On the same night he took
the cup, and after he blessed it, he said, this cup is the
new covenant, the new testament in my blood. As often as you
eat this bread, and drink this cup and do show forth my death
until I come again. Do this and remember to me." And the account is that
they sang a hymn or a psalm and went out in our order of the
trade and began those few days prior to his crucifixion. Let's
stand together. Let's sing the third verse. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, my sin not in power but the hope is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul is well. with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Thank you.