Good morning. It's good to be
here. Good to have our pastor back
and his wife and a few others. Let's open this morning's worship
with hymn number 38 from your spiral hymn book, gospel hymns
number 38, the debt of love. Let's all stand together. Come, every sinner saved by grace,
you who by faith God's Son embrace. Tell all who hear your voice
below the debt of love to Christ you owe. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am, or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. He left his father's throne above
and came to earth on wings of love. For us he lived the perfect
man and so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's ire
and died at the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, to save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From death's dark grave our King
arose and triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies
the victor rode, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee, All that I am or hope to be, I owe alone, O Christ, to
Thee. From heaven Christ will quickly
come and bring his ransomed people home. There we shall see his
lovely face and chant the praises of his grace. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Please be seated. Good morning. I bring you greetings
from your brethren in Nauru, Australia. you would love them. Jerry's been there, and they
ask about you, Jerry. I guess you're going back in
August, right? But they love Christ. They love each other.
They love God's Word. They love the preaching of the
gospel. And we love being with them. We missed you all, and
we're glad to be back. I ask for you to bear with me.
It's my body's telling me that it's about midnight. So preaching
at midnight is something I've never done before. But his strength will be made perfect
in our weakness, right? I want to thank Michael and Michael,
where did Michael go? Robert and Hugo. I know you all were blessed by
Todd's messages and he was encouraged to be here with you all. I spoke
to him a couple times since I've been home. I want to pray for David. David Olson is leaving today,
going to Thailand for three weeks. So let's ask the Lord's blessings
on the service and remember to pray for David. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, We're thankful for the fellowship of the saints. We're thankful for the bonds
of love that unite our hearts together in Christ. We're thankful,
Lord, for that love that's shed abroad in our hearts by your
spirit and for the common gospel that we share together, for the
hope of eternal life that you've given us. Lord, we pray that
you would strengthen that in us together here and with the
churches that meet all over the world. Thank you for the brethren
in Australia, and we pray for your continued blessings on them.
Lord, we ask that you would enable us now to be able to hear from
you, Lord, that we would see Jesus, that you would be pleased
to make him known to our hearts Open the mystery of the gospel.
Open your word. Father, we do pray for David
and thank you for him and pray, Lord, you give him safe travels
and pray that you will keep him and encourage him and teach him
in his absence from us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I'm going to ask you to open
your Bibles with me to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. I've titled this message, Paul,
a Pattern. Paul, a Pattern. And we quote
often from 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, this is a faithful saying,
and worthy of all acceptations, Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Paul identifies himself as the
chief of all sinners. And then in verse 16 it says,
how be it for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus
Christ might show forth all long sufferings for a pattern to them
which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Paul under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit identifies his conversion as a pattern for all
believers. In what way is the conversion
of the Apostle Paul a pattern for us? Turn back with me just
a few pages to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. I want to spend just a few moments
on the Apostle's name, Paul. Paul, you remember when the Lord
arrested Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, he changed
his name from Saul, translated means to be desired. You remember
the first king of Israel's name was Saul. and the scriptures
identified him as being head and shoulders above all the Israelites
and the people saw him and they were impressed with him and they
desired him. Paul in his own testimony says
before the Lord saved him, before the Lord called him that he had
excelled in Israel among his peers. He was much desired. If he wasn't the rich young ruler,
he certainly was a lot like him. Paul desired his own righteousness. And he said of himself, he said,
I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. The tribe of Benjamin circumcised
the eighth day. A Pharisee concerning the law,
I was blameless. Paul had a very high esteem of
himself. And so did his peers. He was
much desired as Saul of Tarsus. But what happened to him? What
happened to him on the road to Damascus when the Lord arrested
him, knocked him off his high horse, put his face in the dirt,
spoke to him from heaven, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom
thou persecutest. The Lord so identifies with his
church that everything Saul of Tarsus did against God's people,
he was doing that against Christ. And he changed his name from
one to be desired to Paul, which translated means little, little. Now, Paul is a pattern in this
regard. His salvation brought him down. It brought him down. It humbled
him. God gives grace to the humble
and God resists the proud. So the Paul salvation is a pattern
for us in that that which we thought was gain Those things
that we pride ourselves in, those things, those accomplishments,
those works, those things that we thought recommended us to
God are all going to have to be stripped away. We have to
be left naked before God. We have to lose our righteousness. We have to be made a sinner,
one who has no claim on God, one who can bring nothing to
the table of salvation to persuade God to save him, one who is completely
dependent upon God's grace for everything. What a pattern. That's every believer's experience.
That's every child of God's experience. Prior to the Lord calling them,
they have a righteousness in themselves. And then when the
Lord does for them what he did for Paul, They realize that they
really are the chief of all sinners. Whatever accolades the world
or the church has given to Paul the Apostle over the last 2,000
years, I am certain by his own testimony in the scriptures that
his view of himself was not so high. We just read that he calls
himself the chief of all sinners. In another place he calls himself
the least of the apostles. In another place he calls himself
less than the least of all the saints and nothing. And then when he speaks of his
preaching, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter
2. Saul had to be stripped of his
righteousness. He had to be humbled. He had
to be brought down. And here's his estimation of
himself and his preaching. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse
1, and I brethren when I came to you came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God,
for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling." We don't think of the Apostle
Paul being that way, but that's what he says about himself. That's
how I came. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing
words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and
of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God." Now, the power of God is seen in the
preaching of the gospel, the simple preaching of Christ, who
he is and what he's accomplished. And that's what Paul says about
his preaching. He said, I didn't come to you with persuasive,
enticing words that impressed men. I just told you about the
Lord Jesus Christ, very simply. God gives grace to the humble. Paul had to be brought low. Listen to what David said in
Psalm 138 verse 6, Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect
unto the lowly, and the proud he knoweth from afar off. And then in Proverbs, the Lord
identifies six things that he hates. He said there are There
are six things, yea, seven that I hate. And you remember what
the very first one is? A proud look. A proud look. There's nothing more proud than
for a man to think that he's accomplished something or done
something that would obligate God to save him. That's the height
of pride. And yet that is exactly what
man-made free will works religion is all about and God says I hate
it. I hate it. The Apostle Paul is
a pattern for every one of God's people in that he had to be humbled. He had to be humbled and he had
to be stripped of his righteousness. He had to be made a sinner. He
had to lose that which he thought was gain. Now As we talk about
humility, I want to read a statement that I wrote, false humility
takes pride in being humble. The truly humble believe themselves
to be proud. Now that's a paradox, isn't it? You know, we talk about humility
and the child of God is looking at his own heart and he's thinking,
I'm not humble. I've got so much pride in me.
Brethren, that is the evidence. That is the evidence of being
made humbled. Realizing how much pride remains
in you. The fools believe themselves
to be wise The wise believe themselves to be fools. This is the paradox that the
world can't understand. They can't understand it. The
blind thinks they can see, and those who can see believe themselves
to be blind. The unfaithful believe themselves
to be faithful, and the faithful believe themselves to be unfaithful. The dead believe themselves to
be alive and those who are truly alive reckon themselves to be
dead. Here's the mystery of our faith,
isn't it? The unrighteous, all the unrighteous
believe themselves to be righteous. and all the righteous believe
themselves to be unrighteous. All men, all men, every person
in this world either believe themselves to be holier than
thou or they believe themselves to be the chief of all sinners.
Paul is a pattern for every believer in that he believed himself Though
he was humbled, he believed himself to be the chief of all sinners. And he knew that the problem
that he had remaining in his flesh was his pride. I was preaching in Australia
about the Syrophoenician woman and I got to thinking about dogs.
And I made this statement to them. I said, you know, dogs
are beggars by nature. You cannot embarrass a dog. You
can't offend a dog. You cannot discourage a dog from
begging except to threaten him with punishment. And knowing that there is now
therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,
God's dogs never have to worry about being punished. All of
our punishment has fallen on the Lord Jesus Christ so that
God's dogs are always at the master's table waiting for the
next crumb to fall. Paul the Apostle is a pattern
for every believer in that God humbles us, he makes us sinners,
he makes us dogs, he causes us to depend completely upon him
and his mercy and his grace for all the hope of our salvation.
Listen to what Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 3, if any man
teach otherwise if any man teach any
other gospel than the one I've taught and consent not to wholesome
words even the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine
which is according to godliness he is proud so humility is bowing to what
God has said Scripture speaks of the unbeliever
as having no fear of God before their eyes. The believer, the
believer bows to the word of God and hungers and thirst after
righteousness and craves the sincere milk of God's word as
a newborn babe. Why? Because they've been made
humbled, just like Saul of Tarsus was humbled and made dependent
upon the Lord, so is every child of God. All right, you still
have your Bibles open to Ephesians chapter 1. How is Paul a pattern, a pattern
for every believer? Well, Ephesians chapter 1, his
name, Paul, and notice that He's never referred to as the Apostle
Paul. We sometimes call him the Apostle
Paul. But he never refers to himself
that way. He never uses the word or the title, the term apostle
as a title. The word apostle translated means
sent with a message. Sent with a message. Yes, he was one of the 12 apostles
replacing Judas Iscariot, but in the broader sense of the word,
he is a pattern for all believers in that we've been given a message
and we've been sent into the world with a message. And so,
in that regard, he's a pattern for us as well. There's one message. There's one gospel. There's one
truth. And he makes it clear in Galatians. Turn with me to the book of Galatians
chapter 1. You know that the Galatian heresy
was progressive sanctification. If you would have Ask the Galatians,
is Jesus of Nazareth the Christ? They would have said, oh yes,
most definitely. And those who came in behind
the Apostle Paul would have agreed with Paul in preaching Jesus
of Nazareth as the Messiah and that he was necessary for salvation. but they would have said, though
necessary, he's not sufficient. You have to do your part. You
have to go back to the law. It was what many of us used to
believe back in religion. The law takes you to Christ,
and then once you come to Christ, Christ takes you back to the
law, and the law becomes your rule of Christian living. And
that is exactly what the heresy of Galatia was. And it's the
one church that the Apostle Paul doubted their salvation. He never
calls into doubt the salvation of the church at Corinth, though
they had some horrible sins taking place in that church that needed
to be corrected and needed to be changed. But here, the gospel
is at risk in that church. works have been added to grace. And he says, I fear lest my labor
to you has been completely in vain. You haven't heard a thing.
Oh, foolish Galatians who have bewitched you. Well, it was the
Judaizers that came in and bewitched them. It was the, it was the
lawmongers that came in behind the apostle Paul and said, yeah,
what Paul said about Christ is true, but you got to go back
to the law. And so here's what he says in
Galatians chapter 1 verse 6, I marvel that you are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. He said this gospel that these
Judaizers are preaching, this gospel that requires you to to show some outward obedience
to the law as the hope of your salvation is is another gospel. It's not the gospel. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. He's our rule of life. He's the
one we look to and he's the one we follow. He's the one that
if we're ever going to if we're ever going to obey God and follow
after God it's going to be because we're looking to Christ not looking
to the law. Verse 7, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. You see, what he's saying is
there's only one gospel. And any frustration of the grace
of God in a message of salvation is not the gospel at all. It's
another gospel. It's a man-made gospel. But though
we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Now
you know what that word accursed means, it's the word anathema
and it means to go to hell. And so the Holy Spirit, forget
the Apostle Paul for a minute, this is God's Word. This is God's
Word. The Holy Spirit is saying to
you and me, if we give credence to any other gospel than the
one that Paul preached, it'll be the damnation of our
souls. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
which you have received, let him be accursed. It says it twice,
just in case you didn't get it the first time. For do I now
persuade men or God? Or do I speak to please men?
For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Here's the offense of the gospel. The offense of the gospel is
the exclusivity of the gospel. Everybody else wants to, you
know, let's just agree to disagree. No, we can't. I'm sorry. I'm
sorry. The Spirit of God says to me
that Paul the Apostle is a pattern and he makes it clear that he
was sent with a message and the message that he preaches the
message that I believe and the message that I preach and it's
the hope of my salvation and I cannot I cannot compromise
that message not at any point 1st Corinthians chapter 15 just
back a few pages Verse one, moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also you have received and wherein you stand by which also you are
saved. There's only one gospel that
saves. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, for I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how,
don't miss that word, how that Christ died for our sins. How
did he die? He died under the full weight
of God's holy justice, satisfying divine justice. It wasn't just
that, it wasn't just the life of obedience that fulfilled the
law, it was the death of Christ that fulfilled the law as well.
Philippians chapter 3. He suffered even unto death,
even the death of the cross. You see, the law required justice. The law required retribution
for sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ suffered
the full weight of God's holy justice in order to put away
all the sins of all of God's people once and for all. And
God satisfied, this is the gospel. There's nothing else to be done.
It's finished. It's finished. It's accomplished. He actually accomplished the
salvation of his people in his death on Calvary's cross. How
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
And all the scriptures support how that Christ died according
to our sins. And that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. God could
not allow His Holy One to see corruption. God, the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the one sign that God gives to His
church. A wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign.
No sign will be given unto it except for the sign of Jonah.
Jonah had spent three days and three nights in the belly of
the whale and then was brought forth onto dry land. There's
the resurrection. The resurrection is God saying
to his people, I am satisfied. He has completely accomplished. He's finished the work that I
sent him to do, and I'm satisfied. God was obligated to raise his
son from the dead. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
only man that ever obligated God You and I are not going to
obligate him, but Christ did. He fulfilled the terms of the
everlasting eternal covenant of grace established by God in
eternity past. And God was satisfied with what
he did. And God in fulfilling his part
of that covenant raised him from the dead and ascended him back
into glory and set him down at his rightful place. And that's
the gospel. That's the gospel. One message. One gospel. Scent of God. I want to conclude with reminding
you of an event that took place in 2 Samuel chapter 18 at at the death of Absalom. You remember Absalom who rebelled
against his father David and tried to usurp his authority
and steal his throne from him and Joab put together an army. That was David's commander and
went out after Absalom and Absalom dies in the battle. Remember
how he dies? He dies hanging in a tree by
his hair. Well, he doesn't actually die
that way. Absalom is a picture of Christ in that regard. His
name, you know the word Abba means father and the word Salome
means peace and that's Absalom's name. My father is peace. How do we
have peace with God? How are we going to have peace
with God? only in the Lord Jesus Christ. He made peace for us
by the sacrifice of himself once and for all. He is our peace. He said, my peace I leave you,
my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives. This is real
peace, peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ is our Absalom. But before he died, what did
he do? He stole the hearts of the people,
didn't he? What does the Lord Jesus Christ
do when he calls us by his grace? Paul said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, when he calls us by his grace,
he steals our hearts to himself, doesn't he? He causes us to love
him. We love him because he first
loved us. What is hair a picture of all
throughout the scriptures? A woman's hair is her crown of
glory. Baldness is spoken of in the scriptures as something
shameful. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
is described in Revelation chapter 1, he's got a head full of white
hair. It's his crown of glory. In Absalom,
the scripture says he had to cut his hair every year and they
weigh his hair out. And he had this head full of
black hair and he was hanging in a tree by the symbol of his
glory. What hung the Lord Jesus Christ
on a tree? It was his glory, wasn't it?
It was his glory. And then Absalom, The scripture
says, was surrounded by how many of Joab's men? You remember the
story? You can read it. How many of
Joab's men surrounded Absalom while he was hanging there in
that tree and lanced him through with spears? Ten men. Ten men. What was it that demanded the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross? It was the
law of God, wasn't it? That law which you and I have
never been able to keep one single time. It was the law of God that
demanded the death of Christ. When the law saw our sin on the
Lord Jesus Christ, it pierced him through. And then the scripture
says that they took Absalom down from the tree and they put him
into a pit and covered him up with a large stone. Where was the Lord Jesus Christ
put? Here's another thing that the scripture says about Absalom. In 2 Samuel chapter 14 verse
25 it says, in all Israel there was none to be so much praised
for all of his beauty from the sole of his foot to the crown
of his head there was no blemish in him. Now that wasn't talking
about Absalom. That's our Absalom, isn't it?
From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there
was no blemish in him. And no one in all of Israel is
to be praised for his beauty like the Lord Jesus Christ. After Absalom dies, Joab chooses a man by the name
of Cushi and tells Cushi to run to David and report to David
what he had seen in the battle and in the death of Absalom.
And Cushi takes off. And then Zadok, who was the priest,
has a son who's very proud of how fast he can run. and he obviously
was a fast runner because he has a long debate with Joab finally
Joab sends him and he outruns Cushi who was known as a fast
runner so the son of Joab the son of Zadok says to Joab I want
to go tell the king and here's what Joab says to the son of
Zadok he says you don't have a message You don't have a message. You
don't know the gospel. You don't know what happened
to the king's son. And he insists. He said, but
I want to go. I want to go. I want to go. And so Joab says
go. And Zadok's son outruns Cushi and gets to David first. and
he starts telling David about the battle, and David said, I
don't care about that. He said, I've got one question.
What about the young man Absalom? That's the only thing I'm concerned
about. What about the young man Absalom? And Zadok's son, having
not been there at the death of Absalom, says, well, you know,
there was a tumult over there, but I don't know exactly what
happened. And about that time, Cushi starts running in, and
David says to Zadok's son, step aside. You don't have the message
I'm looking for. The only thing I'm concerned
about is my son. And Cushai steps up to the king
and David says to him, what about the young man Absalom? And Cushai
says, might all the king's enemies be like that young man? Now you and I came into this
world at enmity with God. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
died like Absalom, we died in Him. That's why Paul
said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me.
Might all the king's enemies Be like that young man. Zadok's son didn't have a message.
Kushai knew exactly what happened. He told the king about his son. Paul said, I'm a little man with
a big message. Paul, an apostle. One cent with a message. to tell
God's people about God's Son and what he's accomplished on
their behalf. He's a pattern. He's a pattern. So here's the two questions I
close. Have you been made a sinner?
Have you been knocked down from Saul to Paul? One to be desired
to a little man? And have you heard the message?
and believed the message. Because the message is all about
the King's Son. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right, let's take a break. Yeah.