1 Timothy 1 12 I Don't know how much Your prayers for me like brother
Sammy just prayed for me. I don't know how much that has
to do with the fact that a fool like me can get up and I actually
say something coherent and sometimes seems to be a blessing. I know that God does that. How
much your prayers have to do with that, I don't know, but
I know this. I wouldn't want to get up here without them. Y'all
continue to pray for me. What a blessing, what an humbling
blessing it is that you would call my name before the throne
of God. Thank you for it and very much need you to do so. Now, before we get into verse
12 in our chapter, this will be our third message in chapter
one, I believe. And I want to sort of look at
the whole chapter together and also the last part of it or the
next part of it. We'll see how far we get. But
this chapter is very, almost needs to be seen as one full
thing, and to preach it all at once would be impossible. So
I'll try to review as much as I can within the time, and then
we'll look at verses 12 through 17, particularly this morning. But Paul begins this epistle.
I want you to think about the overall Was as I was looking
this I thought man We're gonna have to put our thinking caps
on this morning to sort of see all of this But it doesn't mean
it's complicated. That's what's strange and wonderful
about the Word of God We're gonna have to really think this morning
in order to see how simple this is How clear and just plain that
the entirety of this chapter is He begins by Exhorting warning
against teaching any other doctrine in verse 3 Don't don't don't
allow any other doctrine To be preached and that word other
in that verse That Is the definition Of false doctrine Others If it's not Christ, it's false. That's the definition. We don't need to sit around and
examine all of the different heresies that this world has
come up with. Many people seem to make a lifetime
of that. I don't need to know. If it's
other than Christ, if it's other than the gospel that Paul preached
and Christ himself preached and that we preach by his grace,
Then avoid it. Walk away. If anything is other
than Christ's doctrine. And many use the word doctrine
as their doctrinal statement. The only doctrine you need to
be interested in is this book. The Doctrine of Christ is this
book right here. And anything else is false. Just
dismiss it. Don't study it. Don't learn the
intricacies of it. It's not worth your time. It's
not worth listening to somebody do that. Why would you do that? We can spend our whole life hearing
the doctrine of Christ and never learn it completely. So why would
we examine other Then Paul spoke of the two ways to preach other. There are two ways that people
preach other. In these next verses he talked
about that. One, he used the word fables
to describe it. In other words, they just make
it up. Is it shocking to you how much stuff is preached from
pulpits that's just made up? Just about every pulpit in this
country Just about everyone, I guess you'd call it a doctrine,
goes forth that God loves every human being. It's made up. Have you read the Bible? What
I need to find out and what you need to find out is where God's
love is. Does God love me? Does he love
me? And how could he love me? Is
that possible? And how does that happen? Nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And the other word besides fables
here, and look, the other one is to be taken up with true things
that aren't really important. He calls it genealogies here.
What if I told you to go home and just read the genealogies?
But that's not what they're talking about. They're not talking about
the genealogies in scripture. The Jews were big on that. That's
why Paul renounced it when he found Christ. My heritage, my
lineage. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
but that's dumb. In Christ, there's no Jew or
Greek. It doesn't matter who you are,
where you're from, and it's a good thing. Because you didn't come
from somewhere good. I don't care what your genealogy
is. You came from bad stock, and I did too. But they're talking
about their lineages. They were always looking into
that, which tribe of the 12 tribes of Israel do I fit into? It's factual stuff, but it doesn't
mean anything. Sinners can hear that and not
know how God saves a sinner. The truth is Christ. He's the
answer to the question, how God saves a sinner. If you're dying of thirst, this
is as good of illustration as I can think of about it. If you're
dying of thirst, I've never been real thirsty, where I just couldn't
even move. But I've been pretty thirsty. And if you tell me everything
there is to know about water, that's not gonna help me. What
I need is a drink. That's what preaching Christ
is rather than preaching about Christ or facts from the scripture. We need a drink of water. Are
you thirsty? Come to the river of life, not
head knowledge. Then Paul said how that false
preachers have missed the point. He said the goal of the law is
love out of a pure heart. You see that there, the end of
the law or the goal, the purpose of God's word is not to make
you act better. That would shock most people
in this country, if not the world. The purpose of the law is not
to show you how to act or tell you how to act. The goal of the law is love.
It's to cause you to fall in love with Christ. When you see
that he is your law keeping, he is your righteousness, he
is your only hope before God, you're gonna cling to him and
never let go by his grace. And it's not just a stairway
to heaven. You love him. Not just a utility
to escape the consequences of your sin. You fall in love with
the son of God. That's how God does that. It's
by the preaching of the gospel, the spirit comes to the sinner
and puts a pure heart in them. You see what he's talking about?
Love out of a pure heart. A heart that loves the Lord and
his gospel. And a good conscience. What is
a good conscience? Well, I hadn't done nothing wrong,
so my conscience doesn't bother me. Problem is, you've done everything
wrong. We're talking about spiritual
things now. We're talking about your standing
before God now. We're not talking about how good
you are to your neighbors or anything like that. I'd still
be in bad shape. But it's not about that. It's
about your standing before God and you've done everything wrong
in the sight of God. In Hebrews 9.14, Paul says, it's
a good conscience is one that's purged of dead works. You might think that a good conscience
has to do with good works. Because of my good works, my
conscience doesn't bother me. No, it's about getting rid of
your works. When your works don't mean anything
before God anymore, now that's a good conscience. I'm not guilty before God. Not
because I've done good things, but because my works have nothing
to do with it. Salvation's by Christ alone,
His grace alone, without good works. A good conscience is not
one that can be quieted by dead works that we have performed,
that we call good works. They're dead. They're sinful. But it's a conscience that has
been perfectly and forever silenced by the blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, my conscience
doesn't accuse me because there's nothing to accuse me of. Because Christ has washed me
clean in his precious blood. And faith
unfeigned, faith that's not fake. Faith that doesn't say, well,
if I just have enough faith. The Lord said to his disciples,
now, are you better than them? He said, how is it that you have
no faith? Well, you want to brag about that faith? You want to
talk about if you have enough of that, you know, then God will
do what you want. Paul is saying here the same
thing that John said in John 20, 31. These are written. Not that you might know how to
measure up to God's standard. These are written not so you
can live a Christian life. These are written that you might
believe on the Son of God. And that believing, you might
have life through his name. This is the work of God, John
6, 29, that you might believe on the son of God, that you believe
on his son. And then in verse 11, he said
that all of this, the proper use of all of this, the law,
and when he's referring to the law, he's not just talking about
the 10 commandments. Did you know the first five books
of the Bible were called the law by the Jews? First, the book
of Moses. But the truth of the matter is,
the whole word of God is the law of God. That word means principle
or established standard. Everything God says is the established
standard. He said that it's all according
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed
to our trust. the glorious good news of Christ
and Him crucified, which was committed to my trust." And now
in our first verse this morning that we'll look at particularly,
he says, thank you to God for committing that to our trust
and not leaving us in our religious vanity. Philippians chapter three. Paul was full of religion now. He was blameless before his peers.
and he was dead in trespasses and sins. I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who hath enabled me. He didn't find me faithful. He counted
me faithful. He committed it to my trust,
not because I'm trustworthy, but because of his grace. And he put me I didn't run around
saying, I want to be a preacher. I just need somewhere to preach.
God put me in the ministry. I want you to read verse 12 with
verse 13, and let's look at these together and see the contrast
here. The Lord enabled me. He counted
me. He imputed unto me faithfulness. put me into the ministry, but
before I was a blasphemer. I wasn't just, you know, people
romanticize being lost. Oh, I was just a little lost
sheep out here. You were a demon. You were a
devil. You were a monster. You were
a blasphemer. Well, I just had a little different
opinion and the Lord set me straight. No, I was a blasphemer. And he
was preaching the Bible now. But he had no idea what it said. Like a lot of people this morning.
A blasphemer and a persecutor. And I was worthless. No, it's
worse than that. I was injurious. Worthless is a whole lot better
than that. I was destructive. But I obtained mercy. Like Noah found grace, I obtained
mercy. Because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief. And you may think he's making
an excuse there. Let's talk about that. I was
a blasphemer, persecuting and harming the people of Christ
and Christ himself. The Lord said, the Lord said
to him, why are you persecuting me? Because he takes it personally
with his children. Persecuted and now he said I'm
capable and faithful in the ministry of Christ By God's grace the
difference. There's one word that everything
hinges on in those two verses mercy You see the black picture
of what he was before and then now Wow faithful in the ministry
of Christ Trusted and trusted And the difference is not character.
It's not a decision that somebody made, except for God. God made
a decision. Mercy. Here's the decision God
made. I will have mercy on whoever
I want to have mercy on. I'm able because he enabled me.
I'm faithful because, not because he found me that way, because
he counted me to be so. And there's nothing in between
these two descriptions except the mercy of God in Christ. God
changed a monster into a servant. He was a notorious monster. When
God told some of his people that he had saved Paul and, you know,
go meet with Paul, they said, we don't want to have anything
to do with him. God said, I've chosen him. Didn't say he's not as bad as
you think he is. You know, he's alright. He's
a pretty good fellow down deep, you know I've chosen him I've
chosen him God didn't change a repentant monster into a servant
just a monster He didn't save a sensible monster he changed
a vile rebellious destructive monster and into a humble, obedient
servant, just by turning the light on. That's what he did
for Paul. That light that shined on him
brighter than the noonday sun, that's metaphorical or a picture
of what happened in his heart. God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. When Paul says, I did it ignorantly,
he's not saying his sin wasn't that bad because he didn't know
any better. What he's saying, he doesn't give this as a reason
either why God had mercy on him, but as the reason why mercy was
necessary. He said, I was ignorant. I didn't
know anything. And so God had mercy on me. I wasn't going to think my way
out of this. I wasn't going to work my way out of this. What
I thought was good works was sin. What I thought was knowledge
was foolishness. My only hope was mercy. I didn't
believe God, but I obtained mercy. In the next breath here, he's
going to say, I'm the chief. I'm the number one monster. The number one, the chief of
sinners. So he's not making excuses here for his sin. All sin is
ignorance of who God is and what we are and how God saves a sinner. But that ignorance doesn't just
manifest itself as, you know, I'm a pitiful, all I need is
just some knowledge. No. Everything we think, everything
we do, everything we are is contrary to God. He's holy, we're unholy. He's good, we're evil. And don't
know any better. We call evil good and good evil. And think we're right. Stephen Paul had heard the gospel that
Stephen preached, but rather than acknowledge the undeniable
truth that he preached, Paul killed him for it. He murdered
him. What Paul is saying here is that
the only way such an ignorant, unbelieving wretch can ever be
saved is the mercy of God. I obtained mercy because there
was no other way for God to deal with such a foul, hopeless rebel
as I was, Except put me in hell. He's either got to put me in
hell or have mercy on me He had mercy on me Verse 14 and the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love Which is in Christ
Jesus, what's the end of the law? Love out of a pure heart and
faith unfaithful And how do we get some of that?
How does the law, and here again, thinking cap, but just to understand
how simple this is. How does the law fulfill itself
in us if the end of the law is love and faith? then the only
way that's fulfilled in us is if we love God and believe Him.
How's that gonna happen? The grace of our Lord was exceeding
abundant with faith and love. He gave me some of it. That's
how I got it. Which is in Christ Jesus. It
all happens by me being in Christ. By me knowing Him. Being one
with Him. bowing to Him, falling in love
with Him. It takes abundant grace to save
the chief of sinners. Would you reckon? Oh, do you know anything about
that? Whosoever is forgiven much, the same loveth much. That's
what we're talking about. Love and faith in Christ. Notice very particularly what
grace brings and gives to the sinner. Same thing it says in
verse five. Faith and love, the whole point
of the word of God, its entire purpose is faith and love. As Paul says here in verse 14,
it's God's sovereign, free, abundant grace that bestows these upon
us and in us works them through us. You may have noticed the theme
this morning. We're not going to get any glory out of this,
are we? What we're going to have to do is glorify God. If he'll give us the grace to
do that. Why do I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? We're
talking about faith and love. Why do I believe on Christ? because
Christ is the author of my faith. Hebrews 12, two. The fruit of
his spirit is faith. Why do I love Christ? First John
4, 19, because he first loved me. And notice again and very
simply again now, the object of our love and faith, which
are by the abundant grace of God, Christ Jesus. He's the one we believe and love. Not anything or anybody else. If you brag on your religious
heritage or affiliation, then you love yourself, not Christ.
If you're always touting your doctrinal system, you know, and
I know more than you, then you're trusting your knowledge, not
Christ. Salvation is a person Can't say
that to too much can't say it too much Verse 15 this is a faithful saying
Or what a verse this is this is a faith you can count this
as truth you can You can trust this now. This is faithful that
word means trustee This is a trustee saying worthy of everybody to
accept it as fact That Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners Isn't it strange the simple truth
of why Christ came is what religion denies that he did I'll tell you this, if he came
into the world to save sinners, then those sinners are saved.
Every one of them. Of whom I'm chief. My dad used to say that should
be the only scripture in the Bible that we disagree with.
Paul said he's the chief of sinners. Don't know if we can honestly
think of ourselves that way can we Easier said than done Verse 16 how be it for this cause? Obtain mercy and I'm going on
not because we're done with verse 15 because I want you to see
15 and 16 together as well Look at verse 16 in relation to that
what we just read Howbeit for this cause I obtained 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 I preached on verse 16 here.
I think our first message in this study, because it all kind
of revolves around verses 15 and 16 in a way. Each one of
these verses is wonderful on its own. But Paul is saying here,
do you want to know why Christ came
into this world? We just saw that, didn't we?
To save sinners. But he said, I'm an outline.
My life, my experience in being converted, my experience in when
God saved me, that word pattern is an outline. He said, if you
want to know why the Lord Jesus Christ came into this sin-wrecked
world, then look what happened to me. That's why he did it. Because
of horrible wretches like me needing mercy. You want to know the kind of
people he came to save? You wanna know what kind of wretches
the Lord came in order to save? Then look at me. Look at me. You wanna know how he saves sinners? You wanna know how Christ saves
a wretch? Then look what happened to me. I wasn't looking for him. He was looking for me. And he
knew right where to find me. All the way down at the bottom. All the way down. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. And what's going to be the result
of him coming into the world to save sinners? Look what happened
to Paul. He was saved in spite of himself.
He wasn't saved because he was willing. He wasn't saved because
he was sorry. He was saved because Christ came
to save him. Oh, what an outline. The perfect sermon outline. The definitions of the truths
in this book are not, they're not defined in words. It's a living truth, isn't it? It's a living truth. If you think him coming into
the world to save sinners means what most people think it means
and say it means, that he came to give everybody a choice, is
that what he did for Saul? Is that the outline? If you think he came to give
everybody a chance to be saved, Christ Jesus coming into the
world to save sinners means that those sinners he came to save
are saved. And that's simple, isn't it?
That one statement refutes every heresy I know of. I don't make
a lifetime out of knowing what heresies are, but they're not
that complicated either. Basis of every heresy is I did
something to get saved God saved me because of something in me
about me Decision made by me Christ came to save you you're
gonna be saved if you're not already you already are in his
purpose But those sinners when he For
he comes where they are, like he did Saul. Now they're steeped
in ignorant, free will works religion. How in the world is somebody
like that gonna be saved? Have you ever looked at somebody
you know and you see what they're involved in? You're thinking
to yourself, he's a goner. Not if he came to save him, he's
not. Christ Jesus came. Think about who it is that came
when you despair of those that you love. Think about who it
is that came when you despair of yourself. Oh, but they're blasphemers.
They don't just disagree with what we say. They say everything
that's contrary to the truth of God. They're heretics. They not only
not believe, but they're open and avowed opponents to the truth.
Doesn't matter if he came to save them. But they're injurious. Like Paul, they're destructive.
The best thing to do would just be put them in hell where they
can do no more harm. That's what you'd have thought
about Saul of Tarsus, wouldn't you? Well, I wish God would just
put him in hell so he can't kill anybody else. So he can't be
spreading this cancer, this spiritual cancer throughout the world.
Just put him in hell. You might have prayed that. What
if he came to save him? Like Pharaoh, a proud and hateful
rebel. Who is your God? Seems like God ought to just
throw him straight in hell. That's what he did to Pharaoh.
but not Saul, because he came to save Saul. They're not even
seeking God though. I mean, it'd be one thing if
they were at least asked a question every once in a while, you know,
something. They're not even looking for
God. They're on the road to hell and they love it. They're partying
all the way to hell. I thought God only saved seeking
sinners. I'm glad that's not true. He
makes a sinner into a seeking sinner sometimes. God looked down upon the children
of men to see if any did understand and seek God. And they were all
gone astray. There was none that sought God,
but he came to save some of them anyway. That's the kind of grace
we're talking about. Paul is an example. His life,
his experience of grace is an outline of what God does for
every sinner. If Christ comes to save you,
he'll find you an enemy of his law and his grace. He will humble
you, he'll goad you like an animal. On the inside now, sometimes
I believe God uses personal tragedies to get people's mind off of the
things of this world and on the one who holds them in his hand.
But not always. A lot of times it's just spiritual,
spiritual realization that you're a goner, you're in trouble, you're
helpless, you're hopeless. Like that woman with the issue
of blood. She had lost all hope except one. He'll put you in the dust now
one way or the other. It may involve a life experience
too, but it may just be in your heart. Put you in the dust in
your heart and he'll shine the light. He's shown that light
on Saul. He'll shine the light of his
countenance upon you. You'll see the glory of God in
the face of his son. He'll bestow mercy upon you and
his abundant grace is what Paul called in our text. And he'll give you faith and
love For Christ faith in Christ love for Christ He'll work that
in you and he'll reveal to you that he's chosen you And has
a purpose for you acts 915. That's what he said to Saul.
I've chosen you. Here's what you're gonna do for
me He told his disciples you had
you didn't choose me I chose you they knew that was right
in every way How few know that now He revealed that to me by His
grace, that He chose me. That we might know something
about that abundant grace that Paul talks about here. God will,
as in the case of Saul of Tarsus, graciously and powerfully overcome
all of your rebellion and your hatred for God, and cause you
to cry unto Him. Remember when God sent Ananias
to go and talk to Paul? He found him praying. He found him praying. That's
what we'll do, too. And ultimately, God will cause
you, as with Saul, he's the outline, remember? All through his life.
Ultimately, he caused Paul to abandon all of his religion,
all of his so-called righteousness, and to pursue Christ with all
of his heart. He said, I'm pressing toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. That's what he came into this
world to do. That's what Paul's saying in
chapter one. And it's so simple, isn't it? But every word almost
in that chapter points back to that. Christ came and saved me
just because he wanted to. And that's what the saving of
a sinner looks like. And you can't see that, you can't
look at Paul's experience, which he said is the outline to those
who should hereafter believe. If you didn't believe like Paul
did because of the same reason Paul did, from the same place
that Paul was as a sinner before God, then you don't know God. But if you look at what happened
to Paul, you're gonna have to say salvation's of the Lord.
If it would have been left up to him, that's what religion
likes to say. God's done all he can do, now it's up to you.
If it was up to Saul, where do you think he would be now? I tell you what, you're gonna
have to say salvations of the Lord and you're gonna have to
give all of the glory to God Almighty. Every bit of it, all
of it. And that's what Paul did in the
next verse. Look at verse 17 with me. You think about how
God dealt with Paul in saving mercy, saving him from his pride
and his self-righteous rebellion. What word comes to mind to describe
the Lord Jesus? We see who Paul was. He was a
self-confessed blasphemer, injurious. I was a wretch. I'm the chief
of sinners, he said. The chief. Who is it that saved him? When
you see how God saved Saul, what's the first word that comes to
mind? Here's what Paul thought of. Now unto the king. Now unto the sovereign. Now unto
him who does as he pleases with whom he pleases. Is that what
you thought of? Now unto the king eternal. Eternal Immortal Invisible The only wise
God Be honor and glory Forever and ever Amen Only the sovereign Christ can
save a sinner And you can only give honor and
glory to a sovereign Christ. You can feel sorry for the Jesus
of religion, but you can't worship him. You can call it that, but
you're not worshiping him. This God who has mercy on whom
he will, he can save you. That's what
that old leper said, wasn't it? Lord, if you will, if you want
to, You can save me. He saved the chief of sinners,
Paul said, when he saved me. I'll tell you this, you can worship
Him too. You can adore Him. You can admire Him. You can fall
down before Him and worship Him. And one of these days you will,
one way or the other, you're going to bow. One of these days. But one of
these days is not a good time to do that. Now is a good time for that.
May God give us grace to worship Him. Let's pray.