1 Timothy chapter 1 this morning. I want to speak to you on the subject
this morning. Paul, a pattern. Paul, a pattern. 1 Timothy 1
verse 15. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. How be it for this cause I obtain
mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ, might show forth all
longsuffering. And here's one of the reasons
he did it, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe
on him to life everlasting. And you think about that. That's
just simple, plain language, isn't it? But what glorious language.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That says a
lot, doesn't it? He didn't come into the world
to make salvation available. He came to save somebody. And
who was it that came? God's Anointed. God's Son. The Almighty Christ. Came into
this world to save sinners. God sent His Son to save sinners. And you think about what He sent
Him to do in order to save sinners. And what are you going to say?
Now unto the King Eternal. Unto the king, he came to save. That's the king. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Now unto the king eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for coming
into this world to save sin. Even me, he came and he saved
even me. He showed forth all long-suffering
in saving a wretch like me. Honor and glory unto him forever
and ever, amen. Paul calls himself a pattern
to all believers who should believe after he did. Surely that's something we ought
to look at. This is who God saves. This is who saves them. This is why he saves them. And
this is how he saves them. It's a pattern. It's in an outline
form. That's what the word means. The
word is example, but it's interesting to me that the primary definition
is an outline or a sketch, a brief summary exposition, an outline. The details of our experience
of salvation may be very different, but the outline is exactly the
same. The exact circumstances, the specific means that God uses,
he uses some common means. There'll be some means that are
used every time he saves somebody. But others, he may use some hardship,
some illness, just something to wake us up. In addition to
that, in conjunction with that, Those may be different, those
specific means may vary. He'll bring us to his feet in
different ways in some sense, but it'll be the same also. You
could give me a sermon outline to preach from and give that same sermon outline
to another gospel preacher as long as we both are believers
And that's what we're talking about believers is that I'm a
pattern to believers. Everybody's so-called getting
saved ain't the same as that. But if you're a believer now,
it's the same. Same sermon outline, two different gospel preachers.
The message would be very different, wouldn't it? Very different. And yet it would be exactly the
same message. So let's see Paul's conversion,
his experience when he met the Lord Jesus Christ. and see if
we have experienced what he did. That'd be one good reason to
look into it, wouldn't it? Let's see if we experience the
same thing. Is our outline the same as his
outline? First of all, who did God save when he saved Saul of
Tarsus? Paul himself said in our text
there that when God saved him, he saved the chief of sinners,
the biggest, baddest one. among all sinners. And this is
important now. This is important. Who did he
save when he saved you? For example, what was your part
in salvation? What was your part? Think about
what Saul's part was. Religion talks about that, that
God has his part in salvation. that Christ did a lot now to
make salvation possible for us. Paul refuted that in our text
too, didn't he? He came into this world to save sinners. He
came to accomplish it, to finish it. And he said he did so. People
believe that, that he made salvation possible, did a lot of things
in order to do that. But that he left salvation, the crux of
the matter, the ultimate decision, up to us. They would say that
faith is our part in salvation. The Father's part was loving
everybody that ever lived. Christ's part was dying on the
cross. And our part is believing. But the Bible says different.
The Bible says that believing, faith, is not of ourselves. That's
not our part. That's God's part too. The Bible
teaches that faith is part of God's part of salvation. Faith is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.
Faith is the fruit of the Spirit. Christ is the author and finisher
of faith. In Paul's own conversion, you'd
be hard-pressed to preach that God saved Paul because he believed. God found Paul on the road to
hell and saved Paul in spite of Paul. That's what he did.
Was that your experience? Our generation's religion says
that God saves believing sinners. God saves sensible sinners. God
saves repentant sinners. Paul said, when God saved me,
he just saved a bad sinner. That's the only adjective you
can use. A bad one, the worst one, when he saved this one.
How does that stack up with your experience? If you really are
a believer, it'd be the same. Your part was you were running
to hell as fast as you could run, and God's part was he stopped
you in your tracks and put you in the dust and saved you. In our text, it says that God
showed Paul all longsuffering in saving him. How about you? Now this tells us something about
God, which we're going to talk about in a minute, Lord willing.
But it also tells us something about Paul. Long-suffering. Paul is saying here, God had
a million reasons to put me in hell before I ever knew him. And the truth is, he has no less
reasons after we know him. But God is long-suffering. I wonder, I thought about this
as I was looking at this, I wonder if Satan ever thinks about me
and thinks he's mine now. He's mine now. Satan doesn't
understand about eternal, infinite, electing love and grace. He doesn't
know that. If he did, he would give up.
If Satan knew all about that, he wouldn't have wasted his time
on Job. But he went after Job because he thought he could have
him. Do you think Satan ever looks
at me and thinks he deserves hell so richly? Surely God will abandon him now.
Surely mercy must have a limit. And he must have crossed it now.
You ever think about that? When God saved Saul of Tarsus,
Saul was actively employed in murdering Christ. Well you say, well he wasn't
there at the cross. We're all murderers of the Lord Jesus Christ
by nature now. And Saul, he was persecuting
and overseeing the deaths of God's preachers and his people,
his sheep. We know that he authorized the
stoning of Stephen, we have that recorded. And the Lord's people Persecuted
by him and pursued by him and many killed and when the Lord
saved him, you know what he said to Saul saw Why are you doing
what you're doing to me? Why are you persecuting me he
was killing cry he was crucifying the Son of God In his heart,
that's what he was doing He couldn't get at the Son of God. So he
was doing the next best thing and killing his people. I Bless God, his love is such that
he can't let Saul go. He can't let me go. Saul is heading
to just continue doing that now. He's steeped in religion. He
considered himself blameless, he said, by his own testimony
in the eyes of the law. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, had all
confidence in his flesh. Until the Lord found him, and
then he said, I've got none in my flesh. I count all of that
but dung that I may win Christ. But the Lord found him trusting
in himself. He hadn't believed on crud, the
Lord didn't save him because he believed, he believed in himself.
And God saved him anyway. He couldn't let Saul go. Saul
was running to hell as fast as he could, and the Lord Jesus
Christ said, stop. You're not going, because you're
mine. And he couldn't let me go. My heavenly Hosea loves me yet. You remember what God said to
Hosea? Go yet and love that woman. After she's done all she's done,
go yet and love her. That's how my Lord loves me.
He loves me yet. That says a lot about the God
who saves. It says a lot about who God saves. Let's talk now a little while
about who it is that saved Paul. In the character of Paul who
was saved, we see something of who this must be who saved him. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, he loved us yet. Christ died for us. Who would
save a wretch like me? Who would do that? Well, we have
that in our text also. Look at the wonderful language
here. It almost sounds like Paul likes
to talk about it when you see it in the text. Look at it again,
look at verse 13. Who was before a blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy. A blasphemer,
a persecutor, a murderer, but I obtained mercy. Verse 14, look
at it. The grace of our Lord was exceeding
abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Exceeding
abundant. It took great grace and love
to save me. The Apostle Peter called this
God in 1 Peter 5 10, the God of all grace. The God of all
grace. Amazing grace. Free grace. Sovereign grace. Distinguishing
grace. He picked Paul out of the mass
of sinful humanity. The God of all grace who hath
called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that you
have suffered a little while, make you perfect. Establish and
strengthen and settle you to him be glory. When Peter talked
about it, he wound up the same way Paul did. Glory and dominion
unto him forever and ever. Amen. The only one who could
save somebody like Paul and I saved us. The only one. Nobody else
could have saved us or would have. The God of all grace. He saves sinners just because
he wants to. Didn't Paul say in Ephesians
chapter one that he does all things after the counsel of his
own will? That's the one that saved us.
Just because he wanted to. And you know why he wants to?
Because he loves you. If he loves you, then you're
saved whether you know it yet or not. That's who we're talking
about. That's the God we're talking
about. If he loves you, then you're saved. You may not know
it yet, but you are, if He loves you. Paul said in our text in verse
15, Christ Jesus came into the world to save me. You think about that. Can you
say that with some confidence? The Son of God came into this
world to save me, and here I am saved. He's the sovereign savior, the
one who saved Paul. When you read of Paul's conversion
now, does it sound to you like Christ was waiting on Paul to
do something in order to get saved? Maybe
you hadn't read it in a while. Let's turn to Acts chapter nine. Even if we have read it in a
while, may the Lord teach us something. This morning Of his amazing free Long-suffering grace paul said
he he displayed all long-suffering We saved me acts chapter 9 and
saw Yet, we've seen that word a lot this morning. Don't we
yet? He was yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter and
the Lord yet saved him and Threatenings and slaughter against
the disciples of the Lord went under the high priest and 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 down unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus 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? It doesn't say he was doing anything
to the Lord. Yeah, it did. He was persecuting
his children. When you've done it to one of
the least of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. And he
said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. That word is goads. We've looked
at that before. And he, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me 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 he eat nor drink. And there was a certain
disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a
vision, Ananias. And he said, behold, I'm here,
Lord. And the Lord said unto him, arise
and go into the street which is called straight and inquire
in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold,
he's praying. and hath seen in a vision a man
named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might
receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord,
I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done
to thy saints at Jerusalem, and here he hath authority from the
chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord
said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. To bear my name before the Gentiles
and kings and the children of Israel. God, he's a lost cause. He's one of the enemy. He's not
one of us. He's one of the enemy, no. He's one of my elect, that's
who he is. That's what God said. He's one
of my elect. And he's gonna serve me. For
I will show him how great things he must suffer for my namesake,
verse 16. Verse 17, and Ananias went his
way and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him,
said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto
thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest
receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately
there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales. And he received
his sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he
had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with
the disciples, which were at Damascus. And straightway he
preached Christ in the synagogues, that he's the son of God. What
was Saul's part in that? Who saved who? Was the Lord waiting
on Saul to do something? You see who it is that saved
Paul here? That's what our question is right
now. Who saved him? Paul said in our text in 1 Timothy,
he came into this world to save me. He chose me from the beginning. And when it pleased him, he revealed
his son in me. He said in another place, when
it pleased God, he revealed his son in me. That's why he was
able to preach he's the son of God because God revealed in him
who he was and he preached it he preached Christ he came into
this world and chose me having chosen me and came to save me
came to save the worst sinner among all sinners and when it
was his time to do so he did no wonder Paul said in our text
in verse 17 now unto the king Saul met the king, didn't he?
He didn't meet the Jesus of this religious world. I don't see
him in the scriptures anywhere. And Saul, sure enough, didn't
meet him on that day. The one who saved me is the king of salvation. And
I'm with Paul. Let's glorify him. Let's honor
him in that. His grace, His long-suffering
is free and sovereign and distinguishes among men. Without His grace
we're lost, but if He loves us and has mercy on us, that's what
salvation is. How did God save Paul? We see
a lot about this in the text in Acts 9 there where we just
read. How did He save him? First thing He did was shine
a light on him. He shined the light. And he spoke to him. Listen to
verse three again. And as he journeyed he came near
Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from. From where? What did the Lord
say to Nicodemus? You must be born from above. That's salvation. That's not
you doing something for God. It comes down upon you from heaven. Salvation dies now. You've got
to be born from above. What did you have to do with
your first birth? It's just about like that in the second one too.
It happens to you. That's your part in it. A light from heaven and he fell
to the earth and he heard a voice. You're not going to hear the
voice until you have light. You may hear it with this ear,
but you're not going to hear it with your heart now, you're
not gonna hear it with an ear of faith until God shines the
light on you from heaven. And then he will speak now. He will speak. And he said, Saul, Saul, why? This is interesting, isn't it?
He asked Adam a question too, didn't he? He asked him where.
It's the same question, same question though. Why? Now maybe you're thinking that
never happened to me, but if you're a believer it did. You
weren't saved without light. You weren't saved without Christ
speaking to you. You may not have heard an audible
voice directly from heaven, but you did hear an audible voice.
God's not going to save you any other way. He ain't never saved
a sinner any other way yet. Some people talk about, well,
if you're elect, God will save you whether you believe or not.
That's not scriptural. If you're one of God's elect,
you're going to hear and you're going to believe. The God who
ordained the end is an ordainer of means. And you neglect his
means to the danger of your own soul. We have light from heaven, and
we hear his voice. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. And by grace are you saved through
faith. How shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed? And how are they going to believe
in him of whom they've not heard? And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? That's why he said, go see Ananias. He sent
Ananias to him in that case, didn't he? And God does shine his light
on you. You can't see it with these physical eyes. But it's
different light. It's better light and you got
to see it with better eyes. God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, shined in my heart. That I might see
his son and his glory in his face. And look at what Christ
said to Paul. Why are you persecuting me? Why
do you hate me? Adam, where are you? It's the
same question, isn't it? There's something wrong with
you, Saul. You think about that. There's something wrong with
you. You are hating and persecuting God, the perfect, good, gracious,
holy Son of God. You're doing the utterly unthinkable,
Saul. Why are you doing that? What's
God want to talk about when He speaks to you? Well, he said,
come let us reason together though your sins. Though your sins. Why, Paul? Where? Why? He's gonna deal with us regarding
our sins. He's not just gonna tell us how
bad we are. He's gonna talk to us about how
they can be made white as snow. Then Saul had something to say.
Who are you, Lord? Who are you? He kind of answered his own question,
didn't he? Who are you, Lord? At least in
part, Romans 10, 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Paul already knows that whoever
this is speaking to him is the Lord. And he's fixing to know
his name. I am Jesus. I am he shall save his people
from their sins. And I've come to save you. Has he ever introduced himself
to you by that name? He shall say Jehovah Savior. And then notice these next two
verses carefully, verses five and six. We're talking now about
how God saved Paul. Look at it. Let's see if your
experience matches up with this. Verse five, he said, who are
you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the goads. And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord told him. Now you
think about that. Why do you go to an animal? Why do you go to an animal? Have
you ever, probably never done that in your life, have you?
You would have if you lived 100 years ago. Why do you go to an animal? To get it to do what you want
it to do, right? And the Lord goaded him, and
what did he say? What do you want me to do? Has the Lord ever done that to
you? Well, that's humiliating. You better believe it is. And
you're going to have to get down in the dust. And I am too, if
God's going to save us. If he has saved us, that's where
we're going. We're going into the dust now. You are the master of that animal. And
that animal needs to understand that what you say go, that's
why they make goats. Is it all right with you that
our Lord Jesus Christ does this? Is that okay with you? Repentance is a change of mind.
You're gonna have to change your mind about who God is. You have
to change your mind about what you are before God. And you're
gonna have to change your mind from what it is by nature concerning
how God saves a sinner, how God can be God and save a wretch
like you. He can't just see you making a decision and save you.
That's not gonna change what you are. You're gonna have to
change your mind about all that. That's gonna take some golden.
Some golden. The scriptures do that, don't
they? When God sends them in power and reveals to us the truth. It's unpleasant to the flesh.
It's contrary to the flesh. Just like plowing that row might
be contrary to that mule that day. But guess what? He's my
mule and he's fixing to plow a row. Because I'm the master. You see, that's a pretty clear
illustration here now. And our Lord does that in a spiritual
sense. He defies our flesh now, and
he teaches us his way, his will, and causes us to do it. If he's
gonna save us, he's gonna have to break us. It's just that simple. Now he does so graciously. He's
gracious to do it. You'll thank him for it if he
ever breaks you. It's not pleasant to the flesh.
It's just not. And this will happen in all aspect
of our lives. He's still goading me. How about
you? Has your flesh been goaded lately? Has the Lord ever made
it unpleasant for you to do what you want to do? Made it impossible
by his grace for us to do what he's gracious to do that even
yet. And then we see further on in
Acts 9 that Paul began to pray. He probably prayed before, don't
you imagine? He was very religious, but he
had never really prayed until he met the Son of God. He was
seeking God. He had been such a terrible wretch
before that Ananias didn't much want to have anything to do with
him, but God said, I've chosen him. And so Ananias came to Saul,
as the Lord instructed him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord sent me
to you to teach you. We see these things in the outline,
this pattern, these things that take place in time, at the time
of our experience of God's grace. But we come to know also Though
we see the manner of his saving experience. There's going to
be light. There's going to be a word. There's going to be that
which is the flesh has got to change. Now that the flesh doesn't
change but you've got to change from your fleshly thinking to
God's thinking. To God's way. God's truth. But also we'll come to know this.
God saved us before the foundation of the world. That's what Anna
and I said to Saul. God's chosen you. God's chosen
you. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Where unto he called you?
Where unto where? The truth. to the truth, to an
understanding of the truth, to an acknowledging of the truth.
He called you to that by our gospel. To the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. You think about what is said
in that verse, there's 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14. I have obtained
already in a sense, and in one day, sure enough, but already
in a sense, I have attained the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And according to Paul there,
I can say that because God chose me from the beginning. The electing
grace of God. Paul is a chosen vessel unto
me. And so he stopped him in his
tracks on his road to hell and turned the light on and spoke
to him. Spoke to him regarding his sin,
didn't he? He had been goading him for a
while, and he brought him to submission. There's God's greatest
enemy of that day, probably, actively despising and opposing
the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Lord, what do you want me to
do? What a change. That's why they call it conversion.
What a change. It's because he chose me from
the beginning. Thank God that the purpose of God According
to election might stand he said Chris have I loved And this is the answer to our
last question why did God save Paul the simple answer is because
he loved him You could give many reasons maybe
from the scriptures even to answer that question why I Did God save
Paul? But it all has to be traced back
to the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Why
did God save Paul? Well, because he was one of the
elect. Yeah, but why did God choose him? Why him and not Judas? Why me and not, why didn't he pass me by? There
we are, back at the love of God. God saved Paul because Christ
redeemed Paul with his precious blood. Yeah, you betcha. But
why in the world would the Lord Jesus do that? Greater love hath no man than
this. God saved Paul because of the
everlasting covenant. Oh, you betcha. David said, that's
all my salvation and all my desire that God made an everlasting
covenant with me. Yeah, but why in the world would God make a
covenant with the likes of me, I'll tell you why. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world. I'd say that pretty much
would cover Saul. That'd be an understatement,
wouldn't it? According to the prince of the power of the air,
The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conduct. We all were the same. Paul's a pattern. Is your experience
like his? Did God pick you out and one
day revealed it to you? You're a chosen vessel unto me.
But shone the light upon you and spoke to you. And when he
spoke to you with the light on, you heard him. You'd heard of him before, and
I'm sure you'd heard some of his teachings, but now, you know
who he is, you know who's speaking to you. And when he speaks to
you regarding your sin, you listen. We all had our conduct in time
past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others, even as Saul, even as Judas. There's no difference. In fact, Paul, by his own testimony,
was a worse sinner than Judas, but God had mercy on him. But God, who is rich in mercy,
and here it is, for his great love. Wherewith he loved even
us, a child of disobedience in the lust of my flesh, fulfilling
the desires of my flesh, a child of wrath, satanic in my walk
and in my conduct and in my heart. But because of his great love,
wherewith he loved me, he was rich in mercy toward me. Even
when I was dead in sins, he quickened me together with Christ. By grace
I'm saved. And hath raised me up together
and made me sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Who did God save that day? The
chief of sinners. Who saved him? The God of all
grace. How did he save him? He stopped
him on his road to hell and turned on the light. The light of the
world, the Lord Jesus Christ, shined upon him. And in his face
he saw the glory of God. And the Lord spoke to him. Faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. He spoke
to him concerning his sin. and the forgiveness of sin. How did he save him? By grace. With all long-suffering, Paul
said, in spite of me. He saved me in spite of me. Why
in the world did he do it? Because he loved him. The love of God is greater far
than tongue or pen can ever tell. God so loved that he gave his son, his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life, even
the chief of sinners. God commendeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners and are yet sinners.
But he died for us. And he can't let us go. He can't let us go. Thank God
for that love. Which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Let's pray.