Absolutely. Correct. He sent me that email and I said,
you stop here. You spend the night with us and
you preach for us. That is a annual tradition. It's
also an annual tradition. Melinda and Janet and the children
go to sleep and Clay and I stay up far too late talking and fellowshipping
and catch up with one another. And it is just, it's an absolute
delight, something we look forward to all year long. Open your Bibles,
if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter 1. The title of the message this
morning is The Mission of Christ. You know, I suppose nearly everyone
in the world knows that a man named Jesus of Nazareth lived.
But very few people know why he lived. Why did he come to
this earth? And that's what I want us to
look at this morning, the mission of Christ. Now, the father sent
his son into this world to accomplish his eternal purpose for the salvation
of his elect. That was the mission that Christ
came to accomplish. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not
come to try to save every son of Adam. He didn't come to make
an offer of salvation for as many as may decide to accept
him. Christ came to save his people from their sins. And that's
just exactly what he did. That was his mission. Mission
accomplished. Now, there's no chance. I hate
to use that word, but I don't know a better word. There's no
chance that any of God's elect can perish. It's impossible.
Because it's God's will that they be saved. That's his eternal
will that they have eternal life. Now, my friends, God's not God
if he cannot accomplish his will. If Christ came to try to save
everybody, if He came to try to save as many people as may
accept Him, but people still end up going to hell anyway,
then God's not God, because He can't accomplish His eternal
will and purpose. But thankfully, God is God, isn't
He? And He always accomplishes His
will. Christ came and He accomplished
the mission that the Father sent Him to do, to save His people
from their sin. And that's what I want us to
look at this morning. I want us to look first at Christ's
mission of salvation, and then secondly, I want us to see an
example of His mission accomplished. First, Christ's mission to save
His people. 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 am chief. Now, our gospel is a faithful
saying. It's a trustworthy message. Our
gospel is worthy of all of our trust, of all of our faith, because
the subject of our message is Christ. And he's trustworthy. Our gospel is worthy to be believed. It's worthy to be relied upon
by every sinner. Because the message of the gospel
is what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for his people.
He's accomplished the salvation of sinners. That message is worthy
to be believed. Now, here's the mission of Christ.
It's a very simple mission. It's to save sinners. Paul says
that Christ came into the world to save sinners. Now, if He came
into the world, He had to come from somewhere else, didn't He? He didn't be born into this world
and that was His beginning. No, He came from somewhere else.
Where'd He come from? He came from His Father. The
eternal Son of God came to this earth as a man. A child was born,
but the Son was given. Now, why would the Father send
His Son to this earth as a man? The Son of God had to humiliate
Himself to be clothed in our flesh. Why would the Father cause
His Son to have such humiliation to appear in the weakness of
human flesh, in the likeness of flesh? Well, it's to accomplish
the Father's eternal purpose of redemption. Look back at John
chapter 6. This is the Father's will. You
don't have to wonder what the Father's will is. Our Lord tells
us what His will is. In John chapter 6, beginning in verse 37, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Now how is it the Savior so sure
all that the Father gave him will come to him, and that everyone
that comes to him he'll in no wise cast out? Well, verse 38
tells us why. This is the Father's will. For
I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the
will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life,
and I will raise him up at the last day." It was the eternal
will of the Father to save a people that He chose unto salvation.
And you know, at that moment that the Father chose His, not
a moment, salvation, His election is eternal, but for lack of a
better term, at that moment that the Father chose those people,
they were saved. They were justified. They were
washed in the blood of Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. But their salvation had to be
accomplished in time, didn't it? And that's why the father
sent his son, to accomplish his eternal purpose. God sent his
son to earth as the second Adam. You see, a man had to undo what
man had done. If men are going to be saved,
there has to be another representative. The second Adam, he had to come
and undo everything that the first Adam did to us. The first
Adam put all of his race under condemnation because of his sin
of disobedience. The second Adam restored all
of his race to righteousness and peace and holiness through
his obedience. The first Adam condemned us through
his disobedience. The second Adam restored us through
his obedience. The first Adam put all of his
people into sin and death. He made us guilty of sin. Now, brethren, that sin can't
be ignored. It must be paid for. And our
sin debt is a debt we cannot pay. We've got nothing to pay.
So the father sent his son to pay that sin debt, the sin debt
of his elect. Well, how did he do that? How
did Christ pay the sin debt of his people? Well, Scripture is
very plain. The father made his son sin,
and then he punished Christ our substitute with all of his holy
fury against sin. And the blood of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ paid the sin debt for all the sin
that the father laid upon him. His blood blotted out the sin
of his people so that it does not exist anymore. And the father
is pleased. He's satisfied with the sacrifice
of His Son. Because the sacrifice of His
Son, His blood, removed the sin that offended a holy God. Christ
Jesus came into this world on that mission. A mission to take
away the sin of His people. He came to save. He didn't come
to try to save. Now He came to save. Well, alright,
who did He come to save? He came to save, I know that.
Who did Christ save? Well, Paul says He saved sinners. The worst of sinners. Paul says,
of whom I am chief. That word chief means foremost.
It means the worst. Christ came to save real sinners. And you know what? He saved every
one of them. Christ in His life, in His sacrifice,
saved every sinner. That was his mission, and he
accomplished it. Now you might wonder, Frank,
isn't everybody a sinner? Yeah, they are. But they don't
know it. You just ask them. No, they're
not a sinner. But if you can find a sinner,
brother, I got good news for you. Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners. The chief of sinners. The worst
of sinners. He saved every sinner to the
uttermost. Alright. What's a sinner? A better question would be, who
is a sinner? Who is a sinner? And I ask that question because
I want to know. Am I a sinner? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Did He come to save me? He did
if I'm a sinner. Number one, a sinner is someone
who knows that everything they do, everything they say, everything
they think, everything that they desire is sin. Look back at Genesis chapter
6. Here's a description of the nature
of man. Genesis chapter 6. Verse 5, And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that was not just the nature
of man in Noah's day, it's the nature of man in our day. It's
the nature that we're born with, the nature that's still in our
hearts right at this very moment. The nature of this flesh will
never change. because it can't. That which
is flesh is flesh. It'll never be anything but sinful
flesh. But a sinner is someone who knows
that everything I do, everything I think, everything that I want
to do is sin because my nature is dead in sin so that it can
only produce sin. I'll never produce anything good. It can only be sin because that's
my nature. Second, a sinner. It's someone
who knows they can't quit sinning. It just gets on my last nerve
to hear these false prophets say, well, if you just quit sinning
and turn over a new leaf and start acting better, God will
be merciful to you. Well, that's not good news to
me because I can't change my ways. I cannot quit sinning. My sinful nature cannot change.
It's impossible. But a sinner knows that the only
way I can ever be holy is if God gives me a new nature. He's
got to give me a new nature. I can't be righteous in anything
I do. The only way I can be righteous
is in the obedience of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, a sinner is someone
who knows I can't look down my nose at somebody else and think
I'm better than them because no one is a worse sinner than
me. Now, we're all fond of quoting
the Apostle Paul here and say, I'm the chief of sinners. Well,
just watch out. If somebody agrees with us and
says, yeah, you're right, I've never seen a worse sinner than
you, we're going to get mad at them for agreeing with us. But
this is why I told you this last night. This is what a sinner
knows. Now, this is in our heart, we know this. It takes the exact
same grace to save me as it does the harlot. as it does the drug
user, murderer, whatever you want to just fill in the blank.
It takes the same grace to save me as it does anyone else because
I'm just as guilty. I'm just as vile. Do you know
dad is dead? There's no degrees of dead. Dead
is dead. Guilty is guilty. I'm just as guilty as anyone
else. It takes the same grace to save
me as it does anyone else. Fourthly, a sinner is someone
who knows I can't do anything to get God to save me, so I'm
totally dependent. I'm totally dependent on God
to do something for me that I can't do for myself. I'm totally dependent
on God's grace. Christ did not come to help those
who would try to help themselves. No. Christ came to save those
who cannot save themselves. That's who he came to save. That's
what a sinner is. I can't do anything for myself.
I'm totally dependent on God's grace to save me because I can't
do anything to deserve it. That's a sinner. Well, all right. He came to save sinners. What
is it to be saved? To be saved is not to be saved
from hell so I can go to heaven. All that is is a fire escape.
To be saved is to be saved from sin. Everybody wants to be saved
from hell. Nobody. I've never met anyone. There might be somebody that's
certifiably insane that says, I don't care to go to hell. But
I would doubt it. Nobody wants to go to hell. But
here's my question. Do you need to be saved from
sin? To be saved is to be saved from sin. To be saved is to be
saved from the condemnation of sin, because Christ suffered
your condemnation as your substitute. To be saved from sin is to be
saved from the controlling power of sin, because God's given you
a new nature. And to be saved from sin is to
one day in eternity, to be delivered from the very presence of sin,
when we're made just like Christ. The heart's desire of every believer
is not to go to heaven, live in a mansion, have the streets
paved with gold. The heart's desire of every believer
is to be made just like Christ. That's our heart's desire. That's
to be saved from sin. To be saved from sin is to know
the Lord Jesus Christ, whom to know is life eternal. is to know
Christ as your representative. That what He did, you did in
Him. That His obedience is your obedience. To know Christ is to know Him
as your sacrifice for sin. That He died as your substitute
to pay your sin debt. To know Christ is to know Him
as all of your righteousness, as all of your salvation. That's
the salvation that Christ accomplished for all of His people And he
did it. Mission accomplished. All right,
now I want us to look at an example of the mission accomplished.
That mission is going to be accomplished in the hearts of all of his people.
Look here at verse 16 of 1 Timothy chapter 1. Howbeit for this cause I obtained
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth All long
suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe
on him to life everlasting Paul says that he's a pattern of how
God saves sinners And this is the pattern that God uses to
reveal himself to all of his people and to save them by his
grace First Paul's a pattern of salvation in this way Salvation
is in the mercy of our God Paul says I obtained mercy Now mercy,
Brother Don told us this last night, is God not giving us what
we deserve. Not giving us the punishment
that we deserve. Why not? Because he gave Christ
our substitute what we deserve. He does that in justice. That's
how God can save sinners and be merciful to sinners and still
be God. Still be holy because he punished
the sin of his people and the person of our substitute. Is
there anyone here this morning that wants to be saved? I'll
tell you where I'd start. I'd ask God for mercy. Paul says
he's a pattern. He said, I obtain mercy. Second,
salvation is through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul told
the church at Ephesus, by grace you're saved through faith. And
that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Look up here
at verse 12, 1 Timothy 1. And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry." Now, God enabled Paul to be an
apostle, and he put him in the ministry. And in the same way,
he enables all of his people to believe Christ, and he puts
them in the body of Christ, right exactly where they belong. And
that's the only way we can believe. The only way we'll ever believe
Christ is if God gives us faith, because we cannot make ourselves
believe. The only way we'll ever be counted
faithful is if God makes us faithful. You know, I told you last night,
I grew up under the sound of the gospel. As long as I could
understand language, I heard the gospel. And as long as I
can remember, I knew that salvation was by grace, through faith. And I can't tell you how long I tried to believe, and I couldn't do it. I could
not do it. And one day, it dawned on me, I believe Christ. I believe him. And I cannot believe him. What happened? God gave the gift of faith. Is
there anybody here that needs to be saved? Tell you what I'd
do, I'd fall on my face and I'd ask God to give me faith. Give
me that gift of faith in your son. Third, here's the third
way Paul's a pattern of salvation. Salvation is only for sinners,
helpless sinners. Look at verse 13. Who was before
a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious? But I obtained
mercy, because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. Now Paul says,
here's why I am the chief of sinners, the very worst of sinners.
Paul said, I was religious. You wouldn't have called me a
vile man like those Gentile dogs. I was religious. But oh, I was
a blasphemer. Now blasphemers are not those
who cuss and swear and talk nasty and do nasty things. Blasphemers
are religious people. Blasphemers are those who blaspheme
the name of the Savior by saying there's something you can do
to earn your salvation. A blasphemer are those who say
there's more necessary for salvation than Christ alone. That you've
got to add something to it in order to make it effectual. Don't
you ever listen to it. That's blasphemy. Those who say,
well, if you keep the law, you'll be righteous. Or those who say,
they might try to be a little more subtle. They say, well,
God will be pleased with you if you just keep these certain
laws. You know, God will be more pleased with you than He is somebody
else. Don't you listen to it. That's blasphemy. Those who say,
won't you decide to let Jesus into your heart? Won't you decide
to let Him be the King of your life? Don't you listen to it? That's blasphemy. That's blasphemy
because it takes the glory, it takes the credit for salvation
away from Christ and gives it to the creature. If you even
take just a little, just an iota of the credit for salvation,
you've taken the glory from Christ. That's blasphemy. Is that the
worst sin a man can do? To blaspheme the name of God? I don't know. I don't know how
you categorize sin. But I know this. That's a real
sinner. That's who Christ came to save.
Paul said, I was a blasphemer, a real sinner. But by His grace,
He saved me. Then Paul says, I was zealous.
Now I was sincere about my religion. But our zeal can't save us. Paul's
zeal didn't drive him to Christ, did it? It drove him to hate
Christ. It drove him to hate the gospel.
His zeal didn't drive him to bow and surrender to Christ.
It drove him to try to put him out of business. Yet God saved
him. Because God saves sinners. Christ
came to save sinners. And Paul says, I did this ignorantly.
Now, he's not making an excuse, because there's no excuse for
sin. And this is not the reason that God saved him. He did it
ignorantly. God didn't look down on old Saul and say, oh, no,
he didn't mean to. He just did that because he didn't
know better. No, what Paul's saying, he said, I did it ignorantly,
he's explaining to us the nature of sin. Our nature is ignorant. We're ignorant of who we are.
We're ignorant of who God is. We're ignorant of how God saves
sinners. Yet God in His mercy saved Saul of Tarsus because
God saves sinners. That's who Christ came to save,
real sinners. And you know, to us, it sure
looked like old Saul of Tarsus is a lost cause, wouldn't it? We'd see that fella and say,
oh, my goodness, he's a blasphemer. His zeal is just hatred of God. It's just his hatred being manifested. He's ignorant. He's ignorant
of everything that the Scripture says. He's ignorant. Well, that
brings me to my fourth point. Here's how Paul is a pattern
of salvation. Salvation is by grace. Verse 14. And the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus. Paul said, I didn't deserve it.
But God gave it to me anyway. Now that's grace, isn't it? That's
grace. And God gave it to me for this
reason. Christ came to this earth and
he accomplished salvation. God gave that to me because Christ
my Savior earned it for me. Now every believer, I've done
a little bit of traveling. Don, you've done a lot of traveling.
Have you ever found a believer that doesn't love grace? Every
believer loves the message of salvation by grace. Because only
grace can save a lost cause. You know, it's my prayer that
God makes somebody here this morning to realize you're a lost
cause. To realize there's no hope for
me. That'd be good. I'd be so happy.
You might be wondering, that's good? Aren't you worried about
somebody's self-esteem? You know, you want to feel hopeless? That's my prayer. Oh, it's a
good thing. If God will ever show you, you've
got no hope. Because that is when you finally
be a candidate for grace. When you have no other hope but
the grace of God, you've got a good hope. A good hope. Now,
here's the fifth thing. Look at Acts chapter 22. Here's
how Paul is a pattern of how God saves sinners. Paul was saved
when he heard the gospel of God in God-given faith. In Acts chapter
22, here's Paul's account of when he met the Savior, beginning
in verse 3. He says, I am verily a man which
am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in
this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect
manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as
you all are this day. And I persecuted this way into
death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,
as also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the
estate of the elders, from whom also I received letters unto
the brethren. I went to Damascus to bring them
which were there bound unto Jerusalem for to be punished." Now, Saul
of Tarsus, what he's telling us here is, boy, I hated Christ. I hated the gospel. I hated anyone
who believed on Christ. I hated anyone who believed on
that name. And all that is is showing us
his sin nature. It's the same nature you and
I have today. It showed us his need. If Saul of Tarsus is going
to be saved, he's going to have to be saved by grace through
God-given faith in him. Same way you and I are. Paul
could not be educated into salvation. Gamaliel couldn't do it. Could
not be educated into salvation. Paul couldn't earn his own righteousness
by being obedient to the law. At one time, he thought he was
obedient to the law, didn't he? And God showed him All that's
done. He couldn't earn his own righteousness.
His zeal couldn't save him. His zeal took him the wrong way.
He had to be saved by grace through faith. Same way it is with you
and me. In verse 6, read on. It came to pass that as I made
my journey, it was come nine to Damascus. About noon, suddenly
there shone from heaven a great light round about me. Now this
light that Paul saw was not the light of the sun. It was high
noon. The sun had been shining bright
for a good while. This light that showed about
him was the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same light that appeared
in Genesis 1-3 when God said, let there be light, and there
was light. That light wasn't the sun. The
sun wasn't created until the fourth day, three days later.
That light was Christ, the light of the world. That light appeared
to Paul. And everybody God saves, they're
going to see Christ. They'll see Him in His Word.
They'll see Him in His Gospel because they've been given light
to see. And when God gives us light, we'll finally see ourselves
as we really are. We'll finally see Christ for
who He is. And this will be so obvious to
us. I see my utter need. of the Lord Jesus Christ, because
God's given me light. I see this. He's all I need. I really don't need anything
else. I need Him. Well, verse 7, Paul says, And
I fell into the ground and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, Who art thou,
Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou
persecutest. And they that were with me saw
indeed the light and were afraid, But they heard not the voice
of him that spake to me." Now here's a way Paul's a pattern.
Everyone God saves hears the voice of Christ in the heart.
That's a whole lot more than hearing the preacher now. That's
hearing Christ in the heart. God saves His people. And He
does it one at a time. Here's a whole congregation sitting
here. Y'all are hearing the voice of the preacher. But you know
what my prayer is? That God speak into somebody's
heart. And if He does, you're going to wonder, why didn't everybody
else hear what I heard? Same thing that happened to Paul.
He saw the light, didn't he? He heard God speak to him, Christ
speak to him. But those men that were with
him, they saw light. They knew something was going
on. But they didn't see Christ. They heard a noise, thunder. They didn't know what it was.
They heard a noise. But they didn't hear Christ speaking.
Why not? Because Christ appeared to Paul.
He was speaking to Paul. And if God saved you, you know
what that means. I don't have to try to explain
it to you. You know what it is for God to speak to the heart.
And now you hear. Now you see. Verse 10, And I
said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise,
and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all
things which are appointed for thee to do. And here's another
way Paul's a pattern. Everybody God saves is given
obedience. The obedience of faith. As soon
as Paul heard the Lord Jesus Christ, as soon as that light
appeared, he was given obedience. What shall I do? I wonder, is
that the first time he ever asked that question? I bet he always
thought he knew what he was supposed to do. Now he said, what shall
I do, Lord? He was given obedience. And everyone
God saves is given the obedience of faith. God commands all men
everywhere to repent and to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when God saves a sinner, they're given obedience. They're
given obedience to repent. to turn to Christ from their
sin, to turn to Christ from their idols, and believe Him, to rest
on Him, to rely on Him, to save us without any input from ourselves. But before we're given that obedience,
God's going to have to break us, isn't He? He's going to have
to unhorse us. He's going to have to put us
down in the dust, just like He did Saul of Tarsus, to make us
submissive to His will. And He'll do it for everybody
He saves. Now verse 11, Paul says, and when I could not see
for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them
that were with me, I came into Damascus. Now whether they know
it or not at first, everybody that God saves is led by the
hand to come to where the gospel is preached. The Holy Spirit
leads everyone by the hand. All his people, he leads them
by the hand to come to the place where Christ is preached. Now why are you here this morning?
You know, for many years I thought I came to the worship service
because my dad made me. It wasn't an option. But I tell
you more than that, it was the Spirit. He leads his people to
come hear the gospel. And this is the message that
they hear and believe, verse 12. And one Ananias, a devout
man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, came unto me and stood, and said unto me,
Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked upon
him." Now, before we go to Ananias' message, let me say this. This
strikes me every time I read it. You know, Ananias, he didn't
want anything to do with that Saul of Tarsus. God told him,
you go down there and preach to them. And I heard him, I'm
not so sure about it, he said, you go, he's praying. And I just
went and he looked at him and he said, brother Saul, I don't know if this is just
something we do at home or what, but you hear this frequently
when one of our brothers or sisters is baptized. One of the men prays
and invariably they thank God for our brother so and so, our
sister so and so. That's my brother. That's my
sister. They're immediately in the family of God. When I was
nine years old, I had a sister. She was seven. My mother and
father thought our family was complete. And I reckon they had
what you'd call late-life blessing. And my mother was pregnant. She
gave birth. And at that time, you couldn't
go to the hospital to see a baby. The nurse there was like she
carried a hatchet or something. Everybody's afraid of her. But
my dad and Lindsey Campbell snuck us up, me and my sister, up to
see the baby. And we looked in the nursery.
There lay the baby in the bassinet. And I thought, huh, that's my
brother. Well, don't you want to wait
and see if he can contribute something to the family? Don't
you want to see if he kind of turns out to be anything of any
count? That's my brother. From day one, he was my brother. These are our brothers and sisters.
Don't you want to wait and see if there's going to be any count?
No, that's my brother. That's my sister. Brother Saul. Brother Saul had a lot of growing
to do, didn't he? He had a lot of things to learn.
God's teaching. He'll mature. That's my brother. This is the family of God. Verse
14. And he said, The God of our fathers
hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just
one, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. Now this is the
first gospel message Paul really ever heard. And the first thing
Ananias preached to him was God's election. God chose a people
to save. If you're saved, it's because
God chose you in eternity past, just because He would. Not because
there's anything good about you, just because He would. Well,
Clay, I thought we weren't supposed to start out telling somebody
about election. Are we supposed to wait and sneak that in later? Apparently
not. Ananias began his message with
that. Now, I want you to listen to
me. The gospel is good news. Good news. And that's the way
we're to preach the gospel. We are to preach the gospel as
good news. We're not to present the gospel
as something that's bad news to you that you've got to believe
anyway. No, the gospel is good news. And that begins with God's
electing love. That's good news. That's good
news to a sinner. God chose a people to save. I'm
glad he did, because otherwise nobody would be saved. His electing
love. That's how the message begins,
his electing love. Next, Paul heard about the will
of God in salvation. The same will we read from our
Savior in John chapter 6. Now everyone God saves knows
this. They know God's will in salvation. God has a will. His will is to save His people
through the person and work of His Son. Now, I don't know what God's
will is in anything else. I kind of used to think I might
know this is God's will. And I've learned, no, I don't.
No, I don't. A decision has to be made. Something has to be done. I pray
about it and try to wait on the Lord. And finally, I think, well,
this is what I think ought to be done. And I do it hoping it's
the Lord's will. But I never know what the Lord's
will is until after the fact. Then I know. But I tell you what,
I know this. I know God's will in the redemption
of His people. He's going to save them through
the person, the sacrifice, the righteousness, the obedience
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the only reason I'm
saved. It's God's will. And that's revealed to us through
preaching. It's pleased God. This is His
will. It pleased God by what men call the foolishness of preaching
to save them to believe. Then Paul heard about that Just
One. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only righteous man to ever live. That's how God saves
sinners. Through the Just One. He makes
His people righteous by imputing the obedience of Christ to them.
He's the Just One. Now, God is just. You know, most
of our error in doctrine begins with forgetting the character
of God, not knowing the character of God. God's just. And the way
He is both just and justifier is by making His people righteous
through the obedience of Christ. And by punishing the sin of His
people, by making Christ's sin for them and punishing that sin
fully in our substitute. Now, that's the message that
God uses to save his people, to save them from their sin,
to give them faith in Christ, to reveal Christ to them. And
Paul heard that message, and he believed it. Now, let me give
you one last way that Paul's a pattern of everybody that God
saves. Paul confessed Christ publicly
in Believer's Baptism. Verse 15. For thou shalt be his
witness unto all men of what thou seest and heard, And now,
why tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Now, you know
the story, the rest of the life of the Apostle Paul. He was a
witness for Christ by being an apostle, the most used apostle
that God used to spread the gospel all over the place. And none
of us are going to be witnesses like that. But every believer
is a witness for Christ. You're a witness for Christ in
the way you live your life, looking to Christ, relying upon Him.
You're a witness to Christ by telling other folks about your
hope, about God's grace and mercy to you. And I know some people
are more able to put that into words than other people are.
And if you don't feel very eloquent, let me tell you something. You
just remember this. When you have opportunity to
witness for Christ, to tell someone about the Savior, Don't feel
like you've got to be Charles Spurgeon and speak in this great,
powerful language. Just in your own language, your
own words, you tell people what great things God's done for you. That's being a witness for Christ.
But now here's a way of believers, a witness for Christ. When we
confess Christ publicly in baptism, You'll never tell what great
things Christ has done for you more clearly than in Believer's
Baptism. Believer's Baptism is a confession
that I'm so sinful, the only way I could be saved is by Christ
being made sin for me. He had to take my sin. He had
to die for me. He had to die for my... If I
was the only sinner He came to save, He had to do everything
He did just exactly like He did it. He had to die for my sin.
They had to take a dead body down from the tree and bury it
because he had to die for my sin. But he rose again because
he put my sin away. He's my representative. When
he died, I died in him. When he was buried, I was buried
in him. And when he arose, I arose in him. That's the believer's
confession of who saved us and how he saved us by his death,
burial, and resurrection. Is baptism necessary for salvation?
Do I have to be baptized before I'm saved? No, you don't. The
thief on the cross wasn't baptized, was he? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
they weren't baptized. Well, is baptism important? You
better believe it is. Now, I'll tell you why this ought
to end all wonder about is baptism important. The Lord commanded
it. Then it's important. Baptism is the way, we're not
saved because we're baptized. Baptism is the way we publicly
confess what God's already done for us in the heart. Baptism's
not necessary for salvation, but I'll tell you this, I wouldn't
give you a plug nickel for somebody's profession of faith in Christ
who refuses to be baptized. There's no obedience there. Paul
was baptized publicly confessing his Lord and Master and Savior. Now that's the pattern of salvation.
That's how God saves His people, how He reveals His Son to us
and in us. And I pray by God's grace that
all of us would be able to see that pattern. That's the pattern,
how God revealed Himself to me. Lord bless you.