Our opening hymn is going to
be 442 in your hardback. 442, praise him. And we'll do that standing. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children. In His arms He carries them all
day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation, Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus, who
bore our sorrows, Love unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong.
Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, Prophet
and priest and king, Christ is coming. Over the world victorious,
power and glory, unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him,
tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Good morning, everybody. Let's
open our Bible up to Isaiah 54. Isaiah chapter 54. We're going to read the first nine verses.
Our brother Levi last night read Isaiah 53. And before we begin
reading 54, look at verse 4 of 53. And it says, surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. And then verse 1 of Isaiah 54,
it says, sing. Sing. He hath borne our griefs
and our sorrows. Sing. O barren, thou that didst
not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud. thou that didst
not prevail with the child. For more are the children of
the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the
Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth
the curtains of thine inhabitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords,
and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the
Gentiles. and make the desolate cities
to be inhabited, fear not. For thou shalt not be ashamed,
neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
anymore. For thy maker is thine husbandman. The Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, The God of the whole
earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth
when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In
a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
Lord, we're so, so thankful for your great mercies that you have
had, Lord, upon us. Lord, they are new every morning,
and we're reminded, Lord, of thy goodness, Lord, continuously.
And Lord, when we think of thy goodness to us, Lord, our words
one to another is, it is astounding. It is without measure, Lord,
how good and merciful, Lord, you have been to us. And oh,
Father, Lord, we pray for this church, Lord, that you have raised
up in this city. We pray, dear Lord, that your
gospel, Lord, would sing forth, Lord, that it would be declared
with great boldness, Lord, and great joy. Lord, it is good news
for the center. It is good news, Lord, for he
has no hope. And we pray, Father, that there
may be some in this town, Lord, who have no hope. And may this
gospel, Lord, find them and call them out that they might see
the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ and his tender mercies,
Lord, to sinners. Oh, Father, Lord, we pray for
your blessings upon this service, for your blessings, Lord, upon
this church. Oh, Lord, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 1. While you're turning, I want to thank
you for inviting me here today. And I would like to thank God
for all of you and for the privilege in some small way of having a
part in this congregation and in the assembling of this congregation
together in this place. I pray that the Lord bless you,
use you in the days to come for His name's honor and glory. You
know, that's why we do this, for the glory of God. For the
glory of God. I want sinners to hear. I want
sinners to know the Lord. but that's not the sole reason
i pray to see him and it's a picture of it first
in the chapter one first way i thank christ jesus our lord who have been able for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. The Lord, whom the Lord enables
to be faithful, he counts faithful. He counts faithful. Now Job said
he put no trust in the saints. He's not talking about some trust
here that he put in Paul. But he trusted in his work that
he did in Paul. And that's what he's talking
about here. He hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. And that's how men get into the
ministry. They're put into the ministry.
I've seen people, I've known people who just wanted so bad
to preach and studied and prepared and went out to all the Bible
conferences and did everything known to man to be used of God
and they wanted to preach so bad but they never did. They never did. God puts a man
in the ministry. in the ministry and you can boil
it all down i've heard so many different stories from men preachers
and so on their experiences and how they got there but when it's
all boiled down here's what it is he put you in the ministry now watch this verse thirteen
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. Now Paul came up through the
ranks of religion. Many of us did the same thing.
We come up through the ranks of religion. He graduated from
their seminary. He had their recommendation. And he had a diploma, no doubt,
to prove it. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
But he doesn't make mention of any of that here. Not one mention of it. He was
also the son of Abraham, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe
of Benjamin, but he doesn't make any mention of that here. And Paul was a zealous man. There
was no limit to his zeal. He stood by in a religious zeal
and held the coats of them that stoned Stephen to death. He was
a zealous man. But no mention of his zeal is
made in the text. How come? Why wasn't some mention
of these things made? because when god revealed to
him his real condition before god he took all of those things
which were so valuable to him and he cast them out on the dumb
heap. Isn't that what he says over
in Philippians chapter 3? All of those things which were
so valuable to me I count them as a loss for Christ. He put him into the ministry
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. But he said, I obtained mercy
because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus. Verse 15. This is a faithful
saying. and worthy of all exceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief. Howbeit for this same cause I
obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him unto everlasting life. Our text begins with a personal
confession of the Apostle Paul and his merciful conversion to
Christ and to the great privilege which God bestowed upon him,
putting him into the ministry. When Paul preached salvation
by grace, it wasn't just a matter of facts. He didn't just stand
up and talk about the facts. He talked about his own experience
of grace. He knew what he was talking about. He didn't have to read a book
and see what John Hill said about it. He knew what had taken place
in his own heart. Somebody asked Benjamin Franklin
one time, said, you went down to hear that preacher? He said, yeah. Well, he said,
you don't believe what that man preaches down there? He said,
no, but he does. He does. I want to hear a man
who knows what he believes. He knows what he believes. And
when Paul preached salvation by grace, it was not just a statement
of fact, but the very experience of salvation by grace. Somebody
said this years ago, a man can't tell what he don't know anymore
and he can come back from someplace he hadn't been. And that's the
truth. That's the truth. All true preaching
begins with a man's personal conversion to Christ. Every time
Paul was brought into question or brought up before the magistrates,
he went back and he told them how Christ saved him. What he heard, what he read,
what he discovered, what he saw, what he understood, the preaching
of grace begins with a calling of grace. God called me by his grace, separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. And Paul
said to the Corinthians, he said, I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received. You can't give what you don't
have. He said, I delivered unto you
that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, that he was buried and rose again
according to the Scriptures. This was delivered to me. I understood
what I heard. I saw. I experienced this. I'm not talking about feelings
and visions and dreams or closet experiences. I'm talking about...
I'm not even talking about that slow things that I read by some
of the old writers where it goes on for years. This is going on
and that and then something else and then this big long grown
out experience. I'm talking about a man who hears
the preaching of the gospel and is born of God and enabled to
believe what he hears and understands what that preacher is saying. That's the experience of grace. I'm talking about a man being
made meat to be a partaker with the enlightened saints. All my
life I heard men testify, testify, testify about these things. One
day I was able to testify what I saw, what I heard. A man born
of the Spirit of God through the preaching of the gospel,
and I'm talking about a man discovering his depravity. discovering his depravity. You
know, one of the hardest things I had to find is a sinner. I
can't find one. Well, I ain't always done the
right thing. That's for sure. I can't find a sinner. Well, this experience of grace
that I'm talking about is a man discovering his depravity through
the preaching of the gospel. He takes God's testimony of his
condition and God enables him to believe it. And as he believes
it, he experiences it. He discovers his depravity, seeing
all his righteousnesses as filthy rats. Discovering that his Religious activities, for lack
of a better word, were nothing more than idolatry. Coming to see that what he thought
was preaching was nothing more than blasphemy. Paul was a bastard. But in this text he calls himself
a blasphemer. When did he blaspheme God? Through
the doctrines he preached about God. He was a blasphemer. That what he thought was righteous
deal was nothing more than causing injury for his personal glory. I tell you, that's a hard pill
to swallow when a man's preached an Arminian religion to come
to see that his preaching was doing harm and not good. Somebody told me their children
went off to college, and I said, is there anybody down there where
they can hear the gospel? No, but they go to a Baptist
church down there, and I guess that's better than nothing. No,
no, it's not better. Not better. Not better at all. What he thought was righteous
zeal. Nothing more than causing injury
for his personal glory. And I'm talking about the experience
of a vile sinner being reconciled to God by the Spirit of Grace.
Paul wrote to Titus and he encourages him to be gentle. He said, be
gentle. Don't be no brawler. Don't bow
all up and go out in the yard, you know, and just have it out.
No, that's not the thing to do. Be gentle. And be an example
of meekness unto all men. Now watch this, Titus 3-3. For
we ourselves also were sometimes foolish. You remember that? We were foolish. Disobedient. Deceived. Serving divers' lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful in hating one another. But after the kindness and love
of God our Savior appeared, not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. That's
the experience of grace. And it's necessary that both
the preacher and his hearers experience the grace of God.
And again, I'm not talking about a warm feeling. I'm not talking
about any of those things. I'm talking about the Holy Spirit
revealing to him the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And telling him what he is. Paul didn't cover up his past
and he didn't justify it. He simply confessed his sinnerhood. I'm not suggesting that you have
a night here and set apart and everybody gets up and starts
confessing their sins. That's not what this is. It's
just confessing that you're a sinner. And you're a sinner exactly as
God describes. Our sinful condition is not a
very pretty picture. And all men are sinners. None
exempt. None. I just love Romans chapter
3. You can't beat that when you
want to talk about a sinner. There's none righteous. Huh? And just in case you come
up with something, he said, no, not one. Not one. And there's none that understand
it. Huh? How you gonna believe in him
and whom you have not heard? How you gonna hear without a
preacher? There's none that understand. And despite what the writing
autobiographies of some of these old writers, there's none that
seeketh after God. You'll seek after God when he
seeks you and enables you to seek him. It's not a pretty picture. Listen
to this. Now Paul's talking to the believer.
He's talking to that man who's experienced this grace. And he
said, you hath equipped him who were dead. Dead. What kind of dead? Dead in trespasses and sins.
Wherein you walked according to the course of this world.
You walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit who now worketh in the children of disobedience. You
followed the lust of your own heart. That's how you lived and
you did it day by day. And you were the children of
wrath, even as others. All have sinned, Paul said, and
come short of the glory of God. And salvation is deliverance
from sin. Our Lord preached deliverance
to the captives But why is it so necessary to preach to men
about their depravity? Why is that so important? Why
don't we just state it and go on? Why do you have to preach
the depravity of men when you preach the gospel? Paul said, and you might have
to give me some liberty with this text, But Paul said, we
had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raises the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will
get. deliver us. That's why we have
this sentence of death. That's why this depravity has
to be free. We have to strip men of the hope
that they have in themselves and the hope they have in a fallen
world. No hope out there. Sinners are totally depraved.
That doctrine is not even in religious doctrine at all. I
went to church all my life. I never heard anybody talk like
that. Total depravity. God shuts the sinner up to Christ
is what He does. He shuts him up to Christ. He
strips the sinner of all his hope in himself, in all his ability,
in all his wisdom, in all his concepts of God. He strips him. And then He reveals to him the
all-sufficient Savior. And after He strips him, nothing
else will do but an all-sufficient Savior. He won't argue about
the sovereignty of God. He knows it takes a sovereign
Savior to save him. In verse 14 of our text, Paul
said, And the grace of thy Lord was exceeding abundant with faith
and love, which is in Christ Jesus. When grace comes, it comes
in abundance, doesn't it? Oh, my soul. How far down did God reach to
save you? When He said, I've come down
from heaven, we've got no concept of what He's talking about. From
the glories of heaven down here to be made sin. And salvation begins and ends
with the grace of God. God's free and unmerited favor
upon chosen sinners. Not chosen because of something
in themselves, but according to His election of grace. And
if by grace, then it's no more works, otherwise grace is no
more grace. This whole thing is grace. It
was grace back in eternity past. It's grace in eternity future.
It's all of grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. What kind of faith you got? I've
got the kind He gives you. He gives it to you. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works. Now, I'm going to tell you something. The faith of those
other than God's elect is a faith of works, and those who profess
to have it will brag on it for eternity. That's all they ever
want to talk about. I remember the day, I remember
the hour. We as the elect of God have redemption
through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. Though we have infirmities and
every sort of obstacle, yet His grace is sufficient. Now I want to tell you, Paul,
my grace is sufficient, Paul. And so as the believer sees himself,
and as time goes on, his confession is, at any period in there, I
am what I am by the grace of God. And when the grace of God
comes to the sinner, it always comes exceeding abundant with
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. It brings to the sinner
the knowledge of the faithfulness and love of God in Christ Jesus.
And we love God because He first loved us. We seek Him because
He first sought us. Now then, here's the next thing,
verse 15. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all exaltation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Paul knew this was a faithful
saying because God saved him. This is how God saved him and
he could talk about sinners being reconciled to God because he
was a sinner reconciled. Paul could talk about his God
being rich in mercy because he's experienced the mercy of God.
And he could talk about the sinner's union with Christ because God
enabled him to believe. There's no longer hope for you
except that God put you in union with His Son. There's no other
hope. You can't produce a righteousness.
The best prayer you ever prayed is altogether an abomination
before God. My soul, Job closed his eyes,
he listened to his friends talk about this self-righteousness
and stuff, and he said, the stars are not pure in his eyes. How much more filthy and abominable
is man that drinks iniquity like water? That's about how much
he thinks about it. We had no hope apart from our
union in Christ. God chose us and put us in Christ. And being chosen in Christ, Christ
appointed for us, God making preparations for us in Christ.
Christ came then and accomplished our redemption, accomplished
our righteousness, and freely gave it to us by Christ. And I'll tell you this, as a
sinner reconciled to God, I've got no good news for the self-righteous. I don't know what else to tell
him, except to tell him he's a sinner. If he ever acknowledges
that, I've got some good news. I don't have any good news for
the work monger. No good news for the decision
makers. But I've got good news for sinners. Good news for sinners. And I
tell you, when God convinces a man of sin, this is the best
thing he ever saw. From that day forward, he cannot
understand why men won't receive this. Why are you fighting against
this? This is salvation. This is the
glory of God. This is God's eternal purpose
of grace. This is the power of God unto
salvation, and you're kicking and fighting everywhere in the
world to keep from receiving it. But not the sinner. The moral
sinner embraces Christ with both arms. For the man who hears and
receives God's testimony of his fall in Adam and his nature of
sin and his affection for sin and his practice of sin and his
whole life of sin, continual sin, reigning sin, sin reigns
unto death. Oh, when he hears about the grace
of God, Oh my, so that's good news. That's good news to him. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, Paul said, of whom I am chief. Now every sinner
saved thinks he's the chief of sinners, but Paul really was.
And I'll tell you why. Because Paul, in his past, was
a Pharisee. He was a Pharisee. What made
Paul, the chief of sinners, the god of this world and anti-Christ
religion, deceive him into believing that by his good works and good
intentions and law-observing, he could please God and marry
God's favor? You know, I dare say, if you
just went out here in the parking lot, first person you met, you
talked to them about religion, talked to them about joining
the church somewhere, They'll all tell you that religion is
a step up. Religion's a step down. It's
a step down. Paul talked to sinners, those
old sailors out there on the sea coast. You know when people
got visions of Christ and they're showing all these people around
him and they're all neatly dressed and they're all, he's preaching
out on the sea coast to a bunch of fishermen. And there they're
sitting with their earrings in their ears. You've seen movies
of that era. You know what I'm talking about.
Here they are, tattooed head to toe. Fisherman, rough, smelly. Drunks, most of them. And they're
sitting down here and they're listening to him preach. They're
listening to him preach. Oh. Christ came into this world to
save sinners. And that chief of sinners is
that man who's so self-righteous, he's so convinced that his religion
is so, and he, as the Moors tell me often, playin'
in the sandbox, that's what they're doin'. That's what they're doin',
out there in their sandbox and playin' religion. All of these
things. Well, that's a step down. Religions
have stepped down. That's a step toward reprobation
for sure. God gives them over to believe
whatever they want to and do whatever they want to. Whatever
their heart desires, go do it. And I'm going to tell you something.
You don't believe this gospel, you keep on with that argument.
You just keep it up. God will give you up to yourselves,
and here's what you're going to do. You're going to wander
around out here, and you're going to find your religion that suits
you. And there's a religion out there that'll suit anybody. You
like wildfires? Pentecostalism will suit you
just fine. You like self-righteousness?
It's all out there. Whatever you want. There's something
out there to suit everybody. And you'll find that, and you'll
settle down there, and He'll give you over to believe a lie.
And you'll sit in there in perfect satisfaction, and you'll listen
to that junk until you appear in judgment. This is your only
hope. Christ came into this world to
save sinners, Paul said, of whom I am chief. Is there hope for
that self-righteous man? Paul said, that's why he saved
me first. That's why he saved me first.
And now, I'm going to be a pattern. How far down will God reach?
He'll reach all the way down to the Apostle Paul. Our Lord sent out the Seventy.
And he said, He that won't receive you and won't listen to you,
it'll be more tolerable in the day of Sodom than for them people. Verse 16, Howbeit for this cause
I obtain 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. God found Saul of
Tarsus on his big white stallion persecuting God's church, causing
untold pain and injury to men and women, and consenting to
their death, and laughing at their misery, and mocking their
beliefs. I tell you, there's so much in
the scripture that's so clear about our sinnerhood it ought
to stir us look at the men standing watching our lord who was marred
beyond our imagination hanging on a cross the son of god hanging
on a cross dying for sin suffering nailed up there with big nails
and they laughed at him and they mocked him and they said here
get you a drink of vinegar Paul wasn't seeking the Lord God sought
him and he arrested him and he stopped his sinful progress and
he brought him to his knees before the Lord of Glory and that's
what happens Grace arrests the sinner He's not going to come
willingly until God makes him willing in the day of His power. Old Brother Barnard used to say,
God saves men against their will with their full consent. And
that's exactly what He does. God finds them where they are,
and He finds them how they are, and He arrests them with His
gospel and the power and presence of the Holy Ghost. And you know
what to do? Paul said, you become followers
of us and the Lord. That's what they did. All of
a sudden, that man, who's he think he is? That was their first
impression. And then God arrested them and
taught them the truth. And now that same man that they
left to scorn, now they're following him and they're listening to
him. Men worship, there's no end to
what men will worship. The Mayans worshiped Kukulkan,
the feathered serpent. I've been down and seen the ruins,
seen that, and that snake at a certain time of year, it looks
like it's moving on that stone, and that's how they gathered
their crops, and that's when they planted their crops. But
man will worship anything from man to creeping things. whatever man can imagine he'll
worship and what is the focal point of antichrist religion
today except the imaginations of deceived men and that's what
it is, it's idolatry it's idolatry, it's will worship, it's man worship
the lord said to the jews a thousand years ago he said you thought
i was all together such as one as yourself but i'm going to
show you who i am i'll show you who i am We think God is limited
in his capacity to love. So I don't believe that. Think about
it a little bit. You'll bring this one because
you think he's got some potential to be saved. But that one over
there, you're not even going to ask him. Because in your mind,
he passed. He passed saving. We like to limit God in His capacity
to love. Limited in His capacity to show
mercy and grace. Now listen to our text and I'll
wind us up. It says in verse 17, Now, having said all these things,
having experienced all these things, showing to you what the Lord's
done for me, now, he said, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. honor and glory
for what? For saving that sinner. Isn't
that what he's saying there? For saving me, the king, the
eternal. God appointed him king. He was
God in the beginning. He didn't need anything. That's
not the kingship he's talking about there. He's talking about
himself as the mediatorial king. Unto the king eternal. He was
always our king. He came before we were born.
Unto the king eternal. Immortal. He's God. Invisible. He's spirit. And he's the only
wise God in all honor in every conversion and every bit of our
salvation, all of these things, to Him be the glory forever and
ever. Amen.