Good morning. It is an immense pleasure to be here. I have had
a wonderful time. Scott and Amy, thank you. Thank
you for showing me around and fellowshipping. I enjoy to see
the brethren still here. Still here. Today's message will
be out of First Timothy. Book of First Timothy. It'll
be in chapter one. Now everyone who gathers under
the banner of Christ at any time, whether it's today, is because
of one reason only. One reason only. However often
a church does meet, and there is no rule for that, the members
of that church, they worship God, and they enjoy sweet fellowship. And they are heartened every
time they meet. And the believer's sole reason
for gathering together and worshiping is because of the great and wonderful
mercy of God. That's it. It's not the pageantry, if there
even is any. It's not the speaker, whether
he's a great orator like Spurgeon was, like so many, or whether
he's a fisherman like Peter. The Bible tells us that God's
mercy is both his delight and it is manifested in Christ Jesus. God's mercy does all the work. God's mercy sought the lost child,
all of us. God's mercy brought to life that
lost child. God's mercy bathed that child's
unrighteousness away and granted righteousness. And God's mercy
broke that child's dead, stony heart and replaced it with a
living one. And God's mercy granted that
child faith to believe in his son. His son who died to save sinners,
just like that child. Now let's read in 1 Timothy chapter
one, starting in verse 12. Verse 12. This is Paul speaking. He says, and I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer,
a prosecutor, or persecutor, and an insolent man. but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of
our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are
in Christ Jesus." Now the words, but I obtained mercy, are both
my focus and the title of this message. They are Paul's confession. showing who he used to be and
who he had become by the time he was writing this. They show how God saves sinners,
even ones like Saul of Tarsus, the scourge of early Christianity. And they show us that God is
this giver of this mercy. God alone is the giver. And they
show that this mercy cannot be bought. It is entirely free. Now some people have probably
not considered, and I speak about this in somewhat human terms,
they've probably not considered how great a change occurred in
Paul. He was not just a He was a zealot. He wasn't a political one, he
was a religious one. And in my view, that is the worst
of the two. A person who believes that his purpose, his quest, is a righteous
one and is a moral one, is a virtuous one, will feel no shadow of guilt.
or shame to reach his goals, whether those goals involve committing
atrocities, inhuman acts. Paul, his purpose, he hunted
down and he took people whose only crime, crime, was that they
believed that Jesus was the Christ. That's it. If Paul were alive today, we
would all be in danger. To be hunted for a good belief
is a terrible thing, and that is a good belief. And what analogy
I'm about to tell you, I am not equating the main character's belief with
this one. But President Lincoln, he was
a man who was zealously sought, zealously sought. Between his
first election and his inauguration, he had committed himself to a
tour of the states between Illinois and Washington, D.C. He said,
I will not show fear. I will do this. And he did that
by train. And that election so struck our
nation that it caused a great divide. And before Lincoln could
even be sworn in, the South had elected its own president, and
seven states had seceded. Now, life was not safe for Lincoln,
because there were people who believed so strongly in their
cause, and that it was righteous, and that his was not, that they
went after him. They went after him with bombs,
assassins, whatever they could do, they threw it at him. And they were goaded on and encouraged
by those who agreed with them. And they were given provisions
for what they had to do. They were given intelligence
from spies to help them. And because of the threats, Lincoln
rode incognito on those trains. They were in unmarked trains. He would change them sometimes
to avoid assassination attempts. And he had detectives and agents.
They used many methods to protect him from these zealots all the
way to D.C. Now those zealots who wanted
Lincoln dead were like Paul. He hunted them down. It says
that the early church met in secret because of fear of the
Jews. See the words from his own mouth. Formally a blasphemer. Now some of his days they can't
be That Paul? We talking about the
same Paul? A blasphemer? Now maybe he spoke
or made some comments with a little too much candor, but none of
it ever rose to the level of blasphemy. How can anyone who
was taught of Gamaliel be called a blasphemer? I don't think that's right. You
can't be talking about the same Paul. He surely was. To blaspheme just
means to speak irreverently or disrespectfully of God. And you
can tell a lot about a person about the reverence in his words
when he speaks of God. Paul told the Ephesians that
he and they, and that means, of course, anyone born of Adam,
were by nature children of wrath and sons of disobedience. That's
me and that's you. But see the words from the man
basically telling you all about himself. He was a blasphemer. He disrespected God and did not
revere him. Where did Paul believe his righteousness
came from before he was converted? Well, the law. Just like the Pharisees, he was
a Pharisee. He thought everything he needed
could be found right there in the law. So why is that blasphemy? Isn't the law good? Yes, the
law is good. But it's blasphemy because pursuing
righteousness by the law is the same as saying God's mercy is
not required. I can handle it. That's what
it says. No, no, God. Save your mercy for someone else.
I got this. That's what it's saying. That great hymn by Thomas Kelly,
one of the verses reads, Those people that he's talking about
are blasphemers. They think their sin is little
instead of all-consuming. And that they need only a little
of God's righteousness. Not all, just a little. And they
just need enough to patch themselves up. It's a righteousness which
they believe they can earn. And in so doing, they scorn His
grace. And they spit on Christ's substitutionary
death. But Paul learned something after
his conversion. He learned that what he had said
before was a sin against God, not just a lie. It was a sin
against God. He no longer blasphemed, but
revered the things of God. He counted everything before
as loss. As loss. He was taught the awfulness
of his sin, He learned the meaning of those words from that same
hymn by Thomas Kelly. Here may view its nature rightly,
here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed,
see who bears the awful load. Tis the word, the Lord's anointed,
son of man and son of God. The great mercy of God, the Lord's
anointed, was shown to Paul. Paul not only stopped his blaspheming,
he stopped persecuting Christ. And by extension, of course,
his church. And back in our text, Paul states
that he was a persecutor. I'm not making these words up.
He harassed the church. He sought to destroy it wherever
he could find it, wherever the faithful were. He was like a
bounty hunter for Christians. He would get warrants from Jewish
leaders. And whoever was on that warrant,
he would go find him, he would bind him in chains, and he would
bring him to prison. That's what Paul did. And on
the road to Damascus, he was on the hunt again. He wasn't
just out for a Sunday stroll. But instead of Paul arresting
a Christian, God arrested Paul. "'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me?' said Jesus. See the quality of the man as
spoken by the man himself, the God-man. He was a persecutor. You might say, wait a minute,
we don't even have evidence that Saul and Jesus met before Christ's
crucifixion, not in person. But that's not what Jesus said.
Saul didn't persecute Jesus directly, but he persecuted his church
and he persecuted his followers. And in doing so, he was persecuting
the Lord's anointed himself. And these words are the proof
from God's own son, Saul, why are you persecuting not Peter,
not John, not Mark, me? And it was so well known what
Paul was doing in the region and what he was doing to those early Christian
churches, that when news spread of his conversion and what he
was doing afterward, Paul wrote in the book of Galatians that
I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were
in Christ. They had no idea what I looked
like. But I was infamous because they were hearing only He who
formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried
to destroy. His reputation preceded him and
that reputation was that he persecuted the church. Now have you ever
said anything that you wished you could take back? I know I have. Something you said, it was just,
you said it too harsh, or it was petty. Or, in my book even worse, it
might cause an unbeliever to feel they are justified to continue
in their unbelief. Or to say, if that's the type
of person that claims to be a Christian, I don't want to be a Christian. I get that feeling almost daily.
I feel like Moses, he didn't want to speak for God. That feeling is just, it's awful. We just wish we could take it
all back, do over. Now imagine how Paul must have
felt every day after his conversion. Every day Regret is a thing Paul knew well He had persecuted not just a
man named Jesus, but the God man God's only son the one who
was foretold by the prophets that he had studied all his life
and God Almighty incarnate, we know
Paul wished he could take it all back. Yet Paul, as bad of
a persecutor as ever lived, obtained the mercy of God. Think about
that. He says, but I obtained mercy.
Who obtained mercy? Paul, the persecutor of the very
finisher of his salvation. I, Paul, the persecutor of God's
promise. I, Paul, the persecutor and blasphemer,
became he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which
he once tried to destroy. To what did Paul owe this change?
He had obtained mercy. He didn't run through 10 steps. He didn't checklist the law. The preachers didn't call him
up to dedicate his life to Christ. He obtained mercy. Now some think God's mercy means
riches, convenience, easy life, if not the richest part. Paul
had neither. Paul had neither. He made tents
to get by as needed. He worked wherever he went if
he had to. If the church could not support
him, he worked. He spent many days in chains. That's not something
anybody would sign up for. He was run out of towns and pursued
by the same zealots that he probably used to call comrades. Yet, whether he was rich or poor,
bound or free, he wanted it known to all this one important thing. He had obtained mercy. Paul had become a man of some
renown. both before and after his conversion,
but for different reasons. After he had come to know the
Lord, he had a bit of a following. Some in the church would say,
I am of Paul, as it says, because they were carnal. Others would
say, I am of Apollos, as if there were a sub-camp within Christ's
camp. Now they say that fame changes
a person. It's a change in their pride. They become proud of what they've
done, how great they think they are. They boast about themselves. They gladly receive the adoration.
That's what fame can do to you. And Paul was a changed man, but
not because of fame, but because he had obtained mercy. He knew
what the one thing needful was. It was mercy. Paul declared these words in
our text to be the most important thing. Not apostleship. Not his genealogy. Not his previous
standing. I can't find something equal
to that in our world, but He had high standing in the Jewish
world. He didn't even boast about his
fame within the church. That wasn't important to him. The importance of mercy is never
lost on a child of God. They know the depths of their
depravity and the uselessness of trying to gain salvation through
any other means but the blood of Jesus Christ. Do people understand what sin
is? Does sin merely inconvenience others,
or is it just a bad thing? A wrong? Something you shouldn't do? Or
rather, was your sin against God? Not against others, but
against God. who with great long-suffering
held back the store of his wrath until a substitute was found
for you. And make no mistake, there's
a store for everyone's wrath. The difference in who that wrath
falls on is whether that person has obtained mercy. Paul presents himself up as a
pattern, as it says later on in this same chapter. He's an
example. Example of what? An example of
God's long-suffering toward his people. Did Paul know the depths
of his sin and who he sinned against? He surely did. So where did he rank himself
if he understood his sin? He says, I was less than the
least of all the saints. He's not just talking about the
apostles who were held in a regard somewhat. He says, of all the
saints, all the people God called, I was less than the bottom. So how did Paul obtain God's
mercy? Was there a trick? Was he so
learned that he figured it out? The flesh likes to work. It likes
to earn payment. A fleshly view of Paul's life
would provide ample reason to suggest that he attained mercy
by all his works. He had the preaching, the missionary
work, the helping of all those people, the immense writing. He wrote half the New Testament. And let's not forget all the
souls he saved. I think the phrase nowadays is
winner of souls or something like that. They just want to
win people's souls. And they'll work really hard
at it. And they'll put on that crown. They think they obtained something. There are other works and traditions
presented in the church as ways to obtain salvation, but they
all have one thing in common. They are not the Lord's Christ. There's only one mercy, one mercy
found in this book. All the rest are made up. Paul had no intention of boasting
in his works, even though, again, from a fleshly point of view,
a carnal point of view, he outranked any one of his peers. In Philippians
3, Paul says, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence
in the flesh, I more so. I more so. Circumcised the eighth
day. There's the law. Of the stock
of Israel, where the law came from. Of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of Hebrews. Kind of like a man's man, but
for Hebrews. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, there it is. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church. Concerning the righteousness
which is in the law, he says, blameless. And Paul says elsewhere, I labored
more abundantly than they all, meaning the other apostles. But
lest you think Paul is blaspheming again, look at his next words. I have suffered the loss of all
things. What are all things? All the
things he could boast about. All the things he could boast
about. All those things that would make other men and women
heap praise on them. Other things that could further
his power, his influence. That's the thing he had before that trip to Damascus. He says, I count them as rubbish. Do any of you ever go back to
your trash? No. Once the trash is out there,
you don't want it back. Why did Paul think this way? Why did he think all those things,
or count all those things as loss? He says, that I may gain
Christ and be found in Him. Because mercy is free. Mercy is free. Paul, us, we,
didn't pay for it. There's no room for the boasting.
Why? Because Christ gets all the glory. And if you try to buy mercy,
you can't have it. You can't have it. Whether you got a million dollars
or a dime, you can't have it. God will not share the glory. And he won't have it any other
way. So what does it mean to be found in Christ? It means
to obtain mercy. It is not of him that wills,
nor of him that runs, but of God who shows mercy. So don't run. Don't run for mercy. Don't exert yourself. If you want mercy, rest. Four-letter word, R-E-S-T. Rest. Rest in Christ Jesus. Don't make
a decision. I got into an argument with a
man who left a pamphlet on my door, calling on me to make a
decision. You aren't going to make it. Instead, believe. The Word says, believe on Jesus
Christ and you will be saved. Believe. And you will obtain mercy. You
will. How do I know that? Because all
that come to Jesus, begging mercy, receive it. Even if you were once a blasphemer,
a persecutor, or an insolent man. Or like Paul, you have the
trifecta, all three. God delights in mercy. He does. I delight in mercy,
not sacrifice, he said. Do you delight to receive it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you will be saved. And like Paul, you will obtain
mercy. May the Lord bless his word.
Thank you.