Alright, if you would be turning to 1
Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. Now maybe after we read a portion in this first letter of Paul
to Timothy, and see some things that the
Apostle speaks of to his dear friend and fellow preacher by
the name of Timothy, a much younger man than Saul or Paul, But in
this first chapter, we have the epitome of what we have just
sung. Now before we begin to read,
and one other thing I've got to do, there's a certain subject that
is brought up in this chapter that I've got to just pause a
minute before I finish my reading. and take care of that and then
come back to the reading, or I might do it at the end of the
reading. I can't figure out which is the best, but maybe neither
one. Let us beg the Lord to meet us
in His Word. You know this. I know you have
to know it. If the only voice you hear is the voice of a preacher,
it ain't going to do you any good. God has to speak with the voice
that wakes the dead and make Thy people hear. Let us pray. Lord, thank You that You have
enabled us and caused us to be found in this place this morning. Very much out of the way place. very small in the eyes of today's
religion. But Lord, it's not who we are,
it's not how many we are, it's who you are and whether you see
fit to presence yourself among us. Our blessed Savior uses language
like this, and we would remind you of that, for this is our
only hope. The words that I speak unto you,
Christ said, they are spirit and they are life. And dead sinners
need life. Dead sinners can't take the first
step. They can't make a decision. Dead
sinners are exactly that, dead in trespasses and sins. Lord,
if you do not speak, we expect nothing to come of
this hour. But, O Lord, we would that you would be pleased to work in our midst We aren't anybody special. We're
not unusual. We're just common, run-of-the-mill
sinners. But Lord, sinners need mercy
and grace and forgiveness and righteousness and strength. And You've put all of these things
in the hands of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for an outpouring of Your mercy and grace to us. Help us. Help us, O Lord, for Christ's
sake. Amen. I tell you what, let's read it
all the way through. No, not the whole Bible now,
just this chapter. And then I'll come back to that.
I just can't let that go by It's not got a great deal to do with
what we're dealing with this morning. Alright, verse 1, 1
Timothy chapter 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment
of God our Savior. Now who is that? None other than
the Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke these words to Saul of Parsis
on the road to Damascus. It was the only time after our
Lord had lived in this world for thirty-three years and ascended
back to glory. This is the only conversion that
has ever taken place since our Lord returned to glory, who came
to earth and met this man on the Damascus road in an immediate
sense. Paul understood clearly that
he was talking to the Son of God, and he is arrested by that. on that mission to get down to
Damascus so he can put more Christians in prison and see about stoning
a few more like he had just done Stephen in Acts chapter 7 just
prior to that time. Our Lord Jesus Christ who is
our hope, you notice which which is italicized, it could read
just Christ Jesus, our hope. For he indeed is all of our hope. We have no other hope besides.
Unto Timothy my own son in the faith, grace, mercy and peace
from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. As I besought
you to abide still at Ephesus, to stay at Ephesus, when I went
into Macedonia, that you might charge some that they teach no
other doctrine." No other than what? The Baptist doctrine? The
Methodist doctrine? What is it? It is the doctrine
of Christ. The doctrine of Christ. Baptist religion in our day is
as rotten as any of the rest. And it's a miracle that it's
not still here. Neither give heed to fables and
endless genealogies which minister or produce questions rather than
godly edifying which is, in faith, so do. Now, the end of the commandment
is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and
of faith unfeigned or unpretended, from which some having swerved
or turned aside unto vain jangling." Religion without Christ, simply
put, is vain noise-making. That's all it is. Desiring to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, But we know that the law is good
when, if a man use it lawfully. I think I preached on that statement
once upon a time. Verse 9, knowing this, that the
law is not made for a righteous man. The problem is there's only
one righteous man who's ever lived, that's the God-man, Christ
Jesus. There aren't any more. All believers find Christ as
their righteousness. And if a man or a woman or a
young person or a child or whomever has not discovered then you're
still lost. We're as lost as a goose in a
snowstorm, as they say. The law is not made for a righteous
man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly
and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers
and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God which was committed unto my trust. And
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. who has enabled me, for that
he counted me faithful. Yea, he made this man faithful
as he does his children everywhere. He counted me faithful, putting
me into the ministry." Now, what's this statement? Who
was before a blasphemer. a hater of God,
though professing himself to love God. The problem with modern day decisionism,
getting people to walk an aisle, getting them in an emotional
state so that they'll do what the jackass that's standing in
the pulpit tells them to do, this is ridiculous. It is utterly Ridiculous. Before there can be an after,
there has to be a before. If we've never been lost, we
have absolutely never been saved. Do you understand? I know everybody and his brother
believes that God saves good people, but that's a lie. He
saves bad people. How many people Saul of Tarsus
oversaw the stoning of, there's no telling. How many he put in
prison, both men and women, there's no telling. But I'm here to tell
you that that sin is nothing compared to the sin of unbelief. But Paul says about this being
a blasphemer and a persecutor and an injurious person, but
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. This is a faithful saying, a
true saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save good
people. No, sir. He came into the world
to save sinners. And that ain't the half of it.
He saves the chief of sinners. That's the only kind of sinner
there is that's converted, is one who thinks himself the chief
of sinners. Who knows beyond a shadow of
a doubt and doesn't need a preacher to tell him that there is nothing
in our flesh that attracts God to us. We're utterly, utterly God-haters. before becoming, by the grace
of God, God-lovers. Religion asks for no more in
our day than just turn over a new leaf. We'll take you. This is a faithful saying. worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtain
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern, a sample, an outline, to them which should hereafter
believe on him the life everlasting. God purposely allowed this man,
Saul of Tarsus, to get as bad as bad could possibly be, so
that when he saves him, oh my soul, this man without question,
except for the Lord Jesus himself, is the greatest preacher who
has ever lived. I don't care if you want to talk about Spurgeon
or anybody else. There have been some wonderful
preachers through the ages, but that ain't where it is. It is
this God-man Christ Jesus. Verse 17, Now unto the King,
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, the honor
and glory forever and ever. Amen. Go back and take care of what
I passed over, all right? And then we'll come back to verse
15. Now, if you want to turn, that's fine. If you don't, it
won't hurt my feelings a bit. The first place I'd like for
you to turn is Romans chapter 3. Romans 3. What is the lawful use of the
law? How does a person view the law
to have a right view of it, one that honors God and exalts Christ? I'm trying to find it in John
and it's in Romans. Oh my goodness. There it is right where it's
supposed to be on the page. Romans 3, 19 and 20. Now we know that what things
soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law. Who's under the law? Everybody
is until we are under grace in Christ. That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. Yet people speak of earning a
righteousness by keeping the law of God. They did in the Bible,
and they still do now. By the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. And in this same book, in chapter
10 and verse 4, it says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. And if you turn a little bit
further to your right, after leaving Romans now and going
past the Corinthians, we come to the book of Galatians, and
there are just two statements in there this morning. There
are more in there, but there are two that I want to read,
just to give you a sense of the believer's view of God's holy
and just law. in Galatians chapter 3, verses
24 and 25. Galatians 3, 24 and 25. But before
faith came, we were kept under the law. Shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster."
Now, this is not a principal and not a teacher. It is one
who enforces attendance. A truant officer, I think, is
what they used to be called. I have no idea. I don't know
if there is such a critter anymore, but there was when we were kids. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under the faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore, the law, notice the
tense of this verb, was our schoolmaster, leaving out the italicized words,
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Twenty-five. Galatians 3. But after that faith has come,
what then? What then? We're no longer under
a schoolmaster. We're no longer under the law. Now, if that bothers you, it'll
just have to bother you, because I ain't revising it. God helping
me. All right, we come back to 1
Timothy 1.15, a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and Paul says,
of whom I am chief. But thankfully in this regard,
there is plenty of room for chiefs of sinners. A sinner, the songwriter put
it, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. A sinner is a miracle. You and I could live to be as
old as Methuselah and never confess ourselves to be, honest to goodness,
full-blooded sinners. People who would say about themselves,
even now, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. This old part
of me, this old man, He's as rotten as rotten can be, but
I'm stuck with him until the grave. But in this new man, I'm
perfectly righteous and holy in God's sight, and it can't
ever change. It's unchangeable. It's immutable.
It cannot be changed. Once upon a time, I had an interest
in reading headstones in a cemetery. And do you know you can't find
the dead, even among the dead? Honest to goodness. And back in 1984, I had a lapse
of judgment. I think my brain just quit. At that time, this place was
pretty divided just about half and half, and I thought I'd just
try to show a gesture of niceness and I said, hey, instead of me
picking the homecoming preacher, you guys do it. Oh my, that was
a bad choice. Anyway, this guy standing right
here in this pulpit, this would have been in about 84, fall of 84. He's talking about
preaching a funeral. And the man had no virtues of
any kind that he could find anybody that would tell him. And then
he said, it came to me. This man had served this country
in the military, so he preached at his funeral the gospel of
the flag, declaring with others who believe such trash, including
President Reagan, by the way, that any person who dies for
their country automatically goes to heaven. Well, does that mean
that's true in Syria, too? If so, there's a lot of souls
going to heaven. While we're on this business
of death and being dead spiritually,
Betty and I were in England in 2003 and have no desire to go
back, but just one time. Anyway, our friend, Brother Bignall,
took us to some very interesting places, Cambridge University
being one, a bunch of the American cemeteries. You can't believe
how many markers there are in just row after row after row
of white markers, white crosses. marking the graves of those people
that died, for the most part, in the ocean and the channel. But he took me to Everton, which
is a tiny little farming village. A man by the name of John Berridge,
priest in that church. The church was built in the 1100s.
He was born in 1716 or something like that. And he was not in
Everton. He went there in 1755, if I remember
right. And he doesn't know it, but he's
still a lost man. I mean, he's one of the brightest
students ever to go through Cambridge at that time. But God got hold
of this man and turned him upside down. which is exactly what he
did to me in more ways than one. So Mr. Berridge was very much
a part of what is called the 18th century revival in England. He was preaching as an Anglican. And when we drove up in Everton,
it's obvious where the church is. It's made out of huge stones. I don't mean cinder blocks. I
mean stones. And it's still being used today.
And the man that was mowing the yard in the cemetery, I wanted
to see John Berridge's grave. That's what I wanted to see.
And this man was third generation in that church. And I already
knew this because I got a hold of a short biography of Berridge
And his tombstone, it's almost like a mausoleum, but it's just
one grave. It's four feet high, three feet
wide, and about six, or a little better, long. And on one side
is a solid slab of marble. And we didn't know where to go
look for it, so we asked this guy, he was getting on his bicycle,
you know, he's been mowing, he's going to leave. He said, I don't
believe I ever remember seeing that. And so we said, well, if
it's all right, we'd like to look around. He said, yeah, the
pastor should be back in a little bit. And you could spot it, I
mean, all the way across the graveyard. And there's an inscription
on the side of that, whatever it's called, Mr. Berridge left
these instructions specifically. Here lay the earthen remains
of John Berridge, late vicar of Everton and an itinerant servant
of Jesus Christ who loved his Master and his words, his work,
and after running on his errands many years, was called up to
wait on him above. Reader, are you born again? No salvation without new birth.
I was born in sin, February 1716. Remained ignorant of my fallen
state until 1730. Lived proudly on faith and works
for salvation until 1754. Admitted to Everton vicarage in 1755. Fled to Christ alone
for refuge in 1756. And you imagine, what a turmoil. Well, some of you that have been
here a long time can certainly understand this. I mean, it was
awful and it was wonderful at the same time. Fell asleep in
Christ, January 22, 1793. Well, for what it's worth, there
it is. Now we come to verse 15. 1 Timothy
1 verse 15. Here is my first question about
that statement. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. And the first one is this. For whom is salvation intended? You know that covenant arrangements
were made between the triune God in old eternity before there
was even any earth, before there was a creation, before there
was even a man. So that in this triune God coming
together in covenant engagements with each other, whom did God
purpose to save? The Bible tells us that he gave
to Christ all of the persons whom he had elected from the
human race from the first generation until the last one, and nobody
knows when that is. And it's all kinds and types
of sinners. But they're all sinners. Sinners without any other qualifications. It is to save sinners who are
under the curse, the curse of sin received from our forefather
Adam. What salvation is intended, listen
carefully, to sinners without strength. I mean so weak that we cannot
lift a finger to help them. Now, if you don't like how I
word it, try this one on because I'm reading it straight out of
the book. I mean, I got it wrote down, but I just copied it verbatim. To save sinners without strength. Romans 5, 6 says, for when we
were yet or still sinners. When we were yet without strength. Without strength. Any strength.
Christ died for whom? For the ungodly. I remember the first Sunday after
coming to this church in November of 1981, this would have been
some two or three years later maybe, or maybe a little longer,
I'm not sure. But a particular fellow that
sat right in front of where you are, Curtis, and his And he was
here about every Sunday morning, his wife and some of his children.
But he'd always go to sleep before I could get his attention. So I purposed that Sunday that
I was going to say something to wake him up. And sure enough,
I did. When I said Christ didn't die
for good people, He didn't die for religious people, He died
for sinners! The chief of sinners. And then
I quoted, or read, I was probably, I think I took my reading and
everything out of Romans 5, and I just, for when we were yet
without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. And if you can't
wear the title ungodly, you can't have Christ. But if you're His, and that means
He's yours, My, this is a trophy, an absolute
trophy. In myself I am ungodly. In my flesh dwells no good thing. I don't care who your mama and
daddy are. I don't care how many preachers in your heritage. It doesn't matter where you've
lived. It doesn't matter how much you know. It doesn't matter
what schools you've been to, or seminaries, or anything else. That was a slip of the tongue.
What are you talking about? Gosh. Y'all can be so mean sometimes. Number two, I've got to hurry
now, I don't want to have all morning. The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to this world because
things had gotten out of hand and God was losing control of
things. I mean, whoever advocates that
has a peanut God. He can't do anything unless you
do it for him. He can't do anything unless you
let him. And that is utter stupidity. And if I offend you, I'm glad.
I am. I gladly do it to bring you to
the point of seeing that the God of this book is truly God
in three person. He did not come to help us save
ourselves. You do your part and then I'll
do the rest. Or He did not come to save us
in part that He might finish what, you know, we probably could
save ourselves about 90% don't you reckon? And then He could
just pick up the 10%. No. This Bible says that to the Lord
Jesus Christ, to the triune holy God, belongs all power, all strength,
all wisdom, all worship, all praise, all holiness, and on
and on and on. And to talk about God needing
me? Oh my goodness. You don't know me, but He does. One more turn, I think I can
do that. Yeah, I think I can. Philippians,
back to the left just a little ways, right past Colossians and
before Ephesians. Philippians chapter 3. In verse 6 of Philippians 3,
Paul is speaking of himself as a Pharisee, as he once was, concerning
zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. Oh, but he was mistaken, my friends. 180 degrees off. Paul was a greater sinner than
anybody he knew, but he didn't know it. He thought himself right
and righteous and earning even more wonderful rewards from God
for his business in trying to stamp out the mention of the
Lord Jesus Christ from the face of this earth. Alright, the other
scripture. is also in Philippians 3, where we are the circumcision. He had just talked about concision
or cutting in verse 2. And in verse 3 of Philippians
3, for we are the circumcision, we are the truly spiritually
circumcised of heart. Who are they? Here are three
identifying marks. Number one, we worship God in
spirit. Yes, in the Holy Spirit, but
yes, that worship must be a spiritual worship. Fleshly worship doesn't even
get past the ceiling. The only people who can worship
God are born-again people, regenerated. Second thing in that verse 3,
and rejoice in Christ Jesus. You know what most churches rejoice
in? Whatever it takes to get people to feel good about themselves.
Honestly, they use psychology more than
a psychiatrist. Honestly, they manipulate people. I used to be one of them, I know. Thirdly, in that same verse, and have no confidence, no confidence
in the flesh. Let me read you some statements
that are part stanzas found in hymns. I do this to come at us from
as many angles as I can find to communicate what it is I'm
trying to communicate. Joseph Hart wrote this hymn. It's a stanza in one of his hymns.
O beware of faith ill-grounded, tis but fancied faith at most. To be healed and not be wounded
is to be saved before you are lost. Lost sinners. Christ came to save lost sinners. And you and I can never make
ourselves that. He must himself produce it inside
of ourselves. James Proctor, 1858, wrote these
words. What must I do to be saved is
the name of that song. Till to Jesus Christ you cling,
by a simple faith, doing is a deadly thing, Doing ends in death. Doing ends in death. We've printed,
I can't remember how many tracks, do or done, and that's the whole
ball of wax. If your religion is D.O., then
it stinks to high heaven, came straight out of hell, and makes
you a proud Pharisee, and there's just too many of them already.
And the other one is D.O.N.E., done. That's the true religion
of Christ and of God. Then in another hymn that has
been butchered by songbook editors in our lifetime, for sure, the
first time I found it was in the 1935 edition of the Broadman
Hymnal. And it's another Joseph Hart
hymn, and it says, Let not conscience make you linger, Don't let a
guilty conscience keep you from coming to the Lord Jesus, crying
for mercy to Him. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requireth
is to feel your need of Him. And so the preacher says, now
you've got to feel your need of Him. That ain't where the
songwriter, he didn't put that in there. Here's what he put. After the statement is to feel
your need of Him, this He gives you, this He gives you, tis the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit's rising beam. It's the very first evidence
that God is at work in the soul. One more statement. If I can see anything as it really
is, the cross of popular Christian religion is not the cross of
the New Testament. It is rather a bright new ornament
upon the bosom of self-assured and carnal Christianity. The
old cross slew men, the new cross entertains them. The old cross
condemned. The new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed
confidence in the flesh. But the new cross encourages
it. The only cross they want to talk
to you about is the one hanging around their neck. And that's pure idolatry. I don't
care if it's my wife or me or anybody else. It's just how it
is. All right. Bulletins. Carl, I meant to make
sure everybody had one.