Alright, back to 1 Timothy 1,
1 Timothy chapter 1. Now, the apostle Paul as most of you
know, was a notorious fellow. Before the Lord saved him, he
was a notorious fellow. His name was Saul of Tarsus. He was religious, deeply religious,
and worshipped God, he thought. Yet he hated the truth. And here in this letter to Timothy,
he is confessing. He is confessing what he was.
Verses 13 and 14, he confesses. He said, I was before a blasphemer,
a persecutor, an injurious. He was religious before, wasn't
he? He worshipped God, but not the God of the true God, not
Christ. And so he said, I was a blasphemer. Can some of you say that, who
were in religion before you heard of the true God? It's so. A blasphemer. In other words, he persecuted
and hated people that believed the truth. But he says, I obtained
mercy. Paul's salvation, his hope, was
in the mercy of God. Because I did it ignorantly and
unbelief. And he said, the grace of our God, verse 14, the grace
of our Lord, exceeding abundance. The grace of our Lord to me,
Paul says, who was before a blasphemer, persecutor, injurious, of no
good, though religious, a horrible man. The grace of our Lord exceeding,
far exceeding. God's grace, the scripture says,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Far exceeding. by sin, and abundant,
he said, exceeding abundant. Oh, God's grace from the day
I was born was wonderful. His providing, supplying grace,
and then the day He revealed Himself to me, oh, now there's
grace. It's grace. It's the gift of God. Know who
God is. Christ is. He said, an abundant
grace. And then in His grace, I'll lead
grace to the day I die, and it's going to be there. It's abundant
grace. It gives more and more and more, and that's what I need,
because we're saved by grace. And it's all with, he said, faith
and love, which is in Christ Jesus. All this grace of God is by Christ's
faithfulness. It's for Christ's sake. The grace
of God is for Christ's sake, because God made a covenant with
His Son before I was ever born, and He's true to that covenant
for Christ's sake. The grace of God is because of
His faithfulness, Christ's faithfulness, God's faithfulness. And love?
God loves me, yeah. But is it me? Is there anything
lovely about me? No, but because Christ is the
altogether lovely one. Because Christ agreed to come
down here and be a man, a lovely man, therefore, God put His love
on me and put it all in Christ. Oh, the grace of God that is
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Do you understand what that means now? Paul just told us the gospel. Oh, he said, I obtained mercy.
and grace and love. Why? For Christ's sake. There it is. There it is. Now, he said, now I was, I was the worst, he said. I was
the worst. And he said, now this is a faithful
saint. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, to save sinners, of whom I am chief. This is a faithful... How many
times have you heard that? This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptance. This deserves... You know what
it means, worthy of all acceptance? It means we're sitting up and
sitting on the edge of your seat here. He says it's a faithful saying.
Christ Jesus came. This is a faithful saying. And
faithful means a true saying. It's true. It's faithful. It's
true just like He said it. Just like He said it. Someone's
faithful and when they say something and it happens, it was a faithful
saying. What they said was faithful.
It's true. They said it would happen and it did happen. So
Paul said, this is a faithful saying. It's a true saying because
God said it. He began to say it right after
the first sinners sin, Adam and Eve, Genesis 3.15. God began to say that somebody's
coming. How do you reckon Adam and Eve
were listening to God at that time? This is after, Darnell,
this is after the Lord, where are you? What have you done?
Look at you. They pronounced something. How
do you think they were listening? Carefully. What's he going to
say next? Is he going to damn us? Is he
going to kill us? Then he pronounced Genesis 3
15. Somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming. To undo what you did. To give
back what you lost. To do for you what you cannot
do for yourself. Someone is coming. Somebody's coming. And when God
said it, it was as good as done. Because He's faithful. And it
actually happened. Christ Jesus came. Just as promised. Just as promised. Christ came.
This is a faithful saying. Christ came. And He says it's
worthy of all acceptation. As I said, when he said, worthy
of all acceptation, that's not asking, listen, he's
not asking us, would you accept Jesus? He doesn't say that anywhere
in the Bible. Men say that. False preachers say that. Won't
you accept Jesus? It doesn't say that anywhere
in the Bible. Nowhere. What this is saying is that it's
worthy, that is, when something's worthy, it deserves something,
right? Something's worthy is deserving.
Something worthy means it's of great worth. It's of great value. And what this is saying is, what
I'm about to say here deserves your undivided attention. What
I'm about to say here is of great value. It's life and death. What I'm about to say here, what
God began saying from the beginning, and what I'm saying now, Paul
said, is worth your undivided attention. Your life depends
upon it. That's what he means when he
said it's worthy of all acceptation. You better sit up and pay attention,
and you better believe this. Because your soul is hanging
in the balance. That's what he means by that.
Worthy of all acceptation. All acceptation. Because all
of sin comes short of the glory of God. And there's one way to
be accepted. So he says we better listen. Young and old. Male and female. Better listen. Something worth hearing. His
Word is this. We've already said this is God's
Word. You know, if a man stood up on a Sunday morning like this
and just said, Behold your God, and sat down, that's worth hearing. It's worth taking all the time
it took to get there to hear it. You know, that's right. Something worth hearing. The
gospel. What is the gospel? What is this
that I'm doing right now? I wish I had written it down,
but I think it was John Calvin. And I'm just paraphrasing what
he said. He said when the gospel is preached, God is speaking to men. And when God speaks, it's not
an option. It's not a thing to be, well,
I might listen, I might not. Back in old days, the king When
a king sent out an edict, or that is, a paper, a command,
do you remember how the ambassador of the king, the spokesman of
the king, do you remember how he would stand before all the
people? Huh? Now, the king, he's in that big
palace, sitting on the throne, and all the people are, most
of them, the peasants. And they all are under his rule
and his reign, and they depend upon him for everything. Everything
that happens is set forth by the king. All right, here comes
the ambassador of the king. He comes out the big palace door
and stands out among the people, and maybe stands up where everybody
can see and hear him. What does he say? Do you remember?
You've seen this. You've heard this. Hear ye! Hear ye! Thus saith the king. Everybody's quiet. What's he going to do? What's
he going to say? That's what this is. This preaching of the gospel,
this business, that's what this is all about. The king is sent
by his ambassador. And it's worthy of all acceptation. something everyone needs and
better believe, better believe. Did the ambassador ever ask the
people, won't you please, the king wants to invite everyone
into the, whoever, never. Thus saith the king, the king
commendeth everybody everywhere right now to do what? That's
what the scripture says. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. When? Right now. To believe. When? A convenient time? Right now. Well, what did he
say? What did Paul say? What does
God say? This is a faithful saying. Hear
ye, hear ye. Here it is. Worthy of all acceptation. You understand the importance
of What is about to be said here, huh? This is a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation. Do you hear that? Listen now.
Listen. Listen. Christ Jesus came into this world. Christ Jesus came, came into
this world. Who? Then I'll tell you who John said
was. If you want to turn, you can. I'll be reading from 1 John,
chapter 1. Well, no, let's look at 1 John,
the Gospel of John, chapter 1. Let's hear from John, the apostle,
who was there when he came. John, the apostle who was there
when this one took him and a couple of friends up on a mountain, and they beheld his glory. John, who leaned on him. John, who heard his word. John. Look at John chapter 1, verses
1 through 3. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. The Word was God. Same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. Who came? God came. Unto us a child is
born. Son is given. The government
shall be upon His shoulders. His name? Why, His name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God. Everlasting Father,
hear ye, hear ye, God walked this planet. The God who made
us, the God in whose hands our breath is in all our ways, walked
this planet. John said in verse 14, the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. We saw him. God said we saw him. We beheld
his glory. Over in 1 John, he says this,
life was manifest. 1 John chapter 1. That's all
John can talk about in it. That which was from the beginning,
which we heard and seen with our eyes, which we looked upon,
our hands have handled, the word of life, life was manifested. Life, the one in whom we live
and move and have our being. The God who made us. The potter
in whose hands this vessel of clay is. Verse 3, he said, We
have seen and heard and declare him unto you. Over in chapter 5, John says
this, and if I do nothing more than read scripture, John said, These things have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know you have eternal life, that you may believe on
the name of the Son of God, because, verse 20, we know that the Son
of God is come. He's come, and given us an understanding.
We know Him that is true, and we're in Him that is true. Even
in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. This is a faithful saying. God
came. Christ Jesus, He's called, isn't
it? Christ means Messiah. Most people
just use that word to curse with. Oh, for Christ's sake. I told you about that man one
time that he worked in a body shop. Automobile
body shop. And there were some men that
kept taking the Lord's name in vain. This man's a believer. I know him well. Finally, he
could take no more. And he went over to that group
of men and said, with boldness and fear, if you men stay out
of hell, it will be by that name you're calling right now. Christ. What does that mean?
Christ. It means Messiah. It means the
only one that can get you out of the mess you're in. The only
one that can do anything about what you need done something
about. The Christ. The Messiah. The only one. The only one who can save us.
That's what Messiah means. The only one who can get us out
of here. Jesus. Christ Jesus came. A man, yes. Why? Paul said, we see Jesus. In the
Hebrews, he said, we see Jesus, yeah, made a little lower than
the angel. Why? For the suffering of death. He
became a man. His name was Jesus. I'm thankful
that God became a man. But he did so that he might be
a substitute. That he might be a scapegoat.
A lamb slain. A substitute. A man as a substitute. He came. Yes, a man walked this
planet. Thank God. You know, he's not
coming back again as Jesus. And nor is he to be called that
anymore. Christ Jesus, the Lord, has come into this world, Paul
said. He's come into this world. What did he come to do? Look
at it again, this is a faithful saying, verse 15, worthy of all
acceptation, worth paying attention to. Christ, God, Messiah, came,
became a man, came into this world, made of the seed of David,
according to the scripture. What did he come to do? Why is
he here? Why did God come to this planet?
To try to straighten this planet out. To set up a kingdom in this planet. To undo all the injustices that
are being done by men. To right wrongs. What did he
come to do? Save sinners. Now, if there's
any sinners in here, I'm sure you're on the edge of
your seat now. Christ is a faithful saint, it's
worth hearing now. Paul said, Christ came to save,
not try to save. When they announced his birth,
the angels, what'd they say? Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save. He doesn't say you'll try to
save if men will let him, does he? Does he say that anywhere?
No, sir. He won't try to save, he will
save. He didn't come to show men the
way, he came to be the way. He didn't come to convince men,
but to conquer. He didn't come to set up an earthly
kingdom, but to manifest himself as the king already with a kingdom. He didn't come to help us out,
He came to get us in. He didn't come to help us out,
He came to do it all. He didn't come to give us a crutch,
He came to carry us. He didn't come to be an example,
He came to be a substitute. He didn't come to teach us how
to live righteously, He came to be our righteousness. came to save. The Son of Man
has come to seek and save. In fact, this is a wonderfully
glorious and faithfully true saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
especially by sinners, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Sinners. Now, let's talk a minute
about sinners. I've been twenty minutes. What's a sinner? Did anyone ever
see that? Did you see a couple of years
ago that survey they did in the Roanoke
Times about sin? Anybody see that besides me? It's unbelievable. Men were asked, what is sin? What do you think sin is? And
finally, people wrote in, oh, you can imagine what all they
said. They said they were calling everything
sin, everybody sinners, but what they were doing. Sinners. Sin, sin. What is it? Well, every transgression
of the law is sin. Paul spends Romans 1 and 2 telling us how that all are sinners,
that all have sinned, come short of the glory of God, whether
we are homosexuals or sitting in a church pew. Sinners. How did Christ save sinners? I've already told you He came
to be a righteousness. He came to live a perfect life
as a man. Not to show us how to do it. Although He did. You know, He
did. But that's not why He came. Mary, that's not just to be an
example. No. But to be our righteousness. He did that for you and for me,
if you're one of His, to give you that perfect life that He
lived. And God looks on you, and now
all He sees is a holy person. Why? It's not you, it's not any
righteousness you've done, but the righteousness of Christ imputed
to you. You understand that, don't you?
Isn't that a good thing? Isn't that a wonderful thing?
Isn't that the good news? But no, wait a minute now. We're
sinners. You and I are sinners, Mary. God is too holy just to
forget our sins. And so Christ was made sin. God
put on Him the iniquity of all His people's sins. And God put
His Son on a cross and brutally murdered His Son. You know how
the lamb of old had his throat cut? and they skinned him is a brutal
sight. That's what God did to his son.
Why? That's what God thinks about
sin. That's what God thinks about
sin. That's what it took. Now, this is a good saying. This
is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. Christ came
and he did that. Sinners. Sinners. Sinners being not good
people. No good people. If you're a no
good person. And not good people. But no good
people. If you'll sit up now and pay
attention, you're going to hear some good news. Not moral people. Immoral. You know, I wish, how I wish
that, I'd love to see a known, notorious
sinner come in this place. I really would. I mean, a known
prostitute perhaps, or a known homosexual or whatever. I'd love
to see that. I'd love for them. to hear the
gospel. But I'd love for them to see
people, God's people, that aren't religious. I think you know what I'm saying.
I would like to tell the world, as we've said so many times,
we take all rejects No good people allowed. Sinners
only. Yeah, but I've been married five
times. Wonderful. Boy, it sounds good for you. I know another woman that was
married five times. Lord have mercy on her. I know some that
had never been married before. They're in hell right now. I'd
love to be able to tell a notorious sinner. We're talking about sinners
now, bona fide sinners. A preacher friend of mine, listen
to this, a preacher friend of mine has a couple of brothers.
One of them is a deacon in a Southern Baptist church. And his other brother is a heroin
addict. I've met them both. That heroin addict, I wanted
to weep while I was talking to him. I wanted to throw my arms around
him and say, man, you're just the kind that we're looking for.
I hold out hope for that brother who's a heroin addict that I
do my own brother who's a professor in the university. I hold out
more hope. Not many wise men at this place,
but buddy, that's the kind God saves. But do you know, this preacher
brother of ours says that he won't admit it, that he's a sinner.
How bad can you get? How low can you get? How bad
could you get as far as men go? Heroin addict. Boy, he's younger
than this preacher, but you'd think he's ten years older. How bad can you get at it? But
if you ask him, the brother says, if you ask him, he'll justify
himself. If he'd just come clean. I don't mean clean up his act.
I mean, come as a heroin addict. Come in. Chief of Center, you've
been hearing that woman, that ungodly woman that's on before
us on the radio. Well, what would happen if a
sinner come in? All you do is liquor on your
back time. Look at what Paul said here.
He came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Did he say that I was? Now, he
did say that, didn't he? He did. I was before. But now
he's saying, what is he saying now? I am the chief. If you ask our believers what
is sin, or describe a sinner, or name a sinner, tell us who
a sinner is. Every believer, if you'd ask
them, across the board they'd say, me. You remember my wife telling
that story of She used to care for Lynn Nybert's grandmother
when she was bedfast. And, uh, I mean, he was trying
to tell her the gospel, you know, how Christ came to save sinners. Well, that old woman would have
never sinned. She'd never sinned a day in her life. And there
she was laying in bed, too old and too bedfast to do any sinning
now. And Mindy was saying under her,
oh, I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner. And that poor old woman said,
well, honey, can't you change your ways? I guess she thought Mindy was
living a secret life or something, out running the streets at night.
She didn't understand. She just didn't understand. Was
Paul a notorious sinner now when he wrote this? Was he still a
blasphemer? But now, now that God has revealed
himself to him, now that the law has been clearly shown to
him how it demands holiness in heart, he said, oh, when I heard that,
it killed me. The law demands perfection in motive and thoughts. Paul said in Romans 3, he said,
when I heard that in Romans 7, he said, it killed me and knocked
all my religious hope out from under me. Good. Then he heard Christ. You see, when God, a believer,
A believer comes to understand that God is holy and why God
did to His Son what He did. And a believer says, I am a sinner
right now. Right now. We see sin in all that we are
and all that we do. People, there is enough sin in
this sermon right now to afford me the hottest place in hell.
That's right. There's enough of me in it. I am the chief. That doesn't
mean Paul was leading the secret life. Not at all. I am the chief. But he knows who God is now and
what he is before God. And then Paul says this. Now
look, I'm going to close with verse 16. He says, How be it?
How be it? How be it? Here's another faithful
saying. I obtain mercy. Mercy is for
the worst. You couldn't title this mercy
for the worst. You know, that's who gets mercy.
If a man wants mercy, then the thing to do to plead is, it's
mercy for the worst. What if I went to death row and
said, now I'm going to pardon the worst fellow in here? They'd all be confessing all
sorts of things. Oh, that's not bad. I'm bad. Hopefully. Mercy is for the worst. It's the worst. Well, he said,
now I'm a pattern of how God, look at this, verse 16, in me
first, first, I'm a pattern. Jesus Christ might show forth
all long-suffering. How long did God put up with
Saul of Tarsus? A long time. Long-suffering of
the Lord is salvation. The fact that the Lord put up
with him all as long as he did meant he was going to save him.
How long did he put up with you? Henry, how long did God put up
with you? How many years, you old blasphemer? How long? A long time. That means he's
going to save them. Read on. "...that he might show
forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting." A pattern. Paul says, I'm a pattern. You know, there's two good patterns,
two chief examples in the Scripture of who God saves. Two. Two of
the best examples in Scripture of who God saves. And this is
great. This is wonderful. He saved a
thief on that cross. I'm talking about a murderer. This man killed somebody. Many, perhaps. Stole from them. Maybe went into the house of
poor people and stole what little they had and killed them off.
A thief and a murderer. What a notorious barber. What
a despicable fellow. Would you save such a fellow
as that? Isn't that the most vile person? Christ did. How did he do it? Justified him
freely. He justified him freely. He said,
today you'll be with me in paradise. Oh, that's a pattern. Isn't that
wonderful? How bad are you? Can't get as
bad as that fellow. What have you done? Where have
you been? What gutter have you laid in? Nothing compared to that
fellow. Well, there's a pattern. Right
now, here on the other hand, here's this religious fella, sickeningly. If you'd asked him, he'd say,
Liquors never touch my lips. I don't even eat in restaurants
where they serve it. I've never missed a Sabbath day in my life. I'm a saint and they're sinners. What a despicable fellow, huh?
Let me ask you, in the judgment, which fellow? Suppose God hadn't
saved either one of them. Which fellow is going to get
the worst treatment? Our Lord said, the self-righteous
Pharisee. How many more? Which type does
God save the most of? Scriptures are full of publicans
and harlots and chief of sinners, but there's one Nicodemus and
one Solitarius. Our Lord said the publicans and
harlots will enter in before you do. He said it will be more
tolerable in the judgment for Sodom than for you. And everybody in here is in one
of those two groups. Maybe some both. Maybe some are
both. Paul says, I'm a pattern. I'm a pattern. How God saves
the worst. How God saves the unseeking.
Paul wasn't seeking the Lord. He didn't even know him. Stanley
didn't even know him. He wasn't calling on Jesus. He's
killing people who were. That's who God saves. Were you,
Stanley? Come on. You weren't. You didn't.
You weren't interested. Were you? I wasn't. That's how
God saves. Every single person God saves,
they weren't looking for him. Polly, were you? Just go to church. Church? Did you ever get that reaction
from Polly Debra? Would you come? What? Now, Polly, it's on the other
foot. You might ask something. Would you? What? Are you kidding?
I'm not seeking the Lord. Salvation is when he seeks them.
That's when salvation is going to occur. How God seeks them.
I am found of them that sought me not, Isaiah said. How that
God saves one on one, too. This is the way that God saves.
He saves one on one. It's between Saul and God. And how God saves by blood and
righteousness. Paul found out, didn't he? All
the life I live, that moral life. Cow manure. That's what he concluded. Child,
that's what he concluded about all his religion and all his
works. Horse manure. That's about what it means. I
want to have his righteousness. That's what Paul concluded. I
want to have his righteousness. And how that God is saved by
grace through faith. Now Paul believes. Now Paul believes. He believes what he once hated.
This is a pattern. If you were in the camp of Saul
of Tarsus, you hated this message of Christ. If you were in the camp of Saul
of Tarsus, when you first heard how that God saves whom he will, chooses whom he
will, that their works don't amount,
you heard this, you thought, I don't like that. Huh? I don't like that. I don't believe
that. Now what do you say? Let me ask one of you Saul, or
Saul, Sauline's. Now what do you say about that?
You say, now unto the king, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,
be praise and honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. For the
gospel of his salvation. I believe every word of it and
hate every other thing. Now Barbara Paul is out preaching
the gospel that he once hated. Believing, he's ready to die.
Paul is a pattern of a believer in life. Yes, Paul wasn't an
actual, you know, out-and-out notorious man anymore, no. But
he's a pattern in life and he's a pattern in death, too. Pattern
in death. He said, I have a desire to depart
and be with the Lord. It was far better. Nevertheless,
stay here, for to live is Christ. To live is Christ. To live is
Christ. To die is gain, and to live is
Christ. To live is Christ. And so, and he died in faith. Sinner. It's a faithful saying. Worthy of all acceptation. Christ
came to save sinners. The worst. Are you a chief? All right, let's sing a closing
hymn. Number 474. There's only one
song we can sing. 474, Ole Miss Center. Let's stand
as we sing it. 474. I hope you sing this from
the heart.