The apostle Paul was arguably one
of the finest men who ever walked this earth. He was right up there with some
of the best. Paul was a fine example. to believers everywhere. He was
right up there with Abraham and Moses and David and some of the
best. Right up there with some of the best. But he wasn't always
the best. He wasn't always like that. And I don't know what you think
of me. You may esteem me highly. You
may look up to me. I certainly don't deserve that,
but you may anyway. But I haven't always been like
I look right now. And neither was Paul. He wasn't
always the best. One time he said he was the worst. He said he was the worst. He
went from worst to best. Paul went from being a blasphemer
of God to one who blesses God Almighty. He went from a man
who persecuted the church to a preacher a persecutor to a
preacher. He went from Galatians one talks
about him going from a man who once hated the gospel of God's
sovereign grace a hater of grace to a believer of a lover of the
preacher. And what made the difference. What made the difference. Where
did this big change come from in this man, huh? Look here at
1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 13. What made the difference? The
middle part of verse 13 says, Paul says, I obtained mercy. Look at verse 16, it says the
same thing, verse 16, for this cause, I obtained mercy. Mercy made the difference. Mercy
made the difference, and Jesus Christ was the one who had this
mercy, and he's the one who shows it. And Paul said here in verse
sixteen, he said, now I'm a pattern. Look at verse sixteen again with
me. For this cause I obtained 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. Paul says, I'm an example, I'm
a pattern of how God saves people and who God saves. He says, I'm
a pattern. Do you know that God only saves
one kind of people? Well, I know he has a people
from every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue under heaven, black,
white, red, yellow, rich, poor, young, old, male, female, people
from all over, different kind of human being to be really only
save one kind of person and you know what that is. Center. You don't save center. That's
the only kind of person you say and you know you're only saves
the worst. He doesn't save little centers.
He said well everybody's center ask him. Ask him. There's an old hymn that says
a holy a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Spirit had made himself.
In other words, everybody doesn't think of themselves as being
sinners. In the way that the Bible calls us sinners. I mean,
hell bound, no good, worthless. That's the only kind of sinner
the Bible knows anything about. And you see the silly little
sin survey in the paper? That's so ridiculous, absurd,
and bare dwelling on, but God only saves the worst sinners. He doesn't save nominal sinners.
He saves the worst. It's the only kind. That's what
Paul said. Look at verse 15, the last part of verse 15. He
says, Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. He said, I'm the worst, and for
this cause I obtained mercy, that in me Christ might show
forth all longsuffering for a pattern. In other words, God only saves
the worst sinners. The worst of the book. The worst
of the book. And he says them all the same
way. Says them all the same way. Oh, they have different. There's
different circumstances that lead up to them hearing the gospel
and all that and different ages and different things that go
through. But yet he says them all the same way. Same way. Through hearing the gospel of
God's mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. Same way. And you
know the worst sinners turn out to be the best man. Every time. The most Christ like. And that
goes for preachers too. I believe that the worst sinners
make the best preachers. I really do. You know who was
you know who is saying in the loudest in heaven right now if
I can use this. Is the illustration I know they're
all saying the same heart and mind, but if one person up there
would be saying in the loudest you know it would be. Mary Magdalene. You know the
Lord. Forgave her of her sins you remember
what he said. Her sins. Which are many. forgive. Many things and to whom
much is forgiven. So love much. If she were here, she'd have
sung that song a while ago louder than any body in the centers. Jesus will receive sound this
word of grace to all. She'd been singing at the loudest
center saying the loudest center. And the worst sinners turn out
to be the best of men, and that goes for preachers. The worst
sinners make the best preachers, I believe. Paul did, didn't he? Paul did. And Paul said, and
we're going to go down through here a few verses, and I won't
keep you long. Paul said there's some fellows
out there who call themselves preachers who are nothing more
than, verse 6, look at verse 6. He said, some have turned
aside unto vain jangling. That's a good name for these
fellows and some fellows out there that call themselves preachers
nothing but buying janglers. In the. Vernacular of one of
our North Carolinian brothers buying janglers. It's all they
are these big talkers. And wax real elephants are eloquent. Mr. Sounding Brass Mr. Tinkling
Cymbal what Paul said. He said in verse seven they desire
to be teachers of the law. You know there's only one way
you can pronounce that word if you're going to dwell on it. You listen to them. Listen to
these fellows. The law. That's the only way
you can say that word if you're going to be a preacher of it.
A bang jangler of it. We know that the law. Now I'm
not making fun of God's law. I'm making fun of the way these
fellows talk about it and use it. I'm making fun of them. I'm
making fun of the law of God. I do not. I love thy law, O Lord. Yes, yea, I love it. I love it. It's good, it's holy, it's just.
But these fellows desire to be teachers of the law, desiring,
if you'll notice that one word, that's the key word, verse one,
desiring to be teachers of the law. Desiring. They put themselves
in the ministry. They go to school to be preachers.
When nowhere in the scriptures does it tell a man to go to school
to be a preacher. He says in the scriptures that God Almighty
separates man from his mother's womb and puts the Holy Spirit
in and sends him, calls him, and then sends him out to preach.
You can go to school to be a preacher. You can go to school to be a
doctor. You can go to school to be a
lawyer. You can go to school to be a nurse. You can go to school to be an
architect, but you can't go to school to be a preacher. The
Holy Spirit has to give that. Holy Spirit has to open the door,
the Holy Spirit has to give the power, the Holy Spirit has to
do the teaching. Not some unregenerate, unsafe
professor who doesn't know the gospel from a hole in the ground. But they desire it, and it's
a very desirable profession, you know. Live in a manse or
a parsonage or whatever, and go about visiting people and
being called the right reverend. But they desire to be teachers
of the law, and they don't understand what they're saying. Neither
what they are not they don't understand the law. And understand
the law of our spouses and something to do with love in the commandment
in the law is love of a pure heart of a good conscience and
faith has something to do with love of the conscience and faith
true faith and pain. And they don't understand what
they believe about it really impressed. You know most of the
time and some of you have been under the sound of these law
years. These legalistic fellows who. Desire to be teachers of the
law. So we've been on the underneath that bondage. You know most of
the time these fellows are very unlovely fellows and fail. Very
unlovely very ungracious. They use the law or the Bible
as a standard by which men must reach up to it. They themselves
have reached up to it, but they wouldn't lift, not just like
the Pharisees, they wouldn't lift one finger to lift the burden
off you. They'd put more on you. Now, if you have this, if you
have that, you're not a mature believer. If you don't do this,
you don't do that. And if you live up to that, they'll
keep adding more. Well, it goes deeper than that. But if our theology, now listen
to me. If our theology and our preaching and our teaching and
our gospel and our doctrine and our religion does not make us
more lovely and make us more gracious, if grace doesn't make
you gracious, there's something wrong with the grace you're preaching
and you're believing, right? If grace doesn't make you more
gracious, if preaching of Christ doesn't make you more Christlike,
something's wrong with it. Something's wrong with it. And
then we're only vain janglers. We say we believe these things,
but yet they don't rightly make us like Christ. We're just vain
janglers. And James talked about that.
If any man seemed to be religious among you, and Bible's not his
tongue, you know, he's a big talker, and he does the most
talking, but the least walking. He's just a vain jangler. His religion is vain, James said. All right, now look at verse
eight through ten. Here's the proper use of the law. Or the
law. Okay? Verses 8 through 10. Now, we know that the law is
good. People, it's just, it's holy. That's what Paul said in Romans
7. It's good. The law is good. It's very good. If a man uses
it lawfully, he uses it the right way. Principally, we're talking
about a preacher. There's nothing wrong with the
law of God, people. There's a lot wrong with us, but there's nothing
wrong with the law of God. OK? You know, the scriptures
expose and condemn all manner of sin and iniquity. The scriptures
call sin, sin. Call it what it is. Call a spade
a spade. And the law does that. The law
reveals our sin. You remember Paul said in Romans
7, I wouldn't have known sin, except for the law, didn't I?
Hell, you wouldn't know you're a sinner, except for the law.
There's nothing wrong with the law. Sound doctrine or sound teaching
denounces all sin. Denounces all sin, whether it's
religious sin or that is self-righteousness. Or whether it's out and out open
wickedness, out in the gutter. You take the worst religious
sin, that's self-righteousness. Or the worst actual sin, homosexuality. Sin, sin. And the scriptures
condemn it all, don't they? It's not one any worse or greater
than the other. Sin, sin, the scriptures condemn
it. The law does. The law is good if a man uses
it lawfully. Now verse nine, knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man. In other words, if you're perfectly
righteous, if you're perfectly righteous and don't ever commit
sin, the law's not for you. Was the law made for Jesus Christ?
Huh? No, he's the one that made the
law. He's the one that wrote it. That law wasn't for him,
didn't apply to him. He was righteous. He was righteous. He was the giver of it, the author
of it. Uh-uh. But we're under it, and why?
We're guilty. Whatsoever the law saith, it
saith to them that are under the law. Doesn't it? Everyone, every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world become guilty. And look at verse nine
again now, in case you've ever misinterpreted it. The law is
not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly, for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers, murderers of mothers, manslayers, whoremongers, them
that defile themselves with mankind, men-stealers, kidnappers, liars,
perjured persons. If there be any other thing that
is contrary to sound doctrine, verse eleven, according to the
glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my
trust. He says even the gospel denounces
sin and proclaims and preaches the law. You know that? I want
you to turn with me to First Corinthians chapter six. First
Corinthians chapter six. Turn over there with me. Do you
know the law is preached when the gospel is preached? Now let
me shock you here, but this is true. The holiness of it. The holiness of God is preached
when the gospel is preached. You haven't preached the gospel
unless you've preached the holiness of God. How we've broken the law of God
is preached every time the gospel is preached. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. What's the glory of God? Keeping
his law to perfection. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. I wouldn't have known sin, Paul
said, unless a law came. And the law tells us God is holy,
and the Word of God tells us we've broken it, and whatsoever
things the law says, say it to them that are under the law,
their every mouth will be stopped. They'll be stopped, and all the world
will become guilty before God. Only guilty people find mercy.
Unless you first become guilty, the gospel doesn't mean a thing
to you. You know what? That's the trouble with people
in our generation. They don't need a gospel that we preach,
sovereign mercy and grace. They don't need forgiveness of
sins. They just need a higher spirit or something. They just
need a religious experience. They just need a new car. They
just need a new job. They just need their visa paid
off. I don't hear anybody talking about needing their sins forgiven,
do you? You don't know you have sin until the law is preached,
and you don't know you're guilty until you see the holiness of
it. And the law shows us our condemnation and guilt before
the before God Almighty. The gospel doesn't excuse sin.
It doesn't excuse it. It tells us where it's put away,
though. Look at 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse
9. Don't you know? Verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Who's that? People, there's
none righteous, no, not one. Know what the Scripture says?
Huh? Are you righteous? Not in yourself,
you're not. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. The Scripture
says we're all under sin, doesn't it? Don't you know that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither
fornicators That's any kind of illicit or unlawful sex, be it
married or unmarried, or filthiness, nor idolaters. You know covetousness
is idolatry? Nor adulterers, nor effeminates,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Scripture says homosexuality
is glad to sin. God won't send a man to hell
for it, or a woman. Verse ten, nor thieves. nor covetous,
nor drunkards," it gets right down to everything, "...nor revilers,
nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God." It does say present tense. Every
one of those are errs. They continually stay in there. In verse eleven, here's the good
news, though. Here comes the gospel, he said.
That's what the law says. Isn't that what the law says?
That's what the law says. Any man or sin will send a man
to hell. Any man or woman, young person. That's what the law says. Guilty.
Before every mouth stop. Didn't that stop every mouth
in here? The things we read. Couldn't you find yourself somewhere
in that? Well, here comes the good news,
though. Verse 11. And such were some of you. But
you're washed. You're washed in the blood, in
the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb. Gospel doesn't stop with
law, you see, it goes on, tell us the good news. Tell us the
good news. Such were some of you, but you're
washed, you're sanctified. You're sanctified, you've been
declared holy, set apart, chosen, changed, regenerated, called
out from death. Sanctified, you're justified.
God declared a people innocent of all their transgressions.
That's most unbelievable. I believe it, and I rejoice in
it, but that's the most unbelievable thing I've ever heard. It's too
good to be true. That's what it said in Psalm
126, doesn't it, John? It said, when we heard this,
we were like them, dream to dream. And we laughed. It said, we just
couldn't believe it. It's too good to be true. This
thing that I can't, that haunts me, that I've done in my past,
or even now, the sin, the guilt, the iniquity that haunts me,
that gives me so much problem. God said, there's sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more. Out of my sight, he says, out
of sight, out of mind, I don't remember any more. You're not
a guilty sinner before God, Terry Kinsley. You're as holy as Jesus
Christ himself. Why? Why? Because you've lived a good life
now. You made your peace with God. No, because he made peace
with God, because Christ made peace with God, because God,
because Christ lived a good life for God, right? And he charged
all that to your account. He just said, God, I'm going
to, Father, I'm going to put this on Terry Kinsley. Now, you
treat him like, you give him what I deserve, and you give
me what he deserves. That's the gospel in a sentence,
isn't it? Justified, declared innocent, just as if I had never
sinned. Just as if I'd never sinned.
That's good news. That's real good news. And it's
all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God,
by the application of the Spirit of God. In the gospel, the good
news of the gospel, turn back to the text. The good news of
the gospel says that even though you're the worst, even though you're the worst, God will have mercy on you and
show grace to you. through the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you've got to be the worst. You have to be the worst. I don't
mean you have to go out now and commit actual sin, but you have
to feel. All the need he requires, Scripture
says, is to feel, or the psalm says, is to feel your need of
him. You know, you just have to know
yourself to be a sinner and feel your need of a sovereign You
know I remember old Joe brother Joe Terrell a preacher said that
he said you know I mean not very good at that. He said I haven't
even learned how to be a good center. So you know what I'm
talking about what he was talking about. You understand what you
say in there. I learned to be a good center.
In other words I haven't repented as badly. I don't know how bad
of a center I am. I don't feel in my need of Christ
in that. I don't feel my sinfulness as
I should. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ by the Holy Spirit Paul says in our text here in first
Timothy verse twelve Paul says. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord
who enabled me and counted me among the faithful. Among the
faithful and put me into the ministry. You don't surely think that Paul
is saying there in verse twelve that God saw that I was faithful,
so he made me a preacher. You're not that ignorant, are
you? No, I don't think anybody in here is, really. He says,
God enabled me. He counted me faithful. Now,
Paul wasn't being a faithful preacher of the gospel when the
Lord stopped him on his road to Damascus. He was having people
killed for believing the gospel. He was rounding up preachers
of the gospel, having them killed and put in prison and so forth.
men women and children. He wasn't faithful enough, but
the Lord was faithful. He was faithful to Paul, wasn't
he? Great is thy faithfulness, the psalm said. And what they're
saying there is, God counted me among the faithful, chose
me by his grace, called me by his gospel, and put me in the
ministry. See, that's what I was saying
a while ago. You don't put yourself in the ministry. A man doesn't
apply for the ministry. No profit ever applied to the
job. God puts a man in the ministry, same way that God puts a man
in his family. God chooses the people. God saves
the people. God puts them in the ministry. Verse thirteen, he says, Now
before I was a blasphemer, persecutor, injurious. He said, I was a blasphemer,
a blasphemer. You know, any man that's not
proclaiming God like I'm claiming him this morning is a blasphemer.
Anybody who's not preaching an almighty, sovereign, reigning,
ruling, immutable, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, holy
God who hates iniquity and loves only righteousness, who will
by no means clear the guilty, who sovereign over all things,
who does as he pleases, as he will among the armies of heaven
and among the heavens and the earth, and none can stay his
hand, nobody can let God or not let God do anything, that he
does as he pleases, that he had known unto God all his works
from the beginning, from the beginning. He said, I've spoken
it, I'll bring it to pass, I'll bring it to pass. Because God,
everything God ordained from the foundation of the world will
come to pass just like he ordained it back then. Nothing more, nothing
less. Anybody that's not preaching
a God like that is a blasphemer. That's what the name God means,
doesn't it? Capital G, capital O, capital
D. It means sovereign, ruler, controller, omnipotent. Everybody, the God in whose hands
our breath is and are all our ways. Men got it the other way
around, don't they? Won't you let God? He has no
hands but yours. You have no hands but God's hands. That's the difference. We're
blind, miserable, halt, and lame. We're the one. We're dead in
trespasses and sin. We have no hands but God's hand.
We'll not reach out to God unless God makes us reach out to him.
If you're not preaching to God like that, anybody who's not
preaching to God like that today is a blasphemer. Paul was preaching
some sort of God, and later on in Romans 10, he said, I was
ignorant, just like the rest of these people. Ignorant of
God, unknown God. Unknown God. And he says, I was
a persecutor. A persecutor, and everybody who
does not love grace, love the gospel of grace, bow to the gospel
of God's sovereign grace. Everybody who does not believe
it hates it and gnashes their teeth at it. It's a fact. It's a fact. Any man who does
not love election hates it bitterly, hates even the sound of the word,
and becomes a persecutor of everyone who does believe it. Anyone who
just merely dares to believe the word of God. These people,
like Paul was, though they're religious, they become persecutors
of all them that believe in him. And injurious, injurious. He was injuring not only himself,
but everybody else he came into contact with. John, I guarantee
you, he was a witness, a soul winner. He lived for that. Notches he can put on his belt,
you know. Report to the pharisaical convention, southern pharisaic
convention, how many souls he'd won that month. Guarantee it.
Paul was in the soul winning business. He was religious. But he was injuring everybody
who he expounded his false gospel to. He wasn't helping people
out. He was injuring them. He was injuring them. You see,
Paul, he said, and I was a pattern. I was a pattern to who God saved. What sort of man was Paul? Well,
I just described him to you. He was religious, wasn't he?
He was religious, but a blasphemer. He called the name of God, but
he used it wrongly, didn't he, Roberta? Called the wrong God. He was a persecutor. He said,
that way. You remember? He said, I went
about persecuting everybody who was of that way. What way? Everybody knows. That way. The
old church. Remember the old church where
you go to church Central Baptist. Oh. Everybody knows what they
believe everybody knows that way what way sovereign electing
predestinating grace of God salvation 100% by grace that way Paul said
I persecuted that way injurious opposed to the truth posing himself
ignorant you see that I did it ignorantly I obtained mercy.
Because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. I was ignorant of God's
righteousness. You know, Paul, like I said,
even though he was religious, he was a cruel man. Can you imagine having somebody
killed? Somebody killed in the name of
the love of God? piety and holiness and all is
good and right and just and true, you know, having somebody put
in prison because they believe differently than you do. Can
you imagine that? That's a hide of wickedness and
cruelty, isn't it? Huh? A murderer, and he sat by
while Stephen, Stephen, did you hear his message? Stephen, that
message he was preaching, all he did was go through the Old
Testament and talk about God's sovereignty and talk about man's
rejection of God's Son. And they gnashed their teeth,
and then they all picked up stones and stoned him. And Paul, Saul,
young Saul of Tarsus, was standing by holding their coat. Let me
have your coat. Here, y'all handling good now. You beat him into the
ground. You know, religious people are
the cause of nearly every war that's happened down through
history. Religion. Religion. And religious people
are the most cruel and hateful and vengeful and spiteful people
on earth today. That's what they hear you believe,
Brits. Right? That's what kind of man
Paul was. Religious, it means his name.
It means his name. And lost. Religious, but lost,
didn't it? But he said, what happened? What happened in Paul's life?
Huh? What changed this man? From blasphemer
to blesser, from injurious to just, from a persecutor to a
preacher, from one who absolutely despises and hates the very mention
of God's sovereign, great, electric Christ, one who hates the mention
of that name to one who Mercy. Mercy. Some of you smiled when I said
that word. Not very many of you, but some of you did. When I just
said mercy, you smiled. Why? Because I believe you obtained
mercy. You obtained mercy. And you know,
Paul, thinking back on his past life, he said in verse of fourteen
in the grace he said how I thank my God verse twelve how I thank
Jesus Christ our Lord how I thank him oh my bound to give thanks
always to God in all things why because he enabled me he's the
one that enabled me I was dead I was dead and trespassed in
sin. I lied in the gutter. Some of you literally, you look
at a man that literally laid in the gutter. Dead. Dead and trespassed in sin. No
hope without God, without help, without life, without anything.
Dead. I tell you, you're never going
to know what life is until you've been dead. Lazarus, you reckon
Lazarus was singing Christ's praises when he got out of that
tomb? You bet your bottom dollar he was. Why? Because he was dead
and now he lived. He heard that voice. And he says,
he counted me faithful, counted me among the faithful, put me
in the ministry, called me by his grace, enabled me by his
grace, saved me by his grace, taught me the gospel of grace.
Now what is he singing about? What's Paul talking about now?
Himself? He used to do that. I was Pharisee
of Pharisees, Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised. He used to talk
about himself. Now what's he talking about?
Grace. Grace. Grace. All of grace. I love Romans 4. It's one of my favorite verses
in all of Scripture. Romans 4, and it should be yours,
too. Romans 4, verse 16, says this, that it might be by grace to
the end, the promise might be sure to all to see. It's of grace. It's of grace
to the end that the promise might be sure to all to see. You know,
salvation is by grace to make sure that everybody whom God
chooses to be saved. I like that. I see how that it
must be one hundred percent, one hundred and ten percent,
Joe Grace, or I'm not going to make it. If it's the wise, I'm
not going to make it. Christ said, not many wise men
at the flesh are called. If it's the wise, I'm not going
to make it. The man with more education than
me is going to make it. Understand? No hope for mechanics,
buddy. You're going to have to have
a D.D. I come up with another name for
DD. Scripture says it. Dead dogs. Dead dog. You don't have to have a DD if
you're going to make it. If it's up to your wisdom or
power, your resolve, your firm resolve, your keeping yourself
holy and pious, you better get in the cave. You better run to
a monastery. You better do all you can. But if it is, I'm a
goner. Not by might. Not by wisdom.
Not many mighty. Not many noble who who in here
born of a great and illustrious background bloods you know all
the way down through your family have been great and noble preachers
and believers down to your life. I'd be willing to wager that
most of your relatives were criminals. This nation was founded by criminals
thieves murderers. By grace, grace, that it might
be sure to all to see. You see, grace means everybody
gets the same thing, the same way. Everybody gets saved the
same way. That's what grace means. It's
by grace that it might be sure to all to see. If it is by works,
the man who works a little harder than I is going to get in there,
and not me. No, but it's by grace that it
might be sure to all to see. I'm going to get in there, just
as sure as Abraham, just as sure as Moses, you know that? Just
as sure as David, just as sure as Joseph, just as sure as Daniel,
just as sure as Peter. You know, Paul turned around,
was it Peter or Paul, Rick, that turned around and said, they're
going to be, we're going to be saved the same way they are.
Paul turned around and said, I'm going to be saved by grace.
If he's preaching now, Joe, he'd say the same thing that I'm saying.
I'm going to make it by grace only. Only not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. By your mercy. By your grace,
you have saved us in verse fourteen, he says in the grace of our Lord
was exceeding abundant. He had to show a lot of it. Nancy
has to keep showing more grace, doesn't he? Give us more grace,
Scripture, and more. I needed grace this morning.
I needed God's saving grace this morning when I woke up and was
thinking such wicked and filthy and hell-deserving thoughts. How about you? You need the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, to cleanse you from the very sins
you're thinking right now, from the fact that you're not paying
attention to the Word I'm preaching and not rejoicing in it with
all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your
strength and not loving God as you should for doing what he
did by his grace. You need grace for that. It better be by grace
than it might be sure. You're not going to make it if
it's not by grace. You're not going to make it. Everything. And it's exceeding abundant.
He's got a lot of it. He gives more grace. Deborah,
you need more. Just as soon as you leave this
place, you're going to need more. You're going to need more. More grace.
Everything we are, everything we have, everything we can do,
everything we will be, will have, will do is owing to the grace
of God Almighty. 100% great. Paul said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. By the grace of God, you are
where you are right now. By the grace of God, you're sitting
here this morning hearing about grace and not about works. You
could be. You could be out there in a church
somewhere where the fellow's telling you, you're going to
have to do something for God or you're not going to make it,
right? That's a lie. It's another gospel.
I'm preaching grace to you, and it's by the grace of God you're
hearing this gospel of grace. Who maketh thee to differ? What
do you have that you have not received? 1 Corinthians 4 says,
huh? This gospel that you've received
and you believe, what make you Jew? You just decide to believe
it one day? No, it's of grace. What do you
have that you didn't receive? Now that you've Don't you dare
glory if you didn't everything is a gift. Salvation is a gift
of God's grace. Faith is a gift. Faith is not
something we decide to do. Faith is not something we grit
our teeth and just do it. Faith is not a work, it's a gift.
It's a gift given by the Holy Spirit of God. Repentance, it's
the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. Why do you
feel sorry about your sin? Why do you feel that you're a
sinner and feel sorry toward God when the man over here who's
worse than you are doesn't? It's grace. It's a gift. It's a gift. And if we ever get
to heaven, we're going to realize that we're missing grace. Grace
from that day forward. And he says in verse 14, the
grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus. Why do you love Christ? And what
John said, we love him. Yeah, we do. Why? Because he
first loved us. It's grace. Why should he love
us? Huh? You know, for a good man,
some would die. And for a righteous man, some
would dare to die. But sinners? Wretched, vile sinners. My faith
and my love to Christ was even given to me. And he has to be
the one to keep it going. It's grace in the It's all great. It's no wonder Paul said in verse
fifteen, his faithful saying, Hey, y'all, if he spoke in like
a Kentucky and like me, he'd say, Hey, y'all, now listen up
here. This is true. All right, this is true now,
this is faith, this is true, that's what faithful means, this
is faithful, it's true, and it's worth believing. It's faithful
saying, y'all, and it's worthy of all acceptation. In other
words, it's worth hearing, I got something worth hearing here. worthy of all acceptation. You
know that Christ Jesus, the Lord of glory, God in human flesh,
God came down here to save sinners? I mean wretched, harlots, prostitutes,
drunkards, vile, wretched, abusers of the self of mankind, perjurers,
liars, thieves, drunkards, self-righteous, religious, holier-than-thou,
mother Israels, He came down here to save those
wretched, vile creatures. He came down. It's worth hearing
in it. It's worth preaching. There ain't nothing else worth
preaching. This is the first thing that thrilled your soul
to begin with, and this is the last thing that's going to thrill
your soul. This is what thrilled your soul in the beginning, and
when you go to heaven, and when you stand before a thrice-holy
God, that's what's going to thrill your soul. He saved me. Grace! Grace! You know, it's the bottom
stone. Salvation's of grace. It's the
foundation of the faith. And it's the top stone we lay
to it, too. Grace. Grace unto it. Grace. Christ Jesus came in the world
to save sinners, and Paul said, this is even better news. Paul
said, I'm the worst. I'm the worst of the bums. And
that's who he saved. I'm preaching this morning to
a... Boy, I tell you, Barnard used to say, and he can say it
much better than I could, and he said, I'm not trying to get
people saved. That's the problem, you know,
that's the problem with preaching today. You're trying to get people saved.
People don't need it. You know, people don't want to
be saved. They want a sugar daddy. They
want their bills paid. They want to be happy and healthy
and wealthy and all that. Barnard, you say, I'm not trying
to get people saved. I'm trying to get people lost. Lost. Because everybody that
gets lost gets found. Everybody that becomes guilty
gets mercy. Everybody that becomes dead gets
life. That's the only kind. Everybody
that can't help themselves gets help. How about you? Everybody feels themselves worthless,
no good, wretched, without strength, without hope, gets grace. You
need grace? You don't need a lot of it. It
says it's abundant. It'll give you a lot of it. If
you need a lot, it'll give you a lot. If you need a little,
you get a little. I need a lot. I need a lot. Well, Christ Jesus
came into the world, and He says, I'm a pattern. Verse 16, let's
read on, and I'll quit. And for this cause I obtain mercy.
I obtained mercy because I was the worst sinner and God was
going to show how that he saves the worst and how he saves them
by his grace, by his mercy, that in me first Christ might show
forth all long-suffering patients. God put up with Paul the apostle
for over 40 years. He was over 40 years old when
the Lord said it to him. That's long-suffering, isn't it? I tell
you what, when I was 18 years old and running the streets of
Florida, Kentucky, whatever streets I was on, I was burning them
up. tell you, when God should have sent me to hell's barn with
my shoes on, I should have split hell wide open. But I obtained
mercy. And here I am, thirty-seven years
old, nearly twenty years later, twenty years later, I obtained
mercy. I'm a pattern. Paul says, I'm
a pattern. It's the only kind God saves. But in me first, he might show
forth all long-suffering." Has God been long-suffering with
you or just little suffering? He only saves those who have
been long-suffering with him. Those of you who God saved later
in life, say you're thirty years old, that's late. Forty, fifty,
sixty, some of you may have been in your seventies. Oh, you obtained
mercy. You see, the evil days had come. Remember now your Creator in
the days of your youth, Shannon, you young people, Jennifer. Remember
Him now. God might not be long-suffering
with you later on. Might come to a point He says,
that's it. Had it all I can handle of her. That's what He should
have done to me. Had it all I can handle of Him.
But what was it? He was long-suffering with me.
He put up with me a few more years. Why? It's of grace. He had a purpose. I was elect. I was elect. And God was going
to have me. One way. Not one way or another.
One way. He was going to have me. And
he had me. Here I am. And it might show
forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him the life everlasting. Paul just, he's bubbling over
now, verse seventeen, under the king eternal. Oh, he's immortal,
invisible. There's your song, Violet. The
only wise God. What wisdom. Do you see the wisdom
of God in this way of salvation? Beyond how he gets all the glory?
Be honor and glory forever and ever. And boy, I can sure add
a hearty amen to that. Oh man, so be it. Word amen. The word amen means so be it. It means I agree with that. You know, you could be saying
a whole lot more of that. We will allow that around here.
We may be dead Baptists like they are. Charismatic, like to
make fun of us. But you can say a whole lot more
of that around here. Amen means or amen, however you want to
say it, means so be it. It means that's true, it means
that's the way I want it, it means I believe it's that way.
And that's the way it is. And I'm telling you people, this
is faithful faith. And it's worth hearing, it's
worth believing. Christ came to save sinners, I mean bad ones. I'm chief. Your so-called, your
illustrious leader was a gutter snipe. And I'm a patterneau of
how God saves the worst. And this is worth hearing you
know you'll gutters night say what's that I don't believe you
know you've been one. God saves the worst and boy I
can say amen to that all possible move over you're not the chief. Of the possible there's another
Paul. That belongs right up there being chief and how about you
all. About you all. All right let's
sing, stand with me and let's sing. Only a sinner, what number is
that? You know? 474, and I'll bid you all adieu in
a little bit. 474. Sing a couple of verses
of that. Only a sinner saved by grace.
That's my theme song. Thoughts have I gotten, but what
I receive Grace has bestowed it since I have been Most in
excluded, pride I obey I'm only a sinner saved by grace Only
a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. Only a sinner saved by grace. Verse four says, You suffer.
Would you suffer a sinner whose heart overflows? loving his Savior
to tell what he knows. If he wants more to tell it,
would I embrace it? If I was going to preach tonight,
I'd sing one more song. Or I'd preach the same message
he preaches. Grace. There is no other. There's
no other message, is there? And Paul said to write the same
things over and over. It's not grievous. You see, I
delight in it. But you suffer an old sinner,
or all you who are sinners, you suffer it gladly. Sing the fourth verse, and we'll
quit. Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows. Love me, be safe, do me fair,
love me truly, One more day, Lord, I pray.