I'd like you to turn in your
Bibles to first Timothy chapter 1 And I do want to begin reading in
verse 12 First Timothy chapter 1 beginning
in verse 12 and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord for who hath enabled
me for that he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry. who was before a blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious. 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 and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit 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. Now unto the King, eternal, immortal,
invisible. The only wise God, be honor and
glory forever and ever. Amen. Yesterday was Independence Day. It was celebrated by people shooting
off explosives near my house and across town where I could
hear them. I happened to look at Google and the Wikipedia entry
and this was the definition I read. And part of it hit me at the
end here. It says, Independence Day of the United States, also
referred to as Fourth of July or July 4th in the U.S., is a
federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration
of Independence on July 4th, 1776, by the Continental Congress
declaring that the 13 American colonies regarded themselves
as a new nation. And it struck me that believers
are to regard themselves as members of the household of God, as the
sons and daughters of God, as heirs of God, and joint heirs
with Christ, because we are. And we are to regard ourselves
as that. Anyhow, that was just something
extra. I like that. Believers are special people. They have been blessed of God,
no matter where they are. Anyhow, this is Paul's first
letter to Timothy. And he starts off with his introduction. And he tells us his purpose in
having Timothy, why he had to write this letter was he left
Timothy in Ephesus. But he left Timothy in Ephesus
for a reason. Verse three says, as I sought
thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that
thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. This is why he left Timothy there. There evidently was a tendency
to have a problem with doctrine. And he besought Timothy that
you charge some, that's what it says, because it doesn't matter
who. It doesn't matter who. Whoever
it is they better not teach any other doctrine than that which
Paul taught Because if you're doing that
that means you're preaching another gospel, which is not another
and let him be accursed Paul was dead serious about this so
serious. He left Timothy there who he
trusted who knew the gospel and Come on how important is doctrine
really? Well doctrine is more important
than this world will ever know Sound teaching Doctrine is the
only way that we have to know the Lord Jesus Christ Is because
of his word that he left us he gave us a And he tells you to
study to show thyself approved. I said a couple weeks ago, study
what? Study the scriptures. It is important because later
on actually in Ephesians 4, the letter he wrote to the Ephesians,
verse 14, he wrote that we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive. False doctrine is what people
want to deceive you with. Now, my wife was listening to something
on the internet. I don't know whether
it was Friday or yesterday. And I mentioned it to her. The doctrine of this world, one
of the doctrines of this world, is called evolution. See, they want to say that we
were descended from animals. That's where we came from. That's
wrong and that's a lie. They teach it as a fact. It doesn't
even qualify scientifically as a theory. And if you espouse
a different opinion, a different belief, they'll laugh at you. Because they think you just don't
know anything. You one of them ignorant Bible-believing
people. No, to say that our behavior
is because we are descended from animals, the behavior of man
as he's born, that's an insult to animals. Animals don't behave
like man does. Animals don't. The problem with man is that
he's fallen. He's totally depraved. And it's only the restraining
hand of the Spirit of God that keeps us from being even worse
than we are. But that's the doctrine of this
world. It's pervasive. It's everywhere. Anyhow, We, as believers, are to steadfastly
continue in the apostles' doctrine. That's what it said they did,
Max. They continued. But not only did they continue,
they continued steadfastly. And this is an evidence that
God has worked a work in you. This is an evidence that you
are His workmanship. I will tell you this, you can
start to know Christ and some... When you start to know Christ,
that doesn't mean you love every part of his message. There are
things you'll fight against. There's things you'll hate, Walter.
Even when God's done something for you. But, however, you cannot
love Jesus Christ. Hate his message and stay that
way. He'll fix it. He'll fix it. And you will continue steadfastly
in his doctrine. Because there is no other doctrine.
There is no other message. There is no other Lord. There
is no other faith. And this is what Paul was leading
to here, where he says, and I thank Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus our
Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. He starts off being enabled. It wasn't a Paul himself. It
was not a Paul. Paul had to be enabled. And he
had to be enabled by Christ Jesus. Without this enabling, the word
means empowerment. Without Christ's strength, there
is no ministry. And I love the way he put me
into it. This was not what Paul was looking
for. That's gonna come clear later.
Paul was not looking to be a minister God enabled him and Christ put
him into the ministry. He made the ministry Well Paul Paul was put in the
ministry because he was faithful No, that's not what that says
And it's not what it teaches He says I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful
He didn't say I was faithful and God put me in the ministry.
No, he counted me faithful What counted me full of faith? He gives faith He enables and
he put Paul into this ministry. He put Paul as an apostle right
here, writing this letter to Timothy at that particular time
and everything before it and everything after it. It was because
of the work of Jesus Christ. And he admits, who was before
a blasphemer and a persecutor, this is verse 13, and injurious,
but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Now I do want to state this,
ignorance is not an excuse. For some people, it's a state
of being, but it's not an excuse. And the thing is, also, Christ
Jesus did not leave Paul ignorant. In that case, Saul of Tarsus,
ignorant. It was done ignorantly and unbelief.
Paul didn't know Jesus Christ. at all. That's who he was persecuting
was the people who believed Christ. The people who believed Jesus.
That's who he was a blasphemer against. That's who he was a
persecutor of and injurious toward. The people of God. An ignorant, unbeliever, At that time, Saul was faithless. Verse 14, and the grace of our
Lord was exceedingly, exceeding abundant with faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus. And I do want to say this, God's
grace is always exceeding abundant. Walter talked about it last week.
Sin doesn't beat grace. Grace beats sin. Grace is always exceeding abundant. He that is forgiven much, loveth
much. And Paul's already confessed
here his sins, what he did, even though he did it ignorantly.
He did it. He owned up. He knew what he
was. But God's grace was exceeding
abundant to him. And it's exceeding abundant to
you if you know him. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now this is a statement full
of faith. Faithful saying. The faith of God's elect. And
it's worthy of all acceptation. Now it will be accepted only
by some. but it's worthy of all acceptation. The world will not accept that
statement. The natural man cannot accept
that statement. But God's people will. Why? Because of an exceeding
abundant grace of Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. That is a statement of purpose
The purpose of Christ which means it's the purpose of God which
means it's the purpose of the father Which means it shall be
done The words have gone out of my
mouth and they will not return unto me void. They will accomplish
that for which I sent them. God's purposes are never thwarted. no matter what God's purposes
are. But this is the flat-out statement. Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. Now, did he or didn't he? That's
the question. That's the question the world
doesn't know the answer to. And the ones that got an answer
in the world, they got the wrong answer. Because Christ Jesus
did save his people from their sins. The redemption was accomplished. It was shown by the Father, by
the Son, by the Spirit in the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. God laid this to us. God is true and every man is
a liar. and God raised our Lord Jesus
Christ from the dead because he was the complete perfect sacrifice
and it wasn't fit that death should hold him now let's get to what I wanted
to talk about How be it for this cause I obtained mercy that in
me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for
a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. This is another flat statement
from Paul. Paul's not asking questions.
He's giving out information. I think he's actually might be
proclaiming doctrine here. How be it nevertheless notwithstanding
contrary wise I obtained mercy Now I did not go out and obtain
it. That's a passive verb. I Was
given mercy And it's called mercy because
Paul said it just before this he deserved death And we all do Mercy by definition is something
when you get when you deserve the exact opposite You should be punished I should
be punished Paul says he should have been punished but God punished
Christ in our stead And therefore, because of that,
because of Him, I obtained mercy. I was given mercy. And it says
that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern. Now I do want to say this about longsuffering,
just quote 2 Peter. Chapter 3, verse 9, the Lord
is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but is longsuffering to usward. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. There's a lot of people like
to quote that verse, but they like to live out that little
piece to usward. God's not willing that anybody
know he's long-suffering to us word and he's not willing that
any of us word should perish. That's who it is Peter's just
as specific as Paul who's just as specific as John who's just
as specific as what God told them to write down By the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit this was written And if you would actually read
on a little bit, you'd read 2 Peter 3 and verse 15. It says, an account
that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Even as our beloved brother Paul,
also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you. If you look in the Old Testament,
you'll see that the long-suffering of God was mentioned several
times in the place with spoken of God's mercy. But what I really wanted to talk
about this morning is this pattern. Paul states this plainly. How
be it for this cause I obtain mercy that it be first Jesus
Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern. Now, what is this pattern about? Well,
I believe it refers directly back to verse 15. about a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came in the world to save
sinners of whom I'm chief. This is what Paul's referring
to. The pattern that you will see in the Apostle Paul's salvation
is the pattern, and then what he says here, hereafter. So if you would, I'm just gonna
look at Acts chapter nine, Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, and went unto the
high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Verse three, and as he journeyed,
he came near Damascus, And suddenly there shined round about him
a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is
hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto
him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what
thou must do. This is Paul, then known as Saul
of Tarsus, on the road to Damascus to persecute more of the followers
of Jesus Christ. Now from this interaction, I got four different things here. There's more, I'm sure, but I
got four and they're subdivided. But the first point I see here
in Paul's pattern is that Saul was not seeking the Lord. As a matter of fact, it was the
exact opposite of seeking. He was trying to persecute the
Lord Jesus Christ and his people. How do you persecute the Lord
Jesus Christ? Right now he's sitting on the right hand of
the Father. Well, this is how. You persecute his people. You
offend his people you hate his people You hate him Yeah You're
persecuting him. Yeah I'm not the offended party
when somebody speaks against me because of Christ right now
I might be the offended party if they're speaking against me
because of me But if it has to do with the gospel That's an
offense against Christ And He will deal with it. There's a place where He says,
I will repay. And He will. But see, if somebody
persecutes you, if somebody talks bad about you, if somebody denigrates
you because of the Word, because of His Word, and Christ said
they will hate you, They're after him. And don't worry about you
being offended. He's offended for you. That was the accusation. Paul
said, who art thou, Lord? He said, I am Jesus, whom thou
persecutest. That's his word, not mine. That's
the words of Christ. You persecute my people, you're
persecuting me. He may allow it for a while,
but he will recompense There will come a reckoning For those
who have persecuted the people of God for those who have offended
the household of God Because God says I'm offended by it That's
who sins against Sin is against God. It's not against you. It's
not against me. But Saul was not seeking the
Lord. Well, he thought he knew the
Lord. He didn't, but he thought he
did. Because I'm going to tell you
something. When Paul wrote Romans 10, he knew exactly what he was
talking about when he was talking about his brethren. They have
a zeal of God, but not according to what? knowledge Saul of Tarsus
was right there right here in Acts 9 He had a zeal of God this
man was going to Damascus Syria To persecute some people that
he thought were offending his God I'm gonna tell you something
that's seriously serious zeal, but not according to knowledge.
Saul was going about to establish his own righteousness and had
not submitted himself to the righteousness of God at that
time. He was persecuting Jesus by persecuting
his people. Saul was not seeking the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then the second point I got
written down, Saul did not know the Lord. And this is self-evident because
of self-testimony. Lord, he said, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? And he said, this is Saul, who
art thou? Now, later on you can read, Paul
says, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, the tribe of Benjamin. I was
born a Jew of Jews, of the tribe of Benjamin, as touching the
law, a Pharisee, as touching the righteousness
of the law, blameless. Yet when the Lord spoke from
heaven the first thing Paul had to ask Saul of Tarsus had to
ask was who are you? Because it doesn't matter what
you know Because you're not gonna know him until he reveals himself
Saul didn't know the Lord He thought he did he had the best
religious education this world had and I mean he had the Old
Testament scriptures And knew him and studied them There was a statement in a account
that our Lord gave Where there was a rich man in hell And there's a statement Abraham
made in there where he told that rich man who wanted somebody
to send Lazarus back so he could tell my brothers not to come
here. And Abraham said, they've got Moses and the prophets. He says, oh, they don't listen
to them. Send somebody back from the dead,
him they'll listen to. And Abraham said, if they hear
not Moses and the prophets, they're not gonna hear one even though
he rose from the dead and that's what we're surrounded
with this world right now who will not hear one who did raise
from the dead and who always spoke the truth and who spoke
the truth and his men wrote down this truth the natural man cannot
understand the things of the Spirit of God And there comes
a time, and I don't care. Well, I do care. It doesn't matter if you were
born and raised in a sovereign grace church that preached the
truth. It doesn't matter how orthodox
your knowledge is, how well you've been taught mentally. It doesn't
matter. If he doesn't come and reveal
himself unto you, you're not going to know him. Now, he did
this visibly. He did this physically. Paul
heard him. Paul saw the light. This is not
how it's done now, but it is a pattern. It is an individual
revelation of Jesus Christ to each and every individual child
of God. Because you don't know Christ
unless he reveals himself to you. However, point three, the Lord knew Saul. That's the glory. That's the
glory. Here's this man on his way to
persecute Jesus. You know, he didn't say, I'm
Christ Jesus. I'm the Lord Jesus. He said, no, I said, I'm Jesus. He was a man. He is a man. He always shall be a man. He
is the God man nonetheless. But I'm the one you're persecuting. But he called him by name. The
first word that Saul heard from the Lord was Saul, Saul. He could have just let him go
on. He could have struck him dead. He knocked him off his
donkey. Could have been like Balaam had
an angel standing there waiting to cut his head off. But the Lord Jesus Christ knew
Saul. And this was the time and this
was the place he chose to stop Saul in his tracks. And he did. He called him by
name. Now the Lord was not seeking
Saul, but he found him. He knew exactly where he was
at. He knew exactly where he was
at. He knew exactly what he was doing. And he knew why he was
doing it. Paul tells us back in 1 Timothy.
He was doing it ignorantly in unbelief. He did it ignorantly. Who art
thou Lord? I understand your Lord. You're
talking to me out of a light in the sky. I hear your voice,
but I don't know who you are. That's an experience. And that's an experience that
actually comes to every child of God, not to this degree, not
to this way. As far as I know, God does not
appear to people. I've never heard a testimony
lately or in print where God did and somebody spoke the truth
afterwards, Mason. There's lots of people that talk
about God appeared to me, but they don't speak the truth of
this word. They're still ignorant and unbelief. There's still a strong delusion
that they should believe a lie. See, Christ did not leave Saul
of Tarsus here. He knew him. He called him. And
guess what? Saul answered. He called him by name. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was not seeking Saul. He was calling Saul of Tarsus. Those that are predestinated,
them are those that He calls. Those that He calls, them are
them that He justifies. And right down the line, there's
a nice perfect sequence of events in Romans chapter 8. And this
is the beginning of it from Saul's point of view, but it's not the
beginning of it from the Lord Jesus Christ's point of view.
He didn't, Saul didn't know Christ, but Christ knew Saul. And he
called him by name. Saul answered. Saul followed. That's point four. Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord
said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And I'll give you this for free.
Saul was pricked. He was goaded with a sharp stick. That's what it means. An ox goad. Get along. Before the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Something had been going on. It's a valid question. It's a
good question. Which comes first, life or faith? And the answer is life. Now how close together they are,
who knows? I don't know. I know there was a little bit
of a gap in mind. Because I remember what it's
like to be goaded. To be pricked. You don't know
what's right, but you know something's wrong. You don't know who's right, but
sometimes you know who's wrong. Usually it was me. But I found people were lying
to me. Or at least not telling me the
truth. They may have sincerely believed what they were saying. And I didn't know Him. Not then. But there come a day when I heard
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said, He's true. I read
it in this book and I could read it and I could say, this is right. I don't know how to explain it
and hopefully I don't have to explain it to you because you
should know what it is. But there comes a time when you're
reading the scriptures or you'll hear somebody preach and you'll
say, oh my gosh, that's right, I've known that all along. That
can't be nothing but true. And it is true. There are pricks,
there are goads, but then there comes a time when you see Him,
and He speaks, and you follow. The Good Shepherd
calls His sheep by name, and, not if, and they follow. What do they do? They continue
steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine. And this is a pattern to them
which should hereafter believe on Him. There was some different
things done in the different times. In the Old Testament,
there were sacrifices to be offered. Now salvation is none other than
Christ, even in the Old Testament. But there were Different typifications back
then But this is what Paul says here from hereafter. This is
the way God does it he used me as a pattern You're not gonna
be seeking him, but he's gonna find you you don't know him,
but he knows you and He brings you in He picks up that lost
sheep puts it on his shoulder, and he what carries it back And
where's that lost sheep go that lost sheeps going back? I? He will make you willing and
happy about it But you will follow him You'll hear his voice and a stranger
you will not follow He's the pattern Maker Jesus
Christ, this is what he's given us this gospel to preach and
for his sheep to hear and to believe his gospel. And what's it all from? Paul
had already told us in verse 14, and the grace of our Lord
was exceeding abundant with faith and love. You will believe him and you
will love him. and you will love His Word. And
it's all by His marvelous, free, sovereign, exceeding abundant
grace. Faith and love are the fruit
of the Spirit. They're the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. And this is the pattern hereafter that we continue. This is the pattern for now.
This is the pattern for later. It's all the work of Jesus, whom
Saul persecuted. And we follow. We follow Him. We try to follow His word. Remember
that one, Walter? We talked about this 30 years
ago or so, or more. He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. We used to picket people because
they preach if you're enduring at the end, you'll be saved. Because they think you can get
it and lose it and get it and lose it and get it and lose it.
Well, you can if it's yours. But if it's his salvation, It's
eternal salvation. If He's given you life, He's
given you eternal life. His word will never return unto
Him void. And every one of His sheep, He's
gonna call by name. They're gonna hear Him. They're
gonna follow Him. Because it's His work. It's His
grace. It's His love. It's His mercy.
It's His righteousness. It's all His. And we are given it in Him. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time, this place. Thank You for Your Son, our Lord. Thank You for life, for love,
faith. goodness, meekness, temperance,
all of the gifts that come down from you through your Son, our
Lord. Amen. Amen.