1 Timothy, called an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ, which is our hope. And of course, that is the place
that God's children are called and the place to which we are
made to rejoice is that Christ is our hope. And that is really the basis upon
which all of God's children stand. We don't have anything that's
in ourselves that we have any confidence in. I mean, everything
that we see within ourselves as the Spirit of God teaches
us is corruption and corruptible. I was reminded this week of something
that John Newton said on his deathbed, and I think this really
sums up the Christian confession, in that if a man sees these two
things, he has seen the truth, and if he has missed these two
things, he has missed the truth. It is said that John Newton,
who was of course the author of the hymn Amazing Grace, among
many others that we sing from time to time in our hymn singing,
and he was asked on his deathbed what were the great truths that
gave him comfort in the hour of his death. He said, Well, I can't remember
but two things. And of course, you have to understand
that John Newton was a great scholar and a very widely renowned
preacher of the Gospel. And it was a shock to those standing
about for him to say, I can't remember but two things. But
he says, I can remember what a great sinner I am. and what
a great Savior Christ is. And in those two things is the
sum total of what the gospel is, because it is the revelation
that comes to God's people as a revelation of what they are
as we behold the crucified Christ dying for our sin. But then it
is also our hope If that's all we saw in it, we'd be of all
men most miserable if the only thing that was ever revealed
to us was the corruption of our nature. That would be a terrible
thing, would it not? I mean, it's better for a man
to pass on out of this world without the knowledge of his
corruption onto his judgment than it is for a man to be made
aware of the corruptible nature that he has and find no relief
in it. But while it is a great blessing
on the one hand that we are shown what we are by nature, it is
not a blessing in itself because it would be a great heavy burden
if a man was made aware of what he is by nature. But then the
Lord never saw fit to show him Christ. But you see, that's the
glory and the beauty of the grace of God and the work of the Spirit
of God. That is that He never awakens
a man to see the innermost corruption and corruptibility of his own
heart that He does not also show him the beauty and the glory
of the forgiveness that's in Jesus Christ. And that's why
Paul says here, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Because
when a man has seen what he is, then he doesn't have any other
hope. Now, as long as a man entertains the notion that he has some something,
as small as it might be, as long as he thinks there is something
that he has either done, that he either will do, or that he
can do, He will not have the hope that
Paul is speaking about here. Because the hope that Paul is
speaking about here is a hope that is against all other hope. It is a hope wherein a man has
none to rely on except that. And that is what it is to believe
the gospel. Believing the gospel is not about
what you hear or something. It is casting oneself at the
feet of Christ as the only one who can save. That's the place
that those who are made awakened by the Spirit of God are brought.
Now, religious men are brought to religion, and there's all
kinds out there. You can get any kinds you want,
and they'll tell you, and religious folks will be satisfied with
it. I mean, if they tell you you need to be baptized to be
accepted with God, and if a man doesn't know the corruptible
nature of his own heart, he'll be satisfied with that. But you see, when a man has been
made aware of what he is by nature, that won't satisfy him, because
he'll know there's got to be more to this than that. Because
I've got an evil heart of unbelief that will continue to depart
from the Lord, and going through some baptismal waters is not
going to solve that problem. Joining the church won't do it.
Making the decision to be saved won't do it. But Christ will. And you see, that's what Paul's
talking about here when he said, Jesus Christ who is our hope.
We don't have any other hope. If He doesn't save us, if He
doesn't snatch us as a brand from the burning, then we don't
have any hope. We're not looking for another
hope. I don't want another one. I confess to you right now, I
don't want another one. He's the only one I'm interested
in. And that's what Paul's saying
here. He is our hope. And Paul suffered much for the
hope of the gospel. He suffered much at the hands
of the Jews, not just the Jews in the sense of those that followed
the Jewish religion, but many of the Jews that supposedly embraced
the gospel of Christ but didn't fully embrace Christ as their
hope because they said you had to be circumcised. He said, now
all that stuff is good. But we've got to keep the law.
And that's what Paul says here. As he goes on down, he said,
"...as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went
into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no
other doctrine." What no other doctrine is he talking about?
Christ who is our hope. That's the no other doctrine.
There is no other doctrine that we will teach or preach, nor
can we say, well, that doctrine's okay. If it's not Christ and
Christ alone, it's not okay. It's not the truth. I don't care
what else it might entail. If it's Christ plus something,
it's not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Paul said,
I left you this charge that you tell men that they teach no other
doctrine. Now why did he need to tell them
that they teach no other doctrine? Because there's always been and
always will be those that will come teaching another doctrine.
Because you see, the grace of God is good in its place, but
there's got to be more to it than that is what some people
say, do they not? I mean, grace is good. There's
a lot of people that don't fault you for preaching salvation by
grace, but what they say is, but you've got to emphasize the
responsibility of men. Now there's no question in my
mind that man's absolutely accountable for everything that he does.
You can't make an excuse for what you do and lay it off to
somebody else. Leastwise, lay it off onto the
Lord. For God does not tempt men with
sin, the Scripture says. Neither can any man say when
he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. You're accountable for every
action that you have. You better know that for a fact. But that being true, That doesn't
change what grace is. What is grace? It's the unmerited
favor of God bestowed on guilty sinners worthy of damnation.
But by the grace of God and knowing to nothing else, the Lord is
pleased to save those who are His. And that's what he says
to Timothy, don't preach any other doctrine. He said, don't
you tell these people, quit teaching this other doctrine. I mean,
you look at the letters of Paul. That was his whole message the
whole time was to point out that all these other things are not
the gospel, regardless of what they may say and good that they
may do. He says, neither give heed to
fables and endless genealogies. some means or methods whereby
men might gain an entrance into the Kingdom of God. I believe
if you extrapolated what he is saying here into the present
time, because the seeds of what has become in the present time
what we call denominations of Christianity is exactly what
he is talking about here. Only they did not call it that
then. But he said there are those that come up with endless genealogies. That is, well, you need to be
a part of this and follow along in this way. Just like you need
to be born into this tribe, and if you're born of that tribe,
then you'll be okay. He said, Don't give heed to fables,
endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than God deifying
which is in faith. Now how are the saints of God
edified? I tell you there's but one way
that the saints of God can be edified, and that is by the declaration
that Jesus Christ is their hope. I mean, you can't edify the children
of God by telling them something else. They can't be built up
in the most holy faith if you don't tell them what the most
holy faith is. The most holy faith is Christ
and Him crucified. Paul said, I don't want to know
anything else among you but that. He said, I determine not to preach
anything else. That is my message. He said these things, they minister
questions. There's a multitude of things
that people go shipwreck on, being worried about this doctrine
and that doctrine and this fits in and that's that and the other.
And this is not to say that there's not important doctrines that
go to make up the gospel of Jesus Christ. But when all is said
and done, this is the doctrine that we preach, and that is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified for sinners. without which we have
no hope. Not that we can add anything
to it, nor are we interested in coming up with all sorts of
questions and things to try to figure out that what he says
here, that they minister questions, that is, they just cause more
questions to be asked. Here is the final answer. Jesus
Christ. There's no other question to
be answered, is there? I mean, what can you ask about
that? Well, what about this? Well, what difference does that
make? Christ. It's Christ and Christ alone.
I mean, it's the end of the questions, and that's what he's saying here.
Christ who is our hope. Now, the end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart and of good conscience and of
faith unfeigned. That's a mouthful right there.
The end of the commandment, the end of the teaching of the law. What's the purpose of the teaching
of the law? You say, why would we say that
the law of God is good? Because here's the point of it,
the end of it. That is, that thing which we
declare the truth of God for is charity out of a pure heart.
My little children, these things write unto you that you love
one another. That's what John says. In fact,
legend has it, I don't know that there's any truth in it or what,
but that when John, who lived to be about 95 years old, was brought into the midst of
the church when the church gathered together, and they asked him
in his age state to tell them something of the gospel. He would always say, Love one
another. Now that kind of boils it all
down, the purpose of the teaching of the law, does it not? It's
to love one another. Because the preaching of the
gospel is that Christ is our hope. Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and body. That is Christ
is our hope there. We have no other place to stand.
He is it. And the end of the commandment
as it is brought unto men is love out of a pure heart and
of a good conscience. We are not just trying to teach
people some things. You can teach people all sorts
of doctrine. You can get you any kind of book.
There are thousands of books. You can get on the Internet and
you can spend the rest of your life reading books A lot of good
books, a lot of good stuff on there that will be of benefit
to you. And you can learn a lot of stuff,
but what good is it if it doesn't produce a good conscience toward
God? You see, the thing that we preach
is not just to teach people some stuff so they can go out here
in the community and tell other people some sound doctrine. But
it is that that Word of God might be in our heart and cause us
to delight in it, so that out of a good conscience we confess
the things that we believe. Now, a lot of people are quick
to tell you what they believe, but it's quite a different thing
to demonstrate what you believe, is it not? I mean, you can say
to somebody, well, we love all the people around us, We're going
out in the community because we love them. Well, do you? I'm
not saying you don't. I don't have any idea. But the
thing about this is that the conscience of the truth is that
which is important. The Lord said He seeks such to
worship Him as worship Him in spirit and truth, not in an outward
manifestation. Not so that men might see it,
but that it might be that which is in the inward parts of the
heart. So the purpose of the commandment is love out of a
pure heart and of good conscience and of faith unfeigned. Nothing fake about it. Nothing made up about it. It's
faith unfeigned. He said this is the purpose of
the commandments. You want to be a preacher of
the law? Well, if your preaching of the law does not produce these
things, then it's the wrong preaching, he says. He says, "...from which
some, having swerved..." Now, notice he didn't say they did
a U-turn. He didn't say they've been going
along and now they've turned around and they're going back
the other way, did he? What happens when you swerve?
You just move over a little bit, don't you? You're still going
in the same direction. But you just moved a little bit.
Now see, all error begins with a swerve. I mean, you can't run
into a ditch without swerving, can you? Huh? I mean, if you're
going straight ahead, you're going to go straight ahead. But
if you start swerving, I mean, you swerve, swerve, swerve, you
might not go in the ditch the first time you swerve. But if
you keep swerving, you will wind up in the ditch. There's no other
way you can do it. And that's what he's saying here.
He says, "...some, which having swerved, have turned aside."
See, now what they did was they swerved a little bit. They said,
well, Christ is our hope, but you also need to get your thoughts
right on the Millennium. You've got to get that right
or you can't have it. You know, this is important.
Now, I'm not saying it's not important, but I'm saying this. Some people have swerved on that
subject because it has consumed their mind. Christ is that which
is to consume our mind, our hope in Christ. That's what consumes
our mind, not these other things that in reality, when all is
said and done, no man can actually know the absolute answers on
those topics. What happens to us when we die? Now we know that the Scripture
plainly says to be absent from the body is to be present with
the Lord, but how does that occur? Do you know? I'll be the first
to tell you, I don't know. I don't know the details." Now,
there are plenty of people that can give you a detailed explanation
of it all. How do they know that? They don't
know it. But sometimes with things that
are not necessarily bad, men swerve. But he says, men have
taken the law. Now, this is what he's getting
at. He's talking about the preaching of the law, he said, from which
some, having swerved, They moved away from the purpose of the
law and they swerved into vain jangling. What's vain jangling? That's vain jangling. What is
that doing? Is that helping you to know the
Lord? Huh? That's exactly what all of the
things that's not The gospel of Jesus Christ pointing men
to that which is the hope of God's people, that's exactly
what it is. That's just how much good it is. That's what he said. It's vain jangling. It's not
of any use at all. Desiring to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. Now this was a big problem among
those early Jewish Christians. Now listen to what he says. He
said they don't know what they're talking about. It's essential
if you want to boil it down. He said they don't know what
they're talking about. For we know this, that the law
is good. if a man use it lawfully. There
is a lawful use of the law. Well, wait a minute. I thought
the law was just the law. No. The law can be a bad thing
if it's used unlawfully. You don't think that? Well, let
an unrighteous sheriff get in office, and he can use the law
unlawfully, can't he? Same way with somebody preaching
the law that doesn't know what they're talking about. using
the law for the wrong purpose. The law is not meant to corral
God's people. God's people do not need the
law to corral them. That is what Paul is saying here.
He said, We know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.
Well, what is the lawful use of the law? He already said up
here. It is the preaching of charity out of a pure heart,
of a good conscience and of unfeigned faith. If we are preaching the
law for any other reason than that, then we have missed the
point of it. And he says, knowing this, that
the law is not made for a righteous man. Who are those who are in Christ? I mean, what is their standing?
Are they unrighteous or righteous? If a man is in Christ, he is
righteous. So the law is not meant for him. Now, it is definitely meant for
the unrighteous. He said so. He said the law was
not made for the righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the man who has no regard. He does not have the grace of
God in his heart constraining him. to walk with faith unfeigned,
a good conscience, the purity of hope in Christ. He doesn't
have that. And so he needs the law. I'm not opposed to the law. I mean, I wouldn't spend my time
erecting a monument by the courthouse that's got the Ten Commandments
on it, but I wouldn't go up there and tear it down either. I mean,
I rejoice if I see it written out there. Now, it condemns me
when I see it. I say, oh, woe is me, but it
drives me to Christ. But the unrighteous men, they
need the law. I am glad that there is law.
I am glad there are stop signs when you come up to the intersection.
Think of what it would be like if there were no red lights or
no stop signs. I mean, how would that be? See,
there is a lawful use of the law. There's a good thing of
it. It restrains men. Because, you
know, everybody's not looking out for the other guy, are they?
I mean, when they get to the red light, they're thinking,
how far can I go into this red light before this is going to
change? They say, well, I'm in a hurry. I've got to get through
this thing. It's still yellow. I can make it. That's how we
think in the flesh, is it not? That's how all men think in the
flesh. So there is a good purpose for the law, but it's made for
the unrighteous. It's made for those who are disobedient. for the ungodly, for sinners,
for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
of mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons.
And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." So why do we preach and teach
sound doctrine? He just said it right here. Because
the natural man hates sound doctrine. Unrighteous men hate sound doctrine. Righteous men love it. I mean,
like you were talking about there a moment ago about praising God.
Now, a lot of people, you can get them all jived up to praise
God until you come in their midst and say, God hates some people. Now, I'm not saying I'm going
to go somewhere and tell people that, but, I mean, that is a
true thing, is it not? I mean, if the Scripture is true,
the Lord said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. We know he
at least hated Esau, didn't he? So he does hate some people.
The Scripture says he's angry with the wicked every day. So,
you know, there are certain aspects about God that men might praise
Him for, But then if you tell them the whole truth, they might
say, well, wait a minute now. We don't want to get too excited
about it. But you see, that's contrary
to sound doctrine. Because sound doctrine is that
which causes God's people to rejoice. I mean, I don't want to listen
to unsound doctrine. I don't want to hear people denigrate
the majesty of God. I don't want to hear people tear
down the work of the Savior. I don't want to listen to it.
It irritates me to no end. So we are counseled to preach
the truth because of the fact that by nature We all are enemies
of God. Now, you know, the Scripture
says that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. Some men
die for his friends. Christ died for us while we were
yet enemies. Now, did He die for us because He was our enemy?
No. You see, the Lord never has been
our enemy in the sense that He said, These
are my enemies. I'm going to love them. No, but
we said, He's our enemy. We don't want Him. We don't want
this man to rule over us. You see, we were at enmity with
God. We hated Him. He never has hated
His people. The judgment of God's never rested
on His people. But He has seen them in Christ
from before the foundation of the world. He has loved them
with an everlasting love. And even while we were yet enemies,
Christ died for us. while we were yet sinners and
rebels against God. Yet God Christ, who is great
in mercy, has demonstrated His love to His people. Dear brethren, this is our hope.
Is it not? I mean, what is our hope? Is
it that somehow or other we became pleasing in the eyes of God through
something that we did? He looked down through time and
He saw that we believed. See, that's what most people
think foreknowledge is. They say, well, God looked down
through time and He was like a gypsy fortune teller. He saw
what would happen and He said, well, this is how I'm going to
make my thing. No. No, His foreknowledge is His
forelove. You see, He loved His people
ahead of time. Before there was ever any time,
He loved His people in Christ. And that's sound doctrine. Not
everybody likes it, do they? But I believe it's a true thing.
When God's pleased to apply it to the hearts of His people,
they'll love it. They'll love it. They might not
love it because I preach it. But you see, when God shows a
man that he's a guilty sinner before God, his only hope is
Christ, he'll love it. Will he not? I believe that he
will. It is according to the glorious
gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. And that could be read according
to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Now, that doesn't
change it particularly. It is a glorious gospel. But
keep in mind that the gospel is to the glory of God. Now that is a very important
principle that we must understand if we are going to have a right
understanding of the truth of God as it is delivered unto men.
The gospel is not for the purpose of benefiting men primarily. Now men do benefit as a result
of the gospel, but the gospel is not designed with men in mind
per se. But it's designed with the glory
of God in mind. I mean, God said, I will bring
glory to myself. Now, men think, oh, what a terrible
thing. But the Lord said, I'm a jealous
God. He said, I won't share my glory
with anybody. Now, the natural man says, well,
who does he think he is? But you see, the man that has
been taught by the Spirit of God who He is, he falls down
and he says, Even so, Lord, we will worship Thee, for Thou art
the true and the living God. There is none else beside Thee.
Thou art the God of God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. According to the gospel of the
glory of the blessed God which was committed to my trust, Now,
he said, what I'm telling you is what the Lord committed unto
me. He said, I'm not going to make
this up. He said, when I went for fourteen years into the wilderness,
he said, the Lord taught me some things. And he said, this is
what he taught me. He said, this is according to
the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. And I thank Jesus Christ, our
Lord, who hath enabled me. For that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. He counted me faithful. Now,
some have said, well, the Lord looked and saw how faithful Paul
was, and He said, well, if he's that good as a Pharisee, he'll
be great. That's not what He's saying at all. He said, he counted
me faithful. He counted Paul faithful just
like he counted Noah faithful. Now, I've heard men preach that
the Lord selected Noah because Noah was a righteous man. Well,
Noah was a righteous man, but I'll tell you, he was a righteous
man because God chose him to be righteous, not vice versa. God didn't look down and say,
well, here's Noah. He's a righteous man. I'm going to choose him."
No, he chose Noah and he made him a righteous man. He counted
him. He counted Paul faithful. He
said, he's going to be a faithful minister unto me, unto the Gentiles. He's going to be a preacher of
the gospel. He's going to be the writer of the gospel in letters
to all these different churches unto my glory. He counted me faithful, put 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." Now here again, some have swerved
and gone shipwrecked because they say, well, Paul was sincere
in what he was doing, and because he was sincere, and did it ignorantly,
he obtained mercy." Now, if Paul hadn't have been sincere and
if he hadn't have been doing it ignorantly, then he wouldn't
have received mercy. That's not what he's saying here.
I'm going to show you why as we go down. The word that's used
here for because, it says, concerning that is what that word means. in spite of the fact that I did
these things. He says, in spite of the fact
that I was going about doing these things ignorantly in unbelief.
You see, unbelief is not an impediment unto God. Aren't you glad? Now, the natural preachers of
the gospel, that is, those that preach a carnal consideration
of what faith is in the gospel, They say, well, the Lord's got
to see your faith. Now, when He sees your faith,
then you'll be doing good. But you see, the Lord loved Paul
when he was in what? Unbelief. He counted him faithful
when he was in what? Unbelief. Now, aren't you glad
that the Lord counted you faithful when you were yet in unbelief?
Because how would you have ever come to believe If it was not
that the Lord counted you faithful and gave you faith where none
existed. And that is what Paul is saying
here. He is saying, but I obtained mercy in spite of the fact of
all these things. Concerning that I did it inignorantly
and unbelief, yet the Lord gave me mercy. 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 came into the world to
save sinners of whom I am chief." Now listen to what he says here.
Howbeit for this cause. Now which was it, Paul? If what
he is saying up there in the first verse is true, then there
were two causes. But you see there are two different
words used there. And the first word has the meaning
of concerning a matter. And the second word is the moving
cause. Now, the moving cause of Paul
receiving mercy was because the Lord purposeed that in me first
Christ Jesus might show forth a pattern of longsuffering. He
might manifest the power of His grace in taking an old rebel
sinner like myself, whom he says, I'm the chief of sinners, a Pharisee
of the Pharisee, one that hated God and hated the way of God,
though I loved the way of religion. But I didn't know it. I didn't
know what it was. Was ignorance an excuse? No,
Paul wasn't saying ignorance is an excuse. Why? How does a
man come to know anything? Because God shows it to him.
All of us are ignorant. And, dear brother, ignorance
is no excuse. I mean, all you've got to do
is be in a speed zone to have this brought to your attention. And you can tell the officer,
well, officer, I didn't know that the speed limit was 35. He said, well, here on my radar
I clocked you at 65 miles an hour. But, officer, I didn't
know. What's he going to say? It doesn't make any difference.
Exactly. Now, we know that to be true
in natural things. Why is it any less true before
the Lord? It's not. Because, you see, who
is it that gives men knowledge? God. You see, it is the Evidence of His mercy when the
Lord gives a man understanding. It's nothing of Him. We didn't
figure this out. That's what Paul said. He said,
I didn't figure it out. He says, I was going along the
way ignorantly in unbelief. I was happy. I was holding the
coats of the people that stoned Stephen and I was satisfied.
I was breathing out threatenings and slaughterings against the
people of God, and I was just fed up with my religion, and
I was completely desirous of going on that way. But God, who
is rich in mercy, with the great love wherewith He loved me, because
– look at what He says here – because – not because of Paul per se,
But because of the gospel of the glory of the blessed God,
what does he say here? He said, for this cause I obtained
mercy. Well, wait, wasn't it because
the Lord loved Paul? Well, sure He loved Paul. Sure
He loved Paul. But what does he say the moving
cause was for why the Lord called him? For this purpose, that in
me first Christ Jesus might show forth a pattern show forth all
longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe
the gospel. Oh, you see, the grace and mercy
of God is manifest in His calling. And it's manifested in His calling
of the Apostle Paul. Paul didn't say, it was because
of me that the Lord called me. He didn't even say it was because
of the love that the Lord had for me particularly. But you
see, he called Paul because of the love that he had for his
people. But more importantly than that, he called Paul because
he designed this fashion and manner in which he would manifest
the glory of his grace in the calling of his people by the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's a glorious thing if
you can sink your teeth into it and the Lord gives you a little
understanding to see the intricacies of the purpose of God in calling
a man who nobody would have. If you had to sit down and write
the one, predict ahead of time the ones whom the Lord would
call to be the writer of the predominant of the New Testament,
and you'd have seen Paul on the day when Stephen was being stoned,
you wouldn't have ever gave him a second thought, would you?
He said, well, I know of all the people out here, it won't
be Him. I mean, look at Him. But you see, it was Him. It was
Him. Because men, the ways of the
Lord are beyond the ways of men. And the mercy of God exceeds
the understanding of men. And he said, this is for the
cause that I might show forth that in me or through me, would
be shown a pattern of long-suffering of the Lord. You see, we can
look at the Apostle Paul and by his own admission, he says,
I'm the chief of sinners. Now I know we all, I think it's
a common thing for all of us to believe, well that's not him,
it's me. But he under the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost said, I'm the chief of sinners. Now what was
Paul's sin? Religious zealotry. He loved his way more than he
loved the truth. How do we know that? Well, because
of this reason. The Lord said to him, when He
called him, He said, Paul, it's hard for you to kick against
the praise. Because, you see, I believe the Spirit of God was
convicting the Apostle Paul along the way that this gospel is true. And he kicked against it. And he said, no. He says, I'm
going to go my way. But yet you see the Lord who
is rich in mercy, He called him that he might show a pattern. Dear brethren, that man might
be encouraged. They might give God glory as
they are called by the grace of God to believe the gospel.
That He 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." Well, what a thing to... I mean, he started off with Christ
as our hope, and he winds up his line of thought with the same One. Because you
see, the same One who is our hope is the One he speaks about
here. The King eternal, immortal, invisible. The only wise God. Be honored and glory forever.
He's invisible. What does that mean? You know all of us, I remember
when I was a kid I always wanted to be invisible. I always thought
that would really be neat to be invisible. You know you could
go places where you shouldn't be and see things you shouldn't
be seeing and nobody would ever know the difference. Be invisible. But Paul says that
God is invisible. What does he mean? He can't be
seen by the natural man. The Lord Jesus Christ walked
among men. The fullness of the Godhead bodily. It couldn't be any more plain,
as if you're sitting in that bench. The Lord Jesus Christ
walked among us. He sat and he taught the multitudes. And what did they do? They saw
him, didn't they? With these eyes? Didn't they
say, well, he was, you know, a Jewish man about six feet tall. I don't know how tall he was,
but I mean, they could describe him. They could say what he was,
but he was invisible, except to some. They said, Peter, Whom do ye
say that I am? He said, Thou art in Christ,
the Son of the living God. What did the Lord say to him?
Flesh and blood have not revealed His Son to you, but my Father
which is in heaven. Oh, he's an invisible God. And
men by searching can't find Him out. I mean, the Scripture says
that you can't find Him out by searching. You can't discover
God through all your efforts. It's only by the mercy of God
that He shows Himself unto men. But oh, remember what Paul said,
For this cause I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern for them which
should hereafter believe on Him. to life everlasting. He is our
hope. I don't know why. I don't even
know how that it is that a man can be brought to a place of
calling upon the name of the Lord, crying out to Him for mercy. But I am convinced of this, that
there has never been a man that ever called on the Lord for mercy
that was ever turned away. A man that comes seeking mercy
at the hand of Christ. Now there's a multitude of religious
folks that come with one hand saying, Lord, we want to follow
You, but Lord, we're going to hold on to these other things
over here. Those are not the ones who are with a broken and
a cod-dried heart. Because you see, when a man has
a broken and a cod-dried heart, he doesn't have any other hope.
He doesn't have anything else that he can trust in but Christ
and Christ crucified. Paul said, if the dead rise not,
we are of all men most miserable. What was he saying? Because of this, he said, if
Christ be not raised. See, the resurrection, I mean,
we have a hope in the resurrection, but what is our hope in the resurrection?
It is Christ. Now, we expect that our bodies
shall be raised from the ground. And we'd be of all men most miserable
if there was no such thing, but why would that be? Because it
would be a testimony to the fact that Christ was not raised if
His people are not raised. And if Christ be not raised,
what did He say? We're yet in our sins. But you
see, Christ is our hope. And Paul said, this is the hope
for which I'm called in question this day. when he stood before
the Jewish council, he said, the hope of our fathers is that
which we're called in question for today. Because you see, they
said the hope rests in the Jewish nation. He said the hope's in
Christ. And dear brethren, that's the only message that we've got,
the only one I want to preach. I don't want to ever go down
as having preached another one, because He is our hope. He's
our expectation. He's that one in whom everything
that we have rests. And if He be not raised, we are
of all men most miserable. We have no hope, but we believe
we do by the grace of God according to the faith that He has given
us.