Well, good morning. If you would
care to turn your Bibles with me to the book of First Timothy. First Timothy chapter one is
returning. Let me give you a few updates. Juanita Thompson has tested positive
for COVID. And Scott tells me she is doing
very well. The symptoms are abating and
the doctors expect her to make a full recovery soon, so we're
thankful for that. And little Novi Sparks has been
having very severe abdominal pain. She's been to the emergency
room, the hospital. They cannot pinpoint what's causing
her pain, so they can't treat her. And they've asked us to
remember her in prayer. We certainly want to do that.
I feel so sorry for her. She's having severe pain. So
as the Lord brings them to your mind, let's remember them in
prayer. All right, 1 Timothy 1, we begin
our reading in verse 8. But we know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made
for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind. for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. And I
thank Christ Jesus our Lord, 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 and 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 obtain 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. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh, how thankful
we are for your countless many blessings to your people. How
we thank you for your mercy and your grace and your love to sinners
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we're thankful for
yet another opportunity to meet together and hear your gospel
preached. This is the means by which you've
been pleased to call out and save your people. And Father,
we pray that you'd do that this morning. Call out your people.
Take the gospel as it's preached this morning and cause it to
go forth in power, to call out your sheep, to reveal to their
hearts the Lord Jesus Christ. and cause them to close with
Christ. And this is the means, Father, that you have ordained
to feed your sheep, to comfort and edify your sheep. And we
pray that this morning as the gospel's priest that you would
do that, that you'd feed your sheep, that you'd comfort the
hearts of your people by revealing to us again the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is the means, the means of preaching the gospel that
you have ordained to reveal your glory. Father, would you reveal
your glory to our hearts this morning through the preaching
of Christ. Enable us to see your glory in the salvation of sinners,
how you would choose to save sinful men and women such as
we are. Father, bless your word, we pray.
And we thank you for how you've blessed the preaching of your
word here for so many years. Some of us, all our life long.
And Father, we're thankful. and pray you continue to bless
and watch over and lead and guide this congregation as we meet
together to serve in your kingdom, to preach the gospel and worship
Christ our Savior. We're thankful, Father, for the
many blessings of this life, how you've blessed us. And Father,
I thank you for the gracious and generous heart that you've
given this people to so faithfully and generously support the gospel
might go forth to reach others and help others. To help others
see your glories, it's done for us. And Father, we freely admit
you blessed us with all things. You blessed us beyond measure.
But in this flesh, we also freely admit we are poor and a needy
people. And we pray you'd not leave us
alone. We pray a special blessing for those that you brought in
the time of trouble and trial, those who need you especially.
We pray for Juanita. We're thankful for a good report.
And Father, we pray you'd continue to touch and heal her body. We
pray for Novi, Father, that you'd undertake in her behalf and relieve
her of this pain, if it could be thy will. Let the doctors
and nurses see what's wrong and use them as an instrument to
treat her and heal her and strengthen her, Father, we pray. and others,
Father, who are suffering silently. Everybody has a need, and we're
thankful you are able. Father, meet the need of your
people according to their riches, if your mercy and grace. We pray
for our country and our world at this time. Father, we beg
of you, if you'd be pleased to send some relief for this awful
virus that you'd enable us to return to normal activities,
normal life, normal worship. Father, we pray you'd bless. We pray for our leaders, that
you'd give them wisdom to lead this country right, Father. We're
thankful to know that whoever is on the throne, that you're
on the throne, that the King's heart is in your hand to turn
like the rivers of water, whithersoever you will. We pray you'd turn
it for good, for the good of your people, that you might preserve
and protect the freedoms we've so long enjoyed in this country.
And Father, again, we pray your blessing on this service. Don't
let us meet in vain, but meet with us and bless your word. Enable us to worship in spirit
and in truth. Of course, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory and his sake, we pray. Amen. Someday the silver board will
break And I no more as now shall seem But oh the joy when I shall wake
Within the palace of the King And I shall see Him face to face
And tell the story saved by grace And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story saved by grace. Someday my earthly house will
fall, I cannot tell how soon't will be, But this I know, my
all in all, Has now a place in heaven for me. And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story saved by grace. Someday when fades the golden
sun Beneath the rosy-tinted west My blessed Lord will say, well
done And I shall enter in to rest And I shall see Him face
to face, And tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him
face to face, And tell the story saved by grace. Someday till then I'll watch
and wait My lamp all trimmed and burning bright That when
my Savior opens the gate My soul to Him may take its flight And
I shall see Him face to face, And tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story saved by grace. I don't think Isaac snuck into
my house and looked at my notes, but that's what I'm going to
try to preach to you this morning. If you would, open your Bibles
with me again to the book of 1 Timothy. I've titled the message this
morning, A Pattern of Salvation. I took my title from verse 16
in 1 Timothy chapter 1. The apostle says, how be it for
this cause I obtain 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 Paul here says
that he is a pattern of salvation to those who would after him
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the pattern that I
want to look at this morning. If God has saved you, and if
you've saved yourself, God has saved you, you'll recognize this
pattern in your experience. And if you do not know the Lord,
and if the Lord is going to be pleased to save you, he's going
to save you the same way, following the same pattern by which he
saved Saul of Tarsus. And there are several key words
in our text I want to look at that show us this pattern that
God uses to save his elect. Now how we experience that salvation,
how it comes to us may differ, you know, somewhat. But the means
that God uses to save sinners is always going to follow this
pattern. And there are seven, I believe
I've got seven key words here that will show us this pattern.
And the first word is the gospel. God always saves his people through
the preaching of the gospel. That's why what we do here is
so important. God always uses the preaching
of the gospel to save his people. Verse 11, Paul says, according
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed
to my trust. God always and only saves his
people through the preaching of the gospel. God never uses
a lie to save anybody. He never uses false religion,
false preaching to save anybody. How can you believe on Christ
if you're hearing another Jesus preach? You can't trust Christ
if you're another Jesus preached. Salvation can only come by hearing
and believing the gospel. We can only be saved by believing
the Lord Jesus Christ who's declared in the gospel. There's not another. There's just one gospel. Faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Never a lie. And Saul of Tarsus is a pattern
of that truth. Saul of Tarsus was in orthodox
man. I mean, you know, I, in that
way, like to be orthodox as far as my doctrine, you know, following
the scripture. Saul of Tarsus was an orthodox man according
to the law, but he wasn't saved. Saul of Tarsus had scripture
memorized frontwards and backwards. Saul of Tarsus had the best Bible
teacher of that whole era. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel,
but he wasn't saved. Have you heard people brag and
say, so-and-so is my pastor. Be careful now. Be careful. I've
heard people say, so-and-so is my pastor and he's dead. Wait
a minute now. We're not saved by our orthodoxy.
We're not saved because of who our pastor is or how straight
and doctrinal his preaching was. Sinners are saved by Christ.
Saved by Christ. Through faith in Christ. Who God's servants preach. All
of them do. Look at Acts chapter 22. Here
is when Paul giving an account of when the Lord revealed himself
to him. And you'll notice here, Saul wasn't saved, and he was
not baptized until he heard the gospel preached. Acts chapter
22, verse 6. And it came to pass that as I
made my journey, it was come nigh unto Damascus about noon,
suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me,
and I fell into the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, Who art thou,
Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus
of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me saw
indeed the light, and they were afraid, but they heard not the
voice of him that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do,
Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus,
and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed
for thee to do. And when I could not see for
the glory of that light being led by the hand of them that
were with me, I came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man,
according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, came unto me and stood, and said unto me,
Brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same hour I looked upon
him, and he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee,
that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one,
and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt
be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.
And now, why tariest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Now Paul needed
a preacher, didn't he? He needed Ananias to come and
preach the gospel to him. And you'll notice when Ananias
preached the gospel, you notice where he began? He began with
election. That's the first thing he said.
The God of our fathers hath chosen thee. Have chosen thee. I've
heard people say, don't begin with preaching election, you
know, like, you know, wait and slip that in on them in the back
door. Ananias began preaching God's electing love. God hath
chosen thee. Paul needed somebody to come
and preach to him that gospel. And that's the same gospel God
will use for us to hear and make us hear and believe if he's pleased
to save us. First we must hear and believe
the gospel. But now the second word, look back in our text,
verse 12, verse Timothy 1, the second word is enabled Verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who hath enabled me. Now, we must be enabled. We must
hear the gospel, but we must be enabled to believe it. You
and I are born dead in sin. We're born dead in Adam. Now,
we're not spiritually or physically dead. We're spiritually dead.
And since we're spiritually dead, we can't do anything spiritual
any more than a dead man could do something physical. I cannot
believe Christ because I'm dead. I don't have the ability to.
I can't hear and believe and love any spiritual truth because
I have a dead nature. So if I'm going to hear the gospel,
God must enable me to hear the gospel. Now, I may have heard
the gospel with physical ears. I did. Many of you did heard
the gospel with physical ears many, many, many, many times.
More than I could count. But I didn't hear. I didn't hear.
Not with the ear of faith. Because I don't have one. My
ear's dead. Now in God's word, we are commanded. It's not an
option. We're commanded to repent. To repent of our sin. It's not
just repent of the evil things that we've done. Repentance means
to quit trusting what you used to trust in. Because whatever
you used to trust in is sinful. It's blasphemous. It's not Christ.
We're commanded to repent. to turn from those things and
to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. But by nature, I can't do it.
We're commanded to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but I can't do it. Of my own free will, I cannot
believe Christ. See, we're spiritually dead,
and the only thing a dead man can do is think. That's the only
thing we can do. We can't hear, we can't believe,
and we cannot worship God. We're dead. So when the Lord
saves his people, he enables his people to do what they cannot
do. We're commanded to do what we
cannot do. And when God saves his people, he enables them to
do what they cannot do. God gives them a new nature.
And that new man, he does repent. He does believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God enables his people to
repent by revealing Christ to their hearts. And he does it
through our first point, through the preaching of the gospel.
When God the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to our hearts, I promise
you, we'll be enabled to see Christ. If He reveals Christ
to us and we see Him, I promise you, we're going to turn from
whatever it is we used to trust in and trust in Christ and believe
on Him. All we have to do is be given
a sight of Him, being able to see, and then we'll believe.
But we cannot believe on Christ unless God the Holy Spirit enables
us. And if God has saved you, you
know that's true about yourself. You couldn't believe. And the
only reason you do now is God has enabled you. The only reason
you can hear and love the gospel now, whereas you used to hate
it, whereas it used to hold no attraction to you whatsoever,
is God's enabled you. He's enabled you to believe.
Alright, the third word in our text here in verse 12 is counted. Paul said, I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord who has enabled me for that he counted me faithful."
Now Paul says God counted him faithful. And just like the Apostle
Paul, God counts all of his people to be faithful. Just like he
counted Abraham to be righteous. He counts all of his people to
be righteous. Now here's why God's elect can
be counted faithful. God counts his people, or he
reckons his people to be something, because that's what God made
them. God's elect are counted to be righteous because that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ made them. He made them righteous.
See, God only imputes. He only counts what's actually
there. When God imputes or He accounts
someone to be righteous, He accounts them to be righteous because
that's what Christ made them to be. They're the righteousness
of God in Him. And God counts His people to
be faithful. Because that's what God has made
them to be. He's given them faith and He
makes them faithful. God's people are faithful to
our calling. They're faithful to believe Christ
and they're faithful to continue believing on Christ. You know
why they continue to be faithful? Because God won't let them quit. He won't let them. God's people
are faithful to the work that God has given them to do in His
kingdom. It may be preaching. It may be
being faithful to attend the worship service. It may be that
you're faithful to encourage one another with a kind word,
a card, a call, a text, whatever. You're faithful to encourage
one another. You're faithful in giving. You're
faithful in praying. Whatever it is God's enabled
you to do, you're faithful to do it. Because God's made you
faithful. And this is what God's people
say. By the grace of God I am what I am. I'm not looking at
how faithful I am to be the evidence of salvation. Now, by the grace
of God, I am what I am. And just like the Lord counted
Paul faithful, He's counted you faithful. He's counted you righteous
because that's what He's made you to be. And if God is the
one who saved you, you know that's true of yourself. You see how
God's done that for you. God has made you what you are.
It's God who made us. and not we ourselves. God counts
His people to be what He's made them to be. He's made them to
be perfect in His Son, complete in Christ. All right, the fourth
word is put. At the end of verse 12, Paul
says, Who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Now, that's true of every preacher.
God's put us in the ministry. But now that's not just true
of preachers. That's true of every child of God. We are exactly where God has
put us. You're not here accidentally. You're not here randomly. God's
put you here. This is the place God's put you
to worship Him and to serve Him and His kingdom. And the same
thing is true of salvation. Do you know why God's people
are saved? Because the Father, before time
began, put them in Christ. That's why. The only reason that
I'm in Christ is God has put me there. I didn't decide to
come to Jesus all on my own. God put me there. Now, I did
come because God drew me with everlasting bands of love. But the only reason I came is
because God already put me in Christ. And the reason you and
I are here in this ministry together is God has put us in the ministry.
All of us. Now, not just me. Not just Eric.
All of us. He's put us in this ministry.
The only reason that I preach Christ is God put me in a ministry. I try to do everything else. God put me here. And the reason
that you're here, the reason that you so faithfully support
and help this ministry, pray for this ministry, are the backbone
of this ministry is God put you in this ministry to this community. God put you there. And you know
that that's true. If God is the one who saved you,
you know that's true about yourself. All right, the fifth word is
before. Verse 13, Paul says, who was
before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious? Who was before? Now, we all have a before. We all have a history that we're
ashamed of. You know, if you've been, if
you've always been saved, you've never been lost in sin, My friend,
you've been saved too long. No, we all have a before. I once was lost. That's my before. I was lost. I was lost in sin. I was lost in shame. I was lost
in guilt. I was separated from God. I once
was lost and had no idea how to get back. I once was lost,
but now I'm found. See, God only saves people who
have a past, who have a sinful past. In verse 16, Paul says
that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering. We all have a past that God has
been longsuffering with us in our sinful past. God is longsuffering
with sinners who have such a shameful past because God only saves those
kinds of people. He only saves sinners. Verse
15, the apostle said, this is a faithful sin. and worthy of
all acceptation, this is worthy for everybody to accept and believe,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief. Now this saying, this gospel
that we preach, is worthy to be believed. I don't know why
you wouldn't believe it. I honestly don't. I mean, I know
why you don't, but I don't know why you wouldn't. I don't know
why anybody wouldn't believe this gospel. It's worthy to be
believed. This gospel that we preach, it's not to be debated.
It's not to be questioned. It's to be believed. You know
why it's to be believed? Because it's true. It's true. That's why this gospel is worthy
to be believed because it glorifies God. That in and of itself is
the reason to believe the gospel. It glorifies God in all of his
attributes. But at the same time, this gospel
meets the need of sinners. Is this gospel for you? Does
this meet your need? The gospel is worthy to be believed
because at the same time it glorifies God, puts man in the dust, and
meets the need of sinners. That's why it's worthy. This
gospel that we preach, the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace,
puts God in His rightful place upon the throne as the sovereign,
as the mercy giver. And it puts man in His rightful
place. as a dead sinner who's hopeless
in himself. But here's the good news. Christ
came to save sinners. Let's look at this word by word.
Christ came. He came. Now, if Christ came,
that means he was somewhere before he came. He came here, but he
was somewhere else before he got here. Where was he? He was
in glory with the Father. He was daily the delight of his
Father. He is the Son of God come to
earth. That means the Lord Jesus Christ
is God. And since He's God, He's able
to save. He's got the power to save. He's
got the holiness to save. He's got the righteousness to
save. He's got the love to save sinners because He is God. He's able to save the worst of
sinners. He came. He came to earth as
God in human flesh. And he came for this purpose.
He came to save sinners. That's why he came. And I love
the way that the apostle writes this. Paul doesn't say Christ
came to save God's elect. Now that would be a true statement,
wouldn't it? Absolutely. That's who Christ,
it's an undeniable fact. Christ came to save God's elect
and only God's elect. But that's not what Paul says
here. Paul says Christ came to save sinners. And I'm glad the
Spirit moved Paul to write it that way. I may not know if I'm
one of the elect, but I know I'm a sinner. I mean, I got that
figured out. I know that I'm a sinner. Then
Christ came to save me. And I tell you the thing about
sinners. Sinners have no problem with God's electing love. It's
the only way I could be saved. But this is Christ came to save
sinners. I fit that bill. And Christ came
to save me. Paul says Christ came to save
sinners. He didn't say that Christ came to save those who would
believe. Although that's a true statement.
Christ came to save those who would believe. But if you say
it that way, it makes it sound like salvation is dependent on
you being able to believe, doesn't it? And that's not what Paul
said. I'm glad the Spirit moved Paul to write it this way. That
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Because I learned
this from experience. I can't make myself believe.
Couldn't do it. But I do know I'm a sinner. Then
Christ came to save me and he will enable me to believe. And
notice this too. Paul says Christ came to save
sinners of who I am, chief. He didn't say of who I used to
be chief, who I was chief. I am the chief. Even right now. And again, I am so glad the Spirit
moved the apostle to write it this way. Because think about
it. If Paul said, Christ came to
save sinners of whom I was chief, that would cause you and me to
doubt every day. It would cause us to fear. Because
if Paul is saying that when a person is saved, they get better and
better and better, and less and less and less sinful, I would
doubt and fear. Because that's not my experience.
Is it your experience? That's not my experience. I have
found myself sinning less, getting better and better and better.
If repentance means that I repent of my sin and never sin again,
never go back to that sin again, then I haven't repented. And
you haven't either. See, I'm glad God's people don't
have to grow better and better and better. And they don't have
to sin less and less and less as the evidence that God has
saved us. Because if that were so, That
would make us trust in ourselves and not trust in Christ. I want
this written so that I have no option but to trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. I want to preach the gospel in
such a way that you and I have no option but to trust Christ. And when the apostle says here,
I am the chief of sinners, now that gives us hope in Christ.
Now let me say this, a believer absolutely should grow in grace. Our conduct must be changed. If we believe Christ, our conduct
must be changed. Must be. Jonathan, there's a
new sheriff in town. Things are going to change. Our
conduct must change. But don't be looking to that
change of conduct. Don't be looking to that as growing
in grace in something you find in you as evidence of salvation. Don't do that. You're going to
be sorely disappointed. The best state, the absolute
best state you and I can hope for in this world, the best state,
is to be a sinner. A sinner saved by grace. And
even after God saves us, we've got to remember this, we're a
sinner. I mean, the old nature has not changed. We're sinners
who have a past, who have a present, and who have a future in this
life. And that past, that present,
that future is so sinful The only hope we have is to depend
on Christ alone. And the worst kind, the worst
kind, and I point this out because this people is a religious people. I mean, you're so faithful to
the services. There's something about religion
that's important to you. There's something about this
gospel that's important to you. You're here every week. You know, most of us, many of
us had grown up hearing nothing but the gospel. Nothing, nothing
but the gospel. And now you remember this. Tell
you where you find the very worst sinners on the face of the planet. Is in the pew. In the pew. The worst kind of sin, the most
shameful kind of past. It's not somebody that's been
found in the bars and the brothels and the dens of iniquity, you
know, looking for love in all the wrong places. The worst kind
of sin is in man's religion, in man's false religion. The
worst kind of sin is to be found listening to the gospel, preached
by a faithful pastor, and still being self-righteous. So self-righteous
that you won't trust Christ. It's the worst kind of sin. Paul's
a pattern of that. Paul was a religious, moral man. He says, as touching the law,
I was blameless. You couldn't find anything he
did outwardly wrong. You couldn't point to anything he did in violation
of the law. That's why he prospered in that
religion. But Paul doesn't say that I was
a good, moral person. He says I was a blasphemer. A
blasphemer. See, false religion, with all
of its words, it sounds so sweet to the flesh. is blasphemy. It's blasphemy against God. There's
nothing good in it. Nobody's going to get anything
good from it. It's blasphemy. To say that the
flesh is something good, that there can be something good in
your flesh, that's blasphemy. It's blasphemy against God who
is good. To say that the flesh is something
good, that you can get something good out of the flesh, is blasphemy
against the Word of God. which says there's none good,
no not one. To say that being nice and kind
and sweet to people and being a good neighbor, to say that's
righteousness is blasphemy against Christ who is our righteousness.
He is the only righteousness that there is and we have none
that we've produced of ourselves. That's blasphemy. To preach the
law, to try to control people, to try to get them to act nicer
and act better, that's blasphemy. It's blasphemy against the gospel
of God. And I tell you what, it injures
people. To get somebody to act better
on the outside, you're not helping anybody if you're using the law
to do that. That injures people. It injures
their souls. By damning their souls, by turning
them away from Christ, to trust the law. To trust their own obedience
to the law. And to preach that false gospel.
And to support it. And to not reject it entirely. It's not harmless. You're not
being neutral like Switzerland. It's blasphemy. It's injurious. It injures and it persecutes
the people of God by opposing the truth. And you and I are
sinners. We're dead in sin and there's
nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous. We're all the chief
of sinners. And for the chief of sinners,
you know what we need? We need Christ to come. and do
all of the saving for us. And to preach anything else injures
God's people and injures anybody that listens to it and believes
it, because it damns them by giving them a false hope. If
God has saved you, you know this is true about yourself. You have
an embarrassing, sinful past. And the only one who could come
and save you from your sin is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the
sixth word is mercy. In verse 13, Paul says, but I
obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelieved. Now let me give you something
here that will help you. What is Paul saying here when
he says I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelieved?
Well, he's not making an excuse for sin. Ignorance of the law,
ignorance of sin is never an excuse. And let's just be honest. It's not an excuse we could use
anyway, is it? Because almost all of our sin
is willful sin and willful rebellion. Yes, we have sin of ignorance. We're so sinful we don't even
realize half the sin that we do. But most of our sin is willful. So we can't use this excuse that,
oh, I was ignorant. This is what Paul is saying.
He's not making an excuse. He's saying, I was so ignorant
of God's righteousness I was so ignorant of the way that God
saves sinners that the only way I could be saved is if God was
merciful to me. See, God doesn't forgive sin
because a sinner doesn't know any better. If that were true,
we'd be hurting men and preaching the gospel. If God would forgive
sin just because somebody doesn't know any better, well, we're
wasting our time preaching the gospel. We're hurting people.
We're telling them what sin is and then God won't forgive them.
God doesn't forgive sin because the sinner doesn't know any better.
That would make mercy dependent on the character of the sinner.
God forgives sin because God is merciful to sinners. See,
that makes mercy dependent on the character of God, not on
the character of the sinner. And Paul's not saying he wasn't
responsible for his sin just because he was ignorant. No,
I am responsible for my sin. My sin is my fault. It's not Adam's fault. It's my
fault. It's not the fault of my environment. It's my fault. You put me in a perfect environment.
You put me in a perfect environment and I'll ruin the perfect environment
because sin's in me. Sin's in my nature. Sin's my
fault and God will never save me. God will never save you until
sin's your fault. God will never save me until
my sin is my fault. I'll never be saved until I'm
guilty. I'll never be forgiven until
I'm guilty. I'll never be found until I'm
lost. And this is what Paul's saying.
His sin was his fault. And he said, my sin was so great.
My before was so shameful, so great in sin that the only way
my sin could be forgiven is if God freely gave me mercy. That's
the only way. Now Paul says, I did these things
in unbelief. Well, again, that's not an excuse.
It's just a statement of fact. Of course you did these things
in unbelief. You can't have faith till God gives it to you. Paul
said, I was a blasphemer. And I blasphemed because I did
not believe God. I did not believe Christ and
I didn't know God. I was so dead in my unbelief
that the only way I could be saved is if I obtained mercy,
that God gave me mercy. I'm such a horrible sinner, the
only way I could be saved is if God did not give me what I
deserve. And that's mercy. That's mercy.
And God's mercy is sovereign mercy. He gives it. He gives
it. He gives it to whom He will.
Paul said, I obtained mercy. Because God gave it to me freely. And He gave it to him sovereignly.
We just read Paul's account of when God threw him down in the
dust, and appeared to him. When God called Saul of Tarsus,
nobody heard in that whole traveling party. Nobody heard but Saul. No, they saw light, but they
didn't hear the voice. God didn't have mercy on anybody
else in that traveling party. Everybody in that traveling party
did the same thing Saul of Tarsus was doing. They're going to Damascus
to persecute those of this way, Christians. And God saved one
of them. He pulled one brain from the
fire, plucked one. See, Paul didn't deserve mercy.
He obtained it because God gave it to him freely. He obtained
it because he was a chosen vessel. He was one of God's elect and
God chose to have mercy on this man. That's why he obtained mercy. And if God has saved you, you'll
say the same thing about yourself. I obtained mercy because I didn't,
not because I deserved it, not because I earned it, because
God gave it to me freely. I obtained mercy. And the last
word is grace. Verse 14. And the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. Now, grace is God giving us what
we do not deserve. And God gives his people grace. He gives them what they do not
deserve by giving them what Christ, their representative, earned
for them. You can never separate God's grace from salvation. God's people are saved by grace.
By free, sovereign, electing, saving, calling, keeping grace. And the objects of God's grace
are always saved. Always. You can't separate grace
and salvation. You can't separate saving grace
from saving faith. Salvation is by grace through
faith. When God gives grace, when He
gives His people what they do not deserve, He gives them faith
to believe Christ. And they believe. You also cannot
separate grace from love. God gives grace to sinners because
He loves His people. That's why God saves sinners,
because He loves them. I was talking to a good friend
of mine this week. He asked me this question. He said, what
do you think about the rich young ruler? When he left and it says
that the Lord loved him. He said, what do you think that
means? I said, I think it means the Lord loved him. And since
the Lord loved him, oh, he left right then. He left at that moment.
But he came back. I'm just convinced of it. He
came back. Because God's love is never in
vain. If the Lord Jesus loved him at
that moment, He loved him with an everlasting love. And He drew
that man back. You can't separate God's grace,
saving grace from God's love. God saves sinners because He
loves His people. And when God gives grace to that
person, not only does God love that person, that person in return
is going to love God. He's going to love the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's going to believe the one
that He loves. And he's going to love God's
people. And if God has saved you, that's your experience.
This is what you'll say. The only reason I'm saved is
because God gave me what I did not deserve. He gave me grace. He gave me righteousness that
Christ earned for me. He gave me forgiveness of my
sin that Christ earned by His sacrifice for me. He gave me
faith because it's His free gift. God saved me by His grace. He
saved me because he loved me before time was. And when God's
been gracious to me, I love him in return. That's the pattern
of salvation. I know many of you see that pattern,
don't you? You see that pattern in yourself.
And I pray if you don't, that you will right soon, that you
will right soon. Let's bow together. faithful saint that's worthy
of all acceptation. This gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the pattern that you use to save your people is worthy
to be believed. And Father, I pray that you would
enable us this morning, that you would enable each one here
to believe, to see and believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
it's for your glory's sake that we pray. We pray you'd get much
glory to yourself By revealing Your Son to the hearts of Your
people, to the hearts of each one here, Father, get much glory
to Yourself. Let us see Your glory and Your
mercy and grace to Your people. Enable us to see and believe
the Lord Jesus Christ. For the sake of His name, for
the sake of His glory, that we pray and give thanks. Amen.