Our Bible is the first Timothy
chapter one. First Timothy chapter one. Up
till now, each of the epistles that we've looked at in our study
through the Bible have been epistles that were written to specific
churches. But the next three epistles that we'll look at,
beginning with this morning's, are called pastoral epistles
because they're written to pastors. They're written to Timothy and
to Titus. And in these letters, the apostle Paul gives us the
qualifications of pastors. He tells us how pastors are to
conduct themselves as they lead God's sheep. And these epistles
give us the doctrine, they give us the message that all of God's
pastors preach. The job of God's pastors is to
preach Christ. We ought not overcomplicate that.
Our job is to preach Christ, to preach the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I've entitled the message
this morning, the mission of Christ. God sent his son into
the world to accomplish God's purpose, the purpose of the salvation
of his elect. That was the mission that Christ
came to accomplish, to save God's elect. He did not come to try
to save every son of Adam. The Lord Jesus did not come to
make an offer of salvation to you to see if you decide to accept
it or to reject it. Christ came to save his people
from their sins and that's exactly what he did. His mission is accomplished. So there's no chance that any
of God's elect will ever perish because it's God's will that
they have eternal life and Christ came and accomplished it. He
fulfilled that will. There's no chance that anyone
that God willed to save can perish. God's not God if he can't accomplish
his will. If Christ came, as the Armenians
say, to save everyone, but yet people still go to hell, then
God's not God. According to that doctrine, God's
not God because he can't accomplish his will. But God is God. So he always accomplishes his
will, doesn't he? So first I want us to look at
the mission of Christ, his mission of salvation, the mission to
accomplish God's will that he came to do. And then I want us
to see an example of mission accomplished. First, Christ's
mission is to save his people. Verse 15 of 1 Timothy chapter
1. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
Everybody ought to accept and believe this, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Now our gospel
is a faithful message. It's a trustworthy message. It's
worthy of all of our trust and all of our faith because the
subject of our message is Christ and he's trustworthy. Our gospel
is worthy to be believed. It's worthy to be relied upon
by every sinner because the message of the gospel is salvation, not
on what you do, but on what Christ has already accomplished for
his people. Christ came to this earth on a mission and his mission
was, it's a very simple mission. to save sinners. Paul says Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came into the
world. Now, if he came into the world,
he had to come from somewhere else. Is that kind of obvious? If he came into the world, he
had to come from somewhere else. Well, where did he come from?
He came from heaven. He came from the Father. The
Father sent him here to do something. The eternal Son of God came to
this earth as a man. A child is born, but a son is
given. Why would the father send his
precious son to this earth as a man? Why would he require his
son to humiliate himself, to appear as a man, to appear just
like the creature? So that he could accomplish the
father's will of redemption. Look in John chapter 6. John the 6th chapter. Our Lord
told us specifically, that's why he came, to accomplish the
will of his Father. John 6, let's begin reading in
verse 37. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Now why is it that all the Father
gave to Christ will come to me? Why is it that every sinner that
comes to Christ will never be cast out? Well, here's why. Because he fulfilled the will
of his father, the will of redemption. Verse 38. For I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, I came to do the will of him
that sent me. And this is the father's will which has sent
me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is
the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the
son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And I'll
raise him up at the last day. That's the will of the father.
And Christ came and he accomplished all of that will. It was the
eternal will of the father to save a people that he chose on
the salvation he gave to his son to say. And at that moment,
God chose them at that moment in eternity, when Christ stood
as their surety, they were saved. They were justified at that moment
before the world was created. in the will and the purpose of
God, they were justified. They were justified in the blood
of Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
But now their salvation had to be accomplished in time, didn't
it? And that's why the father sent his son. In time he came
to accomplish God's will. God the son came to this earth
as a man, as a representative man. He came as the second Adam.
You see, a man, had to undo what man had already done. If men
are going to be saved, they've got to be saved through another
man, not the first Adam, the second Adam. They've got to be
saved by a representative man. The second Adam came to undo
what the first Adam did to us. The first Adam put his race under
sin, under the guilt and condemnation of sin by his disobedience. The
second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, restored his people to all the
blessings of life and glory and righteousness by his obedience. The first Adam condemned his
people to sin and death. He made us guilty of sin and
that sin must be paid for. But our problem is we've got
a sin debt we cannot pay. We don't have anything to pay
it with. So the father sent his son to pay the sin debt of his
people. But what a cost. What a cost had to be paid. The
father made his holy son sin. And then he punished Christ our
substitute with all of God's holy fury and wrath against sin. And as Christ suffered and died,
he bled. He bled out and died. And that
precious blood of Christ he shed in his sacrifice for his people,
the blood that was taken behind the veil before the father, paid
for all the sin that was laid upon him. His blood blotted out
the sin of his people so that it does not exist anymore. And
the father's pleased. He's satisfied with the sacrifice
of his son because the sacrifice of Christ removed the sin that
offended a holy God. Christ Jesus came on this to
this world. He came into this world on a
mission. Now, what was his mission? His mission was to save. It wasn't
try to save. It wasn't to make salvation possible. He came to save. Who did Christ
save? Who did he come to save? I need
to be saved. I want to know who did he come
to save. He saved sinners. He came to save the worst of
sinners. Paul said, of whom I'm chief. Chief means the foremost, the
worst. Christ came to save the worst
sinners. He came to save real sinners.
That's what that means. Real bonafide sinners. And you know what? Christ saved
every sinner who ever lived. Yes, He did. He saved every sinner. That was His mission and He accomplished
it. Now you'll say, now wait a minute,
isn't everybody a sinner? You just said He didn't save
everybody. Well, you're right, he didn't save everybody, but
everybody's not a sinner. You just ask them. No, they're
not. But if you find a sinner, I've
got good news for them. Christ Jesus came to save sinners
and he did it. By his righteousness, by his
sacrifice, he saved to the uttermost every sinner. Well, What's a
sinner? And the reason I ask, or who's
a sinner? The reason I ask that is I want to know, did Christ
save me? If I'm a sinner, he saved me.
Am I a sinner? Let me give you a couple of things.
Number one, a sinner is someone who sees that everything they
do, everything they think, everything they desire is sin. Look back here at Genesis chapter
six. Here is such a clear description in just one verse of our nature.
In Genesis chapter six, verse five. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every imagination, everything
he thought, everything he did was only evil continually. Now that wasn't just the nature
of man in Noah's day. That's the nature of man for
always. That's the nature of man that's in our hearts. Every
one of our heart this morning, that's the nature, the nature
of Adam that's in our heart. And the reason that's true is
the flesh will never change because it can't change. The flesh can
only be flesh. It can only be sinful, rotten
flesh. But a sinner is someone who knows
that, that everything I do, everything I think, everything I want to
do, is sin because my nature is dead in sin. Second, a sinner
is someone who knows they can't quit sinning. You know, I hate
these false prophets that just say, you know, just change your
ways and turn over a new leaf and God will save you. Well,
that doesn't help me none because I can't change my ways. I can't. I can't change my ways because
I can't change my sinful nature. This is what a sinner knows.
A sinner knows the only way that I can ever be holy is if God
gives me a new nature, because my old one can't be changed.
I cannot be righteous by anything I do. The only way I can be righteous
is in another, in the obedience of another, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thirdly, a sinner is someone who knows I can't look down my
nose at anybody, because nobody's a worse sinner than me. Now,
not only is this a faithful saying, it's a famous saying, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief.
Every believer says it. Oh, I'm the chief of sinners.
But I'll tell you what, if somebody agrees with us and says, you
know, you're right, you're the worst sinner I've ever seen, we're
going to get mad at them for agreeing with us. But this is
what a sinner knows. Now, you know, unfortunately,
we would get mad at somebody for calling us what we really
are, the chief of sinners. But this is what every sinner
knows. It takes the same grace to save
me as it took to save a harlot, or a murderer, or a drug user,
or whatever vile thing you want to think of. It took the same
grace to save me as it did them, because I'm just as guilty. I'm
just as vile. I've got the exact same nature
from which I must be saved. My friends, guilty is guilty. There's no degrees of guilty.
Guilty is guilty. Dead is dead. There's no degrees
of dead. I'm just as guilty. So it takes
the same grace to save me as it took to save the worst sinner
who's ever lived. The worst sinner by, you know,
outward sinner by our estimation. And then fourthly, who's a sinner?
A sinner is someone who knows they can't get, they can't do
anything to get God to save him. So they know they're totally
dependent on God to save them by His grace. Christ did not
come to help those who will help themselves. Christ came to save
those who cannot help themselves. That's what a sinner is. A sinner
is someone who is totally dependent upon God's grace to save them
because they can't do anything to deserve it. Grace is getting
what we do not deserve. If I'm going to be saved, God's
got to give me what I don't deserve. He's got to give me what Christ
earned for me. That's who a sinner is. Christ came to save sinners. That's who a sinner is. Are you
a sinner? Christ came to save you. Well, here's another question. What is it to be saved? Everybody
says, are you saved or saved? I'm born again, I'm saved. What
is it to be saved? To be saved is not to have a
changed behavior. To be saved is to be given a
new nature. To be saved is not to be saved from hell so you
can go to heaven. All that is, it's just a fire
escape. That's not salvation. Salvation
is to be saved from sin. Salvation is to be saved from
the condemnation of sin because Christ suffered your condemnation
as your substitute. To be saved is to be saved from
the controlling power of sin because Christ has given you
a new nature. To be saved from sin is to one day, in glory,
to be delivered from even the presence of sin because we're
made just like Christ. The glory of heaven is not the
place. The glory of heaven is the person
who reigns there and that we'll be made just like him. To be
saved from sin is to know Christ. Whom to know is life eternal.
To be saved is to know Christ as your representative. That
you're not saved because of anything you did. It's because of what
your representative did for you. To be saved is to know Christ
as your sacrifice. His sacrifice is the only way
my sin could be paid for. I can't make up for it, you know,
by doing something better. The only way my sin can be put
away is through the sacrifice of Christ, my substitute. He
took what I deserve. To be saved is to know Christ
as all of your hope of salvation. It's all in Him. Now that's the
salvation that Christ accomplished for all of His people. Now next
I want us to see an example of Christ's mission accomplished.
Verse 16, back in our text, 1 Timothy chapter 1. 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. Now Paul says he's a pattern
of how God saves sinners. And this pattern that God uses
is the pattern he uses to reveal himself in and to all of his
people. You watch and see if this pattern
does not fit your experience if you're a believer. First,
here's the pattern. Salvation is in the mercy of
God. Paul said, I obtained mercy. Now, mercy is not giving us what
we deserve, not giving us the punishment that we deserve. Well,
how can a holy God not give me what I deserve? Because he gave
Christ my substitute, what I deserve. That's God's mercy. That's how
God can save sinners and still be God. God can save sinners. He can give sinners eternal life
and remain holy, remain just, remain God by punishing our sin
in our substitute. That's mercy. Do you want mercy? Do you want to be saved? It begins
with God's mercy. Ask God to give you mercy. Second,
salvation is through faith in Christ. Paul told the Ephesians,
by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God. Look back up here in verse 12
of chapter one of first Timothy. Paul says, I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me in the ministry. God enabled Paul to be an apostle
and he put Paul in the ministry. Well, that that's a pattern of
how God saves sinners. God enables all of his people
to believe Christ and he enables us. He puts us into the body
of Christ. Now, salvation is by faith, by
faith in Christ. I've known that from as long
as I've understood language, I knew that. So here's what we
try to do. We try to make ourselves believe. You can't do it. I mean, you
cannot make yourself believe. The only way we'll ever believe
Christ is if God gives us the gift of faith. One day you just
believe. What happened? God gave you faith. The only way we can be counted
faithful is if God makes us faithful. He gives us faith to believe
Christ. Do you want to be? Is there any sinner here this
morning that wants to be saved? Ask God for mercy and ask God
to give you faith to believe. Lord, I can't believe. Would
you give me faith to believe? Would you reveal Christ to me?
Here's a third way, Paul, is a pattern of salvation. Salvation
is only for sinners. Verse 13, who was before a blasphemer
and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because
I did it ignorantly and unbelief. Here's why Paul says I'm the
chief of sinners. Here's why I was the worst of
sinners. The Apostle Paul grew up all
around the truth. He knew the scriptures. He knew
the Old Testament law frontwards and backwards. He knew all the
types. All of them. And he didn't believe Christ.
He said, oh, I was religious. I was a blasphemer. Blasphemers
are not those who work out on the dock somewhere and they cuss
and curse and swear and talk nasty and do all this horrible
stuff. No, a blasphemer is a religious person. Religious. Blasphemers
are those people who blaspheme. the name of Christ by saying,
you need something more than Christ alone to be saved. That's
a blasphemy. You can do something to earn
your salvation. That's a blasphemy. Someone who
tells you, now you start keeping the law and acting better, you'll
be righteous. God, at least he'll be more pleased
with you than he is with somebody else. That's a blasphemy. That's a blasphemous statement.
They say, now just decide for Jesus. Decide to let Jesus be
king of your life. Decide to let Him have control.
Decide to let Him into your heart and you'll be saved. Don't you
listen to it. That's a blasphemy. Blasphemous
state. Don't you listen to it. That's
blasphemy. Because it takes the glory. It
takes the credit for salvation away from Christ and gives it
to you. Even if it's just a little bit that makes it blasphemy.
And that's the worst sin. I can't think of anything worse
than blaspheming the name of Christ by giving credit for salvation
to fallen flesh. That's a sinner. That's who Christ saves. Sinners. And Paul says, I was zealous.
I was zealous. But you know, his zeal couldn't
make him be saved, could it? Actually, his zeal drove him
the wrong way. Natural zeal. always takes you the wrong way.
You know, don't get your flesh all pumped up to worship because
it'll take you the wrong way. Paul's zeal drove him to hate
Christ. It drove him to hate the people
of God. It drove him to just in a stiff neck rebellion, refuse
to bow and surrender to Christ. Couldn't be saved by a zeal.
The zeal drove him the wrong way. And he said, I did all this
ignorantly. Now that's not an excuse because
there's never an excuse for sin. And it's not the reason that
Paul saved him. God didn't say, oh, he's just ignorant. He doesn't
know better. He didn't mean to do it. That's
not what Paul's saying at all. What he's saying is when he says
he did it ignorantly, he's explaining his nature of sin. It's a nature
that's ignorant. It's a nature that does not know
God. So everything I did, I did in
unbelief because by nature, I can't believe God. That's a sinner. And it looks like would look
to you and me like, Oh, Saul of Tarsus is a lost cause. Saul of Tarsus would be a TV
evangelist today and he'd be a successful one. I want to tell
you at a young age, he was a member of the Sanhedrin ruling over
Israel. He'd be a successful TV minister
and we'd hate him. I mean, you and I, we'd talk
about, did you see what that fellow said on TV? You know, he's a
lost cause. He's out there as loudly as he
can get in a hearing. blaspheming the name of God. He's got a lot of zeal, but his
zeal drives him to hate God, to hate the truth. This man hated
grace. And he's ignorant. He's ignorant
of what the scriptures mean. He's ignorant of who God is.
He's ignorant of what sin is, of how God saves sinners. He's
a lost cause. That brings me to the fourth
way Paul's a pattern of salvation. Salvation is by grace. Look here
at verse 14. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Paul said it's clear to everybody. After everything I've done, after
who I am, I did not deserve God's salvation. But He saved me anyway
by His grace. He didn't give me what I deserve.
He gave me what Christ earned for me. And that's the story
of every believer. I don't care where you find them,
every believer loves the message of salvation by grace. Because
only grace can save a lost cause like me. It's good when a person finally
sees themselves as a lost cause. When they just come to a point
of utter despair because I'm a lost cause. Hope left for me. That's good. I think that's good. I thought, you know, everybody's
supposed to feel good about themselves. They're supposed to make everybody
feel good about themselves. It's good that they have no hope
that they're a lost cause. Yes, it is. Because when you
see yourself as a lost cause, no hope. Now you're a candidate
for grace. When you don't have any other
hope, but grace in Christ Jesus, you've got a good hope. That's
a good hope. Christ came, he saved his people
by grace. Here's the fifth way. Look in
Acts 22 where we read to open the service. Here's the fifth
way Paul's a pattern of salvation. Paul was saved when he heard
the gospel in God-given faith. When he didn't just hear it with
fleshly ears, He knew what these people said. He knew what those
Christians, he knew what they said. That's why they aided him.
He aided them. That's why he's trying to go
throw them in jail. He heard what they said and he aided them.
But one day he heard in faith and he believed, just like everyone
God saves. Acts 22 verse three. Here he
is making his defense. He said, I'm verily a man which
am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in
this city at the feet of Gamaliel. He's the best teacher of the
day. And I was taught according to the perfect manner of the
law of the fathers and was zealous toward God as you all are this
day. Saul of Tarsus, he hated Christ. He hated the gospel and he hated
anyone who believed Christ. That's why he was so zealous
in his hatred because it's the zeal of his sin nature. And what
Saul of Tarsus shows us is Salvation must be by grace through faith. Because you can't be educated
into it. Paul had the best teacher ever was. Couldn't be educated
into it. Paul, or Saul showed us, salvation's
got to be by faith. It's got to be through the obedience
of another, because I can't earn my own righteousness. Paul said,
I thought I was blameless once. I thought I was just perfect
once. Now I count all that, but dumb. I just count it manure.
I count it my own righteousness. You know, we ought to be zealous
toward God, but religious zeal is not going to save us. Natural
religious zeal, like I said, is going to take us the wrong
way. If a sinner is going to be saved, it's got to be by grace
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing's changed from
Saul's day to our day. It's the same way God saved sinners
today, hearing the gospel in faith. Verse 6, here's how he
heard in faith. It came to pass that as I made
my journey and was coming to Damascus, about noon, suddenly
there shone from heaven a great light round about me. Now this
light, I mean, it was noon. The sun was already at its highest
point. It wasn't the light of the sun. He'd been in the sun
for a while. It wasn't the brightness of the sun that unhorsed him
and got him. This light is Christ. Christ
the light. It's the same light that appeared
in Genesis 1, verse 3, when God said, let there be light. and
there was light, and it was good. That light wasn't the sun. The
sun wasn't created until the fourth day. That light was Christ. Christ appeared. And that same
light, Christ, the light of the world, in the midst of his rebellion,
appeared to Saul of Tarsus. The light appeared. And everyone
God saves is going to see Christ that exact same way. Going to
see Christ, the light of the world, Now Paul saw him in person. He's an apostle. You and I are
going to see him in his word. He's going to reveal himself
to us in the gospel. He's going to reveal himself
to our heart. And when the light shines, now we can see. Before Christ comes, we're in
darkness. We're blind. We can't see. But when the light
comes, now we can see. Now I can see myself as I really
am. Now in the light of Christ, I
can see how much I need him. I can see my only hope of salvation. The light appeared. Read on verse
seven. And I fell into the ground and
heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And I answered and said, 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 were afraid, but they heard not the voice
of him that spake to me. Now, you know, everyone God saves
is just like Saul of Tarsus. He hears the voice of Christ. He doesn't just hear the voice
of the preacher. He hears Christ speaking to the heart. You all
know me. You know, many of you know me
a long time. I grew up hearing the greatest
preacher of our generation. You know, I loved him. I admired
him. But for many years, all I heard
was a preacher. All I heard was him. And it didn't
help me none. One day, God spoke to the heart. And I thought, oh, that's what
he's been saying. The only way I could ever see
is if God spoke to the heart. I want to be a good preacher.
I really do. I want to be a good, clear, solid
preacher. I want you to be able to understand
what I'm saying. But I'm telling you what, if
all you ever hear is me, you're in deep trouble. God saves his
people one at a time. Here's a whole congregation.
All of y'all are hearing the preacher speak. You're hearing
me. But could be, this is my prayer, could be God's speaking
to somebody's heart. Maybe somebody's hearing. Maybe
the light went on. And you think, didn't everybody
hear that? Didn't everybody see that? How come everybody didn't hear
that? How come everybody's not rejoicing
like this? It's just like old Saul here. That light appeared. He saw Christ. Nobody else just
saw a light. They thought of thunder or lightning
or something. They just saw a light. There
was something going on, but they didn't see Christ. They heard
something. They thought, well, thunder.
Paul heard a voice. He heard Christ himself speaking
to him. Why couldn't they hear? Why couldn't
they see? It's right there. Because God
was speaking to Paul. He was speaking to his heart.
And if God saved you, you know exactly what that is. God speaks
to the heart. Maybe the person next to you
didn't hear, but you did. Because God speaks to the heart
of his people. That's how he makes his people
hear him in faith. He himself speaks straight to
the heart. Read on, verse 10. What's the
reaction when we hear Christ speak to us? 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. Everyone God
saves is given obedience. They're given the obedience of
faith. What would you have me do? I surrender. I bow. You tell me what to do and I'll
do it. God commands all men everywhere to repent and believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everybody God saves is given
that obedience. We repent of our sin and we turn
to Christ from our idols. We believe Him. I believe you. I rely on Christ to save me without
any input from me whatsoever. That's the obedience of the gospel. And God gives that to his people.
I tell you, before he gives it to us, he's got to break us. It's shameful. It really is shameful
how stubborn we are. Stubborn. And God's Israel, Moses
said so many times, Lord, they're a stiff neck people. They got
nothing on you and me, a rebellious people. And God's got to break
us so that we'll be submissive to him and bow to him in obedience
and repent and believe. Verse 11. 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. You know, everybody
God saves is led by the hand. They have to be led by the hand,
they're blind. Somebody's gonna lead them by the hand to come
where the gospel's preached. And maybe it's a person, maybe
it's your parents, maybe it's somebody else, you know, but
I tell you who it really is. It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit leads by the hand everyone that God chose to save, everyone
that Christ died for, He leads them by the hand. they just irresistibly
taken to the place where Christ is preached, led by the hand.
And when he leads them by the hand, here's the message that
every believer hears, every believer believes. Verse 12, in 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. I love this. It's not really
the message he heard preached yet, but I do love this. You
know Ananias, he, God said, you go down there to the street called
straight. There's one praying, it's Saul of Tarsus. And I said,
Lord, I don't want to go there. I heard about that fella. I don't
want to go there. And Lord said, you go. He's praying. And here this man, he was Ananias. He's afraid of Saul. He comes
to him, he looks at him in pity and compassion, and says, Brother
Saul, mm-mm-mm. I love that just God saved him. Immediately, he's a son of God. He's a brother or sister. We
say that frequently. The best illustration that I
can think of is someone's baptized. I asked one of these men to close
in prayer, and invariably, they thank God for our brother, so-and-so,
our sister, so-and-so. They had to be proven for a while
before they become our brother or our sister. You know, for
nine years, I was the only son in my family. I had a sister
two years younger than me. And lo and behold, I was nine
years old. My mom was pregnant. She had a baby. Immediately,
Dad snuck me and Becky up there to see the baby in the nursery. We couldn't go then. And immediately,
from the first day, that kid was my brother. Now he's going
to grow, he's going to mature, he's got a lot to learn. But
immediately he's my brother. That's Ananias. Coming to old
Saul's talks. Oh, he's got a lot to learn.
God's going to teach him. But he's my brother. Brother
Saul. And here's the message he preached to his brother. Verse
14. And he said to 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." That first thing
Paul heard Ananias preach was what? Election. Paul, God chose a people to save.
You're one of them. That's why you're saved, because
God chose a people to save. He chose you. If you're saved,
I can tell you why it is. It's because God Almighty in
eternity chose to save you. Didn't choose you because you
were any good? You're rotten, lost as everybody else. God didn't
choose you because there's anything good about you. God chose you
because He's good. Just because He would. He chose
to save you. And He sent His Son on this mission
to accomplish your salvation. God chose a people. Well, I thought
we weren't supposed to start out preaching to somebody telling
them about election. Apparently, that must not be so. Ananias
began his gospel message, the first gospel message Paul ever
heard, began with God's electing love. And you know, that's only
right. Because the gospel's good news.
And it's good news to a sinner. God chose a people to save. That's
good news. If God didn't choose a people
to save, nobody'd be saved. I promise you we'd never choose
him. He had to choose us for God chose a people to save. Saul
heard that and he believed it. Then Paul heard about the will
of God and salvation, the same will we read about in John chapter
six. It was the father's will that
his people have eternal life. Christ came and earned it and
gave it to him. And everybody God saves is going to know I'm
saved by the will of God. It wasn't my will. It's God's
will. God's will to save his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, I don't know. what
God's will is in anything else. I really don't. I never know
what God's will is after the fact. You know, a decision has
to be made and I pray about it and wrestle with it and make
the best decision I can. And, you know, we say, well,
I think it's the Lord's will. Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
We'll know after the fact. But this one thing I know, I
know God's will of redemption. His will is to save his people
by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
only reason I'm saying Christ accomplished the will of the
Father. Then Paul heard about the just one, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the only righteous man to ever live. God saves sinners
through the just one. He makes all of his people righteous. He justifies them by imputing
the obedience of Christ to them. He's the just one. God is both
just and justifier by making his people righteous through
the obedience of Christ and by punishing the sin of his people,
by making Christ sin for them and punishing our substitute
for that sin. That's the message that God uses
to save his people from their sin and give them faith in Christ
by preaching Christ the just one. If you're going to be justified,
it's through the work, the person of the just one. There is one
last way that Paul is a pattern of sinners that God saves. Paul
confessed Christ publicly in Believer's Baptism. Now Paul
was a witness for Christ by being an apostle. And there are no apostles today.
Paul was the apostle that God most used to spread the gospel
around the world. We're still benefiting from his
ministry, aren't we? His ministry under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. And none of us are ever going
to be witnesses like that. But every believer is a witness
for Christ. You sure are. You can tell somebody
about your hope. You can tell somebody about God's
grace and mercy to you. God's children are witnesses
for Christ by the way they live their lives. And some people
are more able to put that into words than other people. And
you know, if you don't feel very eloquent, you don't feel just
like you're able to do that. Just remember this when you have
opportunity to witness somebody. Somebody asked you about your
hope of grace and salvation. How do you think, Senator? Don't
feel like you've got to be Charles Spurgeon and speak with such
eloquence and power. You don't have to do that. Just
tell folks what great things God's done for you. Now, you
can do that. You can say, I was a sinner.
I mean, I was a lost cause. Christ came. He saved me. He
shed his blood, washed me. He called me by his gospel, gave
me faith to believe it. You just tell people what great
things God's done for you. He's given me peace with God.
You can tell that. But I tell you, here's a way
a believer is a witness for Christ. We're a witness for Christ when
we publicly confess Christ in baptism. You want to tell what
great things Christ has done for you? You'll never tell that
more clearly than when you confess Christ in baptism. Baptism is
a clear public confession. I am so sinful. The only way
God could save somebody like me is by making his son sin for
me and punishing his son so that he died for me. He had to die
in my place. He was buried for me. I mean,
he died to save a multitude no man can number. But I'm telling
you, if I'm going to be saved, he had to die for me. And He
died. They took a dead body down from
that cross, put a dead body in the tomb, and rolled a stone
in front of that tomb of that dead body. But He arose again
for me. He arose again because He put
my sin away. When He died, I died in. This is my only hope of salvation.
When He died, I died in. When He was buried, I was buried
in Him. And when He arose, I arose in Him. That's the believer's
confession of who saved me and how He saved me. by his death,
his burial, and his resurrection. Now, is baptism necessary for
salvation? Do you have to be baptized before
you're saved? Absolutely not. The thief on
the cross wasn't baptized, was he? Moses wasn't baptized. Aaron, David, none of them. Baptism's
not necessary for salvation. Is baptism important? I mean,
if it's not necessary for salvation, is it important? You better believe
it is. It's important because the Lord
commanded it. That ought to be all we need
to know. It's important because the Lord commanded it. He commanded
those who believe to be baptized. Baptism is the way we confess
publicly what God's already done in the heart. And baptism is
not necessary for salvation. But I tell you this, I would
not give you a plug nickel for anybody who professes to know
Christ and never been baptized. I just wouldn't do it. Baptism
is the way we confess our Savior. And it's a joy, it's a joy to
confess him. That's the pattern of salvation.
That's how God saves his people, how God reveals his son to us
and in us. And I pray that each of us will
see that pattern in our life. That's the pattern of how God
saves his people. Mission accomplished. All right,
let's bow and pray. Our Father, we thank you for
this blessed word of salvation. We thank you for your eternal
purpose and will to save such a vile, wretched people through
the sacrifice of your son. How we thank you for your son,
who you sent as that second Adam, to be our representative, to
accomplish obedience and righteousness for his people that we can never
accomplish on our own. How we thank you for his sacrifice,
the blood of his sacrifice that cleanses us. from all scenes,
how we thank you for giving us faith, life and faith to believe
Christ and look to Christ. And you do it through the preaching
of your gospel. Father, I pray you bless your
word, bless your gospel as it's been preached this morning. If
there's some here who don't know you, who are seeking you, Father,
cause your word to take root in their heart. Cause the light
of Christ to shine in their heart. Call them to Christ. Make them
bow to repent and bow in humble submission to Him. Father, we
pray you'd bless your people. Thank you for salvation in our
Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to leave here this morning
with joy overflowing in the heart for full, free, eternal redemption
in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in His precious name we
give thanks and we ask these blessings.