Lord Jesus Christ is always front
and central whenever Paul writes his epistles. It is the Apostle's
desire in his preaching and in his teaching always to be bringing
his Saviour to the fore. It is the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who must receive all honour and glory. Paul had previously
written to the Corinthians about his attitude amongst them when
he was preaching, and he said, I determined not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul, as a
very learned man, as a Pharisee, as a man who knew about the affairs
of the world, would have been such a man as to have been able
to speak undoubtedly, knowledgeably, and probably advisedly on so
many subjects. But he determined he wouldn't
be distracted. He resolved this was important
to him. It's almost as if he said, you
know what, I'm not even going to get involved in that. I'm
not going to speak about that. I'm not going to share on this
matter. I am going to be resolute in speaking about Christ. And
so he brings the Lord Jesus Christ to the foreground. It's interesting
that even when we encounter the apostle giving his testimony,
as he does on numerous occasions throughout his writings. Even
then, when he speaks about himself, it is in the context of what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done for him. His intent is always
to enlarge the Lord. Like John the Baptist, Christ
must increase and he must decrease. The Apostle tells us in the opening
of this chapter that he is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He is an ambassador. He is carrying
the Lord Jesus Christ's message and he is carrying the message
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a man under orders. He has been sent out with a message
and it is his duty and his obligation, nay his privilege, always to
be bringing the focus and the subject of his message to the
ears of men and women. He is an ambassador of Christ
and he is so by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the
commandment of God our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ, he
bears the message of salvation. And he declares that this one
of whom he speaks is our hope. There in verse one of this chapter,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the one in whom all hope is bested. Every hope that we have Every
hope of our sins forgiven, every hope of eternal life, every hope
of peace with God is focused upon the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So Paul speaks of him as his
great hope. The Apostle, in line with this
principle, of keeping the Lord to the front had been very careful
amongst the Ephesians to establish true gospel doctrine. He was there with a message and
he spoke and preached that message with clarity. But he was also
aware that there were troublemakers. It seems that there were people
who followed the apostle around. Wherever he went, they went. Wherever he travelled, they travelled. And they went out of their way
to contradict the clarity of the gospel that he preached. They muddied the waters. The
Apostle Paul speaks of wholesome words that he declared. Indeed,
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just flick over a couple of pages
in your Bibles and look at chapter 6, same book, chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse
3. He says, if any man teach otherwise
and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ, these are the words that Christ has spoken. This is his gospel that has been
delivered to me. This is the message that the
Lord Jesus Christ himself gave. If any man teach otherwise, to
these wholesome words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
to the doctrine which he has given, the doctrine which is
according to godliness, he is proud knowing nothing. And here were men who followed
the apostle around doing this damage, men who did not know
the gospel, but who sought to preach nonetheless and confuse
and deter those who tried to follow Paul's teaching. To such
a degree was this a problem that the Apostle Paul had to leave
Timothy in Ephesus when he went into Macedonia. And we can well
imagine there's almost a passionate relationship between
these two men. The Apostle frequently uses the
appellation, my son, we read it earlier on. I charge, this
charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy. there is a closeness
in relationship and yet the Apostle had to break that relationship. He had to leave Timothy and Ephesus
because of the problems that these people were causing so
that Timothy might be able to keep the Lord Jesus Christ to
the front of the attention of the new converts and that they
not be distracted Paul calls this truth that he is preaching. by a phrase which occurs late
in his ministry. It's almost as if he settles
upon this. He uses the phrase four times. We see it once in this chapter.
He uses it a couple of times to Timothy in his letter and
a couple of times to Titus. These were late letters. These
were letters that he was writing to young pastors, young preachers,
and he was advocating the gospel by this term. He calls it sound
doctrine. Sound doctrine. And he speaks
about this sound doctrine. Doctrine which is sound. Doctrine which is dependable,
reliable, authoritative. Doctrine that is worth believing
in and worth trusting to. This gospel message, this These
wholesome words, these words of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
calls sound doctrine. And it is sound doctrine that
the people of God have to have an appetite for. It is this Gospel
that Paul delivered, that Timothy defended, that was overthrown
by these false teachers, that the Apostle Paul is careful to
maintain amongst us. So the Lord's people are to speak
sound doctrine one to another. They are to employ sound doctrine
in order to convince gainsayers. You know what a gainsayer is?
A gainsayer is someone who speaks again what is sound doctrine. They are speaking against. And
so a gainsayer is someone who speaks against the truth. The apostle says that we are
to convince the gainsayer by sound doctrine. Yet, knowing,
says the apostle, that a time will come when people will be
unable to endure sound doctrine. but after their own lusts shall
keep to themselves teachers having itching ears." Paul was seeing
in Ephesus the very things which he was here prophesying would
happen in his letter to Timothy. He was pointing out that this
sound doctrine, these wholesome words of the Lord Jesus Christ,
this message for which he was an ambassador, would soon be
overthrown by those who had no desire after it. And they would
bring in teachers that would divert and distract and would
preach a different message. Indeed, that's what the Apostle's
letter to Timothy is about. He is advocating to Timothy that
this message which he has left Timothy to preach be preached
clearly. He speaks about vain jangling. He says that there is two messages
here. There is a message which is edifying
to the godly, and a message which is full of foolish questions
which is no more than vain jangling. Verse 6, chapter 1, from which
some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling. You know what jangling is? We talk about jingle jangle. The jangling is when There's
a noise. There's a note. There's music. But it's wrong. It's discordant. It's not right. It's not in tune. It's like the man on the keyboard
that hits the wrong chord and it sends a shiver down your spine. You know that that was wrong. Someone made a mistake. That's
not right. And that's vain jangling. The
Lord's people know when a message isn't right. The Lord's people
can discern the difference, the contrast between this false teaching
and the sound doctrine which they have come to learn and love. Sound doctrine generates love
and gratitude to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. It gives grounds
of a good conscience before God in the hearts and lives of His
people. But that vain jangling, it causes
people to turn aside. They lose their view of Christ. They become distracted and their
lives are discordant. And it seems that the Apostle
Paul, in this opening chapter of this letter to Timothy, has
in his view a form of legalism, a form of law works that are
being brought in by these false teachers at Ephesus. We saw the
same thing happening at Galatia. Law teachers following the apostle
around and teaching those things which were contrary to the sound
doctrine. Look at verse 8. We know that
the law is good if a man use it lawfully. And here's the contrast
that the apostle is making. knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. Now he goes through a long list
of the various kinds of wickedness that the law speaks to. And he
ends it at the end of verse 10 by saying, and if there be any
other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, So here he's
telling us who the law is for. The law is for those who have
no sound doctrine. The law is for that which is
contrary to the sound doctrine. The law has nothing to say to
the one who has the sound doctrine, but it has everything to say
to those without. possession of a gospel understanding. The knowledge of the gospel and
the one of whom the gospel speaks brings the believer in the gospel
out from under the obligations of the law. It renders him free
from the law. Paul's message here is very clear. He realised that there was a
legalism, there was a works righteousness encroaching in that space where
the Gospel was being heard. And it was a big problem. Sufficient
of a problem was it for him to say to Timothy, Timothy, you'll
have to stay here. I suspect that the Apostle Paul
would have been delighted had he been able to take Timothy
with him into Macedonia. I think he would probably have
said, this is going to be a better opportunity for two of us to
be preaching amongst these heathen. But it wasn't to be because of
his concern about the false teaching that was coming in to the church
there in that city. And so, Paul encourages Timothy
to withstand those men who mixed law and gospel. These teachers
of law works within the gospel churches that the Apostle had
established. Those who said that despite the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, holiness comes from obedience
towards God. That despite the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, yet there is a place for good
works to endear us to God. That sanctification is to be
won by our efforts and the things that we do. And that a good conscience
is gained by our own good works. The Apostle had no time for such
teaching. He knew how deadly it could be. He knew that it would take men's
eyes from off of the crucified Christ and cause them to look
to themselves and their own efforts and their own works. and he knew
the power of manipulation and control that it would give to
a certain elite within that structure who could then lord it over the
Lord's people. And for that he was concerned,
leaving Timothy in order to preach the clear, sound doctrine of
the gospel. The Apostle tells us very clearly
in these verses 8 to 11 that there is a proper and an improper
use of God's law. He calls the law good and rightly
so because it is God's law. It comes from God and God didn't
ever do anything bad. This is a good law. It's good
when it is properly used, and it's properly used when it shows
God's holiness and exposes man's guiltiness and man's sinfulness,
but it is never to be used as a means either for the sinner
or the saint to come nearer to God. Never was intended for that. It is used to expose sin and
show the holiness of God, to, as it were, clarify and contrast
the great distinction that there is between true holiness in the
divine persons and the sin-guiltiness of the fallen creature. Grace
and peace does not come through man's works, never will, never
can. Grace and peace comes by the
Lord Jesus Christ and Paul's clarity on this matter in many
ways should deal with it and it is almost an amazing thing
to realise how frequently this problem that Paul so carefully
addresses in his letters has been retained down through the
centuries of the church. Law condemns And it condemns
that which is contrary to the gospel, that which is contrary
to the sound doctrine. That's what Paul has established
here at the end of verse 10. Paul goes on to call this, in
verse 11, this sound doctrine, the glorious gospel of the blessed
God. The law's purpose is to condemn
that which is contrary to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God. That's it being used lawfully. It is used lawfully when the
people who have been made aware of their sin, see themselves
as sinners, see the majesty of God, the holiness of God, the
purity and perfection of God, and realize that there is no
way that they can ever attain to that standard except by faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what gives us the usefulness
of the law. It is to create a breach and
to show us that there is no way of approaching God except by
the intercession of another. We have come short of the glory
of God. And realizing and recognizing
the old men used to speak about a sensitivity to sin, being sensitive
to that situation. Those who are so touched by the
power of God the Holy Spirit, so shaken in their sense of their
own unworthiness, so made to realize their guiltiness before
God, lay hold upon Christ. as the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth, and thereby have a conscience that
is made peaceable with God. There is no additional righteousness
in the law for those who have all righteousness in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is no condemnation by the
law to them that are in Christ Jesus. Legal strictures, works
righteousness, has nothing to offer or edify a believer. The law cannot give a pure heart. and it does not bring a clear
conscience. What then has Paul to say about
that which does? He speaks about the gospel, about
sound doctrine. If the law was good because it
comes from God who is all good, then the gospel is glorious because
it comes from he who is all glorious. And it leads the sinner to all
glory. That's the hope that we have.
Paul began by calling the Lord Jesus Christ our hope, and it
is by faith in Christ that we have a warrant, that we have
a right to hope for eternal life, to believe that we are fit for
the presence of God, not according to the things that we have done,
but according to the righteousness that we have through the work
and the death and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our sound doctrine. This
is our truth to be relied upon. And here again we see Paul giving
us this contrast. He speaks about the uniqueness
of the way of salvation. There is a glorious gospel and
everything else is contrary to it. From the vilest sins, and
we've got a whole catalogue of them here, from the vilest sins
to the best efforts of men and women. They all are lumped together
and set in contradistinction to the sound doctrine of the
glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. The Lord Jesus Christ saith,
unto him. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And so, with Paul, we must insist
upon the sound doctrine. That is what we will have. That
is what we will hear. Look at chapter 2 here for a
moment, where he says in verse 5, For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher
and an apostle, I speak the truth in Christ and lie not. a teacher of the Gentiles in
faith and verity and truthfulness. There can be no compromise, there
can be no mixture. This message of the gospel as
the free grace of God must be held and proclaimed amongst sinners
in faith and in verity. Let us be followers of the Apostle
Paul as he was a follower of the Lord Jesus. The Apostle had
said as much to the Ephesians on an earlier occasion. He said,
By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
nor of your efforts, nor of your works, nor of your righteousnesses.
It is the gift of God, nor of works, lest any man should boast. and grace, this grace which the
Apostle calls the exceeding abundant grace. This grace, he says in
verse 14, the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant. Exceeding abundant grace is what
a sinner needs. We must have this mercy. We must
have this grace. And it must come from God alone. He is the one who forgives sin. And forgiveness comes only through
that intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know
what an intercessor is? Do you know what an intercessor
is? Do you know what he does? the cesser part means that you
sit down. And here is an intercessor, one
who sits between two opposing parties. And the Lord Jesus Christ
is the intercessor. That's what he was speaking about
when he says one God and one mediator between God and man.
Christ is sitting in the judgment of God. He is sitting there on
our behalf. He sits in our place in the courtroom
of God. He stands as a substitute before
God and God looks upon him. And he is condemned for the sins
of his people. Being laid upon him, he becomes
their sin-bearer. And the intercessor becomes the
sin-bearer. And the guilt of that sin, and
ultimately the punishment for that sin, is his to bear. And this is God's grace. This
is the grace that he has in the purpose of redemption, in sending
Jesus Christ into the world to reconcile sinners to himself
and by himself to freely provide every need and every blessing
for them. So Jesus came, the apostle says
in verse 15. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. That was his job, that was his
role, that was the great covenant obligation that fell to him. He had to do his father's will
and it was his father's will that he should become the mediator,
the intercessor for this group of sinners and that the Lord
Jesus Christ would stand in their place. He came to save. I just love the certainty with
which the Apostle Paul speaks on these matters. He says Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He doesn't say
Christ Jesus came into the world to make salvation possible, or
to make men salvable, or to try his best to make the sacrifice
as attractive as possible so that men might willingly follow
after him. His purpose was clear. That's
the reason why he came. He came to save them. And there
was no question about that. His very name reflects it. Call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. I love the certainty with which
Paul speaks. He came to save. He did save. And He saves still sinners like
you, sinners like me, sinners like those that we love and care
for, sinners that walk up and down these streets around about
us. Such sinners as these Christ
came to save. Men and women who were culpable
of the grossest of sins find salvation in these good words, in these words of
Christ, in this sound doctrine, which is the glorious gospel
of our God. It is indeed a glorious message.
We speak of life. We speak of joy. We speak of
freedom. We speak of peace. We speak of
love. All the highest aspirations of
men and women in this world are graciously and freely secured
by Christ and bestowed by God. Then the apostle gives us his
testimony one more time. He was a blasphemer. He was a persecutor of the Lord's
people and he was injurious to that little flock that the Lord
Jesus Christ loved. The Apostle Paul is not suggesting
that in any way the guilt which he carried was mitigated because
he acted ignorantly. He says in verse 13, I was before
a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained
mercy. Because I did it ignorantly,
in unbelief. This was his condition. He was
an ignorant man. Who? Saul of Tarsus? Solidarities,
this was of the finest schools. He had been taught at the feet
of the greatest theologians. He was able to go into a group
of men and throw them left and right with his argumentation. He was a debater of the highest
order. When he spoke, men listened. And what does he say of himself?
I was ignorant. I knew not what I talked about. Oh, I had the words and the vocabulary
and I had the delivery, but I hadn't any idea what the truth was. And shame on me. I blasphemed
the very name of God. And I hurt those people to the
best of my ability. With all of the resources at
my disposal, I hounded them from city to city. I put them in irons. Oh, and I did it legally. Oh,
I did it with all the authority of the church of which I was
a part. Well might he say, he was the
chief of sinners. The Apostle Paul, in so frankly
attesting to his own situation, nevertheless encourages us to
look beyond the guiltiness of the individual and to see the
exceeding abundant grace that he discovered in Christ. It's as if he says, I needed
mercy. I needed a lot of mercy. I needed more than a lot of mercy. And I found exceeding abundant
grace. He found grace sufficient for
his sin. He found grace and mercy that
covered all the depths of his unworthiness. Now hold that thought
because this is beautiful. Then he goes on to say, verse
16, Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus
Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. The Apostle Paul
is telling us that he is a pattern. He is a pattern for faith. He is a living testimony, which
is why perhaps he gave his testimony so frequently, not to promote
himself, but to promote his Saviour. He is one who shows for Christ's
long-suffering. And it's a pattern to you and
to me. Paul believed himself to be the
chief of sinners. And I think, I understand that,
not to be an exaggeration. That's not what you sometimes
call hyperbole. He meant it because he knew the
seriousness of what he had done. He tried to choke that infant
in its cradle. That's what he tried to do. And
he talks about murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, manslayers. I think the Apostle Paul was
calling himself out when he went through this list of the sins
that the law addresses. But when he finds exceeding abundant
grace, he finds that Christ's patience, and that's what it
is, his long-suffering, his patience and his long-suffering was able
to overcome even all the depths of sin which the Apostle Paul
had committed. He gives us this list And he
confesses himself in verse 13 as a blasphemer, a persecutor
and injurious. Saul of Tarsus blasphemed against
God. How close is that to the unforgivable
sin? You know what the Lord said the
unforgivable sin was? Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Paul was a blasphemer. And yet
he found exceeding abundant grace. Paul blasphemed against God. And you know what? The Lord Jesus
Christ was patient with him. The Lord Jesus Christ loved him
when he was blaspheming God. Lord Jesus Christ gave him faith,
the highest and richest gift that could ever be in this world,
gave him the gift of faith when he was railing and ranting both
against Christ and those who were Christ's little ones. The
Apostle, or Saul of Tarsus as he was, persecuted the church
Men, women and children make any difference to him. He went
after them with a rigor. And still, Christ was patient. Appointing a day and an hour
and a place where he would meet this man and he would convict
him of his sins and he would turn him around and he would
send him out as his servant and his ambassador. You know that there are people
today with Paul, saints with him in heaven, whom he killed. He killed them, and now today
they're with him in heaven. They're standing shoulder to
shoulder. Stephen was one of them. And I'm sure there were
others, though we know not their names. And still, Christ was
patient. First to save, and then to put
Paul into the ministry. And this says Paul is intended
for an example to others. Let me personalise this, if I
may. Perhaps you lament some of the
sins that you've committed. Perhaps you look at your life
and you have certain incidents, certain moments, certain times,
and you shake your head and you think, how is it possible? How
did that happen? Offences that have been caused,
hurt that has been given, even blasphemy that has been spoken. What sins God's people have committed? What sins we have committed? Yet the Lord Jesus Christ is
patient. Yet salvation is assured. Perhaps you've persecuted. Perhaps
you've harmed. Perhaps you've mocked. Yet even
now there is forgiveness and there is salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of exceeding abundant
grace and how that grace ought to be the theme and subject of
our praise. We who know what kind of people
we really are, something of the nature of our hearts and the
blackness of our sins. Here is a warrant for every conscience-stricken
sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners. Christ is patient and long-suffering. He is willing to save. I love the confidence of Paul. Again, he says, his conversion
is a pattern to them which should hereafter believe. He wasn't
just saying, I hope. He knew that Christ had a people
that he was calling, and he knew that that people would take comfort
from the fact that this one, the chief of sinners, would hear
the truth, the sound doctrine, and be brought into a knowledge
of Christ as their own personal saviour. The salvation of God's
elect is sure. Life everlasting is the gift
of Almighty God. He who is eternal, and we shall
live with him eternally. How great a salvation! How great
a God! It seems as if the Apostle's
thoughts on grace and mercy, the long-suffering of Christ,
the wonder of this way of salvation, brings him into this statement
of praise and the glory and majesty and wonder of God. And he says
in verse 17, now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. And all
the Lord's people say, Amen. He is eternal. He is eternal. Eternity. How can we begin to
understand what eternity is? So bound up in time and space
we are as mortals, in this flesh, with this mind. He is eternal
and he gives everlasting life. Immortal. The Lord Jesus Christ
took on himself that flesh of ours, and yet there is no more
death where he is now. We will live forever with the
eternal God. Invisible, God is a spirit, infinite,
eternal and unchangeable. And we cannot see him, but we
have seen Jesus. we would see Jesus. Well, now
we trust by faith. We don't see him any longer physically
in his flesh anymore. We trust in the promises that
he has given us. And someday soon, we shall see
him face to face. The all and only wise God. and yet willing to be gracious,
ready to love, freely accessible to sinners like us, well might
his people honour and glorify him forever. Let me conclude
by saying this. We have a felt desire to honour
and glorify our God. This is a work of God the Spirit
in the soul of man. Law and works and our own efforts
can never sponsor, inspire or bestow this desire of love and
gratitude and faith. This is a spiritual work. It
is not from this flesh, but it is from above. And all those
who can say, to the only wise God be honour and glory forever
and ever, and add their Amen to it, are the people who have
that sound doctrine in their souls by the gift of God the
Holy Spirit. and the long-suffering of their
Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.