A Pattern for Those Who Believe

I'm going to read a passage of
scripture from the book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, verse 16. Now, if you have your Bible,
I'd like you to look carefully at this passage of scripture
in which Paul says, Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy,
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern, for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting. You know what Paul is saying
here? He's saying the Lord in his patience and long-suffering
called me, brought me to a knowledge of his Son, brought me to salvation,
and my conversion is a pattern, is a pattern for those who should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now, most of you
are familiar with Paul's conversion. You've read about it or heard
somebody preach about it, and you'd find it difficult, as would
I, to look upon Paul's conversion to Christ. You know about his
Damascus Road experience, the light, the revelation of God,
how he was converted. You'd find it difficult to look
upon his conversion as a pattern for you and for me. Now, we look
upon his conversion as the exception rather than the rule, rather
than a pattern. But Paul tells us here in this
verse that his conversion is a pattern for those who should
believe on Christ. Now, let's see if we can make
good on that. Let's see what the Word of God says about that.
Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 22.
In the book of Acts, chapter 22, you'll read about Paul's
conversion. In his own words, as the Holy
Spirit speaks through him, he tells us about how he came to
a living, vital union with the Son of God. How he came to saving
faith. And if you'll note carefully
what Paul says, you'll be able to see, you who are converted,
will be able to see the pattern. You'll be able to see how that
you too were brought to Christ in the same way. And you who
are not converted, you who know not Christ, you're going to see
how God saves sinners. Paul said this is a pattern.
This is how God saves sinners. Now look at Acts chapter 22,
first of all, verse 4. And Paul uses four words. He said, I persecuted this way. I persecuted this way. Is that
not true of all natural men? Is that not true of every unconverted
man, whether in the church or out of the church? Are we not
all by nature Enemies of God? Enemies of Christ? Enemies of
sovereign love? Enemies of covenant mercy? Enemies
of substitution? Christ said so. Christ said in
John 3, 19, this is condemnation. Light is coming to this world.
Who is light? He said, I'm the light of the
world. Light is coming to this world, and men love darkness
rather than light. Men do not love Christ, God's
Son. He said, marvel not, my brethren,
if the world hates you. It hates me. Now, the world doesn't
hate its God, the world hates the God of the Bible. The world
doesn't hate its Jesus, it hates the Christ of the Bible. That's
right. And our Lord said in John 5,
43, I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. Let another come in his own name,
preaching his own word, and him you will receive. He said in
John 5.40, you will not come to me that you might have life.
Paul said, I persecuted this way. Paul was religious, but
he didn't love Christ. Paul had a system of morality,
but he didn't know God. Paul went through all the ritualism
and legalism and ceremonialism of religion, but he didn't know
God. God's way he hated. God's way he persecuted. God's
way he refused. God's way of redemption, Paul
wanted nothing to do with it. He said, I persecuted this way,
this way. All right, now look at verse
6. You see, this is a pattern of every man's conversion. By
nature, he hates God. And by nature, he's religious,
as Paul was, but by nature, he hates the God of the Bible. He
hates God's way. He's got no time for it and no
room for it. There was no room for him in the end, and there's
no room for him in the hearts of men today. There's room for
religion, but not for Christ. Now watch verse 6, I made my
journey. Paul said, I hated and persecuted
this way, and I made my journey my journey. Now get this, Paul
walked his way, his own way. All we like sheep have gone astray,
we've turned everyone to his own way. Our Lord prayed in the
garden, Father, not my will, but thy will be done. We don't
pray that way. We want our way. We want our
will. We, like Paul here, are walking
our way. Paul said in Romans chapter 3,
none righteous, none that understand it, none that seek after God. What do we seek for? We seek
for possessions. We seek for popularity. We seek
for fame. We seek for security. We seek
for every health and wealth. We don't seek God. There is a
way that seemeth right unto men, and the end is the way of destruction. The end is death. Paul said,
I walked my way, I made my journey, and that's what you and I are
doing. We're walking our way. We're not submitting ourselves
to God's way. We're not even looking for God's
way. We're not asking God to reveal his way. We've got our
own plans. Isn't that true of everybody?
I walked my way, I made my journey. All right, now watch verse 7.
But something happened. God met him. God met him. God
met Paul on that road. God Almighty met him. Not an
idol God, not a false God, not a denominational God, the living
God, the God of creation, the God of authority, the God of
sovereignty, the God of the scriptures met Paul, and God struck him
down, and God revealed His glory to him. Paul said, A great light
shone round about me, and I fell to the ground. Here are the five
words I want you to see. I fell to the ground. I was walking
my way. I was making my journey. But
one day I met God, and I fell to the ground. And that's what
happens to every man who meets God. He falls to the ground. He doesn't bring God down. He
goes down. Paul had never really met God.
Paul had a God. Paul had a religion, but he never
met God in his holiness. He'd never met God in his glory. Paul had always been religious,
but he'd never seen the true light of God's holiness, the
true light of God's law. He'd never seen the true law
of God. He'd never met the true presence
of God. I'll tell you, when a man comes in contact with the living
God, he is stripped, but you have to be stripped before you
can be clothed. He is broken, but you've got
to be broken before you can be exalted. He is slain, but you've
got to be killed before you can be raised. He is emptied, but
you've got to be emptied before you can be filled. When a man
meets the living God, he always falls to the ground. He always
falls in the dust, in humility, in contrition, in conviction,
in submission. Job was a religious man, a righteous
man. In fact, God said to Satan, have
you considered my servant Job? None like him, a just and righteous
man that fears God and hates evil. But after all the experience
through which God brought Job, after a while, old Job defended
his righteousness and defended his integrity and defended his
faithfulness. And he was, he was a man of integrity
and a man of faithfulness compared to other men. But then God revealed
himself to Job one day. Read chapters 40, 41, 42. Job
revealed him, God revealed himself to Job, and you know what Job
said? Righteous, faithful, religious Job. Honest Job. He said, Lord,
I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now, man, I see
it in thee, wherefore I hate myself. I repent in sackcloth
and ashes. Oh Lord, he said, once have I
spoken, yet twice. Things too wonderful, beyond
my understanding. But I'll never open my lips again.
I repent." He fell to the ground. Read Isaiah, chapter 5 and chapter
6. In chapter 5, Isaiah, five or
six times says, "...woe is unto them, woe is unto them, woe is
unto them that rise up in the morning and pursue evil, woe
is unto them that mix strong drink and so forth." And then
he said in chapter 6, verse 1, "...I saw the Lord. In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord." I saw the Lord high
and lifted up, his train filled the temple, and the cherubims
and seraphims about him cried, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of
hosts. And Isaiah said, Woe is me, woe
is me. As he fell to the ground, he
said, Woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in
the midst of a people of unclean lips. Old Daniel saw God's glory. Daniel, the faithful man, the
praying man, the courageous man, he saw God's glory. What did
he say? He said, when I saw the Lord, my beauty, my comeliness
melted into corruption. Peter had been walking with the
Savior. I don't think he ever really,
up to this time, really saw who Christ was. Oh, he'd said some
things, but our Lord performed that mighty miracle of the multiplying
the gathering of fish. You remember? They'd fished all
night and caught nothing, and then they'd cast their nets in,
and the nets break from the force or the amount of fish they brought
in. You know what Peter said? When he saw the power of Christ
and the glory of Christ and the sovereignty of Christ, he said,
Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. You've got
no business being in my company. I'm a sinful man. Now, I'm telling
you this. When a man meets the Lord, When
a man or woman meets the living God, the God of holiness, the
God of creation, the God of sovereignty, he won't be jumping up quick
in his heels and throwing songbooks and shouting and screaming, talking
about how good he is and how holy he is. He will be in the
dust. Paul said, I fell to the ground.
Job said, I hate myself. Isaiah said, woe is me. Peter
said, Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. And John, on the
Isle of Patmos, already exiled for the glory of Christ, already
suffering for the glory of the Redeemer, when he saw the Lord,
he said, I fell at his feet as a dead man. What am I saying? I'm saying there's not a whole
lot of folks in our generation who have seen the glory of the
Lord. Now they've got a little God they worship on Sunday, they
go down and play church for a little while and sing, shake hands all
around, read a little scripture and give a little offering and
sing a benediction and go home and talk about how nice it was
to be there, but not a whole lot of folks in this generation
have ever met God Almighty. Be still and know that I'm God,
the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence
before him. Where's your God, David? Our
God's in the heavens. and he hath done whatsoever he
will." A sovereign, holy, omnipotent God. If you call him Father,
he said, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. I fell
to the ground, Paul said, I fell to the ground. And look at verse
10. And I'm telling you this, this is the way God saves sinners.
Paul said, I'm a pattern. And God will bring you down,
sinner. He'll bring you down like he did Naaman. That's right,
he'll strip you, he'll humble you. Pride goeth before destruction,
the haughty spirit before the fall, God resisteth the proud,
he'll give grace to the humble. Yes sir, he'll take the starch
out of you, he'll take the wind out of your sail, he will. He'll
take the pride out of your heart, he'll bring you to the back door
of mercy as a beggar, and he'll save you by grace. And then Paul
said in verse 10, I cried, Lord, Lord, what will you have me do? Now you better hear me. The Bible
doesn't know anything about a doormat named Jesus. That's right. This Bible doesn't know anything
about a doormat named Jesus. This Bible knows something about
the Lord Jesus. He said, I am Lord. You call
me Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. He's the Lord of the
dead and the living. That's what Scripture says. Jesus
Christ will not be your Savior if he's not your Lord. Now everybody
in this world is going down the aisle shaking preacher's hands,
accepting Jesus as their Savior. But I'm telling you this, somebody's
your Lord. Somebody's your Lord. And Thomas
one day fell at his feet and looked into the face of the crucified,
risen Redeemer and said, My Lord and my God. If he's not your
Lord and your God, he's not your Savior. The Bible says in Romans
10, 9, and 10, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus
to be Lord, not to be a doormat named Jesus, not to be an insurance
policy for you to look up when you start to die, not a fire
escape to keep you out of hell, but if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine heart God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. You can't divide
Christ Jesus up. He's prophet, priest, and king.
He's not just prophet to reveal God and priest to put away sin,
he's king to reign. And where he doesn't reign, he
doesn't save. Every kingdom's got to have a
king. And the scripture says that the Father hath made him
king and exalted him and given him a name above every name,
that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess he's Lord. He's Lord. I want you to listen
to him describe his name. Let's let the Lord Jesus step
up and speak for himself. Let's let Jesus of Nazareth speak
for himself. He says, all authority is given
unto me in heaven and earth. That's what he said, all authority.
In John 17, 1 through 2, just before he went to the cross,
he lifted his eyes to heaven and he said, Father, glorify
thy son, that thy son may glorify thee. as thou hast given him,
thy son, authority, power over all flesh, that I should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. Father, glorify
me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."
Who is the Lord? Who has all authority? Who has
all power? That doesn't sound like this
little silly superstar they're talking about who didn't know
where he came from or why he came or where he was going or
what he did. Christ knew where he came from.
He said, I and my Father one. He knew why he came. He said,
I've come to seek and to save the lost. He knew where he was
going. He told his disciples, I go back to my Father. And he
knew he was coming again. He said, if I go away, I'll come
again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may
be also. Listen to him. If any man come
to me and hate not his mother and father and brother and sister
and husband and wife, yea, and his own life also, he can't be
my disciple. That sound like a little silly
Jesus, a little silly reformer, a little frustrated, defeated
savior who can't do what he wants to do? No, sir. That's the king
talking. That's the king. And I'll tell
you this, he's not a doormat, he's not a fire escape, he's
not an insurance policy, he's not a rope to grab hold of just
before you perish in the depths of hell. He's the king. He's
the king. That's what Paul said on the
road to Damascus there. He said, I fell down and I said,
Lord, Lord, what will you have me do? Thomas found out who he
was. He said, my Lord and my God. The leper found out who
he was and he came trembling and fell at his feet and said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. The thief who was dying
on the cross knew who he was. He said, I'm getting what I deserve.
But this man had done nothing amiss, and he turned to Christ
and he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
And here's Paul the pattern. And Paul said, Lord, what will
you have me do? What would you have me do? You're
my Lord and I'm your bond slave, what will you have me do? And
then verse 11, look at verse 11. And I could not see for the
glory of that light. Now it might upset you a little
bit here, but I want you to listen to me, will you? A natural man
can hear and can mentally understand the facts of the gospel. That's
right. A natural man can see and hear
and understand. The facts of the gospel. That's
right. He can understand that there's
sin in this world. He knows that. There's a light
that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. They're
aware of sin. He can understand the fact that a man called Jesus
Christ one day walked on this earth. Your calendar tells you
that. So many years B.C. before Christ. So many years
A. Anno Domini in the year of our
Lord. He lived. Josephus the historian who wrote
just a few years after he died tells you all about it. You don't
need to read the Bible to find out Jesus Christ lived and died
on the cross. It's in the history book Josephus
wrote about it. A natural man can understand
and he can mentally accept the facts of the gospel, but he can't
see the glory of it. The glory of it. The glory of
God's covenant mercies. The glory of God's eternal grace. The glory of Christ's incarnation.
The disciples said the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
He came unto his own. He who made the world was in
the world, and the world didn't know him. He who made the world,
the ancient of days, became an infant of days, and they didn't
know him. But John wrote and said, We beheld
his glory. We beheld his glory. And Peter
said, We know who you are. You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God. The demons knew him. Yes, sir,
they did. They said, we know who you are.
You're the Holy One of God. And the world can, the natural
man can see and hear and mentally understand to a degree the facts
of the gospel. But he can't see the glory of
it. Paul called the gospel the gospel of God's glory. If you'll
read Ephesians chapter 1, begin with verse 3. It talks about
the work of the Father. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, according as he chose us in him before
the foundation of the world, and predestinated us and accepted
us. Look at the next verse, verse
6 and 7. To the praise of his glory. And then it talks about the work
of the Holy Spirit, or the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
redeemed us with his blood. He enlightened us, he enriched
us with an inheritance to the praise of his glory, verse 12.
To the praise of his glory. And then it talks about the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit we trusted after we heard the word by the
Holy Spirit's teaching. And how we were not only illuminated
by the Holy Spirit, but sealed with the Holy Spirit, and the
Holy Spirit became our token, our pledge, our earnest. Look
at verse 14. To the praise of his glory. And
then over there in Ephesians 2, verse 7, it says, in the ages
to come that he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
in his abundant mercy toward us in Christ Jesus. That's what
it's all about. God's glory. And Paul said, I
walked my way. Yes, sir, I went my way. I took
my journey. But then I saw the Lord and I
fell down. I was broken. God stripped me. God broke me. God humbled me.
And I cried, Lord, What will you have me do? For I couldn't
see anything else. I couldn't see possessions anymore. I couldn't see fame anymore.
I couldn't see self anymore. All I could see was that glory.
I couldn't see but the glory of that light. The glory of that
light made everything else fade into nothing. Insignificance. That's right. If you ever see
him in his glory, the glory of his incarnation, I'll tell you,
that's all you'll want. You'll be like David. I'll be
satisfied when I stand in his likeness, because everything
else has lost interest for me. I couldn't see for the glory,
for the glory of that light. The glory of his incarnation,
the glory of his death, the glory of his resurrection, the glory
of his intercessory work, the glory of his second coming. Look
at verse 12 and 13. Now watch this. Paul was broken,
stripped, humble, and one Ananias came to me. He came to me. Ananias was one of God's preachers,
and he came to me, Paul said. Now listen to me. If God is pleased
to save you, he'll send you a preacher, or he'll send you to one. You
may not recognize him. You may not even like him. But
if God's pleased to do something for you in grace, he'll cause
your path to cross the path of one of his servants, one of his
witnesses, one of his people. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's the reason our
Lord said, you go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature, because he's got some sheep out there, and
he said, my sheep will hear my voice. Now, they're not going
to hear God speak from heaven. They're going to hear him speak
through his words. and through his servant. And Ananias came
to Paul, came to Saul, and preached the gospel to him. Look at Romans
10, verse 13. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? So here this broken, humble,
contrite sinner, a preacher comes to him and preaches him a sermon. And that sermon had six points,
and I'll give them to you in two minutes. Now listen to them,
here they are. Beginning with verse 14 through 16, you have
the gospel message that Ananias preached to Saul of Tarsus. First
of all, he said, Saul, Saul, the God of our fathers hath chosen
you. Now brethren, everybody whom
God saved, let every son of Adam know that God didn't have to
save you, he could have passed you by. The angels that kept
not their first estate, God passed them by. The old world was destroyed
by the flood, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
One thief died cursing, the other God saved. That's biblical truth. Please God to make you his people.
That's what Ananias is saying to Saul here. God chose you.
Point number two, that you should hear his voice, that you should
hear his voice. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ came
down here that his people should hear his voice. The message,
and that message was his blood, his sacrifice, his substitutionary
work. And then verse, the third point,
and Ananias said that you should see the just one. Who is the
just one? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ.
What did he do to enable him to be the just one? He made it
possible that God should be just and justify the ungodly. He's
the obedient one. He's the perfect one. He's the
just one. He's the one that met the law
and kept it, took our sins, went to the cross and died. He's the
just one. And then he said that you should hear his voice and
that you should be his witness. You know, somebody says, well,
you ought to witness for the Lord. If you ever meet him, you'll
witness for him. You'll be like the disciples
who said, We can't help but tell what we've seen and what we've
heard. And then in the last place, Ann and I said, God chose you
that you should know his will, see the just one, hear his voice,
be his witness. Now Saul, what are you waiting
for? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sin in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Confess the Lord. Obey him. Now these messages are on cassette
tape. There are two messages on each
tape. You can have them for three dollars if you'll write to me.
My address will be given to you in just a few moments. But I
hope you'll be listening to the broadcast next week at the same
time over this same station. Until then, Henry Mahan bidding
you a very pleasant good day.

A Pattern for Those Who Believe

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A Pattern for Those Who Believe

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