as we come back to the book of 1 Timothy and chapter one, 1 Timothy chapter one. And again, Timothy, as we think about Timothy, Timothy was a younger man. He was a sickly man, apparently from the word of God. And some of the things that Paul said to him, he was perhaps a fearful man. And as you think about those things, it might be natural for him to feel unworthy of the ministry. I know as somebody that's in the ministry, that's easy to feel your inadequacies to do that which God has called you to do. I think it'd be natural for Timothy to look at his life and then look at the great Apostle Paul, and I'm not trying to lift Paul up higher than he was, but just in the eyes of Timothy that, I mean, this was a great man of God that he got to work with. And he could think, you know, Paul's worthy to serve God, but he would feel himself perhaps very unworthy. And perhaps for that reason or another reason, Paul pauses now in chapter one to reflect upon his life with gratitude to Jesus Christ, okay? So verse 12 is, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. And I just want to pause right there, as Paul said, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, to think about what he's saying. Christ is Messiah, the anointed one, the deliverer, you know, and he's thinking about that. Jesus, Jesus is the Savior. As the Bible says, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So Christ Jesus, and then he says, our Lord. That means master. That means the one to whom we bow, the one to whom we give allegiance. And so Paul is expressing gratitude to the Messiah, Savior, Master, and some specific things about that. First of all, who had qualified him. So he's gonna thank the Lord who had qualified him. It says, Now, if you were to see the Apostle Paul back in the day, and if you're a Christian and you love the Lord, I mean, you can look at Paul and say, there is no doubt that God has equipped this man. There's no doubt that God is working in this man's life and his ministry. The fruit of his ministry testified to the fact, well, that he was exactly a God-called minister. Matthew 7, verse 20 says, And of course, talking about believers, but certainly, I mean, it applies to the reality of somebody that's in ministry. They can look at their life and say, well, there's fruit in their ministry. It's obvious that God is working there. The labors of his ministry testified of God's call to Corinthians 11 verse 23 says Paul said are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool I am more in labors more abundant and stripes above measure and prisons more frequent and deaths often he wasn't bragging except for the fact that they had compelled him to brag a wee bit about who he was as an apostle and his right to be speaking to them and there in Corinth, but emphasizing the fact that he was very diligent in the work of God. And so again, to go back to our verse, he's saying, I thank Christ Jesus who enabled me. God had definitely equipped Paul to the ministry that he was in. But then secondly, who had considered him, so it says, for that he counted me faithful. God stopped, looked at this man that we'd look at, we see Saul, and we're gonna talk about who Saul was tonight. His name's later changed to Paul, later he becomes the Apostle Paul. But God looked at Saul and thought, you know, there is a faithful man that I could call into the ministry. A faithful man is somebody that doesn't stop coming no matter what. They're just, they are gonna be there. They're gonna do that. They're gonna, whatever that ministry is that they have, they're gonna fulfill that ministry. Acts 9, 16, God said about Paul, this is the ministry that Paul had, I will show him how great things he must suffer for my namesake. And Paul was faithful to get through that and be faithful. Let me ask tonight, what would we have of the gospel? What would we have of the church? Where would we be at in our day if it wasn't for faithful men? If it wasn't for faithful men, the gospel would have stopped in the first century. I mean, that would have been it, it would have been done, but praise God that every generation there have been people that have been faithful to God, faithful like the Apostle Paul. 2 Timothy 2.2, a very familiar verse, but the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Praise God for faithful men that you could take the gospel the truth of the word of God committed to them and by God's grace they are looking for faithful men and they take it they commit it to faithful men and that perpetuates itself and Paul praised God was a man like that that God looked at and said that is a faithful man as Paul says he counted me faithful And so he qualified him, enabled him. He considered him, counted him faithful, but then he thanks Christ Jesus, his Lord as well, who had called him, as it says, putting me into the ministries. Now, Paul was an apostle, but he was also the great missionary evangelist to the Gentiles. And God had called him to that. Paul was ambitious for God, but It wasn't his ambition that put him into the ministry, it was that God had called him to the ministry. And Paul often reflected on this and often declared this. And let me just give you several examples from the Bible in his letters that he wrote what he said. He said, Paul, Romans 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. 1 Corinthians 1, 1, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. 2 Corinthians 1, 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Galatians 1, 1, Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. who raised him from the dead. Ephesians 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Colossians 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. 1 Timothy 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our Savior. and to come into our chat, our book here. And then 271, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Okay, so Paul understood that he was a God called man and he thanked the Lord for that. God, thank you for putting me into the ministry as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, God had transformed Paul. Paul was not who Paul used to be, and we understand that God changed his name. Paul was not Saul. He was not that former man. He had been gloriously changed by the grace of God. I don't know if you're familiar with Dulkeith that much. When we moved here, we lived in Esk Bank, so we're right there kind of by Dulkeith, and I'd often walk around that area. And I used to, I wouldn't say hate, but I didn't really particularly like to walk into Dulkeith by Kings Park because on the other side, you had the old bus station. And Tommy, you might remember the bus station that was there in Dulkeith. It was just not pretty, all right? It was kind of like, you come into Dulkeith, what could be a beautiful city, and they're, by the way, redoing the center part of that city. And hopefully it's going to be that much, prettier because that was another aspect of the 1960s center of the village. It just kind of took away from that. But as you're coming in, that bus station was there. It was a great thing when they took that down and they put in, I kind of hate to say it, a beautiful Morrison's in a car park that's there. It's just not what it used to be. And if you didn't see it the way it used to be, you'd come into Dulkeith now and say, hey, this is beautiful. But those that, knew it before would remember it wasn't always that way. It'd be easy for Timothy to look at the Paul that he knew as the apostle, as the preacher, as the evangelist. and to only see what Paul was and to forget what Paul had been and to forget how God had radically changed Paul's life. But you know, Paul made it a point, as we're gonna see in our text here, to reflect on who he was. And tonight, as we think about that, I want us to think about this. It's good for us to reflect on what we were or what we would have been if we got saved, perhaps as a young child, what we would have been if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. if it wasn't for what God has done or is doing or will do in our life. So what were we or what would we be if it wasn't for Jesus? And that's gonna be the focus of what we consider tonight. Let's pray and ask the Spirit of God to help us as we come to the Word of God. Father, we're grateful for the opportunity to look into the Word of God tonight. And Father, I pray that our consideration tonight would remind us of the power of God. Because Father, as we too often just think of the Apostle Paul as the Apostle Paul, and we forget about Saul. We forget about the man and who he was before, by your grace, you radically changed his life. And Father, I pray tonight, there's many people in our community, neighbors, friends, family, that need their life radically changed. And Father, the gospel is powerful. Paul said himself, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And Father, I pray that sometimes we see people where they're at, and it's like Saul, and we think, we don't see what could be. We don't see the potential with the gospel. And Father, I pray that we begin to see that tonight. I pray that we be reminded that the gospel changes people, that somebody that is a great sinner could become a great saint, a great servant of God. And Father, I pray that we'd stop and look at our life and say only because of the grace of God, only because of what you've done, that our hearts would be grateful like Paul to look up and just say thank you for what you've done. Father, I can't speak without your enablement. I pray the Spirit of God would guide me as I speak. I pray that our hearts would be tender. I pray, Father, that you'd have your way in this room at this time, in this place for your glory. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen, all right, so reflect on how the gospel has worked in our lives and what God has done by his grace to us. And so first of all, reflect on what we were, okay? Reflect on what we were. So some of us got saved, again, as children. Many in our day will get saved in adulthood. And that's gonna be the case often in our church, that somebody accepts Christ, they're not gonna be a child because they didn't grow up in church, they didn't grow up hearing the gospel and what Jesus Christ did is he died for them and rose from the dead and paid the price for their sin, that transformation didn't take place as a child, it takes place in adulthood. So there's gonna be a radical change that takes place. And that's the way it was in the life of Saul, who became the apostle Paul. And so before he got saved, Paul was a blasphemer. It says in verse 13, who was before a blasphemer. A blasphemer is a railer against God. You know, I've heard blasphemy many times, you know, and doing evangelism or something, and somebody will say something, you just think, ah, you know, you really shouldn't say something like that. That's a very fearful thing to blaspheme God. They just will rail against God. And because lightning doesn't strike, they think there is no God. and they think they got away with it, that's fine, they can blaspheme God and get away with it. You know the Bible says in Psalm 50 verse 21, these things hast thou done, and I kept silent, thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes. And so Paul, before he got saved, he was a railer against God. He was a railer against Jesus Christ, because he didn't believe that Jesus Christ is God. I met a Jehovah's Witness in, actually, I was witnessing to him there in Lone Head. And I remember saying to him about Jesus Christ is God. And that annihilation is not in the Bible, but hell is in the Bible. And you know, he said to me, he said this before he walked away upset. He said, if God is a God that sends people to hell, then I reject that God. That's what he said. I thought, you know, that's blasphemy. And you know what right do you have to stand in judgment upon God? God is God, God will stand in judgment upon us, but that was Paul. Paul rejected God, he rejected Jesus Christ. Paul remembered that as he was thanking God for what he did in his life. Paul was also a persecutor and injured people and hurt people. Verse 13, it says, and a persecutor and injurious. You know, Jesus was killed by religious people, remember? It was the Jews that were gathered about, crying out and saying, crucify him, crucify him. The Romans put Jesus Christ on the cross, but it was religious people that killed him. Those same people that killed Jesus Christ, the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews, proceeded to take the apostles, proceeded to take others, and also be injurious to them, persecute them, put some of them to death. Acts 5 verse 40. They had the Sanhedrin, had the apostles there in front of them. And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus. And they let them go. So they call them and they beat them. They whipped them. They hurt them. They punished them. They were injurious to them. And that was like Paul. There's people like that. In our day, we're kind of, you know, in a sanitized culture from physical persecution against Christian, but it's happening at different places all over our world. And in the voice of the martyrs. There's an article I read about a man named Hai and another man named Tan that were in Vietnam. And the story says this, at 9 a.m. the beating started again. The police officers had already beaten them, but they brought them out from the police station into the village square. where a large crowd had gathered for the privilege of beating these propagators of lies and rebellion. As more than 100 people stepped forward to strike the evangelists, the two men remained silent. Dogmen jeered the watching crowd. The beating lasted for three hours. Later, Tan said that as they received each blow, they remembered how Jesus had been beaten. That gave them strength to endure the three-hour beating. Finally, the police released them. Our whole bodies were battered and bruised and we ached all over, Tan recalled. My face was so swollen that I could not see out of one eye." And you read that and it's a horrible story that these men were treated in that way, but as we think about Paul, Paul had not only done that, but Paul had taken men and women, committed them to prison, and some of them to death. Stephen, the martyr, Paul was there, standing there, they laid their coats at his feet as if he was in charge of what was taking place in Stephen. the great deacon that powerfully served God was put to death at Paul's hands. Again, a very wicked man was the apostle Paul before he got saved. And Paul was an ignorant unbeliever. It says in verse 13, I did it ignorantly in unbelief. You know, in his unbelief, Paul thought that in killing Christians, he was actually helping the cause of Christ. He was very religious. Later, when Paul himself was taken by the Pharisees that had the same zeal for God to kill Christians, he testifies to them, I was just like that. Acts 22 verse 3, as he makes his defense before them, 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, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God as ye are all this day, and I persecuted this way unto death. Binding and delivering into prisons both men and women as also the high priest that bear me witness and all the estate of the elders from whom also I received letters unto the brethren and went to Damascus to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem for to be punished." And if you saw the apostle Paul preaching, loving the Lord and just on fire for God, you would never know. that back in the day he had been zealously against God as a complete rejecter. of Jesus Christ, in complete unbelief. And so, again, Paul is, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, he hath enabled me. For that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. As he thinks about that, he thinks back to what he was, and what he was was a very, a wicked man. It's good for us, again, to reflect on our life. You know, where would I be without Jesus? What would I be like if I didn't have Christ in my life? Paul looked back on that. But then secondly, it's good to reflect on what Jesus did, on what Jesus did. The hymn says it this way. What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart. I have light in my soul for which long I had sought since Jesus came into my heart. And what a great way to express that, that emptiness that was there, that sinful, wicked lifestyle, that deadness to life. And then the light goes on and Christ comes in and the joy that that brings, what a wonderful change. Obviously, if there's not been a wonderful change in somebody's life, they've not come to Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And there's a transformation that's taking place because Christ has come inside. He is resident and doing that wonderful change. And so what Jesus did in Paul's life and what he does in the life of somebody that comes to Christ is that he gave Paul mercy. It says again here in verse 13, but I obtained mercy. "'because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.'" All right, I obtained mercy. Mercy is God withholding judgment. Paul deserved judgment. Paul deserved God's wrath, but God didn't give Paul what he deserved. He gave him instead mercy. I've shared before the story about my dad saying I could go fishing in the canoe back in the backwaters of Lake Malibu by our house. And he said, just wear a life jacket. Well, Lifejacket is a little uncomfortable, the ones that we had. We didn't have the nice thin ones that they have now, the sporty ones. They're kind of clunkier. And I got back there and thought, you know, I can swim. I don't need this. We're not going to tip and all these things. And you know the story. We tipped and it was pretty dangerous. We could have, it could have been really at risk of my life that we tipped. We were far enough away. We couldn't right the canoe. We had to yell for help. I yelled for help. When I got back, I had to go to my dad and I had to confess. The reason I had to confess for sure was because I lost my dad's fishing pole, all right? And so I couldn't just ignore the fact that, oh, by the way, dad, somehow I lost your fishing pole. I had to confess that we tipped and I didn't have my life jacket on. You know, I'm thankful that my dad gave me mercy. I deserve to be punished, but I don't, my dad might've thought I guess he, you know, he got the punishment that he deserved, a near death experience that'll hopefully make him remember to obey dad in the future, but my dad gave me mercy. Aren't you thankful tonight for mercy? If we got tonight what we deserve tonight, it doesn't matter how clean somebody's life is, it would be eternity in the lake of the fire the first time we sin. That's what we deserve. And so Paul's rejoicing that. And think about it this way. There are a lot of people tonight, they have not obtained mercy. And this is sad, isn't it? They are standing under the wrath of God, under the judgment of God, but God is going, you know, Christ on the cross paid the price for your sin. He paid it fully. There's abundant mercy. All they have to do is put their faith in Jesus Christ, and then what? They obtain mercy. Paul had obtained mercy, praise God. John 3, 18, he that believeth on him, Jesus, is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So Paul looks back at it and says, hey, God was merciful to me, and then secondly, God gave me grace. Verse 14, it says, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant. Okay, grace is undeserved favor. It's not only that God didn't punish Paul and send Paul to hell, where Paul deserved to go, but that God gave him life, and God gave him eternal life, and God gave him abundant life. I was witnessing to a man last week, and he said to me, what about that police officer down there in London? Are you saying that that man could be forgiven? And you know, he's right. He's right that we look at it as human beings. We think that man does not deserve to be forgiven. But I turned to him and I said this, you and I have done many wicked things in our life as well. And what you've done is as wicked as what that man did in the eyes of God. And if you are saying that he doesn't deserve the grace of God, then neither do you. Right? God's grace is amazing. When we stop and think about it, that God is willing to forgive us that Jesus, when he died, let's stop and think about it. Jesus died for murderers. Jesus died for liars. Jesus died for fornicators. Jesus died for homosexuals. Jesus died for wife beaters. Jesus died for child abusers. Jesus died for liars. Jesus died for blasphemers and cursers and all those sins that are grievous. And do they deserve God's grace? No. And that's why the hymn writer wrote it so very well, John Newton, the slave trade man that was involved in that before he got saved, the ship owner who transported many slaves. And the loss of life on those ships, I'm sure was much. And yet he wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. If we want to stand in judgment upon somebody else, the thing is we don't understand who we are in the eyes of a holy God. If there's life to be had, it's only to be had because God is good and because God is gracious and that God will forgive us because of Jesus Christ. And then his grace as well brought Paul to faith in Christ Jesus. The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant. with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus." Okay, Paul, before he got saved, was not a believer in Jesus. If Jesus had said to him, you know, I'm your creator, I'm your savior, Paul would have plugged his ears. Paul would have pushed that away. Paul was as against Jesus Christ as he could possibly be. be against Jesus Christ. You know, in evangelism, all the time, today it happens, you know, I met a man, he's coming out his door, I gave him a flyer and I asked him about church and about God, and he says, I'm too old for that. I said, you're never too old for that. And people say things like, that's not for me. It's not for me. Somebody else may believe in that, but I will never believe in that. I mean, I've heard things where people just reject Jesus Christ. And we can look at that and say, like the apostles did about, you know, a rich man getting saved. Who then can be saved? But we ought to look at that and say, you know what? That's where Paul was. Paul was that way. But God's grace, God's grace reached down into the heart of the Apostle Paul and brought him to faith. Praise God, right? We ought to have hope tonight in our evangelism. Why? Because God's grace is able to touch the heart of somebody that is a great unbeliever like the Apostle Paul and bring them to saving faith. His grace gave Paul a love for Christ Jesus with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Paul went from hating Jesus and his followers to loving Jesus and his followers. You know, it'd be like the COP26 group that's getting ready to raise havoc in Glasgow, at least the demonstrators and the protesters that are gonna get on the street. It'd be like them turning from that and saying, no, no, no, the world's not gonna end because of climate change. God's got it. God's over it. It'd be like David Attenborough doing his next show about how this world is only 6,700 years old and that there's a God in heaven that created it and Darwin repenting of his origin of the species and tearing that up and saying, I believe in a six day literal creation. That is the reality of the Apostle Paul turning and saying, I love Jesus. It's amazing what God did in his grace in the life of the Apostle Paul. Again, we just ought to continue to pray for that person that we look at and we think they could never be saved. Timothy 2.25 says, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. God gave Paul repentance. God changed Paul's mind by his grace. Again, praise God tonight as we reflect on this, reflect on what Jesus did in the life of this man, and in our life as well, we can acknowledge this, God can work in somebody's life tonight. God can bring somebody to saving faith. And so we reflect on, what we were without God and what Jesus did in our lives. But then let's reflect as well on what Jesus can do, what Jesus can do. VE Day, Victory in Europe Day, the end of World War II, it says about that, as news of the official surrender spread on May 7th, Relieved and exhausted citizens poured out into the streets of London to welcome the war's end and the defeat of Nazi Germany. Tens of thousands crowded central London, cheering and partying until midnight when a thunderstorm ended the celebrations for the night. Can you imagine what it's like being back in that day? curing that dreadful war. I mean, it'd be like this tonight, them coming out and saying, hey, the pandemic is over, it is gone, it is annihilated, it is not there. I mean, I don't know. I think there'd be some rejoicing in Edinburgh tonight. I think there'd be some people coming out and saying, hey, glory be, this is great. That's what it was like back then as they heard the war was over, the death and the carnage and the potential defeat was taken away. And as we look at this next verse, it's a verse that people ought to get out in the streets and rejoice about because it's a verse about victory and about life. It says in verse 15, 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. And everybody ought to exit their house and get out in the street and say glory to God because this verse declares that there is victory for anybody that desires victory in this area of everlasting life. And so let's consider what it says here in this verse. It says that Jesus can save sinners. It says Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If Jesus had not come, it'd be worse than what evolution teaches. Evolution teaches that you die, you go in the grave, that's it. Life's pointless. Life's pointless. It's like you, if that's true, it's like you never existed. It's like there was no point. It's like, what is the point? I mean, you might as well exit now because there's nothing. It's gonna be like there was nothing, but that's not true. And if this verse wasn't true, it'd be worse than what evolution teaches, it'd be this. In life, we sin, we are therefore against God because we're against God and there's judgment against our sin without the Savior. then we die and we spend eternity in the lake of fire. But in this case, it's without hope. If this verse doesn't exist, if this truth doesn't exist, but praise God, it does exist that Christ Jesus came into the world. to save sinners. You know what? We have a glad tidings today. We've got the gospel, the good news. The good news is this, you don't have to go to hell because Jesus Christ loves you. He died for you so that you could be saved. Praise God, Jesus can save sinners. And then we say about that as well, this is the truth. It says, this is a faithful saying. I imagine the prison camps there in Europe where the enemy had the people incarcerated. Then when they first heard news about VE Day, they first heard news about the surrender and that it was over, that there would be something in their heart that would say, is this true? Is this true? They think it's just propaganda, potentially. And then somebody say, no, it's true, it's true. It's happening, it's real. And as that took hold, there would be, again, just great delight in their heart that it was a fact that the war is over. Aren't you glad tonight? Let's think about it. Aren't you glad tonight that it's a fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins? It's a fact. that we're not gonna spend eternity in a lake of fire. It's a fact that we've got hope, that we've got peace, that we've got joy. The world comes and goes, it's not a fact. The world comes and says it's false. And I say to them, you know, I'm eating the apple. It tastes great. Don't tell me it doesn't exist. Here it is. I've tasted it. God is good. Praise God, right, tonight that we have something that is absolute truth, that Jesus came as God in flesh. He died on the cross for our sin, and that he didn't stay in the grave, but that he rose from the dead, and that by faith in him, God will gift me salvation. You know what, tonight everybody should believe that. Everybody. Notice what it says in the verse. It says, a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy of everybody accepting it, everybody believing it. It certainly has the potential to save every man. It's worthy of all acceptation. Imagine somebody in that prisoner of war camp and everybody else is exiting. They've got the faithful saying, they believe it, they've accepted it, they've embraced it, they've tasted it, and there's still a man that refuses to leave because he thinks that's too good to be true, right? Or something like that. Think about all the people today They're seeking satisfaction, all these things. And life's empty. It doesn't satisfy, it doesn't meet the need. And tonight, Jesus Christ says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Or come, drink of the waters that are freely offered, right? Come and drink. Have abundant life. Praise God, it's a faithful saying. It's true. Everybody should believe it. And so we ought to reflect on that tonight. The potential is there for God and his grace to save many. But then lastly, as we think about Paul and think about somebody getting saved, reflect on why Jesus did it. Reflect on why Jesus did it. Have you ever looked back at your life and you thought, why did God save me? Or why was I born into a family that somehow, up through that family or at some point in my life, I would be brought into contact with the gospel? Do you know tonight, why does the way that leads to destruction, many there be that go in there at, narrows the way that leads to life everlasting, few there be that find it. The fact tonight that we're saved, that we're born again, that we have truth, that we have light, that we get it, we ought to stop and look at that and say, why did God do that? Paul looked at his life, and we can look at Paul, and he calls himself there in verse 15, the chief of sinners. Why would God save the chief of sinners? What was God's purpose? And Paul gives it. It's that Jesus wanted a testimony of the power of his love. It says in verse 16, how be it for this cause, this is the reason I obtained mercy. that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering." God put up with a man that killed Christians. Why? So that God would save him, so that somebody that is a great sinner or just a sinner that understands his sin could look at that and say, if God saved Paul, God cared about Paul, God didn't give up on Paul, God still wanted to save Paul, then God could still want to save me, right? Praise God. So that you and I could look at it and say, you know what, praise God, if God loved Paul, therefore God loves me. But then secondly, Jesus wants every man to know that he can be saved, because it says, for a pattern, to them which should hereafter believe on him, to life everlasting. You know, a pattern is made to be copied. If you have a recipe, a recipe is a pattern, and if you can follow it, you can make something that tastes good, right? I mean, you follow that pattern. If you're making a dress, you follow a pattern. and you copy it. And so if Paul was saved as a pattern, what's that mean? It means this, that just like Paul turned by faith, he repented, he put his faith in Jesus Christ, God gave him everlasting life. God further counted him faithful, putting him into the ministry, dynamically changed the life of the apostle Paul. then it means this, that God can radically change the life of a person that will obey the same gospel, believe in the same Jesus, trust in the same Lord, that God is as able tonight, by his grace, to change the life of that person. Again, I think Timothy, when you look at Paul, I think you'd see that great Apostle Paul, but as Paul puts it here in chapter one, Paul's just the chief of sinners. Just somebody that, by the grace of God, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me. For that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Tonight, as you look at your life, somebody could see their life as a sinner, in need of God's grace and a savior, and if they'll turn in faith and put their trust in Jesus Christ tonight, they could be saved. As a believer, how do we see our life? Do we see ourselves as somebody that is saved by grace, thanking God, looking at our life, saying, I'm so unworthy, but praise God. Praise God. This is only because God is good, only because of what God did. It's good for us tonight to reflect on how God has worked in our lives, and by his grace, how he can work in others' lives as we seek to take the gospel. All right, let's pray. Ask the Spirit of God to bless his word to our hearts here tonight. Father, we're grateful for your grace to us. And Father, sadly, we're used to this message. It's very familiar. But Father, there's a lot of people today that they don't know about Jesus Christ. They don't know that they could have a transformed life. They didn't really understand that the man that wrote all these epistles, like the one that we're reading and studying here, he was a wicked, wicked man. Except for the grace of God and the mercy of God. And Father, I pray for those people that we're witnessing to. I pray for those that we're burgeoned about in our community. I pray that they get on their knee before the holy God of heaven. And Father, put their faith in what Jesus Christ did on the cross for them as he died for their sin, and his power of giving them everlasting life as he rose from the dead. And Father, I pray that they would receive Jesus Christ as their Lord, that they taste and see that the Lord is good. Father, pray for us as believers that we sow in faith. And Father, that we take the message that's a life-changing message to our world. And Father, I pray as a church, we desire to see some like the Apostle Paul, blasphemers, injurious, hating Christians, hating Christ, bow to me. And Father, then preach the word. And Father, you'd even call them into the ministry, even enable them in ministry. And so Father, we pray for that gospel power to be seen. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen, all right, we're gonna turn and take