So we're in 1 Timothy. You know, a few weeks ago, we began a study through the pastoral epistles. That, of course, the pastoral epistles comprise 1 and 2 Timothy, as well as the book of Titus. And these were the last letters that the apostle Paul wrote. And he wrote these letters to two of his young preacher boys, we might call them Timothy and Titus. Both of these men pastor churches, and Paul is writing to them, encouraging them in their pastoral ministry. And our study began in 1 Timothy, which Paul wrote around AD 62. So we're thinking here about 30 years after the crucifixion of Christ, somewhere around there, that's when Paul writes This letter to Timothy. And the book is all about church life. All six chapters of 1 Timothy deal with the subject of church life. And in chapter one, how that relates to church life is chapter one deals with the message of the church. The message of the church. Messages consists of words. So, in chapter 1, we are discovering what should be the words that come from the church. What should be the message? And messages are words. So, what should be the words that come forth from, at this case, as Paul is writing to Timothy, or the church at Ephesus, then, and the church at Matthews, at Bible Baptist today, and other churches like us? What should be the message that should be sounding forth from this platform and in our own lives as Christians? And Paul, as you may recall, when we first looked at this, Paul answers that question with a three-pronged approach. And we looked at the first prong in that first message. There we learned in the first 11 verses of chapter 1, that one emphasis of the message of the church should be, the words that come from the church should be teaching sound doctrine. And the first 11 verses, that's exactly what Paul is talking about. You remember right off the bat here, when he writes to them, he tells them, he charges Timothy that they teach no other doctrine. It's only the Scripture, and that's just what should be taught. And the church teaches sound doctrine by permitting nothing but the Word of God as it goes forth from the pulpit and the ministry, and allow the powerful Word of God to work in and to change men and women and boys and girls. That's what the Word of God does. It is a powerful, living Word. It does not need help. It just needs to be proclaimed. And God takes His Spirit and He uses His Word in the lives of people. When we get into verse 12, verses 12 through 17, which we're covering today, they give us a second emphasis here in the message of the church. In addition to teaching sound doctrine, the words that come from this church, the words that come from you and me as members of this church should be, as he's going to tell us here, the proclamation of the gospel. So the message of the church, today's title, the proclamation or proclaiming the gospel. And what Paul is doing here in these verses is he is basically sharing his testimony. And I think you'll know that right away as we look at it. Let's begin reading with verse 12 of 1 Timothy. Verse 12, Paul writes this, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before, a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I, he says, am chief. How be it for this cause I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. And we'll stop our reading there so you can see there what Paul is doing. Paul is just sharing his testimony. That's exactly what he's doing and he is extolling God's grace and mercy in his life, all that God did in his life, what he was and what he is now, what he became. And that's what we're going to look at today. You know, history records the stories of some rather dramatic conversions of people. You've read some of those. You've heard them from time to time. One such story. is about a 19th century South African, a man named Afrikaner. He was a chief of the Hottentot tribe. He was a very hardened, a really vicious warrior. And he and his men were the terror of South Africa. He was so dangerous that the governor of Cape Town offered a large reward for him, dead or alive. And into that scene, God brought a man by the name of Robert Moffat. He was a young Scottish missionary, but he believed that God had called him to preach the gospel to the Hottentots. That was his mission in life. And so he sought them out. And I don't have time to rehearse everything to you. It's a really fascinating story, as you might imagine. when he's first going to that country, and he first goes out to those people, and he first comes in contact with this vicious man. It's an incredible story. But the first person that was converted to Jesus Christ under Robert Moffitt's ministry was Afrikaner. God worked in a remarkable way in saving this man in South Africa. Now let's come to America for just a moment and to a man that you have heard some of you by the name of Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday was a hard drinking Chicago White Sox outfielder in the early days of baseball. He had had a very difficult life. His father passing away when Billy was two weeks old and his mother eventually having to send him to an orphanage at the age of 12. He ended up playing professional baseball. Again, that's a long story, but he ended up playing professional baseball in Chicago and partying very heavily when he wasn't on the field. And one evening while they were out in downtown Chicago on the streets and they're drinking with his buddies there and they're drinking and he happens upon the Pacific Garden Mission there. He's hearing from that building the voices of those that are singing hymns that he had heard his mother sing. And someone came out and invited them to come inside and to listen. And at that moment, in the way God was working in Billy Sunday's life, Billy Sunday said to his drinking buddies at that very moment, guys, I'm through. and he walked inside the Pacific Garden Mission. He heard the words of the gospel. He heard the songs that were being sung. And he came back the next night and the next night and the next night, and he did it for two weeks. And then he was converted to Jesus Christ. He went on to leave professional ball And he became one of the greatest evangelists that America has ever known in that day. Again, a difficult life. A profligate lifestyle. And God dramatically saved him. Another man, John Newton. Let's go over from America to England. John Newton was born in 1725 in London. His mother was a godly woman, and she taught him to pray, but she died when little John was seven years old. Eventually, at 10 or 11 years old, his sea captain dad took him to sea. Newton's story, as many of you have read, is a fascinating story. It's an account of a lost soul that's just living out its lostness in a most wicked and very profligate way, though at times he's trying to reform himself and somehow become acceptable to God. It was for Newton, as he describes it, a miserable life. But one day he had a life-changing experience. It was 1748. He's some 23 years old. The 10th of March, says Newton, is a day much to be remembered by me. And I have never allowed it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748. For on that day the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters. He goes on to recount the story of their ship that was plunged down into the depths of a monstrous ocean storm that threatened to send all of them out into eternity. The hold was rapidly filling with water, he says, and as Newton hurried to his place at the pumps, he said to the captain, if this will not do, the Lord have mercy on us. His own words startled him. Mercy, he said to himself in astonishment. Mercy? Mercy? What mercy can there be for me? This was the first desire I had breathed for mercy for many years. About six o'clock in the evening, the hold was free from water and then came a gleam of hope. I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favor. I began to pray. I cannot utter the prayer of faith. I could not draw near to a reconciled God and call him father. My prayer for mercy was like the cry of the ravens, which yet the Lord does not disdain to hear. In the gospel, says Newton. I saw at least a puradventure of hope, but on every other side I was surrounded with black, unfathomable despair. And on the puradventure of hope, Newton staked everything. He sought mercy. And he found it. And then he writes this, It is certain that I am not what I ought to be. But blessed be God, I am not what I once was. God has mercifully brought me up out of the deep miry clay and set my feet upon the rock. Christ Jesus, he has saved my soul. And now it is my heart's desire to extol and honor his matchless, free, sovereign and distinguishing grace. Because by the grace of God, I am what I am. It is my heart's great joy to ascribe my salvation entirely to the grace of God. And you know the story, if you know much of his life, you know eventually he left a seafaring life. And he made his way to England, where he became a preacher of the gospel. And then 25 years after his conversion, he wrote a song of testimony that the church is still singing today. Some 250 years later, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was blind. was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. And these are just a few. Of examples of dramatic stories of God's power to save a sinner, and the Bible itself gives us many details of conversion accounts of sinners. The maniac at Gadara may come to your mind, the despised tax collector Matthew, or blind Bartimaeus, or the adulterous Samaritan woman, or Zacchaeus, or the Roman centurion at the crucifixion, or Cornelius, or the Ethiopian eunuch, the Philippian jailer, or Lydia. And we could go on and on. But all of the conversions recorded in the scripture, out of all of them, I don't think any of them is more remarkable than the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. This bitter enemy. Bitter enemy. Of the cause of Christ was dramatically converted to Jesus. On the road to Damascus, you heard his testimony as Peter read it this morning. Saul, who became known as the Apostle Paul, never got over his conversion. Never. He shares his testimony in many different places, and that would be a good study if you want to pursue that. You just begin to discover all the different places where Paul shared his testimony in the Bible. There are several different places. We'll look at just a couple of them this morning. We've got a little one in our account of that in our text today. So in our passages this morning, Paul, in his own words, is reminding us of who he was before he met Jesus and what he became after he met Jesus. So the message of the church then. as Paul is exhorting Timothy with the church at Ephesus. And today, this church and churches just like us, the message is the proclamation of the gospel. And as we look at this passage, I want you to note here the work of Jesus Christ in saving a sinner. There are going to be three quick thoughts that we're going to be looking at this morning from the text. And the first one is this. I want you to notice the pernicious life of an unbeliever. You see it in those first couple of verses, verses 12 and 13, where Paul is describing a harmful life. And I want to remind us this morning that this is true. Unbelievers live harmful lives. Now, follow with me here as I explain that. Pernicious has the idea of harmful. It has the idea of dangerous, of damaging behavior. And as Paul shares his testimony, that's exactly what he's describing. He describes here that he was, do you see it there? A blasphemer. There in verse 13, he says, I was before a blasphemer. He was a blasphemer of God. A blasphemer is someone who slanders God. It's someone who overtly speaks evil of God. But Paul not only blasphemed God himself. As Peter read to us this morning, he also compelled others to do that. Did you catch that? When Paul sharing his testimony, that's exactly what he said. I compelled others to blaspheme him. That's who he was in Acts 26, 11, giving his testimony there. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. So he was a blasphemer of God. Then he says in his testimony, I was also a persecutor of God's church. Luke writes about that. He writes of Paul in Acts 8 in verse 3, As for Saul, he made havoc of, he ravaged. is the word there. He ravaged the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women. He committed them to prison. Acts chapter 9 and verse 1. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the disciples of the Lord. This is who he was. He was a blasphemer of God. He was a persecutor. of God's church. And he confesses this in his testimony before Agrippa as he says there in verses 9 and 10 that Peter read this morning. I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. He was a persecutor of God's church. He further testified of being exceedingly mad against them. In verse 11, I persecuted them even under strange cities. This guy was horrible in these kinds of life. Third, he says, I was an injurious person. That means a violent aggressor. Now, again, Paul's just saying this is who I was. He's just sharing his testimony. I was a violent aggressor. This is a really interesting word, it denotes someone who has no normal concern for human kindness. We might call the person today a bully. It's someone who violently mistreats others and he takes pleasure in seeing the humiliation and seeing the suffering of another human being. This is that word. An injurious, a violent aggressor. A form of this word is used in Luke chapter 18 and verse 32 to denote the mistreatment that Jesus would suffer in his arrest and trial. So Paul was a bad dude. That's who he was. He was a wicked man. And as an unbeliever, he lived a harmful life. And though maybe not to the same extent, but other unbelievers do the same thing. They slander God. They ridicule Christian values and Christian people. And even the most innocent of them are harming themselves by living a life that is contrary, that is not in submission to their Creator. They may be doing it innocently. They don't know. And they're just living out their lostness in harmful ways. So unbelievers live harmful lives, and then also unbelievers live in ignorance and unbelief. Did you hear what Paul said in his testimony? In this sense, though he did wicked things, Paul was not a hardened criminal. He was actually a religious man. And he's thinking that he's doing the right things. Though they were the wrong things, and Paul was responsible for his sins, you know, the Bible distinguishes between those who sin willfully and deliberately in unrepentance. And those who sinned ignorantly and are repentant when they're confronted with their sin. You remember when Jesus prayed about those who were crucifying him and he said, Father, forgive them. And then what does he say? For they know not what they do. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And Peter affirmed this in Acts chapter 3 and verse 17 in his sermon. And now brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. So this is true of many unbelievers today. They're just living out their lostness in ignorance and in unbelief. And they need Jesus. And so Paul here, he's relating to Timothy here. Now, this should be the message of the church, Timothy. As you guide that church at Ephesus, teach sound doctrine, number one. Number two, proclaim the gospel. It is amazing in what it does with the people. So, yes, an unbelieving life is a pernicious, a harmful life. But then, as Paul shares his testimony, he's quick to point out his own sinfulness. And then he immediately highlights what God did for him. So in addition to the pernicious life of an unbeliever, secondly, you see in the passage the persistent love of the Savior. He makes a huge contrast here. And first of all here, God's love is demonstrated in his words. And these words are really precious that Paul is using here in his testimony. He emphasizes that God's love for him was greater than his rebellion against God. And he uses the word. Did you notice this in verse 13? Even though this is who I was, but I obtained what a beautiful word. Mercy. I obtained mercy. The word here is passive, which means that the subject is being acted upon. What Paul here is saying literally is I was mercied. We don't use that term today, but that is literally what he's saying. Here we say, I was shown mercy. And so Paul is saying here that his wickedness was met with God's loving kindness. and God's compassion. And Paul received mercy, he says, because he did it ignorantly in unbelief. And then he uses in verse 14 the word grace. What another wonderful word. So key to the gospel, the word mercy and the word grace. And though the word grace appears only right here in this particular passage, the whole passage is just filled with this thought. The emphasis here is that abundant sin gives way to abundant grace. This is what he says. And the grace of our Lord, and he uses this phrase, was exceeding abundant. Toward him, the words exceeding abundant, that's only one Greek word, it's a word for abundant, and then it has a prefix attached to the beginning of it. It's the word huper, and it's the word we would get the word hyper from. And Paul loved to do this. He would attach this prefix to certain words. And he just is exploding that word. It's not just abundant, it is hyper-abundant. It is super-abundant, we might say today. Paul uses that same phrase in Romans chapter 5 and verse 20, he does the same thing. But where sin abounded, Grace did super abound. It did hyper abound. It did much more abound, as the King James translates it. And this is the emphasis that Paul is making here. Do you see that? Are you following me through the text where Paul is saying, I was a bad guy. I was a blasphemer. I was a persecutor. I was a violent aggressor. But here is what God did for me. He showed me mercy. He showed me grace. I didn't deserve any of it. But this is what he did for me. You may be here today and you think, you know, I am a bad dude myself. My sin is so ugly. If people knew what goes on in my heart and in my life or even things that I have done. Be horrible. And in my heart, I don't I don't know how God could ever save me. I'm just a wicked person. If you're thinking that this morning, then can you just think about the fact of where you are right now? You are here in church. You are under the sound of the word of God. All of that is an act of God's grace in your life. It's an act of God's mercy in your life that even though you may be living this kind of way in the province of God right here this morning, you are here. That's a work of grace. That God is doing in your life, and then he uses very quickly the word faith. With super abundant grace comes faith. Did you see that? And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith. And love and all of it is found in Christ Jesus, he says. Faith is not a work that we do to merit God's favor, it's an act of grace. We know those Ephesians very well, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, for by grace. Not our merit, for by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, not of our own doing. Lest any man should boast. Now, this is the message of the church today. This is the words. These are the words that should be coming forth from this pulpit and from our lips as fellow believers, part of the Church of God. We ought to be sounding forth this message, what good news we have. God's love is demonstrated in words, mercy and grace and faith. And then it's also demonstrated in works. And you see that in verse 15. We see this in the purpose of Jesus coming here. You see that? This is a faithful saying, Paul says, and worthy of everybody accepting it. That Christ Jesus, here's that faithful saying that everybody ought to receive. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's a message. And this faithful saying, that's a phrase you only see this phrase, this is a faithful saying in the pastoral epistles. You see it five times in those three books. And only twice does he add the little extra at the end, which is worthy of all acceptation. Here and in 1st Timothy 4.9 when he uses that phrase. The faithful statement worthy of full acceptance. deals with why Jesus came. He came to save sinners. And so that is what Paul, he does not want us to walk away from this. This is who I was, but God did something dramatic in my life. By the way, every sinner that gets saved, God did something dramatic. Some of our testimonies that we hear from others are in its storyline. has more dramatic details. But any time a sinner that is headed for hell has his eternal destiny totally changed, that is dramatic. And you may have grown up like I did. I don't ever remember a time not being in church. We were always there. I don't ever remember a time not walking in and having somebody open the Bible and preach to me in a church service. I don't ever remember anything differently from my very earliest memories. So I didn't grow up like a John Newton. I didn't grow up like a Billy Sunday. I didn't grow up like an Afrikaner. But I was growing up a sinner. And I was thankfully only a nine-year-old boy. When God showed mercy and grace and he saved me. And it changed my eternal destiny forever. And he began a process of changing me and conforming me into the image of his son. And many of you have that same testimony. So Paul wants to make sure we understand that he, yes, it was a pernicious life, but that pernicious life was met with the persistent love of Jesus. And that love changed him. And then finally. Those last couple of verses, the proclaiming light. We are to proclaim the gospel, all of us, who have this light now in us ought to be shining it forth as believers. And what we're shining forth, notice what he says in verse 16. How be it for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern of them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. What's he saying there? Here's what he's saying. As a believer, we are proclaiming the power of God, the persecutor became a preacher, the murderer became a missionary, is what Paul is telling us here. And that change was so dramatic when Paul says here, and it how be it for this cause, I obtain mercy that in me first. If you're writing your Bible, you ought to write next to that word, you ought to write foremost. Because that's what he's talking about, he's not talking about in chronology. He's talking about in depth here, he's saying, I was the chiefest of the sinners. And in me, the foremost, he says. Jesus Christ showed. His power. And you know, that conversion, it was so dramatic. You remember these words, Acts chapter nine. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he has said he tried to join himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. No way. I know that guy. I know that blasphemer. I know that wicked, injurious man. But here's old Barnabas that Pastor Bob preached to us about a couple of weeks ago. Here's Barnabas and Barnabas, the encourager, Barnabas took him. Barnabas brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And remember, that's what exactly what Paul said I did after I got saved. I began at Damascus, Paul said. And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed amongst against the Grecians, but they went about to slay him, which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus. And then another place in Galatians, Paul sharing his testimony there. And when he shares his testimony there, he's writing to the Galatian church and he's just extolling the power of God in his life. Let me just read you these verses quickly in chapter one. For ye have heard of my conversation, my lifestyle. You heard of my past and time passed in the Jews religion. You know how I lived, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and I wasted it. And profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. Then he says this, but it pleased God who called me by his grace to reveal his son in me. Then he says, afterwards, I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. I hadn't been there yet, but they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which once he destroyed. And I love the last phrase. And they glorified God in me. Here these people see what a dramatic change that God's grace and mercy had worked in this man's life. So much so that the people say only God could have done that. And they glorified God in me, Paul says. So, yes. This light that we're proclaiming is we're proclaiming the power of God, and then we're also proclaiming the patience of God. And again, that phrase in me first, that's the idea, the foremost of sinner. And Paul's point here is that the Lord, if the Lord is patient with the foremost of sinners. Then no one is beyond his reach of grace. Did you see that? That's exactly what he's saying here. That in me. First, as the foremost of sinners, Jesus Christ might show that He is a patient God. Might show forth all patience, all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe. unto life everlasting. You see what he's saying here? He is saying if God can save such a wicked sinner and be so patient with a man like me, that those coming after me can take heart, that God can also save them. That's what he's saying. This, friends, is the message of the church. We have to be proclaiming the gospel of Jesus. There's no more powerful, there's no more essential, there's no more needed message for our community to hear today than the fact that Jesus can and will save any sinner who will come to him. Even today. You're here today and you say, you know, I don't know what you're talking about. I know a little bit about me and what I do know about me, I don't like. I know I'm a sinner. I would readily admit that I have failed God. But I don't know what to do with my failure. You do exactly what Paul did. When Paul was confronted with his sin, he bowed his knee. to Jesus, and that's exactly what you would do. You would just bow your knee to Jesus. You would just say to Jesus, Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. But I understand that you are a savior. And that you came and you died on the cross for the sins, not only of the world, but for my sins. And I'm asking you to rescue me. I'm asking you to save me from my sins. If you will do that, you can do that right in your seat. If you will do that, God will give you eternal life. He will save you from your sins, not because of what you did, but because of what Jesus has done for you. He took all of your punishment on the cross. What you're doing is just agreeing. You're just believing what God said. You're just believing the gospel. And if you would do that today, if you would cry out today and ask Jesus to save you from your sins, he will do exactly that. If you do that today, would you please? On the way out the door this morning, I'll be at the back, would you just stop me and tell me that? Would you just say, you know, pastor, I just want you to know today I asked Jesus to save me from my sins. We would love to rejoice with you in that. This morning, I want us to close our service singing another song of testimony by that wicked, seafaring, but converted sinner, John Newton. In addition to Amazing Grace, John Newton wrote several songs, wonderful songs. He wrote, you know, this song is an old song. I don't know if we've ever even sung it here. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds within the sinner's ear. Have you heard that song before? It's a wonderful song. He wrote a really majestic song. Glorious things of thee are spoken. He pastored in Olney, England, O-L-N-E-Y, Olney, England for many years. And in 1779, they produced a little hymnal that had 348 hymns in it. 68 of those hymns were written by his good friend, William Cooper. We have some of those hymns in our hymn book. It spells C-O-W-P-E-R, but it's pronounced Cooper. William Cooper wrote 68 of those and John Newton wrote 280 of those. This wicked man that God saved. And then 280 of them. And one of them, our church has grown to love to sing. And it's about his testimony. I was once a rebel, but now I'm a son. And he says this saved by blood, I live to tell what my Christ in love has done. He redeemed my soul from hell of a rebel. Made a son. And I've shared a little bit about your testimony, his testimony, here's what he writes, oh, I tremble still to think how secure I lived in sin, sporting on destruction's brink. Yet preserved from falling in. In his own appointed hour to my heart, the Savior spoke, touched me by his spirit's power and my dangerous slumber broke. You have greatly sinned, he said, but I freely all forgive. I myself, your debt have paid. Now I bid you rise and live. Then here's the heart of this preacher now. His last verse in this hymn is an invitation. Come, my fellow sinners, try. Jesus' heart is full of love. Oh, that you, as well as I, may his wondrous mercy prove. He has sent me to declare all is ready, all is free. Why should any soul despair when he saved a wretch like me? That was Paul's testimony. I'm the foremost. And here's Newton's testimony. I want us to sing this together. And as you sing it, can you think about this this morning? Could you think about your own testimony, Christian? Can you think about the day that you asked Jesus to save you? You may not have been in your rebellion so dramatic as some of these people that we've recounted today, but you were nevertheless a lost person. And God, from a rebel, made you a son, made you a child of God. Just thank God this morning.