So let's begin with looking at at verse eight. Previously, Paul had already in verse six and verse seven, he was referring to a group of men who wanted to be teachers of the law. And but they did not know the purpose for which the law existed. And they were using the law in a wrong way and doing damage to the gospel. Now, there's two ways in which the law can be used the wrong way. One is, of course, to supplant justification by faith. But the other way is more common today. One of the ways in which the law can be misused is that it's not used at all. It has nothing to do with the Christian minister or the Christian life or the Christian proclamation of the gospel. And that also is very, very wrong. So now let's look at verse eight. Paul says, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Now, I want you to look at the fact that this is present tense. so that there is an ongoing usefulness to the law in the Christian life. Now, if we look at Rome, you don't have to turn there, but in Romans 7 verse 12, So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. But the law must be used lawfully. And so what is the main purpose of the law? We're going to see that in verses 9 through 10. The main purpose of the law is to... Now, oftentimes you'll hear this. The main purpose of the law is to convict the sinner of sin and drive the sinner to the gospel. Now, that is true, very true. But here's what I want you to see. How does the law convict a sinner of sin? by revealing God's righteousness. Never forget that it is through the law that God's righteousness is revealed. And it is a man's understanding that God is righteous, that he is a moral being, and that man's morality contradicts God's morality. That's what exposes our sin and our need of grace. One of my favorite statements that I've ever heard comes from Sinclair Ferguson, in which he said, man hates God's will because it's not his will. You see, and there's so what I want you to see is is not just laws. But a revelation of nature, a revelation of attributes. The law reveals the nature or attributes of God, but the law also reveals the nature of man, that both things are contrary. And the reason God's will is contrary for man's will is because God's nature is different than man's. God's nature is holy and righteous, and man's is morally corrupt. So there almost everything that happens in the world today, it's pretty much answered in what I just said. There's the reason for all the problems in the world now. Let's go on and read verses 9 and 10. Realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. Now, I just want to read something here. The law was made for the purpose of revealing God's righteousness, exposing sin so that the sinner... And in this list, in verses 9 and 10, these aren't all the sinners in the world. This is a representative list of sin. and of sinners, exposing sin so that the sinner might seek God's mercy and order his life accordingly. You see, if you read correctly, Romans 1, especially 118 to the end of chapter 3, you begin to see something, or the end of chapter three, verse 19 and 20, you begin to see something. The purpose of the law is to condemn, but condemn is a subordinate purpose. The supreme purpose is that the person might see themselves as condemned so that they then run for mercy. They then run for mercy. It's like imagine someone is a self-righteous human being and they think, I'm going to save myself with good works. And they march forward with that. And then Paul cuts them off. But we are so set in self-righteousness and in saving ourselves that we turn left and we try to go around that way with our good works. And Paul cuts us off. Then we try to go right, you know, and go this way with our self-righteousness. And Paul cuts us off with the law. We try to go back. He cuts us off with the law. We try to dig underneath. He builds a foundation with the law so that the only place we can look is up. It's to bring men to Christ. Now, if your preaching of the law. If in that preaching of the law, those who are listening to you do not see that you're only doing this to drive them to mercy, then something's wrong with your preaching. Okay? Now, let me give you an example. My mother, years ago, was diagnosed with a deadly cancer. And she did end up going home to glory because of that cancer. But my mom was very strong woman. After my father died, she raised all her children by herself. She sent us all to college. She was a strong woman. And she was also very strong willed. And so the doctor knew that she probably wouldn't want to go for the treatment. And so he walked in that day. I went with my mother and we didn't know if she had cancer or not. And the doctor walked in with a stack of papers about like this high of these big folders with x-rays and everything. And that doctor ruined my mother's day. He broke her heart. He made her cry. And here's what he did. He said, Mrs. Washer, you have cancer. And if we don't do something, there's no chance of you surviving. And at first there's denial, isn't there? There's no way that I have that kind of cancer. So what did he do? Here's the first evidence. Look at it. You have cancer. Here's the second evidence. Look at it. You have cancer. Here's the third evidence. And as he went through all that evidence, my mother was seeing she really does have cancer. She really must act. She must do something. Now, other than loving your wife and your children, a man loves his mother. Now, that doctor ruined my mother's day. He made her cry and he broke her heart. And after my mom walked out of the room, I looked at him and I shook his hand and I said, thank you so much. He broke her heart. He made her cry. I should have punched him, right? Well, if someone made my mother cry just to hurt her, I probably would. But he made her cry in order to attempt to save her. And you could see that. He was hurting her with the purpose of saving her. Now, when we preach about the righteousness of God, we need to be very careful that we do not become brash, ugly, or speak about even the worst of sinners in a way that is demeaning, because even the worst of sinners still bears the image of God to some degree. And I have made errors in that. I have at times in my younger years been too strong. If when you get to be an older preacher, you're going to look back and sometimes you're going to go, I was too strong. That wasn't necessarily boldness. That was brashness. Or you're going to look back and say, you know, I compromised here. But this is why we speak the law. It's for salvation. It's to save. All right. And there's a way to preach. I've read some of some of Spurgeon's sermons were very hard. Whitfield. Oh, my. He really. He preached very hard, but they say that there was no doubt about his love. as he wept over sinners. So now, let me say one last thing here about the law. It's to lead men to sinners, I mean, to lead men to see that they're sinners and then to lead them to Christ. But once a person is a Christian, the law is a beautiful thing. It's very, very beautiful. If it is not a means of justification, but a means of guidance and wisdom and security, it's a beautiful thing. Now, you should know that I'm talking about the law properly interpreted in light of the New Testament. I'm not talking about blowing a shofar. I'm not talking about guarding certain days. I'm not talking about sacrificing a goat. But I'm talking about the rich wisdom and truth of God that is found in the law. And I find it almost unbelievable to me that so many young guys who claim to be reformed have such a negative view of the law. Well, the law condemns. Well, if you're looking to the law for salvation, yes, it does. It does condemn. But what Christian do you know of that's looking to the law for salvation? You see, here's another thing. They said, well, the law continues to point out my my failures and makes me feel bad about myself. Well, then maybe something about yourself ought to change. You see, let me give you an example. Let's say that there's two buildings and they're 30 meters apart and all of them go up to about 10 floors. Now, you put a wire across those buildings from one building to another, a tightrope to walk on. And you say, Brother Paul, do you want to walk on that tightrope? What am I going to say? No, no way. Why? Because I'm not going to be able to do that. But now, if you tell me, Brother Paul, underneath that tightrope, we've put one of those bouncy nets that are really, if you fall into it, you'll be as secure as a baby in its mother's arms. Will you walk across the tightrope? Sure. It'd be fun. You see, my standing before God is not based on my ability to follow his wisdom. It's not based on my ability to walk according to his commandments. And so I'm not afraid. My standing before God is in Christ. So now I can look at the same law that David said he loved. The same law that led Timothy to Christ. I can look at all that and I can rejoice in its wisdom. But then again, it's the law correctly interpreted in the light of the New Testament. Now, you've all heard that the law is designed to expose our sin and to lead us to Christ. But let me show you something else. I've been teaching. I've finished now four chapters in the book of Proverbs that I've been teaching through for children. I think we have 80 some sermons. And I believe that Proverbs functions much of the same way. The law shows us we're sinners and sends us to Christ for salvation. Proverbs shows us that we're fools and sends us to Christ for salvation. I believe the whole Bible sends us to Christ for salvation. But once I am saved, I go back into that book of Proverbs and I learn how to walk wisely. Now, another thing that is very, very important. The law is a revelation of God's righteousness. And it needs to be used that way. But is the law the greatest revelation of God's righteousness? No. What is? Well, we can mention two categories. First of all, the person of Christ. Do you want to talk about a revelation of God's righteousness, the perfect life of Jesus Christ? Now, sometimes preachers will say, and rightly so, this is true. Imagine that you have a scale, a balance. And you put the law on this side and then you put the person on this side and the law is going to show that they're guilty. You see, that's true. But now imagine this. You put the person on one side of the scale and you put Jesus on the other. You talk about demonstrating guilt. That's why we should also be preaching the perfect life of Christ, because if someone wants to know what they have to do to go to heaven, well, they have to be just like Christ. You see. And I think that is a that is a really powerful, powerful truth. That we preach Jesus, we preach Jesus now. Let's go on. He says in verse 11, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. Now, what does this mean? Because he's talking about the law, he's talking about sound teaching, and then he's talking about the glorious gospel. So in verse 10, whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel. The gospel is the standard that judges all sound teaching. Do you see that? If you're interpreting the law or interpreting any text or anything in the Bible in a manner that contradicts the gospel, what we know about the gospel, then you are interpreting it wrongly. If you use the law, it must always be in agreement with the gospel. So when you have people who say, you know, we need to go like many of the not all. And not even most, but some messianic congregations, you know, they go back and Gentiles now need to do this. You need to have this type of service. You need to do all these things just like Judaism. That doesn't agree with the gospel. That's not a proper use of the law. Or if someone says like there was a group that was raised up in Peru that thought they were the lost tribe of Israel and they started sacrificing goats and trying to keep the law and the women all dressed a certain way. We know that's a wrong interpretation of the law, a wrong use of it, because it doesn't center on the gospel. It doesn't magnify the gospel. So any use of the law or any type of sound teaching is going to be based on the gospel, in agreement with the gospel. And I would say it's going to exalt the gospel. It's going to push people to look at the gospel. And think about this. Not just with regard to heretical teaching, but think about looking at sanctification. The doctrine of sanctification without the gospel. It turns into legalism. Look at counseling without the gospel. It turns into kind of a principle driven counseling. Now, principles and all these things are important. But they lose all their meaning and power when it's separated from the gospel. It is by looking at the gospel that I am transformed. It is by looking at the gospel that I am motivated and empowered. Paul said the love of Christ constrains me. So the law is a beautiful thing, but it has to be in accordance with the full revelation of the gospel. He says, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. Now, I want to increase your fear of the Lord. That's one of the things we always pray at the table at HeartCry, Lord, increase our fear of thee, our reverence for thee, the solemnity. of our stewardship, the great privilege, the great demands and how you and I will be held accountable. So go to Romans chapter three for a moment. Hold your place, but go to Romans chapter three. In chapter three there at the very beginning, verse one, then what advantage has the Jew or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect, first of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. Now, they were entrusted. That's the same word that Paul uses in chapter one, verse 11 of First Timothy. The Jews were entrusted with the law. Paul has been entrusted with the gospel. Now, you will only understand the solemnity of this, even the fearfulness of this, if you understand that when when Israel came into covenant with God when Israel, especially at Mount Sinai, by receiving the privilege of the law, they came under such a stewardship to obey the law, to promote the law, that when they did not, they were judged most severely. Do you realize that? And Paul talks about that in Romans 2 and partly in Romans 3, is that whenever you have been given something, you've been entrusted with something, it magnifies your responsibility. And Israel suffered terribly, even though other nations were far worse than Israel. Israel suffered terribly. Why? Because of the privileges that were granted them. So keeping that in mind, thinking of all the judgments that fell upon Israel, that didn't fall upon the nations. Because Israel had been entrusted with the law of God. Now, you haven't been entrusted with the law of God to some degree, but your stewardship is infinitely greater. You've been entrusted with the gospel. And not only that, don't think of the gospel impersonally. You've been entrusted with the proclamation, the news of God's Son. If Moses was warned to build everything in the temple or in the tabernacle according to what was written, and the tabernacle was just some type and shadow of the church, then how much more must you and I No, be careful in the way that we order the church and supervise the church. So if Israel was brought under tremendous responsibility because it was given the law, how much greater is our responsibility since we have been given something far greater than the law? We have been given the glorious gospel of the blessed God. I've written here, giving the law to Israel, put them under a great stewardship that had serious ramifications. How much more may we say the same about the gospel minister and the church? Now, we have a stewardship. We've been entrusted to do what? First of all, to keep the gospel pure. To keep it pure. I am hearing people say things like this. The world seems to be falling apart. The West is on the verge of being destroyed. Why doesn't God do something? God is doing something. He's destroying the West. He's raising up nations. He's casting nations down. He's taking away reason, which is a grace. He's taken away the ability to use even reason from the West. While our enemies grow in power and power and power, the West can't even decide which bathroom its men should go in. So God is doing great and terrible things. But never, never forget this judgment begins with the household of God. For how many decades has the name of Jesus Christ been blasphemed by evangelicals? The prosperity teachers using his name to gain wealth, the easy believism, the the kind of gospel that it's all about you. trying to somehow present the gospel in a way that is culturally sophisticated. Look at what has been happening. This is the message of God's son. Everything God has ever done, he has done for his son. And the gospel has not been kept pure in any shape, form or fashion by those who declare themselves to be gospel people. evangelicals. And even now in the United States, because of everything that's happening, I'm seeing people who I knew who are now I would consider them apostate. God is cleaning the church. Which also means the church is going to suffer. Why? You do not touch the ark of God, but the ark of God is a very little thing compared to the gospel of God's son. Paul says in Galatians 1, 8 and 9. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed, accursed, brethren. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. So we're to keep the gospel pure. And when we do not, we have stepped over the line. And you can preach an impure gospel by adding the law to it. But you can also preach an impure gospel by adding prosperity to it. You can also pervert the gospel by trying to make it culturally and academically sophisticated. Do you see? And so maintain purity. You know, when I'm teaching young people, sometimes, you know, they'll come across movies in which they'll say, well, I watched that movie because it but it only used the Lord's name in vain three times. It only had a few cuss words or there were only a one immoral scene. And I always tell them, imagine if you came over to my house. And you were very thirsty. And I said to you, would you like a drink of water? And they said, yes, I would. Okay. I go get him a drink of water and I bring it back. And I said, here's the water. And I just want you to know it's 99% pure. Well, what do you mean 99% pure? Well, 1% of it is cyanide. But it's good. That's just 1%. Do you see? Or if I said it has only one drop of sewage in it. Do you see? Guys, let me tell you something. I hope that most of us say that we're not violent, that we're not violent men, that we're gentle and kind and we're merciful. But if some man was going to touch Your son was going to hurt your son. Would you not do everything in your power to stop him? Everything in your power. That is just a very slight illustration of God's zeal for his son. Be very careful, even how you speak his name. And his gospel. So we are to faithfully preserve the gospel, but we're also to faithfully preach the gospel in First Corinthians 916. For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. Brothers, listen to me. Now, you listen, especially you young guys, you listen to me. I am so tired. of seeing men who, if you sit down at a table with them and talk to them about theology, they will be as soundly biblical and reformed as you could ever imagine. But when you see them in the pulpit, they do not preach what they supposedly know. Now, I'm not talking about getting in a pulpit and preaching Calvinism all the time. I'm talking about there's so many things they claim to believe in private that they do not proclaim in the pulpit. And then so many times men saying biblical church, biblical church, biblical church, but when you go into their church, it's not biblical. Where's the prayer meetings? Where's the expository preaching? Where's the reverence? Where's the biblical worship according to the regulative principle? Where is it? It's not there. And so when Paul talks in verse 11, saying he has been entrusted. That is, that's something, man. And the more God opens up a door, for your influence of ministry to expand the more you are under stewardship and the more severe will be your judgment. And I want you to have not a paralyzing fear, but I want you to have a deep and abiding reverence for your calling. It is so important, men. I remember years ago hearing John Snyder, who did Behold Your God and several other things. And he got up and he's a very kind man, a very gentle man. And he got up and he said, What disturbs me today is everyone is talking about passion, passion, passion. But so few people are talking about caution, caution, caution. That we are to walk circumspectly. We must not touch the Ark of God. We must not play children's marbles with the diamonds of God. Now, it should not be paralyzing because that would be demonic. It's not paralyzing. But it should cause all of us to walk with a bit more seriousness. And seriousness does not mean joyless. You should be a joyful man, but you should have a deep sense of your stewardship. Now, let's go to verse 12. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me in to service. Now, these next few verses are rather difficult. They're more difficult than what you would first suppose. It just seems to be kind of autobiographical. But here's the first problem. When we look at this text, it appears that Paul is saying that the Lord put him in service because he was faithful or that the Lord put Paul in service because of his merit. That's what it seems to be saying. If you just look at it really quickly. And we know that's contrary to everything Paul taught in other places. So I've written here, the problem is resolved when we realize that Christ did put Paul in the ministry because he was faithful. But Paul's faithfulness was a result of Christ's strengthening by grace. Now, let's read the text again. Look what he says. He's very, very careful here. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service. Now, I want to read something from William Hendrickson that I think is very, very good. He writes as though Paul were speaking at first. I acknowledge my gratitude to Christ who gave me strength. Well, let me read that again. I acknowledge my gratitude to him who gave me strength, Christ Jesus, our Lord, that he considered me trustworthy and appointed me for himself to this ministry. Now, so Paul is saying there was a faithfulness on his part, but then he's quick, quick, very quick to go back and say, but that faithfulness is the result of grace. Now, turn in another place and I'm going to show you the same thing. Look in First Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15 verses 9 and 10. Paul says, for I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Now, look what he says. But by the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God within me. Now, look at what he's doing. In the middle, he says, I labored more than everyone else, but that sandwiched between two things by the grace of God, I am what I am. And then at the bottom, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Do you see that? And here's what I want you to see, that there is a need. To strive to be more and more faithful. That should be in all of us to the day we die. We should strive. We should discipline ourselves. We should prepare ourselves to be more and more faithful men. Yet at the same time, always realizing any faithfulness, any progress is the result of the grace of God working in us. Always attributed back to that. I may be, I guess, the oldest one in this conversation. I'll be 60 in a few months. The older and older I get and I look back, Do you know what I see? Every bit of progress, every ministry that had any worth to it, I really don't know how it happened except the grace of God. I remember doing things in Peru during the civil unrest, things that were extremely dangerous, and I look back on it now and my knees almost get weak. What does that tell us? The grace of God. So, yes, on one sense, we strive and strive. But if we find ourselves striving more than other brothers and working harder than other brothers, it must be attributed back to what? The grace of God. Now, I'm going to show you how the Lord applied this to my life and really taught me a painful lesson. It was painful, but it was necessary. After about a year into being a Christian, I don't know the exact time, but somewhere around there, I began to pray. I began to devote myself to prayer. And I'm going to tell you before the Lord, prayer was easy. And I'm also going to tell you, it was nothing for me. You know, after I came home after studies at school and then work as a waiter, come home at 11 o'clock and pray till one in the morning or 130. Almost every day, it just was like breathing. It was easy. And then sometimes taking weekends and praying and just praying, praying, praying. But you know what happened? I wondered. Why is it other people struggle with prayer? Prayer is like breathing. Why do they struggle with prayer? Why do I hear people telling me constantly that they struggle to pray 15 minutes or a half hour or they feel like there's a roof of bronze over their heads and their prayers are going nowhere? I honestly couldn't understand it. So you know what happened, don't you? All of a sudden, after years, it became very difficult for me to pray. Oh, I pray. But even when I've tried, I mean, said I am going to literally devote myself to this many hours every day, even if I have to tie myself to anchor. I've not been able to replicate those years of prayer. And I think that's very, very important not to use it as an excuse. We must pray and we must fight the flesh. But what the Lord showed me is if, you know, if you're praying well, if you're studying hours, and hours a day, mark it off to the grace. The only thing that's distinguishing you is not some devotion coming out of you, but God doing a special work. If someone puts a gun to your head and you have peace and you do not deny Jesus Christ, that isn't because you had the strong will of a superhero. It's because the grace of Christ held you up. Mark it down, men. We need to work and labor and strive. But know this, if we are, it's grace. Also, we have grace according to our callings and grace according to those special things God wants to do in our life. All of us have similar calling, and yet all of us have very different callings in other aspects. You're able to do certain things that are extremely important for the kingdom that don't even necessarily interest me. And if it did interest me, I wouldn't be empowered to carry it out. I am very interested in books being published. I am not very interested in being the one who does it. Do you see? So our brother who is just excited about publishing good books, what is that? Is he just more well read than everybody? Does he just care about good books more or do we just always sit in front of TVs? I mean, why is it? By God, he's been given a special calling and been given a special grace to carry that out. Do you see? So we always attribute everything back to the grace of God. Paul said in Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I do not believe that is a broad, comprehensive statement that should be applied to I can fly if I want to. I believe that Paul could do all things in two ways, all things that were in in context or were according to the will of God and all things that God had specifically called him to do. He could do them, but it was by Christ's strengthening. If you ever tell me that God has called you to do something, but You're just not worthy and you're just not capable. I'm not going to feel sorry for you. I'm not going to put my arm around you. I'm not even going to say you're humble. I'm going to say you're just straight up unbiblical. No one receives a calling that they're worthy of and no one receives a calling that they're capable of carrying out. You should know that. Everything is the grace of Christ. You see, God isn't doing all this so that you and I do a bunch of extraordinary things. And then throughout all of heaven, you and I are praised by angels. This whole thing is about God demonstrating his power. That's why he chose you. We have a saying here in the United States, the runt of the litter. That's the smallest, weakest puppy born to its mother, the one that's weak, crying, fearful and about to die. God always chooses that one. So if you've been called into the ministry, there's probably something terribly, terribly wrong with you. You see, so God's going to defeat the Midianites. So he goes, finds the weakest tribe, the weakest family, the weakest son hiding in a wine vat. He gets an army. God says it's too big, says it's too big again, and then cuts it down to 300, not 300 Spartans. But 300 men carrying clay jars to throw on the ground to make noise with. Do you see? But that should encourage you. It shows you that since this is of Christ, there's nothing you're called to obey that you can't obey, and there's nothing you're called to do that you can't do. That, to me, is a great encouragement. So now let's go to verse 13. Paul says, Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. Here's another problem. It appears that Paul is saying that he was shown mercy because he did not know what he was doing. It seems like an excuse, doesn't it? Well, I just didn't know I wasn't that bad. I just didn't know. And because I didn't really understand, I received mercy now. And I'm going to read this from my notes. Paul is not excusing his sin. It was horrible. Blasphemer, blasphemed God, blasphemed Christ, persecuted the bride of Christ, the children of God, the apple of his eye. It was a terrible sin. Paul is not excusing his sin, but most scholars believe that Paul is setting himself in contrast to the Pharisees, the people of the law. who rejected Christ, even though they knew he was from God, even though they knew he was God's son. What you need to understand is something a lot of people do not understand. Those Pharisees, at least many of them, many of those leaders knew, knew, they knew that Jesus was Messiah. Nicodemus said, Rabbi, we know you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. He says we, who's we? Do you see? The leaders. We know. Now, listen to the parable of Jesus in Matthew 21, 37 and 38. Just listen to what he says. Jesus said, But afterward, he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son. But when the vine growers saw the sun, they said among themselves, This is the air. This is the sun, the air. Come. Let us kill him and seize his inheritance. Now, I want to read again from William William Hendrickson. He says, Though his past conduct or Paul's past conduct had been frightful, it had not amounted to the sin against the Holy Spirit, the willful sin against better knowledge. For such sin, there is no pardon. Nor does the one who lives in it have any desire for pardon. But Paul's case was different. During his campaign of aggression, the apostle, in his state of unbelief with respect to the truth in Christ, had actually thought he was offering service to God. Paul actually believed as Jesus had warned that some would kill them thinking they were doing service to God. Paul actually believed he was doing service to God. He had been thoroughly convinced that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Acts 26 9. So for him, there was forgiveness, just as for the same reason there was forgiveness for the men of Israel who had killed the prince of life. Acts 317, he says, Mercy, divine pity had been accorded to this former member of a group of legalists, the Pharisees. And I believe he's right there. And other scholars would agree with him. As I have, and I'm not an expert by any means, but as I have read rabbinic literature that even preceded the New Testament, it is astounding what the Jews believed about Messiah. Many believed that Messiah would die for the people. They said things like this. Everything that has ever been made was made for Messiah. Do you see that? Many of the things Paul wrote, all of it was inspired, but many of it was in straight agreement with the uninspired thoughts of rabbis prior to the coming of Christ. That everything was written, everything that was written. was written for Messiah. So when Jesus stood there in front of those Jewish leaders and he says, you search those scriptures, but everything in that in those scriptures are about me. He wasn't saying anything that they didn't believe about the Messiah. You see, everything points to Christ, everything points to Christ, everything. Now, let's go on to 1st Timothy 1 14. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with faith and love, which are found in Christ Jesus. Now, in verse 13, Paul wrote about his abounding sin. But now in verse 14, Paul is writing about God's super abounding grace. Do you see that? His sin was abounding, but the grace of God abounded, abounded even more. He says it was more than abundant, literally overly abundant. It wasn't just barely meeting the need. It was far beyond the need. Oftentimes, now, when you hear that theologically, you're in agreement with it. But oftentimes we don't practice it in our own lives. We think at best, you know, that grace is barely able to cover all that we have done, all that we at times do in the present. We're just going to skim by. But that's never the witness of the New Testament. Grace is super abundant. Now, if that makes you go out and be more lazy, lazier with regard to holiness or makes you just live in sin because you hear that, it's probably a sign of your lack of conversion. But if you're a true believer, this overwhelming, super abundant grace will motivate you to want to be more godly. This grace produced in Paul both saving faith in God and love toward God and his people. It not only produced, you know, saving faith. Regeneration does more than bring about saving faith. It also changes the heart. So this once blasphemer, you see, this once blasphemer is now loving God. Now, I want to say this, and if you catch this in 13 and 14, this is the first time I saw it. I was going through something of this passage a few weeks ago, and I caught something that I had never seen before. If you compare verse 13 with verse 14, you see that everything that was needed to alter Paul's previous state was made possible by saving and transforming grace. He says in verse 13, what does he talk about? He talks about his ignorance and unbelief, right? He talks about his ignorance and unbelief. They were replaced by faith. Through grace, his ignorance and unbelief were replaced by faith. His blasphemy, he said he was blasphemous. He railed against God. His blasphemy was replaced by love for God. He said he was a persecutor and violent aggressor of God's people that was replaced with he loved God's people. Do you see where God's grace made a turnaround in everything in Paul's life? I find it necessary. I find it absolutely beautiful that when you read the autobiography of George Mueller, are you familiar with George Mueller? that he ran an orphanage and God prospered him and answered prayers financially, almost like nothing we've ever seen before in Christianity. He kept a fine record of every penny, every dime. He was faithful, faithful, faithful. But before he was converted, he was such a rotten, riotous party animal that he stole money. He embezzled money from his own father. He stole money from his own father and got in all kinds of financial trouble and everything else. So do you see what God's grace did? It just utterly reversed everything that was wrong with George Mueller. It reversed everything that was wrong with the Apostle Paul. And I think that is a powerful, powerful, powerful truth. It's just beautiful to me. You see, don't walk around going you're weak and you cannot. We all know that. We all know that. But we know that about everyone, God doesn't look for For example, Charles Spurgeon, God wasn't looking all over the United Kingdom, wringing his hands, going, I need someone who will help me, someone who will promote my gospel. Oh, wonderful. I found this young man who's so brilliant, so talented and so godly. That's not what God does. God doesn't find men. He makes them. And he will oftentimes use the weakest man to do the greatest things. And that's the way you should think about yourself. If God is using you and does use you, please attribute it to the fact that he wanted to get the most glory out of that ministry. So he found the weakest person to do it. And that's you and me. So let's see here. Let's go to 15 now. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners among whom I am. He says, I am foremost of all now. Paul could not be more emphatic here that God desires to save sinners. And if you ever limit that desire, you're not a Calvinist. You're some silly person who doesn't understand soteriology. Don't ever limit that. Don't ever. There is a mystery there that goes beyond all of us. Make no mistake, God desires to save sinners and any sinner, any sinner on this planet who would come to him, he would save them. Anyone, anyone, and if someone doesn't come, it's because they refuse to come. But God is willing to save. Now, he says a trustworthy statement, you can take it to the bank, we say. Deserving full acceptance. Deserving full acceptance. If you're doubtful whether God is willing to save or not, it is not the result of any correct interpretation of the scripture. It is not the result of your reading the scriptures. God is desirous to save, willing to save. Now, it says that the proof of it is that Jesus Christ came into the world, a reference to the incarnation. And here's what I want you to see. The incarnation is often called the kinesis, the emptying. It's also referred to as a humiliation. Brothers, it would be impossible for us to understand. the degree to which Christ humbled himself to come to earth. Who he is and what he left to come here and take upon himself, even if he had taken upon himself the body, if we can say such a thing, of an archangel, it would have been an infinite humiliation. If he had taken upon himself the body of a pre-fallen Adam, that would have been infinite humiliation. But he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. That doesn't mean that his body was sinful or that he sinned, but he came in the likeness having taken the body In its fallen condition, a body that could suffer, feel weak, have to battle, that could die, that could hurt. There's just absolutely no way, because you and I only have glimpses of his glorious estate throughout all eternity. Oh, just so you know, something I heard someone say a while back, a preacher, and it really helped me. You know, when Jesus came to the rich young ruler and he said, Sell everything you have, give to the poor and follow me. Do you know Jesus was not asking him to do anything that Jesus had not already done? He who was rich became poor that we might become rich. If you're married, and I know all of you will say you're married to the most wonderful woman in the world. That's what you better say. But if you were married to the most difficult, hateful, resentful woman who never responded positively to you. We love him because he loved us first. He died for us when we were enemies. So when God asked you to care for that woman, he's not asking you to do anything. When Christ asked you to do that, he's not asking you to do anything that he hasn't done. I can't find anything he's asking us to do. that he hasn't done with regard to discipleship other than the confession of sin and repentance. He never needed to do that. And there may be some other things, but please understand what I'm saying. When he commands us to make these, when he makes these demands upon us, those demands were made upon him infinitely more. So it says, he came into the world Literally, and the word order is important, he came into the world sinners to save. So sinners comes first. And that's to put emphasis on the kind of people he came to save. He came to save sinners. In Luke 1910, regarding Jesus's concern for the tax collectors, Zacchaeus, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now, if we want to really strengthen our belief that Jesus came to save sinners, we just need to look at what God said about his own willingness to save. And I'm just going to read some passages. John 3, 17. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Look at Ezekiel 18, 23. Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, rather than that he should turn from his ways and live? Ezekiel 33 11 is even more expressive. Say to them, as I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his ways and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die, O house of Israel? That's God. So when I hear these preachers who will say that they feel uncomfortable begging all men to repent, Begging all men to believe what they're doing is they're not submitting to scripture. They're not submitting to scripture. And all the great Calvinistic preachers of history have believed what I'm talking to you about. A broad, open call to all men to come to faith. And showing men, if you do not come, it's your sin. It's your sin. So we look at God's willingness to save. Then we look at who God has saved. Think about it. He saved Rahab five times in the Bible. She's referred to as Rahab the harlot. Rahab the harlot. He saved Manassas. Manassas. Have you studied the life of Manassas? The most wicked king ever. Offered his own sons in sacrifice. Committed every abomination, even in the temple, was the reason for the exile. But in the exile, he wept over his sin. Manassas. And then if you really doubt, Paul says, God's willingness to save sinners. He says, look at me. I was ignorant, unbelieving, blaspheming. I was a persecutor and a violent aggressor of God's bride. We're going to come to a text that's kind of difficult. It then he says, Among whom I am foremost of all. He says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. Now, he says here the word foremost is first in order or rank. If you line up all the sinners. I outrank them. I'm the foremost. King James says of who I am chief. The NET, I am the worst of them. I am the worst of them. Now, here's kind of the problem. Paul uses present tense. He doesn't say I was the worst. He says, I am the worst. And I find this a rather difficult passage that we shouldn't just explain away that Paul was humble or that. Well, let's just look at it. I want to read from D. Edmund Hebert on his commentary. It says, Such language is not to be discounted as mere rhetoric. It is a straightforward statement of his inner conviction. Paul wasn't just trying to be humble. It was his inner conviction that he was the foremost sinner of all. Now, we need to look at what that means and what it doesn't mean. Paul cannot be saying. Paul cannot be saying that he is still the same ignorant, unbelieving, blasphemous persecutor and aggressor of the church. He can't be saying that even though he's using present tense. He cannot be saying that. Why? Because he said, I was formerly these things. I used to be these things. Paul cannot be saying that as an apostle, he was the worst Christian because he would not have qualified even for eldership. Paul cannot be saying that he made little progress in sanctification. He cannot be saying that. Because in Romans 6, 1 and 2, he says, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? In Philippians 3, 12, he said, Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. He's saying that he's made progress. in the goal of conformity to Christ. He cannot be saying that he's actually a worst of sinner in his present condition, because in First Corinthians 11 1, he says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. So what is Paul saying? What is he saying? Here's what I believe. Paul is not saying that he remained the same vile sinner, but that he would forever hold the trophy as the worst sinner ever saved. That would be his claim to fame. Not that he was still the worst sinner who ever walked on the planet, but he continues until today. And until the end of the world, he saw himself as in his former life. But continuing on, he has the trophy as the worst sinner ever saved. Paul is using the present tense to communicate that his past sinful life, his conversion, his calling, would be an ongoing example of God saving grace, that because of what he was. See, here's the thing. To do sinful things to people is a terrible crime before God. But the greatest crime before God is sin against God, sin against his son. Paul said, I not only sinned against God's people, violently persecuting them, aggressively persecuting them, but I also blasphemed the name of God, blasphemed the name of His Son, in hearty agreement with the death of His Son, in hearty agreement with the death of His Bride. But He has saved me, called me, and changed me. And so I get the trophy as the worst person ever saved. And throughout history, I will be known as the worst one ever saved. Now, John Newton said something similar in one of his hymns that are not too well known. You know, John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace. This is one of my favorite lines from all of Newton's hymns. He says this. No works have I to boast. And yet would I glory in the thought that of all God's children, I owe him the most. What is he saying? I only have one claim to fame, only one thing that sets me above every other person saved. I needed grace more than any of them. And I think that's the general idea of what Paul is saying. You and I will forever be displays of God's power to save the worst. We will forever be illustrations, examples. Is God powerful to save? Is God willing to save? Well, just look at who he saved. Look at who he saved. Now, verse 16 is a wonderful, wonderful text. And I know I'm going late, but I really want to get through to verse 17 so that next time we start in a new section. He says, Yet for this reason, I found mercy so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. Now, this is an amazing statement because it demonstrates that God's redemptive work in Paul and in us had many purposes or multiple purposes. When God is doing one thing, God is doing an infinite number of things, many, many things. Now, what are they? First, what's one of the purposes of saving Paul, the worst sinner? God saves people first, not necessarily first of all in an order of rank, but one of the purposes, primary purposes for which God saves people is because he loves them. Don't ever forget that. You know, for years, Dr. Piper was known as, you know, everything God does, he does for his own glory. And Dr. Piper is right. Very right. I have no problem at all with any of that kind of statement. It's right. The sad thing is, is even some of the most right statements in the world can bring about wrong conclusions for people who are not understanding them. So there's always these extremes. God does everything for his own glory, does everything for his own glory. And finally, I hear people saying, God didn't save you because he loved you. He saved you for his own glory. You are unlovable. That's not what Dr. Piper is saying. That's not what the statement means. God does everything for his own glory. God saves people for his own glory. God also saves people because he loves them. And that's part of the glory. He saved you. He saved Paul. He saved me because before the foundation of the world, he set his love upon us. And he loved us because he is love. And he loved us because he determined to love us. So why does God save men? He loves them. He loves cattle. Do you remember when Jonah really wanted Nineveh to be destroyed? God said, I have not just many people, I have many animals. Think about it. God loves animals more than we love people. Never lose that or you lose evangelicalism. You lose the beauty of everything. Everything dies. Don't do that. God also saved Paul for the full revelation or grand display of his attributes to show everyone who he is. That's another reason why God saves, to reveal himself. Things are revealed in our salvation that could not be revealed any other way. For example, Christ's perfect patience, literally all patience. Christ was patient. with Paul when he blasphemed his name and persecuted his bride? Think about it. You know, the justice of Christ is real. Not only does Christ's death save us from God the Father, Christ's death saves us from God the Son. He was in agreement also that we should all die. When Paul was persecuting his bride, Christ was showing tremendous patience. Also, Paul says his salvation was to be an encouragement for all sinners to come to God with full confidence in his disposition and power to save. That's why Paul says, look, I'm the greatest example of a sinner. You can't be lower than me. I'm the worst of the worst. So if God is willing to save me, if God saves me, God can save you. Paul argues from the greater to the lesser. Since God has saved the worst, he can save anyone else. Now, I want you to look at the last phrase that we must not overlook in verse 16. who would believe in him for eternal life. The believe on or believe upon is very important. Why do I point it out? Because I use it in evangelistic preaching. It's to throw ourselves upon Christ, to rest upon Christ. If you tell people in order to be saved, you must grab a hold of Christ. There's truth in that, but it can lead some people astray. How tight must I hold on? Have I held on tight enough? Am I strong enough to keep holding on? The call to faith in Christ is not as much a call to grab a hold as it is a call to let go. Let go and fall upon him. Fall upon him. Fall upon him. Someone said, if I said run to him, someone might say, I can't run. Walk to him. I can't walk. Climb to him. I'm not strong enough. Can you fall? Can you just quit striving, quit trying to save yourself? Stop. Loosen all your so-called religious muscle and just fall. Do you see? And that's very good because sometimes people, you know, how far must I run? How strong must I hold on? All these different things. No. Cease from striving. Cease from trying to gain your own righteousness. Give up entirely. Surrender. Fall down. Let go. Also, eternal life, always be very careful to explain that eternal life is not just a quantity of life. It is a quality of life. And according to John 17, 3, it does not begin when we enter into heaven. It begins the moment we believe in the Son, because our communion with the Father is restored. And brothers, listen. We will always be weak. We will always be so many things. But men can make incredible strides in cultivating their personal relationship with the living God. Don't ever think not. And so with every good theological work you read, read something that has to do with experiencing God, knowing God, that has to do with the personal, albeit sometimes subjective, relationship with God. Don't ever let that go. Don't ever let that go. Never. Now, getting to the end, you can say, praise the Lord, it's almost done. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, notice that it is the revelation of God's mercy to sinners, the revelation of God's grace and salvation that causes Paul to erupt in doxology and praise. Brethren, Romans 12, 1 and 2, I don't need to cite it. You know it. The whole idea there is therefore, you know, because of based on those mercies of God, offer yourself as a living holy sacrifice. The more you know about the mercies of God to a sinner, the more it will endear God to you. The more it will motivate you, the more it will draw out your love, the more it will give you confidence, the more it will cause you to worship. You see, why are some saints down through history so devoted? They come out of Adam just like us, and they didn't get any more regenerated than we were regenerated, and they weren't any better or worse than us. So how did they make so much progress? I am absolutely convinced they just saw more of God, more of God's grace, more of God's mercy, especially as it is revealed in Calvary. You don't need to go to some conference and acquire the fire or get wound up like a little toy soldier so that then you kind of wind down and right back where you started from. You need to grow in your knowledge of all the beauty and power and wisdom and grace of God, especially through the cross. And as you do, it will bring forth more praise. He says that our God is the king eternal, literally the king of the ages. You can't get any stronger than that. Brethren, there are, I am convinced that today is one of the most important and tragic times in human history. I believe that terrible, horrible things are happening. I believe that there are terrible conspiracies and plans, if not human, demonic. And it is frightful. But do not fear and do not get involved in conspiracy theories or political movements or anything else. Be like a man who knows their God. He sits on the throne and he laughs. You're never going to figure out any conspiracy. Even if you did, you couldn't prove it. And even if you proved it, no one would believe you. It doesn't matter. We're not called to do any of that. We're called to preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. Preach the sure word of the gospel, men. And do not fret. You don't need to know what God's doing if you know who God is. If you know who he is, you know that whatever he's doing is right and good. As R.C. Sproul used to say, there's not a maverick molecule in the universe. It's all under God's control. He's the king eternal. The word eternal actually means there's a negative there, ah, and then there's the phethyro. which means to shrivel, wither up or spoil. You know, you put the broccoli in the refrigerator too long, it begins to wither up, begins to rot, begins to spoil. Everything does, but not God. He never shrivels. He never spoils. He never withers. He also never gets bigger because he's perfect. He'll never be less. He'll never be more. If he became less, he would no longer be God. And if he can become more, he's not God right now, but he's God. He won't be voted out. All the nations of the world are like a tiny little gnat beating their head against a world of granite. His throne does not move and everything he's doing, he's doing for your conformity to his son, your eternal good and for the salvation of his people. He's invisible. How's that an encouragement? Because he's spirit and he's beyond the limitations of our human existence. And also be very, very careful of any image you might want to make of him. He's the only God. Literally, He's the sole God. He's the alone God. That's why when the English were always fond of saying for God and country or for God and king, they're wrong. You don't put God in a conjunctive relationship with anybody unless it's God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. He's God alone and there's no one in his category. Now, our response, honor and glory forever and ever. Honor is to attribute to him that value that he possesses infinitely above all things. How do you honor God? First of all, you must recognize something of his worth. And that's why we study the scriptures. You give him honor only according to knowledge, what you know about him. And everything about him is honorable. So the more you know him, the more you will be able to ascribe value to him. Glory. Praise him according to his value. Seek him according to his value. forever and ever, literally unto the ages of ages. He is the king of ages who is worthy of honor and glory unto the ages of ages. And so that concludes our study for today. And if you would like, if you still have time, we can do some questions. I just wanted to get through that big section because it's all one unit. So I'll turn it over now to our dear brother.