00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
I invite you to turn to 1 Timothy
1. I just started preaching a series
in 1 Timothy, and we've got a wonderful text this morning, verses 12
to 17. You'll follow along in your Bible.
I'll read from mine. Let's pick up verse 11. According to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God which was committed to my trust, And I
thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me because he
has counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry. Although
I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent
man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. and the grace of our Lord was
exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ
Jesus. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason
I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering
as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting
life. Now to the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever
and ever. Amen. You know, in verse 11, Paul mentions
the fact that the gospel was entrusted to him. That sacred trust meant that
Paul was responsible to learn the gospel, to share the gospel
with everyone. In fact, he was faithful to the
task. He shared the gospel to both
Jew and Greek throughout the Roman empire. Now suppose I had
$1,000 cash. Could I trust you with that $1,000?
If I were to say to you, I want you to hold on to this money.
And when I need it, I want you to hand it over to me. Could I trust you with that?
I hope I could. But you know what? We have something
far more valuable than $1,000 cash, and that is the gospel
of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel by which we're
saved. It is the gospel that brings
forgiveness of sins. The gospel changes our lives. The gospel gives us eternal life,
and we are entrusted with the gospel. Well, if we're going
to share the gospel, we need to know what the gospel is. And
so Paul shares with us what the gospel is in this text of Scripture. And the heart of the gospel is
the mercy and the grace of God. Because God is merciful, He doesn't
give us the judgment that we deserve. What do we deserve?
The Bible says the wages of sin is death. We deserve to be separated
from God for all eternity, but God in His mercy is willing to
forgive. And instead of death, we can
have eternal life. And God is also a gracious God. By His grace, He saves us, grants
us favor in His sight. And so as Paul thinks about his
past sinful life, as he thinks about God's mercy and grace that
was extended to him, he exclaims in verse 14, and the grace of
our Lord Jesus was exceedingly abundant. That's actually a verb. He caused His grace to abound
exceedingly and abundantly toward Him. Reminds me of Romans chapter
5 and verse 20 that says that where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. It was by the grace and mercy
of God that Paul was saved, and it is by His grace and mercy
that you and I are saved. And so I have good news for you
this morning. If you or someone you know has
fallen into great sin, or you have sinned for all of your life,
God's grace is greater than your sin, and you can be saved today,
or that loved one can be saved today that you know. And so let's
look into this text of Scripture and see of the saving grace of
God. And the first point I want to
bring out from this text is the persons who can receive mercy
and grace from God. who can be shown such mercy and
grace? It is those who believe in Christ. Paul says in verse 14, And the
grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love
which are in Christ Jesus. He mentions faith and love in
that verse. Those who believe in Christ are
also given faith and love. Now that could indicate that
it is God's enabling us that we do believe. We will not believe
in Christ completely on our own, but God in his grace granted
us the faith to believe. And in verse 16, he mentions
saving faith as well there in that verse. And so what does
it mean to have faith in Christ? You know, it's more than just
mental assent. You know, the book of James says
that demons believe and tremble. They believe in God, but they're
not saved. So it's more than just mentally
believing there's a God, mentally believing that Jesus is the Son
of God and that He died on the cross. It means that you are
counting on Him. You are trusting in Him to save
you by His grace, by His death on that cross. that you are not
going to rely on your works, but you rely wholly upon Christ
to save you. You trust in Jesus. And how can
you and I know that we have faith, true faith in Jesus? Well, He
mentions faith and love in that verse. Because the two go hand
in hand. If you truly believe, you will
have the love of God in your heart. In fact, I found not only
there in that scripture, but also Ephesians 1 15 and 18 other
verses in the New Testament that link faith and love. If you truly believe in Jesus,
God puts His love in your heart, and you'll love more than just
your family and close friends, but you'll love God's people,
you'll want to be with God's people, you love people. God puts love in our hearts if
we've truly been saved. And so those who believe in Christ
are shown mercy and grace. Have you believed in Christ?
But secondly, we also see that even the enemies of Christ can
be saved. Saul of Tarsus was a classic
example of the great grace and mercy of God that saved even
someone who was an enemy of Christ. Notice in verse 13 as he reflects
back on what kind of man Saul of Tarsus was. First of all,
he was a blasphemer. Now that may be surprising that
a Jew would be a blasphemer because a Jew was very careful not to
misuse the name of God and certainly not blaspheme the name of God. But if you look at Acts chapter
26 and verse 11, we see in what sense he was a blasphemer. There
we read that Paul tried to make Christians blaspheme the name
of Jesus. And I'm sure Paul himself blasphemed
the name of Jesus, slandered the name of Jesus. And only later,
after he was saved, did he come to realize, including on the
Damascus Road, that Jesus is the Son of God. So when he blasphemed
Jesus, he was blaspheming God. He was one time a blasphemer. What would you do if someone
slandered your name? What if someone was hostile toward
you? Would you forgive them? Would
you show mercy and grace? God did toward Saul of Tarsus. But he was also a persecutor
of the church. He was the bitterest persecutor
of Christians at that particular time. And he didn't confine his
efforts just to Jerusalem and even Judea, but went all the
way to Damascus to arrest and persecute Christians. He was
that zealous in his persecution of Christians. Yes, that's the
kind of man that God saved. Furthermore, he was an insolent
man. That means someone who uplifted
in pride heaps insulting language upon someone, who treats them
shamefully, who is like a bully who inflicts pain upon others
just for the sheer pleasure of it. In Acts chapter 9, in verse
1, it talks about him breathing out threats and slaughter against
Christians. By his own testimony, he persecuted
Christians, not only putting them in jail, but even putting
some of them to death. That is how much of an insolent
man that he was. Reminds me of these Muslim terrorists
that go around killing people in their zeal for their religion. That's what Paul was at that
time. Just heard this morning about
how Hamas killed six innocent hostages. cold-blooded killers
is what they are and what the Apostle Paul was before he was
saved. And so it's not surprising that
in verse 15, he called himself the chief of sinners, the number
one sinner as he looked back on his life. And yet, Though
verse 13 reflects the kind of sinner that he was, he did not
view himself as a sinner at one time. He was a Pharisee of the
strictest sect of the Jews and keeping the law of God meticulously. He would not have called himself
a sinner at all, much less the chief of sinners. But when he
was confronted with the glory of Jesus Christ on that Damascus
road, he realized compared to his glory, compared to his holiness,
compared to his righteousness, he is indeed the chief of sinners. Yes, God's grace is so great
that even a man like Saul of Tarsus, an enemy of Christ, could
be saved. And if you look at 1 Corinthians
6, verses 9 to 11, we read that there's a lot of great sinners
that were saved in that New Testament period. John Newton. was a slave trader on a slave
ship. He was a vile sinner. But God's
grace reached that man and he was saved by His grace. And he always wanted to remember
from whence he came. by God's grace, and so he wrote
in large letters on the mantelpiece of his study these words from
the Old Testament. Thou shalt remember that thou
wast a bondsman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed
thee. He never forgot that he was a
slave of sin at one time, a vile sinner, but God redeemed him. And so we see that the gospel
of Jesus Christ is for everyone. Whether you sin much or sin little,
God's gospel is for everyone. And so no one is beyond the reach
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No one is beyond the reach of
the mercy and grace of God. There's always hope, and the
gospel is for whosoever, as we see in this text of Scripture.
So we see the recipients of the mercy and grace of God, but notice
also the purposes of God's mercy and grace. Why is it? that He shows mercy and grace
to people. Well, one reason is this, to
save sinners. Verse 15 is one of the most wonderful
statements of the gospel, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. That's the general purpose of
His mercy and grace, is to save sinners. Jesus says something
similar in Luke 19 10. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. In John 12, 47, Jesus said, I
did not come to judge the world, but that the world might be saved. Christ came to save sinners. And we see that if Christ came
into the world to save sinners, then if someone is going to be
saved, they first must acknowledge that there are sinners. Again,
Paul at one time would not have acknowledged that he was a sinner. Have you acknowledged that you
are a sinner in need of God's saving grace? You know, Jesus
said in Mark 2, 17, those that are well do not need a physician,
but those that are sick. Those that consider themselves
good people and really don't need Christ to die for their
sins are never going to be saved. But the Bible says that all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every one of us
have fallen short. We've all sinned. And so Christ
came to save sinners, and the first step of salvation is to
acknowledge that you're a sinner. But if the mission of Christ
was to save sinners, then the mission of the church must be
always to save sinners. If a church is going to be a
true church, we must proclaim the gospel of salvation in Jesus
Christ. And so I want to ask you, will
you be a part of this mission? We're asking you to pray for
up to five people that you know are not saved, that you'll pray
for their salvation. We want you to share your testimony
of God's saving grace with people. We want you to share the gospel
with people. We want you to invite people
to hear the gospel in church, at the men's breakfast, The community
dinners that we have, they're at the crusade that's going to
take place in Farmville. Will you be a part of this mission
to save centers? It's so important that we do
so. But we see not only the general purpose of saving centers in
general, but saving great centers. is the purpose of the gospel
as well, is the purpose of God's mercy and grace as well. You
know, think of some really bad sinners. I'm sure you can think
of some. You know, we hear about them
on television and the news and so forth. You know, you may think,
you know, those people deserve to go to hell. Well, guess what? So do we. We do as well. You
know, but God's grace is for all people, including great sinners. Now why is it that God would
save even some of the greatest of sinners among us? Well, God
has a purpose in that as well. Look at verse 16. However, for
this reason I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might
show all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe
on him for everlasting life. Now why is it that God would
save someone like Paul? First, verse 16, that God would
have the opportunity to show how longsuffering he is. That means that God is slow to
anger. You know, once Paul started to
participate in the murder of a righteous man like Stephen,
and when he was arresting even women and children, throwing
them in prison as he was persecuting, You know, why didn't God just
strike him dead? Maybe even from the very first
time he persecuted one of God's children. It's because he's slow
to anger. He's not quick to anger. And
so, the fact that he was so patient with the apostle Paul magnifies
the fact that God is long-suffering. Do you know anybody that's got
a short temper? Who will lash at you verbally
or even strike you because they're so short-tempered? That's not
a good character quality, folks. But God is long-suffering and
He proved it in His saving grace to the Apostle Paul. And you
know, You know somebody that's a sinner that's been sinning
for years. Is there any hope for them? Yes. The example of the Apostle Paul
is hope to any sinner, no matter how deeply you have sinned, no
matter how long you have sinned, God's grace can reach you. So let me tell you something.
You need to heed the warning. Just because God is long-suffering,
never presume on the grace of God. You don't know that you'll
have tomorrow. You don't know that God's going
to keep waiting and waiting for you to get saved. If God's Holy
Spirit convicts you of your need for Christ, you better be saved
today while you have the opportunity. But note also that word pattern.
pattern, he's a model, he's an example of God's saving grace. Paul was an example of what God
can do in the life of a sinner. And that example was held up
by Paul and can be held up even to this day. Let me try to get
across to you how important an example is by looking at the
flip side. Suppose that you need to have
a surgery. And it's one of those dangerous
surgeries. And you don't know if you're
going to make it through the surgery. Now, one of the worst
things that can happen is for someone to go to that person
and say, you know, I know someone that had that surgery. And after
it was done, they suffered terribly. And within a week, they were
dead. Now, you think that would encourage that person, you know,
to have that surgery? No, no. But I tell you what would,
is for someone to go visit and pray with that person and say,
you know what? I had that surgery, that same
surgery, and God saw me through that surgery, and I've been cured
and healed ever since. Oh, listen, the testimony of
what God can do is great encouragement for someone that's facing the
same problem. I'm glad that though I sinned
the sins of youth, especially when I was 15 and 16 years old,
that God got a hold of my life and from around 17 on, I have
never repeated those sins of my youth. And so I've lived a
clean life since I was pretty much 17 years old. But I know
that I may have a hard time reaching some of the centers of society
who don't look like me, who don't talk like me, who don't act like
me. But I tell you, there's some
people that have been through that kind of life for years,
and yet God saved them by His grace and changed their life. And that person who's been there
and done that perhaps can reach that kind of person better than
I could. So share your testimony of what
God has done in your life. Well, Paul talks about how God
saved even a great sinner like he was. And so it's not surprising
that he concludes praising His grace with a doxology of praise
in verse 17. Now to the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever
and ever. Amen. This passage of Scripture
exalts God with thanksgiving and praise. He thanks God in
verse 12 for strengthening him, for enabling him to be faithful,
for putting him in the ministry of the wonderful gospel of Jesus
Christ. And I tell you, God not only
has saving grace, but he has enabling grace. When he saves
you, he can change your life. He can enable you to serve him
in some wonderful and effective ways. And folks, it's God that
does it. It's not us. It's God that does
it. And so we thank God. for His
enabling grace, for giving us a privilege of serving Him, and
to be able to serve Him effectively. Folks, it's what God does in
our lives, and we should thank Him for it. But we should also
praise God. Notice that he praises God by
magnifying His attributes in verse 17. You know, If you want
to bless someone, give them a compliment. Tell them how good and wonderful
they are and just describe some of the ways that they bless you
by being the kind of person that they are. And that's exactly
what Paul does here. He praises God by magnifying
his attributes. He is sovereign. He is the king,
literally the king of the ages. He is sovereign not only over
the eternal kingdom to come, but He is sovereign over this
present evil age as well, who works all things together for
good to those that love God, the Bible says. He's also the
Eternal One. He has always been, always will
be, and our God is the Eternal God who can grant unto us eternal
life. We praise Him that He is eternal. We praise Him that He is immortal. He is not subject to decay like
we are. Christ died but His body never
decayed because He's the Son of God. He rose from the dead
and we can have that kind of immortal life because God is
immortal. He is invisible because God is
spirit. He doesn't have a body. That
means He's everywhere. No matter where you go in life,
God is there with you. We praise Him that He is invisible. That He is the only God it should
indicate there. He's unique. He has no one that
compares to God. To Him be honor and glory forever
and ever. That word honor means to value
highly. When you value someone very highly,
you honor them. There is no one more important
to me than my God. Oh, listen, He has given me life. He has provided for me. He's
given me a ministry. He has strengthened me and done
so much for me. And so I honor God. I value God. I highly esteem God. Praise God. Give honor to Him
for His saving grace. But we also give glory to Him. We recognize His glorious attributes,
His praiseworthy attributes. Give glory to God for what He's
done in your life. And so I ask you this morning,
have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior and become a recipient
of His wonderful grace and mercy? If not, I invite you to do that
today. Repent of your sins. Trust in
Jesus as your Savior. May God show His mercy and grace
to someone today. And those of us that have been
saved, we have been entrusted with the gospel. We are to see
to it that the gospel is shared with others. Will you do that
in the days ahead? Would you bow with me in prayer?
Heavenly Father, we thank You so much that God's grace is so
great and so abundant that Saul of Tarsus could be saved. And
I'm sure we have some in this audience here today that at one
time were pretty great sinners. But Lord, You saved them. You
changed them. And whether we've sinned lots
or not so much, we're all sinners in need of grace. And I pray
that not one sinner will walk out this door without knowing
that they've been saved by Jesus Christ and His grace. We pray
in His name. Amen.
The Saving Mercy and Grace of God
Series 1 Timothy
This expository message is about how the great mercy and grace of God can save even the worst of sinners who trust in Christ. As Paul says, God saved him when he was an enemy of Christ to give encouragement to others that they are not beyond the reach of God's saving mercy and grace. Pastor Felker also shows that recipients of God's mercy and grace should respond with gratitude and praise.
| Sermon ID | 9724231204457 |
| Duration | 29:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 1:12-17 |
| Language | English |
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.