Grace for the Worst of Sinners

1 Timothy chapter 1. We just started in 1 Timothy last Wednesday. We looked at the first five

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

verses tonight, Lord Willem, we're going to get the next 11 verses, verse 6 through 17.

First Timothy, that's going to be pretty close to the back of your Bible. 1 Timothy chapter

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

1. We'll start in verse 6, just kind of picking up right in the middle of where we left off

last week. Let's pray and then we'll get started. Father God, we come to you tonight and I thank

you for this beautiful group of folks. I thank you for the love that we can come in here

and just love on each other and laugh and just come to be in your presence, God. I just

thank you for that. I pray that you bless the time that we have left, dear Lord. You've

already blessed our time of song and I pray that you'd bless the reading of your word,

dear Lord, that there would be something here that we would take home with us tonight. God,

there's plenty that we need to hear and I pray that we would listen, that we would open

our hearts, open our ears and see what your word has to say to us tonight. I pray that

your Holy Spirit would hide me behind the cross, that you would help me to preach until

I'm gone, that you would teach in a way that you take control and that you help us to hear

what we need to hear. I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Just a brief refresher

from last week. We were introduced to Paul being the writer of the book and he was writing

to Timothy who was in Ephesus kind of carrying on some of the work that Paul had asked Timothy

to do. There was a problem there that Paul was saying that Timothy needed to address.

We see what that problem is here in verses three and four, that Timothy was up against

some people who were teaching different doctrines and they were paying attention to myths and

endless genealogies and they weren't operating by faith. So what he told Timothy to do is

what we talked about last week in verse five. Now the goal of our instruction is love that

comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. So the goal of Paul's

instruction to Timothy, Timothy's instruction to the people was love that comes from a pure

heart, that the people needed to be established on something better than the false doctrines

and the endless genealogies and the myths and things they were focused on, that Timothy

would come in and ground them on the love of God, on the love of Jesus Christ. They

weren't living in that way, but that's the hope, that's the desire for Paul as he writes

to Timothy, that he can make some progress in this area where he is ministering. And

so we continue tonight right there in verse six. It says, some have deviated from these

and turned aside to fruitless discussion. That is, they've turned aside from the good

things, the things that are important, love, and the things that are relationship with

Christ and the community should be founded on. And they had turned away to things that

were fruitless. They were, as he says here, they were having fruitless discussion. And

sometimes we may find ourselves in that trap of discussing things or debating things or

arguing things or making a big deal out of things, and they can become fruitless discussion.

I think we need to be careful. Now it's good for us when we look at God's word and try

to understand God's word, sometimes we can say, well, what does this verse mean? Or what

does that verse mean? Or what could we make of this or that? And we may have our differing

opinion or differing views. And sometimes we can get so caught up in kind of arguing

or debating or discussing our differences of opinion or our different views that sometimes

that becomes our main focus. And we need to sometimes just kind of put those things to

decide those fruitless discussions that we may find ourself in. But obviously the fruitless

discussions they were having were not beneficial to them. As Paul had said, look, these false

doctrines and these endless genealogies that you're trying to figure out and that you're

trying to live by and paying attention to all these things, these are fruitless discussions.

And people had turned away from what really mattered. And Paul is telling Timothy, hey,

look, build something founded on love, build something better from a pure heart. This is

what the people really need to hear. This is what their foundation needs to be. Verse

seven, they want to be teachers of the law, although they don't understand what they are

saying or what they are insisting on. Now, certainly Paul knows about those who want

to be teachers of the law. Paul himself would have been one who would have known the law

very well. The scripture tells us that Paul was a Pharisee by his own admission. He was

a Pharisee and he knew what the law said. The Pharisees, to sum up part of what the

Pharisees believed, they were really big on the law, the spoken law and the written law

that we see early on in the Old Testament. The Pharisees would have been somewhat of

experts in the law of God. They knew the law of God. They thought they were those who were

living by the law of God. And to some level, they may have been living by some of the letter

of the law of God, but even though they lived by the letter of the law, they were missing

the intent of the law. And so they really prided themselves in their knowledge of the

law, but they weren't really living for God. They were just trying to check some boxes.

Oh, I checked these boxes, so I'm doing good. Now, Paul certainly knew what it meant to

have that mindset. And that's what he's talking about with this audience here. Now, Paul himself

says in Philippians chapter three, verses four through six, although I once also had

confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh,

I have more. Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin,

a Hebrew born of Hebrews, regarding the law of Pharisee, regarding zeal, persecuting the

church, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. So Paul says, look,

I used to be a Pharisee and I was by every standard that you could see, I was the perfect

person in the kingdom of God, or so he thought. He was a Jew. He knew his lineage. He knew

his ancestry. He knew his genealogy. He knew the law. He was zealous for that law. He had

so much zeal that he was going out and seeing that Christians were arrested and persecuting

those Christians. And so by Paul's admission, by the way, he used to think this is who Paul

was. He thought he was really something because he knew the law. So when he talks to Timothy

here about dealing with these people who are struggling with this and think there's something

special because they know the law, Paul says, oh, I could relate to that. I know Paul by

his own admission tells us in Philippians what he used to be like. All right. So though

they want to be teachers of the law, they don't understand what they are saying or what

they are insisting on. And neither did Paul at that time. He didn't understand at that

time. He was ignorant at that time, as we're going to see as we continue to read verse

eight, but we know that the law is good provided one uses it legitimately. And so what are

we to make of the law? Well, certainly in the Old Testament, there was a law there for

the people to follow, but we're not saved by the law. We're not saved by the law at

all. There's no way we can be made righteous by the law. We are only made righteous by

Jesus Christ. And Romans chapter 12 verse, or excuse me, chapter 10 verse four, it says,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So Jesus is the

end of the law because Jesus does for us what the law could not do for us. Or should I say

what we could not do because of the law? Now the law can tell us what our sinfulness is.

It can tell us what God's requirements are. Here's the standard that God requires. And

the Old Testament is full of those laws of how God desires for us to live. But none of

us are justified by those laws because we cannot live in accordance to those laws. And

so we are not under the law. We are under grace, it says in Romans, Paul tells us. And

that's because Jesus has fulfilled all of the law's requirements. And so for that reason,

we don't live under the letter of the law today, but the law is in our hearts. The law

is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Jesus dealt with this very topic in the Sermon on

the Mount. When Jesus spoke about a few things there in chapter five, he said, you have heard

it said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you, anyone who looks at another person with

lust commits adultery in their heart. What Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount,

and this is very important, I believe, is he's showing them it's not about the letter

of the law. Because any Pharisee might have said, well, by the letter of the law, I'm

not committing adultery. Yet all the while, they may have been looking lustfully at someone

who walked by. But in their belief system, well, that's not part of the law. But what

Jesus is saying is you're missing the intent of the law. Yes, the letter of the law says

one thing, but the purpose of the law is for you to love one another, for you to love your

neighbor, for you to treat people right, for you to not have impure thoughts. And that

begins in your heart, Jesus says. So what Jesus is saying, it's not about the letter

of the law, it's about what's in your heart. And so what Jesus says is harder in a sense.

Now we can look at the law and say, man, it's hard to live by those laws in the Old Testament,

and indeed it is. But then in some sense, what Jesus says is even harder because now

we really have to look closer. It's not just about a checkbox, am I doing this thing that

it says in black and white, but what's really in my heart? Because we can check the box.

We can do things that other people can see, and we can give the impression that, oh yeah,

we're living by what God says. But Jesus says, not so fast, what's inside? And we know what's

inside, we can fool other people, but we know what's inside, and God knows what's inside.

And Jesus says, that's what's important, because what comes out of the mouth comes from the

overflow of the heart, Jesus says. And so the heart is the real deal. That's what God

is focused on in the Old Testament. Even with the law, he wants his people to say, hey,

these are the things that are wrong, therefore we don't do these things. We want to have

a better heart, and we want to treat people right, and we want to love God first and foremost

more than anything, and love our neighbor as ourselves. That is the intent of the law.

That's why Jesus said, it's summed up in these two things, that you love God and that you

love your neighbor. That sums up everything in the law. If you do those things in your

heart, then all the other laws will be fulfilled in the way that they need to be fulfilled.

And so this is the problem that obviously Timothy was going to have to deal with. He

said, look, these people are really focused on the law, but they need to realize what

Jesus was saying.

All right, let's continue on. Verse 9, we know that the law is not meant for a righteous

person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy

and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually

immoral and homosexuals, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary

to the sound teaching based on the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was entrusted

to me.

Okay, so what does he mean there? He says, we know that the law is not meant for a righteous

person. And then he goes off to list a bunch of sinfulness. Okay, but people who live in

these ways, the law is meant for them. Well, what does he mean there? Well, what I think

he means there is for the righteous person, we've come to faith in Jesus Christ. We have

some acknowledgement here. We have some understanding of what God desires. So we don't need the

letter of the law. If we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and follow Jesus Christ and

put our faith in him and the Holy Spirit and dwells in us, then we have some conviction.

We don't have to live by the letter of the law because the Spirit is within us and guiding

us. But the law still has benefit. What's the benefit? Well, it's not for us because

we don't do any of those things that are in the law anymore. Those things are gone. They

have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Well, let me rephrase that. We don't do any of those

things in the same way. We do them in a different reason. We do them because we live in obedience

to Jesus Christ. And so certainly in living in obedience to Jesus Christ, some of the

things in the law are fulfilled, but it comes in that order. Through Christ, we fulfill

the things that God desires. It's not the other way around. It's not that through the

law we come to Jesus Christ and are made righteous because of that. No, we come to Jesus and

through Jesus we do the things that God calls us to do, hopefully. But the law still has

benefit because for the unrighteous, the one who's living in sin, when they open up God's

word and they read the Old Testament and they see the standard that God has set, then hopefully

it's an eye opener that God says, don't do this, don't do that. This is wrong. This is

sinful. Stay away from that. Do this. This is good. This is right. Seek me. So when the

unrighteous person sees the law, there's benefit there. The benefit hopefully is that they

say, whoa, God is serious. God has serious commands and serious instructions for me.

And God is a powerful and mighty God and look at who God is. And one day I'm going to have

to stand before him. And so when we see the law, it helps us to see our shortcomings for

those who are unrighteous. So that helps us to hopefully put our faith in Jesus Christ

because we see, wait a minute, I can't live by all these laws. I can't do it. I encourage

you to try. Well, no, I don't encourage you to try. But if you think you can try, just

read through them and you'll find out real quick, you can't do it. You're going to sin.

You cannot live by the law. But Jesus Christ has fulfilled all things. And so we are made

righteous by Jesus Christ because Jesus has fulfilled the law and all its commands. In

every way that we have failed, Jesus has succeeded. And so that's why when we say, wait a minute,

God calls me to a higher standard, God, I'm a wretched sinner. What do I do? We call on

the name of Jesus. Jesus, the son of God. And that's who makes us righteous through

our faith and through forgiveness of sins when we repent to put our trust in Jesus.

All right. Continuing on in verse 12, I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened

me because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry. So this is good. Paul

recognizes where he came from. He knew who he was, but he rejoices in God that God saw

fit to strengthen him and call him to service. Now we may in this room not all be called

to ministry as Paul was or as Timothy was, but nonetheless, should not we rejoice in

God that God has strengthened us and chosen to use us for his kingdom in some way, maybe

not to stand and preach a message, maybe something as simple as giving someone a phone call or

a text message or dropping by for a visit or buying groceries for someone in need, whatever

it may be. There are lots of ways in which we can serve and should serve that God puts

before us and shouldn't we rejoice that, Hey, wait a minute. There was a time in my life

that I was a pretty wretched sinner, but man, I heard the gospel, the good news of Jesus

Christ and I was made righteous by him. And even though I'm unworthy and not capable of

serving God, he strengthens me anyway. He uses me anyway in service to him. And Paul

says, I praise God for that. So, so next time God puts something on your heart, even something

that's kind of difficult or hard and you say, man, God, do you, man, are you sure you really

want me to do this? And we try to find excuses why we shouldn't go do it or cause it's scary

or cause it's dangerous or whatever. Maybe we just need to say, you know what God, thank

you for this opportunity and give me the strength to go and do what you have called me to do.

Verse 13, one who was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I received

mercy because I acted out of ignorance and unbelief and the grace of our Lord overflowed

along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Okay. So Paul says exactly who

he was here. He was not a good guy for this. Now in religious circles, he was a very religious

guy before Paul came to Jesus Christ. He was a very religious guy. Oh, he knew the religion.

He knew the law. He knew the way to dress and the way to pray and all the things that

the religious people of the day would have looked at and said, Whoa, look at Paul. He's

very religious. And maybe sometimes we fall into that trap. We fall into the trap of religion.

It's easy to do, but there's a difference between being religious and being a follower

of Jesus Christ. Now, if we're a follower of Jesus Christ, we are religious, no doubt

about that, but some people are religious and they're not a follower of Jesus Christ.

And it's important we make a distinction between the two. Paul was very religious before he

came to Christ, but he wasn't a Christian. He was all of these things that he mentions

here. He said he was a blasphemer, a persecutor and an arrogant man, but praise God, he received

mercy. He said, I was, I was ignorant. Now at the time he was doing these things, he

didn't know he was ignorant. He thought he really knew God's word and he was really doing

God's will. But then Jesus Christ came and opened his eyes and revealed to him the truth.

And then Paul got it. And then Paul said, hold up, I'm not doing these things anymore.

I'm following Jesus. And so he had that experience where Jesus revealed himself to him. Now we

might not have that same experience that we're going down the road and a flash of light

blinds us and, and those around us. And there it is. It's, it's Jesus there before us. We

may not have Jesus reveal himself in that way. However, if he chooses to do so, I believe

he probably still does in some occasions in the world. But nonetheless, I believe Jesus

reveals himself to us, maybe in the Holy spirit speaking to us, or maybe it's in, in the word

of scripture that, that, that our eyes are opened up to who Jesus is and the commands

of Jesus. And, and what do we do? Well, hopefully we say, Whoa, Jesus, I want to follow you.

I don't want to live in my own way. That's what Paul did. That's a good example. When

we experienced Jesus, we need to be ready to turn from our old ways and say, look, Jesus,

I see that you're a better way. You're the way. And I'm going to turn to you. All right.

Verse 16 or 15, excuse me. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

Christ, Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I am the worst of them. Now that

is one of my favorite verses right there. Listen to what Paul says. He says, Jesus came

to save sinners and I am the worst of them. I am the chief. Some of your translations

say, I am the chief of sinners of all the centers in the world. Paul says, I was rotten.

This could be, I was the worst center of all sinners. Now I like this verse because I read

it and I think, well, praise God, there's hope for the rest of us. If Paul was the worst,

if he was the chief of centers and yet he received mercy, then praise God because we

can sit here and we can make a list. And probably if we were writing a letter to another Christian

friend, we may say the same thing about ourselves. We may say, man, I'm so rotten. I have messed

up. I have messed up as a pastor or as a husband or as a father or as an employee or as a boss

or as whatever it is. We can come up with all these ways in which we have failed and

blew it and not lived according to the way that God wants us to, but praise God that

we are the type of people that Jesus Christ died on the cross for, that we receive mercy.

And Paul says, look, I was the worst of all sinners, but God had mercy on his soul and

praise the Lord. God will have mercy on our soul today, even in the midst of our sin,

no matter what our past is. You can go and read about Paul. His past was pretty rough.

He was a pretty bad guy, but yet we read his words all the time in the New Testament. Why?

Because he turned his life over to Christ and God used him in a mighty way. And God

may want to do the same for you. God may, he may want to use your life tonight. He may,

he may want to tell you tonight, okay, if you just seek me and listen to me, don't worry

about what you did. That's in the past. You cannot change that. But who you are is not determined

by what you did in the past. It's determined by what Jesus did, not what you did. And Paul

had experienced that. And so his past wasn't dragging him down. Instead, he had his eyes

on the prize. He had his eyes on the goal. He had his eyes ahead, not looking on what

was behind, but focused on Jesus Christ and on what was ahead. Verse 16, he says, but

I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might

demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him

for eternal life. So what does he say? He says, look, I can be an example. I can be

an example because look at me, I was the worst of them. But in, in being the worst of them,

it demonstrates the love of God. It demonstrates the patience of God. It demonstrates the mercy

of God. It demonstrates the grace of God and praise the Lord for these words. These words

are uplifting because it lets us know that we have hope. Now, sometimes the enemy would

like to convince us that we do not have hope, that we are too rotten, that we are too sinful,

that we are too far gone. But then we read these words of Paul and Paul says, Hey, let

these words be a reminder that God saves the worst of sinners. He saved me. He was merciful

to me. He was patient with me and he'll be patient with you. We have to make that decision

as Paul did when Jesus Christ is revealed to us and we come to that understanding and

that realization that we are sinners and that Jesus Christ is the son of God. We have to

say, Lord Jesus, I put my faith in you. I repent of my sins. I trust you and I'm going

to live for you. So these are beautiful verses here where Paul kind of gives his testimony,

if we can call it that. And then he ends this section here in verse 17. He says now to the

King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. What does he do? He ends with praise. We see that so many times. We see it at the

beginning of the letter. We just saw it a few verses. He was praising God and here he

is again. He's praising God. Why? Because God had delivered him. He had freed him. He

had brought salvation to him through Jesus Christ and that's worth praising God for.

It would have been years before this that this event would have happened to Paul when

he experienced Jesus and when he came to faith in Jesus Christ and yet even all of these

years later, he's still about the work of God. He's still on mission for God and he's

still praising God. So maybe for some of you, maybe you've never come to faith in Jesus

Christ. Maybe you know the word. Maybe you like Paul. Maybe you know who God is. Paul

knew he knew what we would call the Old Testament very well, but he did not know God. He did

not understand the heart of God, but he understood it once he met Jesus Christ. And maybe there

are some tonight that need to put their faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe there are others tonight

that are like Paul and we've walked with the Lord for a long time, but maybe we need to

see these verses just to remind us of just how much of a sinner we are in our past and

maybe even in our present and to know that God is merciful and that that is worth praising

him for. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word. I pray

that you would help us to take these words home with us when we leave tonight. I pray

dear Lord that we don't fall into the trap of a bunch of fruitless discussions and things

that don't matter, but that everything is founded on Jesus. God, I pray tonight that

we would be those who are righteous. We are not righteous God because we are religious.

We are righteous because we have come to faith in Jesus Christ. So God, let us rise above

religion and make sure that all we do is founded on Jesus Christ. Dear Lord, maybe there are

some tonight that are struggling with sin. I pray God that you would just give them peace

from that. We see Paul's beautiful words that you are patient, dear Lord, and you are forgiven

to those who would seek you and come to you. So God, I pray that if there are some who

are struggling with sins, that they would leave those things behind and that they would

put their faith in Jesus Christ and focus on him tonight and be used by you, dear Lord,

that we would be obedient just as Paul and Timothy. God, we may not all be missionaries

or preachers as they were, but God, we are all called to serve in your kingdom in some

way. And so let us see the ways that we can serve. Let us rejoice in those ways and let

us continually rejoice in you, dear Lord. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.