GOD’S PATTERN FOR SAVING SINNERS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 17, 2024 under 2024 |

Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message from November 17, 2024 from 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Theme: No one is so sinful that they can’t be saved through faith in the cross of Jesus.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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This morning, we continue the study we recently began of the New Testament letter of 1 Timothy. And we begin by announcing some good news. In fact, from the standpoint of anyone who is a poor, needy, broken, unworthy sinner, it’s the best ‘good news’ that could ever be heard.

In 1 Timothy 1:15, the apostle Paul wrote “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. Don’t skip past those words too quickly! That’s good news for all of us who are sinners … and that happens to be all of us! Like Paul, we can be forever grateful that Jesus came into this world and died on the cross for us. Only those who sincerely recognize that they are an unworthy sinner before a holy God—and who have placed their trust in what Jesus did on the cross—can be grateful.

So; if you have come this morning with a horrible burden of sin on your heart—if you feel as if you’re too much of a sinner to ever be saved—if you feel as if you’re utterly unworthy of being forgiven by God or of being brought near to Him; or if you have trusted in Jesus as your Savior at some point in your life, but have stumbled and fallen and have wandered away—then this morning’s passage is for you.  It’s truly the greatest ‘good news’ you could ever hear. As it says in 1 Timothy 1:12-16—in words written by a sinner more unworthy of salvation than you or I could ever be:

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in 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 obtained 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 (1 Timothy 1:12-16).

Paul—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—declared to us that no one is so sinful that they can’t be saved through faith in the cross of Jesus. If God could save the horrible sinner formerly known as Saul of Tarsus—the man that we’ve come to know and love as the apostle Paul—then He can save anyone!

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Now; let’s think for a moment about the context of these important words from Paul. They were written to a young pastor named Timothy; and were written for a very important reason. They were part of a command that Paul gave to protect the integrity of this glorious good news within the church in the ancient city of Ephesus.

At the beginning of this letter, he wrote to Timothy and told him;

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm (vv. 3-7).

There were false teachers who were making their way into the churches that Timothy was to serve. Those false teachers were pushing their way into positions of leadership and were promoting a false doctrine that was contrary to the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”.  They were saying that, instead of having faith in Jesus, someone could be saved by virtue of their genealogies, or through false philosophies and strange spiritual fables, or even by working hard to make themselves righteous through conformity to the Old Testament laws and ceremonies.

So; a very important reason why Paul wrote this letter was to exhort Timothy not to allow anyone in the church to preach or teach any other doctrine than the gospel—the good news that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners by His sacrificial and substitutionary death on the cross.  When a church allows any other doctrine than the gospel of Jesus to have the place of prominence, then it’s no longer preaching the message that saves souls and transforms lives.  It would be a church that had gone astray and that had departed from God’s word. After our passage this morning, Paul went on to write;

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme (vv. 18-20).

We very much need to pay attention to Paul’s warning in our day. As you know, we’re living in a time when more and more churches that once proclaimed this good news are now no longer doing so. Many have begun to de-emphasize the life-changing gospel of Jesus in their teaching; and have replaced the gospel with something else—some other substitute for the message of the cross. But there is no other ‘good news’ for sinners than that Jesus Christ came into the world to pay the debt for our sins on the cross, so that we can be made 100% righteous in God’s sight by faith. We must not let the Bible’s message of the gospel ever be set aside or replaced; because it’s the only “good news” from God—for all of humanity and for all time—that is able to save us from our sins and transform our lives for His glory.

And in urging Timothy to protect that precious doctrine, Paul did something very remarkable. He reminded Timothy of his own story. Paul declared the power of the gospel of Jesus through the evidence of what that gospel had done to transform him.  So; let’s walk through this passage—verse by verse—and see how it teaches us that no one is so sinful that they can’t be saved if they will place their trust in Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross.

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First, let’s look at verse 12; and how Paul told Timothy …

1. WHAT GOD HAD MADE HIM TO BE.

Paul—right in the midst of instructing Timothy to defend the message of the gospel—reminded Timothy of his own present condition. He said, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” What a powerful testimony to the life-changing power of the gospel that was! The protection of this precious gospel was something personal for Paul. He was deeply invested in it; because—at a point in time—the Lord Jesus had saved him and called him to be a preacher of it to the world.

Now; Paul had formerly gone by the name Saul. He was born as a Jew and grew up in Tarsus—a city in the southern regions of Asia Minor. He was raised in a strict Jewish family in the home of a Pharisee.  He himself became a Pharisee; and he was taught in the traditions and laws of Judaism by one of the most outstanding Judaistic teachers of the day.  He was once even able to testify that—from a human standpoint—he was blameless in his strict obedience to the law of God. He was committed heart and soul to earning his own righteousness by the letter of the law.

But one day, the resurrected Lord Jesus met him. And that remarkable encounter completely changed Paul’s life. He no longer counted on his own works of righteousness to bring him into favor with God. In fact, he considered all his former efforts to be nothing more than rubbish; and he trusted instead in the righteousness of God that came only through faith in Jesus Christ. He wholeheartedly believed the good news of the gospel. And what’s more, the very same Lord Jesus, who appeared to Him and saved him, then called him to be His chosen apostle.  Paul was made into a missionary; and he traveled wherever he could around the world to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to others.

In Ephesians 3, he wrote about what a great privilege it was that he—a Jewish man—had been given the task of proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the Gentile nations. He wrote;

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ … (Ephesians 3:8).

But do you notice that he said that this glorious task had been granted to him though he was unworthy of it?—as “the least of all the saints”?  This leads us to another thing that he told Timothy, and that was …

2. HOW SINFUL HE ONCE WAS.

Look at what he went on to write in verse 13. He said that the Lord counted him faithful, putting him into the ministry, “although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man …” (v. 13a). The tremendous privilege of ministry in the gospel that he now had been given was held up in contrast to the horrific life of sin that he once had lived.

Paul reminded Timothy that he had been a ‘blasphemer’.  That meant that he was a man who cursed the Lord Jesus and spoke evil against Him, and who also cursed and spoke evil against those who had believed on Jesus for their salvation. A blasphemer is a very wicked thing to be.  We often think of the shameful failure of the apostle Peter; and of how horrible it was that he, in a moment of weakness, denied the Lord.  But Peter didn’t dare to speak curses against the Lord Jesus, as Saul of Tarsus had.  What’s more, Paul was also once a ‘persecutor’.  That meant that he searched for the meeting places of Christians, had them arrested and dragged away to trial, and then sought their executions. When Paul went around as a preacher of the gospel, it’s very possible that he met Christians in churches whose parents or family members he had once arranged to have put to death.  And what’s more still, Paul was also “an insolent” or “violent man”.  The Greek word that Paul used to describe himself is the one from which we get the English word ‘hubris’; and it was used in ancient times to describe someone who was cruel and pridefully arrogant beyond the bounds of normal human conduct.  It was even used to describe someone who gained pleasure from tormenting others.

The Book of Acts gives us a very detailed record of his former conduct. At the end of Acts 7, we first see him present at the brutal execution of a faithful Christian named Stephen. As the Jewish leaders were stoning Stephen to death, we’re told, “And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58). He was too young to participate in the stoning; but he showed his approval by gladly guarding the cloaks who could. That was how eagerly he showed his approval of Stephen’s murder.

It was shortly after Stephen’s martyrdom that Saul’s career of hostility and cruelty began in earnest.  Acts 8:2-3 goes on to tell us;

At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.   … As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. (8:2-3).

This is a description of the first great persecution of Christians in history. And it seems that Paul himself was a key instigator of it—if not the key instigator. He was even engaged in bringing ‘havoc’ upon the churches at the time when the Lord Jesus appeared to him. Acts 9:1-2 tells us;

Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem (9:1-2).

Later on in the Book of Acts—after he had been saved and had been preaching the gospel for some time—Paul himself described how wicked he once had been to God’s people. In Acts 22:4-5, he told the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem;

“I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished” (22:4-5).

And later still, he bore witness of his wicked deeds to King Agrippa; saying in Acts 26:9-11;

“Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities” (26:9-11).

Once, when he wrote to the church in Philippi, he spoke of how committed he was in his aggressions against Christians; saying of himself,

…concerning zeal, persecuting the church (Philippians 3:6).

No one could ever say that this redeemed preacher of the gospel—the apostle Paul—had been in any way worthy of salvation … let alone of preaching the good news. Far from it, he wrote, “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief …” He was in the dark about the good news of the gospel of salvation at that time; and he didn’t understand who it was that he was opposing.

But that leads us next to consider …

3. HOW ABUNDANT GOD’S GRACE WAS TOWARD HIM.

In verse 14, he wrote to Timothy and said, “And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (v. 14). I wonder if Paul didn’t have tears in his eyes when he wrote those words to Timothy.

This former blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent man—a man completely unworthy of salvation—said that the grace of the Lord toward him was “exceedingly abundant”.  It was poured out upon him in an overwhelming way. And the degree to which it was poured out on him is indicated in the words “with faith”—or as it can be translated, “faithfulness”—“and love which are in Christ Jesus”.  Just think of that! How much faithfulness and love is there in the Lord Jesus? There is no limit. As much faithfulness and love as is needed to save the worst of sinners are given freely—in unlimited abundance and supply—in the person of the Lord Jesus who died on the cross for us.

It’s very possible that Paul would have been thinking of himself—along with every other needy sinner—when he wrote in Romans 5:20-21;

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:20-21).

However much saving grace was needed to completely save a man like Paul, there was more than enough to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if that would be true for Paul, then it would be true for any one of us who turns to the Savior in faith to be saved. We simply can’t sin beyond the infinite supply of God’s faithfulness and love necessary to save us completely through His Son Jesus.

So; that was Paul’s story. And it leads us, next, to consider Paul’s words about …

4. WHAT PRINCIPLE HIS STORY PROVES TO US.

Please pay careful attention to something that Paul wrote at the beginning of verse 15. He told Timothy, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance …” In other words, Paul made it clear that what he was about to say shouldn’t be taken as mere hyperbole. He wasn’t about to say something that merely seemed ‘over-the-top’—as if he was speaking in an extreme manner for the purposes of effect. He meant for what he wrote to Timothy to be taken as the literal truth … “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (v. 15).

When Paul said that he was ‘the chief’ of sinners, he meant to say that he was the worst that there was. That would seem like a staggering thing to say! Think of the most notorious sinners that history has ever known. Think of the most cruel and inhumane monsters that ever walked the earth. Think of the most infamous sinners that there ever were. Paul was saying that, as bad and as unworthy of salvation as they were, he was worse than they. He was the ‘chief’—that is, ‘the first’ of the list of the most notorious sinners in history.  He was the ‘proto-sinner’.  You might feel as if you could identify others in history that you thought were greater sinners than he was. But Paul wrote those words under the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit wants us to know that there was no greater sinner than Paul. Paul went out of his way to stress to Timothy that this is to be taken as the absolute truth.

In Luke 19:10, the Lord Jesus Himself declared why it was that He—as the eternal Son of God—left the glory of heaven in obedience to His Father, took full human nature to Himself, and was born into this world as one of us. He said;

“… for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10.)

And ‘the most lost-est of the lost’ had been this man Paul … who now was writing to Timothy as a saved and redeemed apostle who proclaimed the precious good news of the gospel to other sinners—preaching it joyfully and with all his energy. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, of whom Paul was chief! And so, Jesus is more than able to save you and me.

And this leads us, finally, to what Paul then said with respect to …

5. HOW WE SHOULD RESPOND.

He told Timothy, “However, for this reason I obtained 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” (v. 16).

As someone who formerly worked as a graphic artist, there’s a word Paul used that stands out significantly to me.  When he said that the Lord showed mercy to him first as a “pattern to those who are going to believe”, he used a word that combined two Greek words together—one for the word “type” or “pattern”, and the other for the word “over” or “above”.  It described how someone would set a sheet of paper over another image and trace it as the “pattern” for the visual design or image that they wanted to create.  That’s not cheating, by the way. Artists and designers do it all the time. And that’s what Paul’s salvation story was meant to be for us. The worst sinner among us can—as it were—lay his or her need for forgiveness over the salvation story of the apostle Paul and trace over him as “a pattern” or “an example” of the Lord’s saving grace. If the Lord Jesus was able to save him by faith in the cross, then the Lord Jesus can save anyone! Paul was the living ‘pattern’.

This means that, no matter how horrible a sinner we may have been, we can come to Jesus by faith—just like the ‘chief of sinners’ did. We shouldn’t ever hold back out of a fear that we’re just too bad, or too broken, or too much of a failure to save. As Paul himself wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21;

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).

That’s what Paul did. And I love how he ended it all in verse 17.  It’s a praise to God that proves the life-transforming power of the gospel that had saved him. He wrote; “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (v. 17).

I say “Amen” too! And I hope you do also.

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Now; there are two great lessons I believe we should take away from all this. The first has to do with us as a church family. And it’s this: Let’s never allow there to be any other gospel preached in this church family than the good news of the gospel of salvation by faith in the cross of Jesus Christ!  There’s no other gospel that has the soul-saving and life-changing power than this one!  Paul is the greatest human example of its power.  Let’s make sure that we diligently protect the integrity of this gospel in our own church’s ministry.

And the other great lesson is this: Don’t ever think that you personally are too much of a sinner for God to completely save through faith in the cross of His Son.

When I was a very small little boy, I went to a big public swimming pool with my dad. I watched as he dove off the diving board and swam into the deep side of the pool. I remained in the wading area, though—where I was told to stay while my mother watched me. I was afraid of the deep water. But at one point, he made his way over to me, stood up just a little ways beyond the shallow area, and beckoned me to come to him. I was afraid to do so. But he told me, “Look at where I’m standing. Do you see that the water doesn’t go above my knees? Your head is just a bit higher than my knees. Your feet will touch the bottom.  It’s safe for you over here.  Don’t be afraid. Come to me.” And I did. The place he stood was proof that I could come out to where he was.

I think that the apostle Paul would say to you and me—and to anyone who thought that they were too sinful to ever be saved—“Look at me.  I am the chief of sinners. You could never be a greater sinner than I was. And the cross of Jesus was enough to save me.  It’s enough for you.  Don’t be afraid. Come to Jesus.” The place where such a man as Paul stood was proof of the sufficiency of God’s grace to us.

Paul himself is held up by God the Father as proof that no one—absolutely no one—is so sinful that they can’t be saved, washed clean, and restored, if they will trust in the cross of Jesus.

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