God's Mercy and Grace for All--1 Timothy 1:12-17 (September 8, 2024)

Mercy and Grace for Paul in 1 Timothy 1:12-14

We can turn in your Bibles to 1st Timothy, 1st Timothy chapter 1. We started two weeks ago, excuse me, last week, going through the book of 1st Timothy. We come to verse 12, verse 12 will be in verses 12 through 17 this morning.

I want to begin by asking you a question. Do you ever find yourself beset and weighed down by your sins? Do you ever find yourself beset and weighed down by your sins? Whether past sins or present sins, whether before you were saved or after you were saved, things that you knew you shouldn't have done but you did them anyway, or things you knew you should have done but you didn't do them.

Maybe relationships that are broken, opportunities that were missed. Do you ever find yourself wondering, have I gone too far? Have you ever found yourself wondering if God can or will still use you? Wondering if you measure up.

Maybe you're in a place where you find it hard to forgive yourself. If so, I want you to know this message is particularly for you. For this message is about the mercy and grace of our Lord, how He forgives, calls, uses sinners for His great purposes.

I want to give you an outline for where we're going today in 1st Timothy 1, 12 through 17. Verses 12 through 14, there we see God's mercy and grace for Paul, specifically. God's mercy and grace for Paul.

Then in verses 15 and 16 we see God's mercy and grace for all. And then verse 17 we see praise for the Lord's mercy and grace. So let's begin with verses 12 through 14 and see God's mercy and grace to Paul on display.

Let me read verses 12 through 14. God's Word says this,. 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. Amen. This is God's Word to us this morning. I want to start by just looking at verse 12 and just picking out a few words or phrases there.

He begins with, I thank Christ Jesus. He begins with gratitude. And He begins with gratitude because He knows that He is undeserving of being put into this ministry, of being entrusted with this ministry that He has been.

He knows He is undeserving because of His past sins. We'll come to those in just a bit. But He begins with gratitude, recognizing His station before the Lord. And that He is unworthy or undeserving of Himself.

And yet Christ has been gracious to Him. And so He thanks Christ Jesus our Lord. And the first thing He thanks Him for is that the Lord has enabled Him. That is, that Christ has strengthened Him. Some translations has it that He made Him powerful for ministry.

And here we learn that Christ is the source of our strength. Christ is the source of our strength for Christian service and Christian life and Christian ministry. Christ is the one who makes us powerful.

We are not powerful in and of ourselves. We're not persuasive in and of ourselves. But Christ is. And it's Christ through us. It's that way that we work and serve Christ. And He says, because He counted me faithful.

He counted me faithful. Now, it's not that Christ saw Paul and saw that he was faithful and then put him into the ministry because of his prior faithfulness.

It's quite the opposite actually.

But it's that Christ made him faithful. Christ counted him faithful. He credited his own righteousness. Christ's own righteousness was credited to Paul and he was faithful. So Christ took Paul.

He changed Paul.

He made him faithful and counted him as such. And so what we see here is that God qualifies those whom He calls. God fits them for ministry. Makes them faithful. Counts them as faithful. Again, this is the grace of God.

Because as we're going to see here in the next verse, it's not that Paul had always been faithful. Quite the opposite. He had been a great sinner. But Jesus changed him. This is the grace of God to Paul.

Then we see there at the end of verse 12. He's thanking Christ who has enabled him, made him powerful, has counted him faithful and then has put him into the ministry. And here we see that this is Christ's doing.

If you remember back verse 1 of the chapter, we see that Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. He was an apostle. He was serving in this way because Christ had put him there.

You see, Paul, he could have felt shy about his ministry, about his authority. Because of his past sins. Again, we'll come to that in the next verse. He could have had doubts about the position that he was in and the ministry and the work that he was called to.

Maybe others questioned him.

Maybe they used his past sins against him. There's several places in the New Testament where Paul, he is defending his ministry against detractors. So he could have felt that kind of pressure from the outside.

He could have felt it from the inside. But he was counted faithful by Jesus and he was put into the ministry by Jesus. So I want you to hear this. It is enough to be chosen by Christ. Even if you don't have the approval of outsiders, if you don't have the approval of the world, it is enough to be chosen by Christ.

Even if you don't have the approval of yourself because you find it hard to forgive yourself, it is enough to be chosen by Christ. If Christ says you are worthy, you are worthy. If Christ says you are useful to the kingdom, you are useful to the kingdom.

If Christ counts you as faithful, you are faithful. If you are a Christian, if you are united to Christ by faith, God has called you to himself. He has given you, 2 Corinthians tells us, given you the ministry of reconciliation.

And so rest easy. And do not doubt what God has done. Remember Ecclesiastes 9 .7 which says, Go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart for God has already approved your works. God approves of you in Jesus Christ.

Not of your own merit, of your own accord, but because you are united to his son, God approves and has accepted you.

And that is enough.

Now, why would Paul, why might he have been shy about his ministry? Why might he be open to attack from outsiders? He questioned if he did that. Well, we see it in the next verse, verse 13. He says, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

He was a blasphemer.

He sinned grievously against God. He was a persecutor. He sinned grievously against the church, God's people. And he was an insolent man, just generally rude, angry, and arrogant.

But look at verse 13.

But. It's one of the most glorious words in the Bible. I think of Ephesians chapter 2 where it talks about how, you know, it was dead and you're dead in your trespasses and sins, and following the course of the world, the prince of the power of the air.

But God, verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy, and because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together in Christ Jesus. That word but is one of the most glorious words in the Bible.

Because it takes what was before.

And in spite of that, God is doing something new.

Paul was formerly a blasphemer, persecutor, insolent man, but I obtained mercy. God was merciful to this blasphemer, this persecutor of his people, this insolent man who had held the garments of those who stoned Stephen to death.

God was merciful to him.

Why?

Well, we saw it a few weeks ago, Psalm 103.

He's merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love. But also we see there's a mitigating reason here in verse 13. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. We see here that ignorance, at least in some cases, it mitigates against sin.

Now, it doesn't excuse sin. It doesn't make it like the sin never happened. It's not a blank check for sinning if you just do it in ignorance. But it does mitigate against sin in some way. Such that Paul received mercy because he had sinned in ignorance and unbelief.

Now, this raises some questions that we need to ask and answer. What about those who sin after they have believed? They're not sinning in unbelief. They believe because there's no mercy for them. What about those who know better?

Thus, they're not ignorant. What if someone knows they're not supposed to lie or cheat or sleep around and yet they do it anyway? Is there no mercy? I think to help us here, we need to understand a few different categories of sin.

And so you have one category is you have sins of weakness. Sins of weakness. This is where we know what we ought to do or what we ought not to do. Yet we sin anyway through our actions and our inactions.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And we give in to our temptations and sinful desires. Calvin is helpful here in his commentary on this verse. Where he makes the case that Paul is limiting what he's talking about in this verse to violations of the first table of the law.

If you remember last week, we talked a little bit about first table, second table of the law. Ten commandments. You have the first four commandments, first table. These are kind of simplistically speaking dealing with vertical relationship with God.

Have no other gods before me. No graven images. Don't use the Lord's name in vain. Keep the Sabbath holy. And then you have commandments five through ten, second table of the law. These are more or less dealing horizontally in our relationships with other people.

Honor your parents. Don't murder.

Don't steal.

Don't commit adultery. Don't bear false witness.

Don't covet.

First and second table. And Calvin says that Paul is limiting what he's talking about here to violations of the first table of the law. Direct rebellion against God. And so our sins of weakness, they're generally second table offenses.

And not in view of what Paul is talking about here about ignorance. Our sins of weakness are addressed in Psalm 103. Which we went through just a few weeks ago. Where the Psalmist says that God knows our frame.

That God remembers that we are dust. And that he is merciful and gracious and abounding in steadfast love towards his weak people. God is long-suffering. We're going to say that about Christ here in just a few verses.

God is long-suffering. He is patient with weak sinners. So you have sins of weakness. Then you have sins of ignorance. This was Paul's situation. He had committed some very serious sins.

Blasphemy.

Blasphemy against God.

Serious sin.

Persecution against the church. These are first table offenses. The blasphemy is obviously first table. But even the persecution. Those sins against other people. Is motivated by his opposition to Christ and his blasphemy against God.

But Paul did it. Not knowingly. Not maliciously against God. Mistakenly thinking he was serving God. In his mind at the time.

He thought.

He was zealous as a Pharisee. And thought he was serving God. And so God was merciful to him. For he committed these grievous sins. Ignorantly in unbelief. So you have sins of weakness. Sins of ignorance.

Then you have sins of what we might call sins of malice. And this refers to high-handed sin against God. First table sins on purpose. This is when one knowingly. Maliciously opposes God. He is not mistakenly serving God.

He is very much on purpose. Intentionally and knowingly rebelling against God.

On purpose.

He hates God. This is the sin against the Holy Spirit. It's open rebellion against God. It's malicious rejection of the truth. If it wasn't malicious. Then the Holy Spirit wouldn't be being resisted and sinned against.

It's intentional stubborn unbelief. The sins of malice. Or what we might call high-handed sins. God treats them differently. We see this in Numbers 15. I'm going to flip back to Numbers 15 and read a couple of verses.

That just shows this distinction. Numbers 15 verses 29 and 30 says. You shall have one law for him who sins unintentionally. For him who is native born among the children of Israel. And for the stranger who dwells among them.

But the person who does anything presumptuously. Whether he is native born or a stranger. That one brings reproach on the Lord. And he shall be cut off from among his people. There is a distinction between sinning unintentionally.

And sinning presumptuously. High-handedly. And there is a difference in how God deals with that person. So since the Bible makes distinctions between sins. We too must learn to make distinctions. We must learn to recognize the difference between sins of weakness.

Sins of ignorance. Sins of malice.

And then act accordingly.

Therefore we should be patient and long-suffering with weak sinners. Merciful and compassionate. We must preach to the ignorant sinners who think they are doing right. Because they don't know better.

And they are continuing ignorance in their unbelief. And we must vehemently oppose the high-handed malicious rebels against God. We must learn to make these distinctions and act accordingly. We see Paul.

He was zealous. And he sinned grievously in his zeal. But he was ignorant and he found mercy in Christ Jesus for that reason. And then in verse 14 we see not only did he find mercy. He found grace that was exceedingly abundant.

Let me read verse 14 again. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Have you ever been to Niagara Falls? Or seen pictures or video of Niagara Falls?

I went to Niagara Falls back one summer when I was working at a basketball camp up in New York during college.

And it is just a massive amount of water.

It's wide and the water rushing over Niagara Falls is just stunning to see in person. It is a massive amount of water. And it's been like that for thousands of years. Just water that just keeps on coming rushing over that cliff.

It's been doing that for a thousand years and yet there's more where that came from. It's showing no signs of slowing down. There's always more water coming rushing over the falls. It's like that with God's grace.

It is exceedingly abundant. There's always more where that came from when it comes to God's grace. It's like this. Think of a candle. You could light a candle and then from that candle you could light another million candles and it wouldn't diminish the light of the first candle one bit.

It's like this with God's grace. You can never exhaust God's grace. It is abundant. And for Paul we see that that abundant grace was with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. And what we see here in this verse is that God's grace changes a person.

God's grace has effect on a person's life. Where Paul once blasphemed he now had faith. Where Paul once persecuted others in hatred he now has love. God's abundant grace had made him a new man. And that's what grace does.

Grace is active. Grace changes a man. Grace is not a license to keep on sinning. Oh, I'm covered by grace.

I can just keep doing this.

No, grace is not a license to keep on sinning. We're not forgiven so that we can continue in the sins of the flesh. We are reborn by God's grace that we can walk by the Spirit. To bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

And so let me ask you this morning. Do you see the fruits of repentance in your life? Do you see the evidence of God's grace in your life?

Of taking what once was and changing that.

What was by the flesh and changing that to walking by the Spirit.

Do you see that in your life?

We ought to see the fruits of repentance. The evidences of God's grace. So in these three verses we've seen God's mercy and His grace to Paul specifically. Then the next two verses, verses 15 and 16, we see God's mercy and grace to all.

God's Mercy and Grace for All in 1 Timothy 1:15-16

Let's read verses 15 and 16. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the 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.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. That is, it is worthy to believe. It is worthy to accept. It is worthy for you to hold fast to. This is something that all Christians need to hold fast to.

Because there's going to be times of doubt. There's going to be times of self-loathing or self-doubt. Times where we're weighed down by our sins, past and present. And we need to hold on to this faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

What a wonderful gospel summary this is. Paul takes the whole of the good news and he puts it in this one sentence. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. That the eternal Son of God, who always was.

There's never been a time when the Son of God was not. And the Son of God took on human flesh and dwelt among us. The Son of God took on human flesh and was born as a baby. And lived as a little boy and grew up into a man.

And grew in wisdom and stature before God and man. Lived among us without any sin at all. Always doing what is right. Never doing what is wrong. Always obeying the will of the Father and the word of the Father.

And that He died a horrendous death as a substitute sacrifice. Taking on not only the gruesome death on a cross. But the wrath of God against all sin. Taking it on to His person in our place. And then rising on the third day.

Victorious over Satan, sin, and death. And why did He do all this?

Verse 15.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He did it to save sinners. To make a way that sinful man could be restored to fellowship with their Creator God. Have eternal life with Him forever. This is a faithful saying worthy of all that's up.

It's worthy of you holding fast to. He did not come for the righteous.

But for the unrighteous.

We see that back in verses 8 and 9 of chapter 1.

We saw it last week.

He came for the unrighteous. He came to save the sinners. Now you may be weighed down by your sin. You may be feeling guilty. You may be beset. That's exactly why Jesus came into this world. In the first place.

He came to save sinners weighed down and helpless in their sins. And so let this be a comfort to you Christian. Let this be an encouragement for you Christian. Let this be a seal upon your heart. That Christ Jesus came to die for you.

That you would have new and everlasting life. When confidence sinks. And you begin to doubt your usefulness in the kingdom of God. Remember Christ Jesus. And why he took on flesh and dwelt among us. And let this be a trumpet for your praise.

That Christ Jesus came to save sinners. And Paul goes on to say. He came to save sinners of whom I am the chief. Of whom I am the foremost. You see Paul saw himself as the worst sinner he knew. Paul saw himself as the worst sinner he knew.

I believe this is an attitude we should all have. It's not that we're in a competition of who can be the worst sinner. Like don't enter that competition please. But it's an attitude or disposition we should all have.

I am the worst sinner I know. It's not that you're like Jeffrey Dahmer level evil. Or committed the atrocities of somebody like Chairman Mao. But it is that your own sin is chief in your own eyes because it's yours.

It's the sin that you committed. It's the sin that you're responsible for. So it's like if you take a pen. If I put this pen on the other side of the room it's pretty small.

Right?

I can see all sorts of other things. But if I put this pen right up on my eye it's about the only thing that I see. It's chief in my own eyes even if it's small relatively speaking. That's what Jesus is getting at when he talks about getting the log out of your own eye.

It's big in your own eye because it's yours and this is an attitude that we should all have. It leads to humility. I'm the worst sinner that I know. Here's the thing though. If you take that to heart.

And you should.

If you see yourself as the chief of sinners. That leaves you in a pretty tough spot. Condemned. That's where verse 16 is so helpful. It's almost like God put it right here for that reason. Which he did.

Verse 16. However for this reason I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Paul's salvation that we saw in verses 12 -14.

Though he was a blasphemer. Though he was a persecutor. Though he was an insolent man. He found mercy in Christ Jesus because he had done an ignorance and an unbelief. He had been changed. His hatred and his unbelief had been replaced by faith and love.

And he found that in Christ Jesus.

An abundant grace in Christ Jesus. And all of that he says is a pattern for those who are going to believe. Because if it's true for Paul it can be true for you. Christ was patient with Paul and he's patient with you.

Christ was merciful to Paul and he is merciful to you. He is gracious to Paul changing him. And he is gracious to you changing you. And if Christ will forgive Paul. The blasphemous persecutor of the church and insolent man.

Then he will forgive you too. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He saved Paul the chief of sinners. And in Paul he reveals himself as the merciful savior to all who will believe on him for eternal life.

Me, you and all peoples. And the proper response to such mercy and grace is praise. That's what we see in verse 17. Where Paul exalts in God. He's called up. And what he's just outlined about God's mercy and grace to him.

He gets called up and he just exalts and prays to God saying. Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible. To God who alone is wise be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen.

He's the king.

This shows God's authority. That God is the one in control. That God rules and reigns over all things. He governs all things. He is the king. Not only is he the king, he's the king eternal. That is he's never changing.

His kingship will never end. He rules the world. He created the world. And he always will rule the world. He is eternal. He is never changing. He always was and always will be. He is immortal. That is he is incorruptible.

He will never die. There will never be a time when God is not. God would not let his holy one see corruption. Psalm 16 later quoted in Acts. This is one of the reasons Jesus was resurrected. He cannot see corruption.

He is immortal.

Invisible.

He cannot be seen. 1 Timothy 6 .16 says that God is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light.

It's invisible.

Then only wise. God who alone is wise. God puts to shame the wisdom of man. He always judges rightly.

He always decides rightly.

He always does what is right. He is wise. And so to this God, the one true and living God, be glory and honor forever and ever.

Amen.

Having just described the incredible abundant grace of God towards sinners, Paul breaks into this exuberant praise of God. And we too, we too should praise the Lord forever for his mercy and his grace to us.

And so we've seen God's mercy and grace to Paul. We've seen God's mercy and grace to all. I want to end with just a couple of points of application for us. First of all, if you're here and you're not a believer, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I want you to know that your sins, your past sins, do not disqualify you from salvation.

You too can obtain mercy in Christ Jesus. You must only turn from your sin and turn to Jesus. Believing and trusting in him alone for deliverance. Deliverance from sin. Deliverance from yourself and from your corrupt desires.

Deliverance from every false savior who promises something it can't deliver. And so the invitation to you, if you're not a believer, is to come to Christ. Today, come to Christ. To the Christian, I want you to hear that your past sins do not disqualify you from being used by God.

God has called you to himself. God has forgiven your sin in Christ Jesus. He has counted you faithful, made you faithful, fitted you for Christian service. He has approved your works. And so go and sin no more.

Walk obediently and faithfully with Jesus. Be zealous for good works. And if you feel weak for that task, remember the good news from verse 12, that God makes you powerful for ministry. God makes you powerful for Christian service.

Paul thanked Christ Jesus, our Lord, who enabled him, strengthened him, and made him powerful. And God, Christ Jesus, will do the same for you. Take heart these words from Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your mercy and grace that is set before us as a pattern in the life of Paul, that though he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man, you had mercy on him.

And that in him you set it forth as a pattern, that you will have mercy and grace to all who come to you in living faith, come to you in repentance, and turning from their sin, and turning to Christ, and believing on him, trusting on him for eternal life, everlasting life.

We thank you for that. We thank you that there is mercy and grace available to all. And I pray that if there is anyone in here today who has not turned from sin and turned to Christ, and been united to him by faith, Lord, may today be the day that you give them a new heart.

May today be the day they turn from sin and trust Christ. Lord, if there is anybody in here this morning, they've been a Christian for a while, but they're often beset by a guilty conscience for past sins.

May you overcome them with your exceedingly abundant grace, assuring them of their forgiveness, assuring them of your approval and acceptance, reminding them that it is by Christ Jesus that they are forgiven, and that you have counted them faithful.

Stir us up to love and good works, that having been forgiven, having been cleansed, that we would walk in newness of life. I think it's important that Paul said he was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man.

He didn't stay that way. Because of your abundant grace, which gave him faith and love in Christ Jesus, you made him into a new man. May we walk as new men and women because of your grace to us, leaving behind that which we were formerly, and walking in what we are today.

May we walk by the Spirit with love and joy, peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. Your Word tells us you have prepared beforehand good works that we are to walk in.

Let us be zealous for those for your namesake and your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.