This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
So he said Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners
and Paul's acknowledging and he says, and I am chief, I'm one of
the worst. And when he says that, he's not
saying while I compare myself to your sin, oh, my sins worse than
yours. That's not what he's talking
about. I've even heard that before
people comparing sins. Well, you should see what I used
to do. Paul's saying compared to God.
Would to God that we would see ourselves this way as sinners
saved by the grace of God, and also would to God that we would
see everyone else this way who has come into a saving knowledge
of faith in Jesus Christ. So often we do exactly what
Pastor Lewis said a moment ago. We compare, well, my sin isn't
as bad as his, but that's not what the point of sin is or the
fact that we are separated from God.
Yes, the point is that everyone is a Sinner and we all need
Jesus, no matter what we've done.
Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of First Timothy, chapter
one with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
We ain't getting started yet, so we're going to.
I want to thank also those who are listening behind prison
doors. I pray that the worship and the
praise today blessed you. And I pray that the Word of God
ministers to your heart today. Amen.
Well, let's get ready to get into the Word of God.
Can we please turn in our Bibles to the first chapter of First
Timothy? And this week we're going to
look at verses 12 through 21st Timothy chapter 1, verses 12
through 20. Let's pray and go into the word,
Father, God in Jesus name, just as the song said, Lord, have
your own way. Have your own way, Lord.
I pray, Father, that You speak through these scriptures to us,
Lord, that You would touch our hearts, Lord, that You would
open our eyes and show us the glorious and wonderful and
marvelous things that are in Your word.
I pray, Father, today that You reveal to us truth, because
truth is revealed and not discovered, Lord, so reveal to
us Your truth. Cause our hearts, O God, to be
made softly. So when we leave here today,
cause, us, O God, to know something more about You.
Cause us, O God, to have something more that we can pray
about giving over to You and 'cause this most of all, Lord,
to be more surrendered to you. So we ask these things in the
name of our Savior and our Lord. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Amen. Let's go to first Timothy
chapter one verse, verse 12. I'm going to read this and then
we're going to go back and we're going to discuss it.
It says, 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 obtain 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.
Now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible to God, who
alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever.
Amen. 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, or
that you may fight the good fight, or that you may fight the
battle wells other ways that some of the other participations
may have, some of the other versions of the Bible may have.
Verse 19 says having faith and good conscience, which some,
having rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck.
Of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I deliver to
Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Amen. Lord bless His word.
So as we go into this, the first thing that we have to do is to
think about what we talked about in verses one through 11.
So if we go back and we look at that, just a couple of things.
Now, Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, and this is one of
the three epistles, one of the three pastoral or leadership
epistles that Paul is writing to.
And the purpose of this is to give encouragement and direction
and the things for the New Testament church, the things of
the Lord for the New Testament church.
And as he's writing this, he's commanding Timothy that the
first thing you have to do is to make sure that they don't teach
any other doctrine, no other doctrine.
Don't let teachers come in, false teachers come in and
totally derail the people by teaching things that are not in
accordance with good doctrine. And then he lists a number of
different things as he talked about how this false teaching
was mainly connected to the law, the teaching of the law and how
it the law was misrepresented Senate.
And he talked about some of the sins or some of the lawless
deeds that people could commit that are listed in the law.
And and he talked about how it's not, this is not an exhausted
list, but he says, and if there's any other thing
concerning sound doctrine, then he gets to verse 11.
And this is going to be key for where we're going today.
In verse 11, he says, according to the glorious gospel of the
blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
And that's where we're going today.
Paul is now mentioning that this gospel, he's acknowledging that
this gospel, this glorious gospel, the very gospel that he
heard that changed his life, the very gospel that he heard that
he rejected, that very gospel is now committed to his trust.
And so as we go over to verse 12, from there to the end of
this chapter, we are basically going to hear Paul talk about
how amazing it is that this gospel is committed to him
because he does not deserve it. His efforts in his life was
totally to go against this gospel, but yet because of God's
grace and mercy, it is now entrusted to him.
So as we look in verse 12, we see a couple things.
He says, I thank Christ Jesus and he's very thankful.
He's very thankful. Paul spent many years going down
the wrong track. He spent many years as a
legalist, many years as a religious person persecuting and
going after people who were going the way of Jesus Christ.
He spent many years, but in God's faithfulness, when it was
right for God, he came and he delivered Paul from that.
He saved them and delivered them from that.
And Paul is grateful. Paul is grateful.
And I can understand that because I feel like I felt I
spent a majority of my life running after something that was
empty, running after something that had no eternal value.
And I thank God that he didn't leave me there.
So I'm thankful. And if we think about our own
lives, if we think about the things that we did prior to
coming to Christ, we should be thankful.
We should be thankful. So Paul says, I'm thankful.
And he's given three things that he's thankful for.
Right here in verse 12. He says #1 I'm thankful because
the Lord enabled me. So not only was Paul called to
the ministry, but the Lord enabled him.
What does that mean? That means that the Lord
strengthened him. The Lord equipped him to do the
ministry, which is the same thing He does for you.
When the Lord calls you in the ministry, He doesn't just put a
passion on your heart to go and do something in the ministry,
but as He's calling you, He's enabling you.
He's equipping you supernaturally.
He is strengthening you to be able to do the ministry so that
you can do it as unto him. So Paul says, first of all, I
thank God for enabling me. Second of all, he says that he
thank God because God counted him faithful.
Now this is not ability. This has nothing to do with his
ability. It has nothing to do with his
gifting. It has nothing to do with him
being able to go out and preach people to tears.
Has nothing to do with that. Paul says that he entrusted this
ministry to me because he counted me faithful.
That just simply means that he counted him to be trustworthy.
He accounted him to be trustworthy in the ministry.
There's a lot of things that we cannot control about the
ministry. We can't control how well we do
it. The power of God does that.
But what God is looking for, he's looking for faithful
people. He wants people who would be
faithful to the call, people who would be committed and
surrendered to Him to do what he called you to do.
That's all He'll do the rest, He'll take care of the rest.
But we need to be faithful. And it's even God that helps us
to do that. He doesn't even leave that up to
just ourselves. So he says, first of all, I'm
thankful that he counted me faithful or, or I'm thankful
that he counted me trustworthy. And then the third thing is that
he put me into the ministry. And this is really important
because there's some people who put themselves in ministry.
There's some people who put themselves in ministry.
When I was younger, I used to hear my grandmother.
They would say, she would say to me, you know, well, you know,
this person's having trouble in ministry and, you know, he's not
necessarily preaching the word. And I said, well, Mama, Mama,
why? Why?
Why, you know, would he be standing up there if if he's not
doing it right, why would he be standing up there?
She said, because some people were sent and some just went.
That has more meaning to me today than what it ever did when
I was 11 or 12 or 10. And it's so true.
Some people just go and just do whatever they think they, they
want to do. It doesn't matter what they're
called to do. They just do whatever they want
to do. And, and that's why he's saying
that he put me into the ministry.
All the ministries that we're involved in are ministries that
the Lord put you in. It doesn't matter what it is,
doesn't matter what it is. The Lord puts you there.
And if he puts you there, he puts you there for a purpose.
He has a purpose. He has a purpose and if His
purposes are fulfilled through you, we know His word does not
return unto Him void. So whatever He purposes to do,
it's going to be accomplished. It's going to be accomplished.
So he puts you there, He enabled you, and we can do all these
things through Christ Jesus. You know, you know Paul in first
Corinthians 15 and 10, Paul says I am what I am by the grace of
God, I am what I am. And then in Philippians 4 and
13, he says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. So you never have to question
your qualifications or your ability to do a ministry.
You never have to question that God will empower you to do it.
He will strengthen you, enable you to do it.
If he puts you there, he will make sure that you have what you
need to do the ministry to fulfill that ministry.
So then we go on to verse 13 and he says although I was formerly
A blasphemer, A persecutor and an insolent man, Paul's now
getting into his testimony a little bit.
Paul's looking back and saying he did all this for me.
He put me into this place. He's counting me trustworthy.
He's enabling me to do this ministry.
And formerly this is the kind of person I was.
I was a blasphemer. I was a persecutor and an
insolent man. Paul's talking about his BC for
Christ's life when he when he conducted themselves in a manner
in which in which he, you know, before he conducted himself in a
manner which he does now. Paul shares about his testimony
and and he's very humble about it.
He says I was a blasphemer. A blasphemer mean that Paul
denied the deity of Jesus Christ and forced others to deny it.
He slandered them, he cursed them.
He hated those who follow Jesus Christ.
He said he was a persecutor. He was physically.
Paul used physical power to try to destroy the church.
He was violent. He tried to destroy the church
through physical means. I mean, he actually, and Jesus
said in Acts 9 and four, he said, why are you persecuting
me? Paul thought he was just
persecuting the people. Paul is persecuting Jesus
Christ. When somebody offends you or
when somebody persecutes you, you're not the only one.
He's being persecuted. They're persecuting Jesus Christ
when they don't receive you in your word.
They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting Jesus Christ.
They're rejecting Jesus Christ. So when someone says I don't
agree with you, no, it's not me you don't agree with, You don't
agree with Jesus Christ. This is his word.
I didn't write it and that's exactly what Paul is saying.
I used to persecute Jesus Christ and he said he was an insolent
man. That means he was violent.
He was a murderous man. He was arrogant, injurious.
Paul was an angry man. He was an angry man and this was
just part of who he was. I want to go over to Acts real
quick. If we can drop over to Acts
chapter 26. Paul kind of.
He articulates, in my opinion, he articulates his testimony a
little bit more clearly over here in Acts 26.
Look at verse 9. He says, indeed, I myself
thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, verse 10. This I also did in Jerusalem and
in many 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.
In other words, Paul is saying that I was supporting the death
of people when they were being put to death, these Christians
who they will find in the way, and they would mandate that they
be put to death. Paul said I was one of the
people who gave my vote to put them to death.
Yeah. Yeah.
Kill them. Get rid of them.
How Can you imagine that on your conscience?
But he didn't care at that particular time.
He didn't care. Just like the sins that we used
to commit. We didn't care if it was hurting
somebody else. We were selfish.
Long as we got what we wanted out of it, that's what we really
cared about. And this is what Paul is saying.
I didn't care that I was hurting people.
I didn't care that I was tearing up families.
I didn't care. He thought he was actually doing
God's work. He thought he was actually doing
God's work. He said I voted against them and
then in verse 11 says and I punish them often in every
synagogue and compelled them. This is interesting and
compelled them to blasphemy. So not only did I blasphemy, but
I wanted to convince them or compel them to blasphemy.
I wanted to force them to renounce Jesus Christ in that
life. I wanted to convince them to do
it. And there's people like that
today, not only do they not believe, but they didn't want
other people. They try to convince other
people to not believe. They want you to denounce him.
And they do it all kind of different ways.
Mainly they do it through peer pressure.
That's one of the ways they do it.
You can't, you know, we, we just won't call him or her up to hang
with us because if they going to keep talking like that and keep
acting like that and they keep talking about that Jesus, then
we just won't hang out with them at all.
And that's one of the ways that they try to get you to denounce
Jesus Christ. But you stay strong.
You stand on that faith, You stand on that truth.
You may have to stand alone, but stand, but stand.
It may be lonely, but stand. You may feel like you missing
out on a lot of things, but stand, your reward is coming.
Your reward is coming. Amen.
And then he says, and being exceedingly enraged, that means
he was greatly he was just angry, angry.
He was enraged against them. I persecuted them even to
foreign cities. Paul's saying not I was so angry
with these people who were in the way at that particular time
that I persecuted them from one city to the next city to the
next city to the next city. I followed them to track them
down so that I can drag them out of the synagogues and bring them
before the council so they can be pronounced to death.
And just like he did with Steven and when he was just a little
kid, he stood there and the people put, you know, their
clothes because when they stoned people, they would take their
clothes off. They would put their clothes at
Stevens feet. He guarded the clothes and he
was in agreement with that Stony in agreement with it.
This is where Paul was delivered from, and this is what Paul is
saying here. He says, but I obtained mercy.
Wow. But I obtained mercy.
Think about your life, think about things you've done, and
then think about the fact that God gave mercy.
He gave you mercy and didn't even go on any further.
And he said, because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief.
And I just want to throw this out at you now in the Old
Testament, because Paul was very, very, very adapt to the
law. He knew the law very well.
So when he says this here, there's a chance, there's a good
chance that he was probably referring to the law because
back in the law in Leviticus chapter 5, it talks about the
fact that if you sin unintentionally, you can be
forgiven. All you have to do is give your
give your sacrifices, the, you know, the appropriate sacrifice
for that sin and you'll be forgiven.
You'll be forgiven. It's all good.
It's all good today. We don't have to worry about
that. Jesus Christ paid the cost for
all those sins. He was the sacrifice.
But this is probably what Paul's referring to because he, he
understood the law and he knew he was talking, you know, the
people who were probably listening to the law or gone by
the law. But he said he did it ignorantly
in unbelief. And now, son, our sins were in
unbelief. We didn't believe that Jesus was
who he was. And it wasn't until that was
revealed to us that we realized that our sins were abominable or
that our sins were against him and that it was wrong.
But until then we didn't care. And then in verse 14, so he says
he obtained mercy. And then in verse 14 he says,
and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith
and love which are in Christ Jesus.
You know, I read that and I just think about the grace of God.
So he talked about in 13 he talked about having the mercy of
God. And then in 14 he talks about
the grace of God being exceedingly abundant on his
behalf. What we know that God is rich in
his mercy. He tells us that over in
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4, God is rich in mercy, and thank
God He is because that means He had enough leftover for me
because I needed it. I needed a lot of it.
But he also tells us in Ephesians 2 and seven that it's
the riches of His glory, the riches of his grace, the riches
of his grace. In Ephesians 2 and seven, he
talks about the riches of his grace.
So he's rich and in mercy and he's rich in grace.
And all that was pulled upon Paul, all of that was poured
upon Paul. And then he goes on, and for me,
this is the thing that's most exciting.
He says it was exceedingly abundant with faith and love
which are in Christ Jesus. That's the first part of what's
exciting to me. And when you think about this, a
picture word to me, because when I think about this exceeding
abundance of grace and in his mercy, I just think about the
ocean. I think about the ocean and I
remember one time being out at the ocean and going out, being
on vacation and going out to the ocean very early in the morning.
And it was still a little dark. And as the waves were coming in,
you can see the foam of the waves and they just kept coming
and they just kept coming and they just kept coming over and
over and over again coming these waves.
And I, I sat there and I thought about, I said, that's just like
God's mercy in his grace. It just keeps coming.
It just keeps coming whenever we need it.
It's there whenever we need it. Paul said.
Let us go boldly before the throne of grace that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.
Well, you'll find that grace and you'll find that mercy because
he's rich in both. We're sin abound, grace bound
even much more. We are blessed that we serve a
God that has so much more grace and mercy even than we have
sinned. It's abundant, exceeding,
abundant. And then in verse 15, the best
line in this whole Scripture, he said this is a faithful saying.
That means it's a trustworthy saying and worthy of all
acceptance. That means everyone, everyone
should accept this. It's worthy for everyone to grab
hold of this. What is that word?
This is the best news in this entire chapter, that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners, to save sinners.
He didn't come to save the righteous.
He didn't come to save those whose garments have never been
soiled. He didn't come to save the
perfect. He didn't come to save the ones
who had never sinned, those who were so good, you know, oh,
that's a good person. And that's a good person.
Then God didn't come for you. God came for us who are messed
up, those who were sinful, those who blew it in the past, those
who understand our need for him. That's who God came for.
That's who Jesus Christ came for.
So he said Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
And Paul's acknowledging and he says, and I am chief, I'm one of
the worst. And when he says that, he's not
saying, well, I compare myself to your sin.
Oh, my sins worse than yours. That's not what he's talking
about. I've even heard that before
people comparing sins. But you should see what I used
to do. Paul's saying compared to God.
Here on Living Waters of Grace, we're in the books of First and
Second Timothy. Pastor Lewis Harrell is walking
us through these letters written from Paul to Timothy.
Toward the end of these letters, Paul is anticipating that his
time here on earth is coming to a close.
He's giving some final words of advice to his mentee.
Paul writes in Second Timothy 4, verse seven.
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith. Wherever you are in your journey
of faith with God, our hope is that you have the willingness to
fight for what's true, not compromising, but holding fast
to the word of God. Paul was reminding Timothy of
this. And it's a good reminder for you
and for me today, too. For helpful input throughout
this series, why not listen to all of these teachings from
First and Second Timothy on our website?
Go to calvarychapelonline.com to access teachings, download our
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