The Power of the Cross

Good morning, Providence Bible
Church. Our text this morning comes from the book of 1 Timothy
chapter 1, specifically 1 Timothy 1, 12 through 17. So if you’ll
turn there for me. Now, admittedly, this text, it’s
a colossal text. We’re facing an Everest in scripture. The devotional riches from this
are inexhaustible. And we’re essentially bringing
spoons to the ocean. That’s why it’s important for
us to ask for the Lord’s blessing as well before we get into this.
So we’ll read the text, we’ll briefly pray, and then we’ll
dig in. Begins at verse 12, which reads, I am grateful to Christ
Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he regarded me faithful,
putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer
and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy
because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of
our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which
are in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy saying and
deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, among whom I am foremost. Yet, for this reason,
I was shown mercy so that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus
might demonstrate all his patience as an example for those who are
going to believe upon him for eternal life. Now, to the king
of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. Let’s pray. Lord, we ask
that you would open up our eyes to see the wonderful things in
your word. We confess, God, that often we come to the scriptures
cold-hearted, and we ask that you would warm our hearts and
show us Christ, that you might be glorified and that your people
might be edified, and that those who don’t know you might come
to know you. It’s in your name we pray these things. Amen. It
was a little while ago that someone once told me the great mystery,
glory, and power of the cross can be seen in that Jeffrey Dahmer,
the former serial killer who supposedly repented, is likely
in heaven, and Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic, humanitarian,
syncretistic, is likely in hell. The cross’s magnificence is seen
in how Christ came into the world to save sinners, as is indicated
in this text, from serial killers to reputable individuals. On
the other hand, the damning false works-based gospel of human achievement
is an all-out assault on the true gospel. For first of all,
it’s an attack on Christ’s mission to save. It makes salvation out
to be something that is ultimately dependent upon men. A contemporary
example of this is Mormonism, which, in the midst of its abundant
errors, one of which gets this wrong. One Mormon writer wrote
this, salvation, quote, is received only on the condition of faith,
repentance, baptism, and enduring to the end and keeping the commandments
of God. In fact, the book of 2 Nephi,
Mormon book, 1024 says, quote, it is by grace that we are saved
after all we can do. It’s sort of a do your best and
forget the rest mentality that leaves salvation ultimately dependent
upon the works of man. But it’s not only an attack on
Christ’s mission to save, it’s also Satan’s propaganda. It’s
Satan’s propaganda. Once we believe that salvation
is ultimately dependent upon our own works, we must do one
of two things. We must necessarily either lower
God’s perfect standard that He requires of all to be right with
Him, or to view ourselves not really as sinners, to view ourselves
more highly than we ought. The false gospel must lie that
we aren’t necessarily sinners, The wrong view of the present
day can be summarized by the admittedly dated, yet still relevant
statement by Robert Shuler. He says in his book, Self-Esteem,
quote, I don’t think that anything has been done in the name of
Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proved
more destructive to human personality, and hence counterproductive to
the evangelistic enterprise, than the unchristian, uncouth
strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and
sinful condition. And if the false gospel convinces
sinners that they’re not necessarily sinners, then it’s also an assault
on our Savior, Jesus Christ Himself. Because follow the logic here.
If we aren’t necessarily sinners, we aren’t in need of salvation.
And if we’re not in need of salvation, we’re not in need of a Savior.
And if we’re not in need of a Savior, we’re not in need of Jesus Christ.
This can be seen, the fruit of this mentality can be seen in
the general spirit of apathy in our culture towards the gospel. But contrary to the false gospel
of human achievement and workspace, the true gospel that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners does not preach do, but done,
it is finished. No one is too far gone from salvation,
from the worst of sinners in the culture’s understanding to
the most reputable of individuals. because salvation is not ultimately
dependent upon man’s works. Yet it still acknowledges the
reality of the sinfulness of sin, which then ultimately shows
that man’s greatest need, that your greatest need, that my greatest
need is Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Now, if we’re to
understand where we’re at in 1 Timothy, admittedly we’re jumping
into the middle of his train of thought, Paul’s train of thought.
This is a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, his son
in the faith, who was leading the church of Ephesus at the
time. And if we were to think of the book of First Timothy
as a whole, there’s primarily two purposes for why Paul wrote
this. First of all, to fight false teaching, to command Timothy
to fight false teaching. as well as to promote the standards
which the church are to be held to. Specifically chapter one
where we find ourselves today is under the section that is
purposed to fight false teaching. So Paul is speaking about fighting
false teaching. Now it’s difficult to understand
what exactly the false teachers in the church of Ephesus were
trying to teach But judging by verses 1 through 11, it’s pretty
clear it had something to do with a Jewish Gnostic understanding
of salvation. That what people would do is
they would look in verse 4, they would pay attention to myths
and endless genealogies. That essentially they would look
to the Old Testament or other Jewish texts, read between the
white lines and come up with some sort of myth. Some sort
of myth, a story, a tale that they could tell that would teach
that man needed to earn his own salvation by his own good works
to some degree. At this point, both Paul and
Timothy had already been in Ephesus together at that church, and
Paul had commanded Timothy to remain while he went on to Macedonia
because this false teaching needed to be fought. This was no surprise
to Paul, which in Acts chapter 20 had already predicted that
these false teachers would arise from among the Ephesian congregation. Earlier in the chapter, just
to better understand where we’re coming today, Paul has already
stated that false teaching must be fought, and he does this by
a variety of reasons. The first we can see in verses
1 through 2, he gives his address to Timothy, and in his address,
he establishes his apostolic authority. He shows that the
authority as a representative of Jesus Christ, he commands
Timothy to fight false teaching. The implication of that being
that all believers are called to fight false teaching, And
the application that we can draw from that is that since apostolic
authority, the scripture, tells us to fight false teaching, it
is the believer’s command to fight false teaching. Now it’s
also important to distinguish between false teaching and bad
teaching. These false teachers weren’t
necessarily just those who would get the secondary or third degree
issues wrong. It wasn’t that they necessarily
were putting forth difficult doctrinal positions that weren’t
necessarily right, but they weren’t destroying the gospel and the
understanding of that. These false teachers were getting
the gospel wrong. All false teachers are bad teachers,
but not all bad teachers are false teachers. And these people
are getting the gospel wrong. But secondly, we see in verses
3 through 7, Paul talks about the nature of this error itself. He talks about the nature of
the error and the nature of the false teachers and what they’re
teaching, which can really be summed up with what we had shown
earlier, the myths and endless genealogies. They were coming
up with these stories that we’re teaching a false gospel. So the
implication of that is that false teaching has tremendous error
and the application for all of us is that we are all called
to fight false teaching because of the nature of false teaching
itself. And then following this, what
does the Apostle Paul do? He shows that the nature of the
true gospel requires Timothy and, as a result, all believers
to fight false teaching itself. We see here in verse 8, he says,
but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. We can
imply from that that the false teachers were saying, as well
in verse 9, that when the Apostle Paul says that law is not made
for a righteous person, That the false teachers were teaching
the opposite. What they were doing is they were saying the
law is for the righteous person. That, in other words, the one
who is right before God is the one who follows the law perfectly.
Or who follows the law. And you see, that’s why the Apostle
Paul is putting forth, he’s giving reasons why false teaching must
be fought. And that leads us to the verse
before our text, which provides the best context and understanding
of how we’re to understand verses 12 through 17. He says that there’s
an importance to the law in the gospel. The law reminds that
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It was made
for all sinners. And these false teachers were
teaching something contrary to sound teaching, verse 10, verse
11, according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God
with which I have been entrusted. Verses 12 through 17 are essentially
an elaboration on this truth. What is the gospel of the glory
of the blessed God? And the Apostle Paul will use
his own example to describe this. But before we do that, I love
this title really quickly because it will help us better understand
verses 12 through 17, this title of God. In verse 11, the blessed
God. It might be easy to think of
that as a similar expression as the Apostle Paul uses in Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians 1, 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Right? You see there,
the blessing is an action received. It’s giving glory to God. God
receives that blessing there as a verb. But the original shows
here that this is an adjective. It’s not speaking of an action
received by God so much as it’s speaking of who God is, who he
is himself. That he is the blessed God, that
he is the happy God, that he is the self-content God, the
self-sufficient God that doesn’t need anything from anyone and
works as a result of his goodness as we see in creation and salvation. I know Jonathan Edwards had said
there can only be two reasons for why God created the world.
One could be for his own enjoyment, his own happiness, his own happiness,
specifically. Or it could be for the happiness
of his creatures. And what he said is it couldn’t
be the first option for his own happiness, that he would somehow
lack happiness, being infinitely perfect, self-content, self-sufficient. It would have to be the second,
to communicate his happiness to creatures, stemming from his
goodness. It was from his goodness that
he created the world in order for creatures like you and me
to experience his happiness. And not only is that the case
in creation, but it is in salvation as well. And the Apostle Paul
places this right before our text, which goes to show that
salvation isn’t something that is because God is lonely in heaven,
that he’s just lonely in heaven and wants some cosmic family
that he came down to save sinners. But no, it’s because of his goodness. It’s because of his mercy. There
was nothing deserving, nothing that believers could add to God
that he didn’t already possess. For he owns the cattle on a thousand
hills. There’s no knowledge or wisdom
that believers could give God that he doesn’t already have.
He’s omniscient. There’s no power that believers
could give to God, for he’s omnipotent. This is the true God. This is
the blessed God. And this is his gospel, which
the Apostle Paul is speaking about in our text. In our text,
Paul, still being in amazement over God’s grace in his life,
describes how God showed him mercy in his salvation, verses
12 through 14. by making him an example for
others to see that Christ came into the world to save sinners.
Verses 15 to 16, which caused him to exult in praise. Verse
17. This text is historic. Martin
Luther said, this passage has quite often been life and salvation
for me. Verses 12 through 17. John Calvin
called this a text to shield against the doubt of Christ’s
offer for forgiveness. God has used this to save many
people throughout the history. the church from the British Protestant
reformer Thomas Bilney to the great American theologian Jonathan
Edwards. But this text should not only
be monumental to the church historically, it also has monumental significance
for you and for me. If you are a believer here today
desiring to grow in your appreciation for Christ’s work on your behalf,
this text is for you. If you are a believer struggling
with assurance of your salvation today, this text is for you.
If you are a self-righteous hypocrite thinking that you can save yourself
by your own good works, this text is for you. And if you’re
a convinced sinner that doesn’t think that God can save you,
this text is for you. So in 1 Timothy 1.12-17, We see three facts that are given
about the power of the cross that should grow you in your
love for Christ’s work on the cross. The first fact that we
see is that the power of the cross executes ego. Power of
the cross executes ego, verses 12 through 17. The true gospel
executes ego because God’s merciful election is unconditional. No
one can stand proud before the cross. Verse 12, the Apostle
Paul says, I am grateful to Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened
me, because he regarded me faithful, putting me into service. So he’s
thankful to Jesus, Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened
me. This word strengthened in the
original speaks of a past event that has present implications.
In other words, what the Apostle Paul is looking back to was his
salvation account. Acts chapter 9, the Damascus
Road experience, when he was literally blinded by the light,
when the Apostle Paul wasn’t searching after God, but Christ
found him. He says, who has strengthened
me because he regarded me faithful, putting me into service. This
word regarded can also mean considered. And lest we think that what the
Apostle Paul is saying is that Christ strengthened him because
he was faithful, the whole context would get rid of that interpretation. We need to continue reading on. Verse 13. Apostle Paul says that
he strengthened him, he regarded him faithful, putting him into
service, though even though what? Verse 13, I was formerly a blasphemer
and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. So it wasn’t as if
God looked down the tunnel of time to see, oh faithful Paul,
and that’s why Christ stopped him on the Damascus Road. Why
did Christ stop him on the Damascus Road? Because he was three things.
He was a blasphemer, he was a persecutor, and he was a violent aggressor,
blasphemer, slanderer of God. He was against the living God.
He was a persecutor against the people of God, arresting them,
imprisoning them, separating families, killing them, and a
violent aggressor, or the ESV says, insolent opponent, an overall
sinner. Yet, he says, I was shown mercy
because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. Now once again here,
we see earlier that the Apostle Paul isn’t given sort of a free
pass because he’s acting ignorantly or even in unbelief. It does
show that there are degrees to unbelief, but the very fact that
he mentions this is an act of God’s mercy shows that this is
undeserved on his behalf. He’s not being given what he
does deserve. In other words, why does he say this? It goes
to show that unbelief does have certain degrees and that he wasn’t
like the other Pharisees of Jesus’ time who weren’t acting ignorantly.
They saw Jesus’ miracles and they knew full well that they
were legitimate. There was no way that they could
seek to disprove those miracles. They were so obvious and clear
that God was at work among them. But what did they do? They attributed
the work of Christ to Satan, committed the blasphemy of the
Holy Spirit. And what the Apostle Paul is saying here is that he
wasn’t necessarily like them. His story was a little different.
And he says this in verse 14. And the grace of our Lord was
more than abundant with the faith and love which are in Christ
Jesus. Once again, he says this is an
act of God’s grace. It’s an undeserved gift. My salvation
is not because of who I was, it was in spite of who I was.
And he said, notice here the order that he says that the grace
of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which
are in Christ Jesus. Out of grace, faith, and love,
which one comes first? It’s pretty clear that what comes
first is the grace of God, which is seen in his own testimony.
He speaks on this in Ephesians chapter 2, 8 through 9. By grace
you have been saved through faith. This is not of yourselves, it’s
not of your works, so that no one may boast, so that you cannot
be proud before the cross. The whole act of salvation is
an act of God’s grace, giving an undeserved gift to sinners
like you and like me. It shows here that God’s mercy
is also unconditional in his salvation of his own. You see,
if right now you think you don’t deserve punishment for your own
sin, if you think you deserve salvation because you are inherently
good or that you have earned your way to the right standing
with God, the job is not done. You cannot understand the text
with this mentality. Our culture hates being preached
at, hates being called sinners, but that’s the reality. That’s
the biggest problem. It isn’t some sort of policy. The biggest
problem is within. The biggest problem is the sinful
hearts of men. I remember preaching this text
a couple of weeks ago in a prison barrack, and there was a man
who seemed pretty agreeable in the sermon, who was nodding along
as I was preaching, even on this very point. And I remember walking
out of that same place, and Him stopping me before we made it
to His stop, and Him telling me, you know, in the beginning,
and in Genesis, it says that God created man, and that He
saw His creation was very good, so I’m good. I don’t have anything
to worry about. And if only He would have read
a couple more chapters, right? If only he would have read the
rest of scripture, if only he would have understood his own
heart. But that’s the natural tendency. We hate this. We hate
being called sinners. But until we understand this,
we cannot understand salvation. We cannot understand the gospel. You cannot appreciate your own
salvation, your salvation at all, understanding of it, until
you understand your own sinful problem, your problem of sin.
In high school, I played basketball. I don’t know how many of you
played sports. But I remember when our coaches were maybe not
appreciating us the most, they would have us do this thing called
wall sits. I don’t know if you guys have ever done those. They’re
brutal, especially if they’re extra long. And right now I’m
up here. Sometimes it can be a little
bit of a chore to stand. So you see guys on the pulpit, sometimes
they’ll hold the pulpit and they’ll kind of rotate from one foot
to another. I get in trouble in preaching
lab for having my hand on this side of the pulpit way too much
and just using this one. But I tell you what, if you were
to put me If you were to put me in a wall
sit for three minutes, standing all of a sudden would feel so
great. It would, right? Because I wouldn’t
have appreciated standing until I did the wall sit. But in a
similar way, until you understand your own sin, you cannot appreciate
or understand salvation. Augustine said, eliminate diseases,
eliminate wounds, and there is no call for medicine. This is
contrary, that the true gospel executes ego, is totally contrary
to the false gospel, the works-based one, because the works-based
gospel enlarges entitlement. In fact, verse 9 shows us what
we had talked about earlier. The implication is that the false
teachers were saying that the law is for the righteous person,
that the law is given so that we might earn our own way with
God, to be right with him. It enlarges entitlement and gives
the sinner some reason to boast before God, as blasphemous as
that is. You’ll think of just a couple of the parables of Jesus
Christ to absolutely dispel that view, right? How about the Pharisee
and the tax collector? Two men went to the temple to
pray, one a Pharisee and one a tax collector. Pharisee goes
there and he’s praying to himself. And he thanks God that he is
not like all the sinners, like the tax collector. That, you
know, he prays, he gives tithes, he does all of these things himself.
You can fill in the blanks, you know. I thank you, God, that,
man, I read my Bible a ton. I thank you, God, that I pray
a ton. I thank you, God, that I am not like those other people
in the culture. I thank you, God, that I do this, that I do
that, that I give to the poor, that I volunteer, that I do this,
I give this much to the church. But the tax collector was different.
The tax collector went to the temple, and what does the text
say? What does our Lord say? He says he wasn’t even able to
look at heaven, but beating his chest, cried out to God, God,
have mercy on me, a sinner. And who did Jesus say went to
his house justified? It was the tax collector. Because
why? Because he understood the sinful problem. He understood
that he didn’t deserve salvation, he understood that salvation
was an act of mercy, and that prompted him, recognizing he
couldn’t earn his own salvation, to entreat God, to ask Him, to
have mercy on him, a sinner. Or even think of the prodigal
son. After the prodigal son has taken
the money, squandered it, comes back, what does he tell his father?
He says, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you. I’m no
longer worthy to be called your son. He recognized his own sin. but he received the embrace of
his father. You see, you can’t understand salvation, you can’t
understand the gospel until you first understand that you are
a sinner, I’m a sinner, and none of us deserve salvation. That
salvation is an act of divine mercy. And that the true gospel,
this text shows, executes all ego. No one may stand proud before
the cross. The second fact of the power
of the cross that we see in our text today is that the power
of the cross heralds hope. The power of the cross heralds
hope. Verses 15 through 16. The true
gospel, on the other hand, gives people hope. Sinners like you
and me hope because Christ Jesus did indeed come into the world
to save sinners. Verse 15. It is a trustworthy
saying and deserving full acceptance. This shows that this was a creed
of the early Christian church. This is a very special thing
that the Apostle Paul is about to say. In fact, this specific
phrase, trustworthy saying, deserving full acceptance, is only found
in the pastoral letters. And more than that, it’s only
listed five times in the pastoral letters. In other words, what
the Apostle Paul is telling Timothy, if there’s anything to remember,
remember this. This is important. Tattoo this
to your eyelids. See this day and night. Have this ever present
before you. What is it? It’s this. that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That the only begotten
of the Father, the second person of the Trinity, assuming human
flesh, lived a perfect life, fulfilling all righteousness,
died a death on the cross for sinners like you and like me,
was raised the third day so that all who trust in him would not
perish but have eternal life. This speaks of Christ’s mission
in Matthew’s gospel in the very first chapter when the angel
appears to Joseph. What does he tell him? What is
he to name his son? He’s the name of Jesus, for He will save
His people from their sins. Jesus’ very name is a shortened
version of Joshua, which means that Yahweh saves. His name literally
means God saves and as God the Son, He comes to save sinners. That’s what the Apostle Paul
is speaking of here. But notice what the text doesn’t say here
either. The text doesn’t say that Christ Jesus came in the
world to potentially save sinners. or to hopefully save sinners
in a way that renders the power of the gospel and salvation ultimately
upon the individual. But the power is found in Christ
in actually saving his own people. This should grow your assurance
if you’re a believer, if you’ve gone through this week and you’ve
been discouraged by your own sin. Maybe if you have been impatient
with a loved one, if you’ve had an impure thought, If you have
somehow muddied the truth up a bit, or if you cut some corners
at work, whatever it might be, when you’re discouraged as a
believer, this truth that Christ Jesus came into the world to
actually accomplish salvation gives hope, right? When Satan
tempts me to despair. and tells me of the guilt within.
Upward I look and see Him there who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me.” Right? This assurance assures
that your name as a believer was graven on the hands of Christ.
That when He went to the cross, He didn’t do so aimlessly. He
went to the cross successfully. You can almost imagine and picture
Christ being on the cross, recognizing that the suffering was worse
than any other human being would experience in history. But the
fact that he knew he would see his seed, Isaiah 53.10, he stayed
on the cross. You can even imagine him saying
on the cross, though the suffering is incomparable, I am staying
here because I know it’s going to secure the salvation of my
own. And if you are a believer, fill
in your name. This is wonderful. It gives us a picture where this
power of salvation is found at the cross. This was not a weak
wish, but a secured salvation. Christ was successful in what
he came to do. He wasn’t a losing loser. He
was a victorious victor on the cross. There was never ever a
possibility that Christ would go to the cross and that no one
would ever come to him. There never was that possibility.
He was successful in what he came to do to save sinners. I loved what John Owen said.
He said, a savior of men not saved is strange. And this should
give us hope as believers that the power of salvation is found
at the cross. This will be important to remember
when you study chapter 2 of 1 Timothy. And just think, he’s not only
a successful savior, but because he’s a successful savior, Christ
is also a successful high priest. He successfully pleads for all
those whom he died for, all those whom he actually satisfied the
wrath of God on Calvary’s tree. He also pleads for as he lives
in heaven. If we were to just hear a minute
of Christ’s intercession for ourselves, all fear for the rest
of our lifetime would go out. If you’re ever worried that you
might lose your salvation, look to Christ. Look to the great
high priest. Look to the one who never fails,
pleading for his own. And in fact, it suggests that
we would, would suggest that somehow Christ’s will would be
different than the Father’s will and the Spirit’s will, and it
would promote some sort of disunity within the Trinity, ultimately
leading us to an end of tritheism if we were to follow that logically,
not the true God. But no, Christ is successful
in what he came to do. No one will snatch out of his
hand, John 10, 28. No one will snatch out of the
Father’s hand. Well, you might say, well, it says that no one
can snatch us out of his hand, but that doesn’t mean I can’t
jump out of his hand. I’d like to remind you of Romans 8, that
nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that
is in Christ Jesus, Romans 8, 39. And my question to you then
would be, are you a created creature? The answer is yes. It shows that
Christ is a successful Savior and a successful High Priest.
So if you’re worried that you might not make it, you’re worried
that you’re weak, look to the power and the strength of Christ
and find hope. This is what the power of the
cross does for us. And the Apostle Paul says, We
continue, I am foremost. If we were to literally translate
this and kind of give it the emphasis that he gives in the
original, it would literally be, I, I am foremost. It’s emphatic. He’s saying, look, it’s me. And
he’s not saying I was foremost either. He says, I am foremost. There’s emphasis and he’s reflecting
on a present reality. The least of the apostles and
the least of saints recognizes him as the foremost of sinners. It shows that there’s some aspect
in the present that is ever before him that he’s reminded of. And
think of the difference of Paul’s identification with the sinners,
with the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, who mocked him for associating
with the tax collectors and the sinners. Not only does he not
mock those who associate with them, he identifies as a sinner,
and not just as any sinner, but as the worst, the foremost, the
first, the chief. And in other words, what he is
saying here is that if God can save him, He can save you. You’re
never too far. If you will but repent and believe
and follow Christ, none that come to him will he cast out.
But some might say, well, was Paul really the worst? I mean,
if I think of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Genghis Khan, I mean,
Nero, we think of Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, there were some pretty
bad people in history. Some then, in taking that interpretation,
then would say that he wasn’t really intending to refer to
himself as being the absolute worst of sinners, but that it’s
just kind of sort of a worse-in-his-own-eyes mentality. But this doesn’t make
sense because the whole context is about an external example,
not an internal introspection. That’s the point, and that’s
what verse 16 shows as well. Yet for this reason I was shown
mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might demonstrate
all his patience as an example for those who are going to believe
upon him for eternal life. Plus, as mentioned earlier, there’s
a pretty good case that he is the worst of sinners, that he
was fighting against the Church of Christ in its very beginning
moments, that he went and arrested Christians, that he separated
those families, that he killed them. that he was a blasphemer
to the cause of God. This means that Paul was worse
than even the list that was read or that is before that Paul gives.
In verse 10, it shows that false teaching has a unique nature
to it, of it being in the degree of sins, one of the worst. All
sin deserves infinite punishment, but false teaching is unique.
But it goes to show that God can also save false teachers.
which is an amazing thing to reflect on. I love what Spurgeon
said in a great sermon, if you get the time, I’d highly recommend
it. It’s called, Compel Them to Come In. And in it, Spurgeon
is trying, he’s giving his best gospel appeal that he can, and
there’s someone, he’s imagining someone in the crowd that just
thinks that there’s so much of a sinner that they could never
be saved. You know, if only you knew the
sin that my pastor doesn’t know about, if only you knew the sin
that my spouse doesn’t know about, if only you knew some of the
sins that I don’t even know about myself, how could Christ save
me? And what he says is he says, I tell you, the inspired, infallible,
authoritative word of God says that the Apostle Paul was the
worst of sinners. What would that make you if you were the
worst you could be? Second to worst, right? God can
save Paul, he can save you. It’s even more astounding to
think that God not only saved him, but that he called him to
be the very one to lead the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles.
He’s no ordinary spiritual leader, but as an apostle, this goes
to show God’s grace, even in the ministry. This word patience
here, that’s patience that he gave the apostle Paul as an example.
Paul also uses to speak of God’s patience with the reprobate in
Romans 9.22, and the patience that we all should have as believers
towards one another and others. In light of God’s patience, we’re
called to be patient. The false gospel, however, instead
of heralding hope, hounds hopelessness. Why is that? Verse 4, we see
that the false teaching led, ultimately, to mere speculation.
That there was no assurance, there was no hope. They just
could hope that maybe they might be right with God, that God might
sweep some things under the rug. Whereas the true gospel brings
assurance. It heralds hope. A final fact that we see, and
the final point, is that the power of the cross prompts praise.
The power of the cross prompts praise. Verse 17, we read, Now
to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor
and glory forever and ever. Amen. This title, the king of
the ages, literally means the king over the ages. The king
over eternities even. It speaks of God being sovereign,
not bound by time like you and like I am. He was, he is, he
is to come. He’s the great I am. He’s not
even dependent upon time because he created it, Genesis 1.1. He
also speaks of Him as immortal. The Bible also says that God
never grows weary, Isaiah 40, 28, and that He never changes,
Malachi 3, 6. And I want to ask you a question. Back in this time, when this
was being written, in the city of Ephesus itself, one of the
seven wonders of the ancient world was built. It was there. It was called the Temple of Artemis,
the false goddess. I’d like to ask you, how many
Artemis worshippers do you know? I know we’re close to CSU and
there’s some fruity people, but I haven’t met anyone who’s worshipped
Artemis yet. Or what about Zeus? Have you
met any Zeus worshippers? How about Baal? Have you met
any Baal worshippers? No! Those gods were fake. They’re
dead. They’re gone. They’re not the
true and the living God. They’re false idols. Whereas
God is the living God. He is immortal. He’s also invisible. The Apostle Paul says this in
1 Timothy 6. He says that He is the invisible God. In other
words, He can’t be compartmentalized like everything else that we
see. Yes, because God is gracious, we can know Him. Because He’s
gracious in His creation, as was even mentioned by Barry earlier
today, we know of His existence. Because He’s been gracious to
us in revealing the way of salvation through His written Word, the
special revelation, we can know Him as well. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing the Word of Christ. Right? And in the Incarnation
even, as well. As Christ, God the Son, came
and revealed God to us. He who has seen Him has seen
the Father, right? Yes, we can know God, but we can’t know Him
comprehensively. We will never exhaust the greatness
of God in our understanding and contemplation of Him. That’s
what eternity is for. That’s why eternity is amazing
and glorious, because we will continually be learning and continually
grown in our affections, and we will always be able to worship
God. That’s what’s the amazing thing
about eternity. He’s also the only God. Reflecting back on the Shema,
that God is one, Deuteronomy 6-4. You see, the end of the
true gospel is that it prompts praise. It shows that man doesn’t
deserve his salvation, and it shows that God alone is the one
who gives salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. The
false gospel promotes people. In the end, if salvation is up
to you, whether it be 1% or 100%, you still can receive some of
the glory. And what does God say in Isaiah? He says, My glory
I will share with no other. God created salvation so he alone
would be glorified. And rather than using his testimony
to puff himself up, what the Apostle Paul is naturally directed
to do is to give glory to God. We again return to the great
mystery of the Gospel. When the Apostle Paul was executed
under the command of Nero, he entered into the warm embrace
of those whom he had persecuted. He entered the thunderous applause
for God’s grace by the very ones that he had killed. That’s the
amazing work of the power of the cross. We’ve seen this, the
Apostle Paul has shown this because the power of the cross executes
ego. No one can stand proud before Calvary’s tree. It also heralds
hope because if Paul can be saved, if God can save Paul, he can
save you if you will but repent and believe in him. and it prompts
praise. In the end, Revelation reveals
that us as believers will be praising God for eternity, not
saying salvation is of ourselves, not saying that salvation is
of God and ourselves, but what? That salvation belongs to God
and to the Lamb. This is the power of the cross.
Christ became sin for us, took the blame, bore the wrath. We
stand forgiven. Where? At the cross. Let’s pray.