[0:00] let's turn again to 1 Timothy chapter 1, and we'll be spending time focusing on verses 16 and 17 tonight to close off our time together. And it's just so fitting to sing words like beautiful Savior, wonderful counselor, the way, the truth, and the life, because this really is just the central point in the Christian faith. And as we come to our two verses here tonight, it just bubbles over into praise and into adoration. Last night, we looked at who did Jesus come for, and we saw the apostle Paul before his conversion, blasphemer, violent persecutor of the church, and so on.
[0:48] But there he received mercy from the Lord Jesus. After his conversion, he still considers himself to be the chief of sinners, and yet he receives mercy. And so we said last night that Jesus came quite clearly for sinners. He came for people who do not have it all together, who realize their fallenness, who realize that they are far from God. He didn't come for the righteous, but sinners to call them to repentance. And that was this morning. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And we saw how God so generously poured out his mercy upon the apostle Paul, his grace upon the apostle Paul, and just helped us think then how Jesus relates to us when we come to him in repentance and faith. He is a God who delights to extend mercy, to lavishly pour out his grace upon us. And we end our communion weekend and our Lord's Day evening asking, well, so what? So what? Jesus saved sinners. Jesus saved the apostle Paul.
[2:04] So what? Or maybe for what purpose did Jesus save sinners? We might offer so many reasons to that question. John Piper has a book, The Passion of Jesus Christ, 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.
[2:20] I'm not doing all 50 tonight. You're okay. We're just going to focus on the two listed in verse 16 and verse 17. First of all, to display his perfect patience today. See that in verse 16. And then verse 17, to receive glory, honor, and praise forevermore. So let's get stuck in. First of all, to display his perfect patience today. This thing is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world. So Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
[3:00] For this reason, that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. So Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And then, to save sinners, there's hope then for the apostle Paul, the foremost of sinners.
[3:24] Verse 16, but I received mercy for this reason. So here we get to the nub of our focus here tonight. Jesus showed mercy to Paul for this reason that in me as the foremost, that Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to all who will believe in him for eternal life. It's to make an example of Paul.
[3:51] It's to make a case study of Paul, if you will, but not so that we would focus on Paul. So that we would focus on Jesus Christ. So that he would be the one to receive our glory, our honor, and our praise because he is so patient with sinners. That if Jesus can be patient with the apostle Paul, he can be patient with you and he can be patient with me. And I mean, that just makes sense. You know, if you think back to a school teacher, maybe, or a boss that you worked for, if you've gotten it badly wrong and you need to fess up. Okay. You don't find it easy to do that when someone is a patient person, but you find it easier than if they are a grump, if they're miserable, if they're short-tempered, if they're always nitpicking at all that you do, you're going to be really hesitant to go to that kind of person. But someone who is a patient person, you're more ready and more able feeling to go and fess up to that person. And in Jesus, we have one who isn't just patient some of the time, or a lot of the time. He is perfectly patient towards his people. And the question is, how do we know this from Paul's life that Paul has been made an example of here? Well, we know it from his pre-conversion days. We've spoken about him a lot over the last 24 hours, how he was a blasphemer, how he rejected God's son. He rejected the one that God had sent. He was a persecutor, a violent opponent, dragging Christians into prison, overseeing the murder of men like
[5:34] Stephen, who God used mightily. This was Paul's life before he was a Christian. And Jesus sees all of that in Paul's life. And yet he doesn't act in judgment straight away.
[5:52] In fact, he doesn't act in judgment at all. He's patient and exercises more patience and more patience and more patience until he calls Paul to himself. He oversaw all of it in Paul's life. He saw all that Paul was doing. The persecuting of Christians, the murdering of Christians. So if you're subscribed to like Open Doors or Steadfast Global or something like that, what we read of in these newsletters, that was Paul. Paul was doing that. And yet Jesus was so patient with Paul, not of course condoning what Paul was doing at all, but so that he could receive mercy. You see God's perfect patience in Paul. And you think, Jesus, why don't you just do away with Paul before his conversion? I mean, that's horrible. That's awful what he is doing. You see his patience with Paul. You see it with the Ninevites in the book of Jonah. You know, we're all a bit like Jonah.
[6:55] And Jonah is looking at these Ninevites and saying, God, I just want you to do away with them. But he is slow to anger and is patient. He was perfectly patient.
[7:10] However, God's patience, of course, will run out one day for those who don't turn to him. He is slow to anger, the Bible tells us God is. God is slow to anger. That doesn't mean that he doesn't show anger. It just means he's incredibly patient and willing to give time before he shows it.
[7:32] Romans 2 verse 4, do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? The kindness of God is meant to lead you to repentance. His patience with you is meant to lead you to repentance and to faith.
[7:50] And so for the final time this weekend, if anyone online or anyone here is not trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord, would you put your trust in him? He has been so patient with you.
[8:04] All of these times that you have rejected him, you've had this sense that maybe he's calling you, but you try to silence it and you try to quieten it. He's been so patient with you.
[8:22] Won't you trust in him? Won't you trust in him and find in him your Savior and your Lord? Having said that, God is not just patient with unbelievers before they come to faith.
[8:38] God is extremely patient with us, even as believers. God has to exercise perfect patience towards us as believers. We see his perfect patience, of course, matches the patience of God in the Old Testament. I think so often God is caricatured in the Old Testament as a vengeful God, a trigger-happy lunatic who's just happy to just rain judgment whenever, as soon as anyone mildly steps out of line, that he's just ready to rain down judgment. But actually, as you read through the Old Testament and the New, God is incredibly patient with his people. He's incredibly patient. The fact that God doesn't just shut everything down in Genesis 3 is a testimony to his patience. You have then from there, you have Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, so on, so many opportunities where God would have been justified to act in judgment. But he is patient with his people. He is so patient with his people.
[9:47] You look at Abraham and Sarah, they've got this promise for a child. And instead of trusting in God's promise for a child, they try to engineer a scenario to make it happen because they're fed up waiting on God. Or you see Jacob taking advantage of his father's blindness to take the birthright blessing from Esau. You look at the wilderness generation. They were in the wilderness and time and time again tested God's patience. Tested his patience. They were faithless and they were unable to enter the land God had given them because of that faithlessness and that wandering from him. But it wasn't as if they tested him once and God was like, I'm finished. No, they tested him multiple times. And multiple times God was patient and multiple times God gave them an opportunity to turn back. But they didn't. They kept on rebelling. You go into the period of the judges.
[10:55] Surely God's patience is tested to the limit at the time of the judges. It's so chaotic. It's so messy. It's so filled with brokenness and pain and heartbreak and sorrow and sin. God is not trigger happy.
[11:11] He's anything but. He's anything but. He is so patient with his people. The line we see time and time again, especially in the Psalms, is that he's slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
[11:25] He's slow to anger. This all means that as we look at the life of Paul and we see his sins pre-conversion and just his identification as the chief of sinners at post-conversion, we see ultimately the patience of Jesus. We see the incredible and unfathomable patience of Jesus towards him. What our sins deserve is wrath and judgment, rightly. But what we receive through faith in Christ is grace upon grace, is a lavish mercy displayed towards us. You know as well as I do that sins remain. The apostle John tells us that if anyone says he's without sin, he's deceiving himself. Sin is unfortunately a factor of our lives. Whatever point in life we're at, however long we've been a Christian, sin is still present in one way or another. What patience is needed? Because we have these besetting sins. We have these sins which are common to us. It might be envy. It might be pride. It might be greed. It might be gossip. It might be materialism. Whatever it is, there are things that kind of follow us around like a bad smell. We seem to call our name wherever we go. We wake up in the morning and we know,
[12:53] I'm going to have to face this again today. And we try with God's help to fight it. We have sins that are less common but arise out of circumstance. So like someone has sinned against us in some way. And we find it hard to forgive and to extend grace. We harbor bitterness and resentment and we can then, it can turn really ugly all of a sudden of rejoicing when someone has had a bad thing happen to them when they've wronged you or sort of envying them and resenting the fact that something good has happened to them perhaps. And so we see our sins. That's plain and evident to us.
[13:38] Is Jesus still really patient with you? Does he exercise patience with you? Is he still persevering with you? Let's go back to our text, verse 16. I received mercy that in me, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to all who believe. Paul is saying here in this text, look at me.
[14:00] So often Paul is like, imitate me as I imitate Christ. He's pointing to his positive example. Here he is pointing to Jesus and saying, how patient Jesus has been with me. He is an example for you to take courage and to take hope that as you fight against your sin, as you battle on, as you try with the help of the Holy Spirit to see change happen in your life, that God isn't just going to leave you behind one day because he didn't leave Paul behind.
[14:31] When we consider our sins against the backdrop of his mercy, Jesus' patience is magnified. It's seen in big flashing lights. And it's in that backdrop that the precious promises of the gospel are felt even more for us. One that I carry about with me in my back pocket every day, Philippians 1.6.
[14:56] He who began a good work in you will see it through to completion on the day of Christ, which is such wonderful news because sometimes it maybe feels like we're spinning our wheels sometime. Sometimes.
[15:11] Sometimes we wonder if we've tested God's patience to the absolute limit. But when we walk with him, we're assured that he who began a good work in you, it's not going to abandon the job halfway through. He's going to see it through. So I've been telling some of you, my parents have this guest house on the Isle of Skye and it's their off season at the moment and they've been renovating. And as they've been going about renovations, they've just found more and more things under the surface that need done. And it's become a bigger job than they'd sort of anticipated.
[15:48] The more that they've done, the more they've realized needs fixing. It's been a tough year with the repair work, but the renovation is all done now and they're ready to go. They're ready for this new season. And as it relates to Jesus and his inner work in us, his renovation work in us, there are two things to know. The first thing is that unlike my parents, Jesus knew exactly what he got himself in for when he rescued you, when he saved you. There's not one thing that's going to come up in your life that he's going to go, oh, I didn't anticipate that. I'm going to have kind of second thoughts here now. That was a miscalculation. No, Jesus knew exactly what he was getting himself in for with you and with me. And he still chose to save you. He still chose to extend his grace towards you to show you mercy. And the second thing is that Jesus is committed to seeing you through right to the very end, right to the very end. That right now he is committed to working on you, shaping you, molding you into his likeness, more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
[17:00] Jesus. He's committed to seeing that through. So as you stand with all your sins and all your failings that you see, as you recognize you still have a way to go, you needn't worry that Jesus is going to run out of patience. He's going to all of a sudden leave you behind. He is patient to see you through right till the end. So what does this mean for you as you're going out of this building and ready to face a new week, a week of unknowns? It means Jesus isn't going to give up on you.
[17:39] It means when you find yourself having sinned, when you come back to him in repentance and in faith, you know he's never going to turn you away. Another precious gospel promise is in John 6, 37, all the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
[18:06] And so as we come to Jesus in repentance and faith, this verse isn't saying, I'm not going to cast out unless they've done X, Y, or Z, they've done my head in enough times.
[18:21] I will never cast out. I will never reject. I will never turn away. I will welcome. I will receive, Jesus says. Jesus walks with you as you go into your week, as you go into the rest of your lives. And as I say, the life of unknowns in many ways. As you go to sin struggles that you have, you don't go alone. The Lord Jesus goes with you and he's going to walk alongside you right to the very end, displaying his perfect patience towards you.
[18:55] He's your Savior who walks with you, who's never going to abandon or leave until he ushers you into his new creation where all will be made new. And you know then there'll be no need for Jesus to be patient with you because you're going to be like him. All that fight against sin that you have now will give way to perfection. You'll be free from your sins and failures. You'll be free from the things that most trouble you about yourself. You'll be free from the things that most embarrass you about yourself. You will finally love God like you've always wanted to. You will finally love God like you ought to. And it will be glorious. We will see him face to face. I made reference in the last sermon this morning to our knee-jerk reactions, often being to anger or pride or whatever.
[20:03] But in the new creation, our knee-jerk reactions will be beautiful. They'll be glorious because we will be made like him. So, having seen Jesus' patience for the Apostle Paul and for us, the second reason Jesus came from our text, verse 17, to receive glory, honor, and praise forevermore. Having said all this, verses 12 to 16, Paul unsurprisingly just bursts out into praise, an uncontrollable barrage of praise to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
[20:52] If Jesus really did come for sinners like you and me, like the Apostle Paul, if Jesus really did extend his mercy to you and to me, if Jesus really did lavishly pour out his grace upon you, if Jesus really is perfectly patient with you, what else is there left to do but to give praise, to give glory to his great and awesome name for his wonderful salvation that he has won for us.
[21:26] Because do you know where the chief of sinners, Paul the Apostle, is right now? He's on his knees before the face of Jesus. He is in his glorious presence, bowing down with an inexpressible delight and joy.
[21:41] Paul right now is not listing off his religious achievements, strutting about, thinking about how he's earned it. He is just so overjoyed and thankful that Jesus rescued him, that Jesus got him there.
[21:58] And it will be the same with us. We're not where Paul is now, but friends, one day we will be. One day we will be in the presence of Jesus.
[22:09] And though we're not at our final destination yet, we have a song to sing. A song of praise, of worship, and of adoration.
[22:20] We have the same gospel hope. Our hope is not realized yet, as Paul's is, but one day it will be. As we soldier on in the Christian life, there is a joy in our hearts.
[22:32] There is wind in our sails. Christ is our Savior. Christ is our friend. He walks with us and he's never going to leave us behind. Jesus really did come for you and me.
[22:44] Jesus really did extend mercy to you and me. He lavishly poured out his grace for you and me. He is perfectly patient with you and me. Friends, as you go out from here, you can go out with a spring in your step because Jesus is your Savior and your friend.
[23:02] As you go, you do not go by yourself. You go with a renewed strength and power because he walks with you. He walks side by side with you.
[23:13] He is helping you and is pushing you on and is praying even now before the Father for you. He is working in you all that is necessary for faith and holiness.
[23:26] He is patient with you when you stumble and fall. He's going to see you through to the end. And how else can you possibly respond but with a heart full of praise, full of worship and gladness?
[23:37] For he has done everything. He has done all that is necessary for you and for me to enter in. To be his follower, to be his friend, to call God our Father.
[23:50] For everything God has done perfectly in his Son, Jesus Christ. If Jesus is not merciful, you and I do not stand a chance.
[24:03] We'd blow our last chance. But friends, he is so merciful to you. He is so kind to you and his grace overflows to you day by day by day.
[24:14] What a glorious and wonderful Savior we have. What a wonderful friend and king we have. What a loyal and faithful master. Father, we sung a Matt Redman hymn to begin.
[24:29] And he's got another one called Unbroken Praise. And the chorus just says, Unbroken Praise be yours, God, forever. All my praise be yours, God, forever.
[24:40] Lord, take this life. Let it become your throne. Unbroken Praise be yours. Friends, may all of our tomorrows be given to his praise. He has done far more than we could even ask or imagine.
[24:55] Far more than we would dream to think of. He has been so good and so kind to us. So, I just want to end with the words of the Sing Psalms version of Psalm 115.
[25:13] Not to us, oh, not to us, but to your name be the praise. Because your love and faithfulness endure, oh Lord, always.
[25:25] Let's pray. Let's pray.