In whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because He considered 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 acted ignorantly and unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with faith and love, which are found in Christ Jesus. Let us pray. Jesus, I pray now that you come by your spirit again and open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. I pray that you would be in my thinking, in my head and in my thinking, in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth, in my speaking. I pray that your gospel this morning would be clear. We pray all of these things, amen, and amen. Well, if this is your first time to grace Seattle and relatively early in a series on 1 Timothy, and 1 Timothy, if you remember, the whole overarching purpose of the book, Paul wrote Timothy, so that one may know how to organize or order the household of God, which is the church. And the reason he had to write that is because the church was in a relative state of disorder in the city of Ephesus, and the reason that the church was in a relative state of disorder was because if you remember last week's text and sermon, certain men came teaching strange doctrines. Remember what Paul said, that they come teaching sort of strange doctrines based on either Old Testament myths or legends, and on one hand, on the other hand, they try to teach the law of God, the Pentateuch or the Ten Commandments, and Paul says they don't get it, and the reason we know they don't get it is because the end of their teaching or what it ends up with is merely speculation, right? That their teaching doesn't end up with any answers, but it ends up only with questions. And remember last week Paul sort of gives this stinging rebuked to them, he says that they want to be teachers of the law, but they don't even know what the law is about or the things about which they confidently assert, right? And so Paul says that these guys want to be teachers of the law, but they don't understand the purpose of the law, Timothy. And so what we see in today's text is Paul's anticipation of their objections to him, right? Because you imagine someone who very self-righteously is teaching the law of God, and they are teaching other people, and then imagine someone coming in and saying, you don't even understand the law, you don't get it, you don't understand its purpose, and there are two objections that they could raise against the Apostle Paul, which were often raised against the Apostle Paul, and the first objection was this, is that Paul, you just don't care about the law, right? That's why you're saying this, that's why you're sort of crushing us because you don't care about God's law, you just preach grace and you think because everything is about grace, God's law doesn't matter. That's the first thing, that the first objection Paul anticipates, and that's the first thing we'll look at this morning is the purpose of the law, the second thing that Paul anticipates, the second objection is this, who are you, Paul, to be telling anybody about the law? You are the worst sinner who ever lived. Everyone knows, Paul, that you were a blasphemer, you walked around killing Christians, and now you come and tell us what's lawful and what's not lawful, you're the one who's going to come, Paul, you're the most evil wicked man who ever lived. You have absolutely no authority to tell us about the law. So his second objection will be, the first objection is the sort of the purpose of the law, and Paul's going to address that, and the second objection, that Paul, you're the worst sinner who ever lived, is the second point in the sermon, which is the glory of the gospel. That's what we're going to look at this morning, two things, the purpose of the law, and the glory of the gospel, and so if you look at your text in verse 8, you know, he's anticipating that they're going to say, Paul does not believe that the law is a good thing, and Paul comes right out, and he anticipates in verse 8, he says, but we know that the law is good. Simple as that, the law is good, and then he qualifies it, he says, if one uses it lawfully, the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, or you could also interpret that or translate that as appropriately, that the law is good, is if you use it the way it was intended to be used, and so Paul jumps right in to how the law was supposed to be used, he says, realizing the fact that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious for the ungodly sinners for unholy profane, for those who kill mothers and fathers for murders and more of man homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, purgers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. Now when Paul talks about the purpose of the law, he does something immediately, and he invokes a metaphor that Jesus used, immediately, he sort of harkens back to this metaphor that Jesus used, and Paul says the law is good, if you use it lawfully, realizing that the law was not intended for the righteous but the unrighteous, right, and that should sound familiar, let me read to you, remember when Jesus was confronted the Pharisees and religious leaders came and confronted Jesus because he hung out with sinners and tax collectors so much. Remember, they were righteous and religious, and Jesus did nothing but give them a hard time, and for the sinners and tax collectors, he gave grace. And remember what they said to him, I'll read it to you, it's in Mark 2, verse 16, he says, it says, when the scribes and Pharisees saw that he, that's Jesus, was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners? But hearing this, Jesus said to them, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but as those who are sick, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. So, what does that have to do with the law? Because that's the same thing Paul says, except he doesn't say it in the context of grace, he says that in the context of law, he doesn't say grace is for sinners, he says that law is for sinners, right, the righteous don't need it, and so in a sense he says, I'm not the law is good, if it's used, it's not intended for the righteous but it's intended for the Unrighteous, right? Why? Because the law is this great diagnostic tool for the health of your soul, right? So, you could say if the point is this, right, the reason that we have laws anyway is because people break laws, that's sort of what Paul is saying. The only reason we need laws against murdering people are why? Because some individuals have a proclivity toward murdering and Paul says, if no one had a proclivity toward being a murderer, we wouldn't need laws for murdering, against murdering. And so he says that the law wasn't made for those kind of people, but the law was made for the Unrighteous. And so, it's sort of like this, it's sort of like if you're righteous, if you do everything perfect all the time, if you never break God's law, and you know you never break his law, if you never feel guilty, then you're cool, then you can just, you can sort of turn me off for the rest of the sermon, you can turn Paul off for the rest of this text, or you could even go have a cup of coffee, right? If you're righteous, if you're completely perfect, that's fine. He said, but that's not who the law was made for. The purpose of the law was for people who are unrighteous. And he does something very interesting, is he basically gives us a quick exposition of the Ten Commandments. That's what he says, and that list, he's giving you an explanation of the Ten Commandments. And the first three things, he says, for the lawless and rebellious, the ungodly and sinners, unholy and profane, he's literally mirroring the first half of the Ten Commandments. Remember last week, he said, the goal of our instruction is love, right? Love toward God and love toward neighbor. And the Ten Commandments are broken up into two parts, right? The first part deals with our relationship, the God, the second part deals with our relationship to our neighbor. And he said, the law was intended, first of all, for people who are not in right relationship with God, he says, for those who are lawless and rebellious, lawless and rebellious, people are simply people who fail to submit to God's law, right? They'll have nothing of it, right? If I may be so crass, they sort of, they give God the finger and are happy about it. The second thing he says is for ungodly and sinners, right? The ungodly and sinners, remember the second commandment, he says, you shouldn't have any idols, right? It's for people who pursue idols instead of the true God. And then he says, for unholy, those who are unholy and profane, right? Fourth commandment, you shouldn't take the name of the Lord, your God and vain, right? And if you've heard me preach on this, basically everything is holy. And so whenever we desecrate anything, whenever we eat, we eat, we eat, we eat, we eat, we eat, before we use it improperly, we are being profane. And Paul said, that's who the law is for, if that's not you, that's fine, right? If you're completely submissive to God's law and you're never profane and you're never doing anything, you're fine. He says, but if you, if you, if you do break these things, we've got problems. And then he goes right into relationships with our neighbors. And you know, you can get caught up, but the point of this is not the actual things. It's the list, right? He says, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murders and moral men, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, purgers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. He goes straight through the rest of the commandments, right? Honor your father and mother, right? What is the contrary to honoring your father and mother? Killing them, of course. The Greek here could also be translated as abuse and actually in the Old Testament, if you're disobedient to your parents or even not submissive to your parents, that was grounded to be stoned, right? Then he goes on, right? It's not only for those, but it's for murderers, right? And remember what Jesus said about murder? Jesus says that if you even think about murder, if you're even angry at a person, you're guilty of murder, right? Do you ever get angry? And then he says basically for those who are heterosexuals and homosexuals, immoral. You don't escape, right? He's not saying it's better to be straight than gay. What he's saying is that everyone is screwed up and broken sexually, right? Period. Or at least that's what the law says. Maybe you're not. That's the point. Paul says, if you're not, you're okay. You better listen. And remember what Jesus said, he says, I tell you the truth, if you've ever looked at a woman with lust in your heart, you're guilty of adultery, right? You're just, you're guilty. And then he goes on, right? And he says those kidnappers and liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to son drug, right? Kidnapping actually is stealing because kidnapping here is sort of like analogous to the American slave trade, right? It's one thing to look in the Bible and say that they had, there were slaves in the Bible and that, you know, that was a different thing. It's another thing to go to someone else's country and steal them and take them and sell them to someone else. That's what he's talking about with kidnapping. It's stealing, at least in this text. And then of course liars, people who don't tell the truth and perjurers, that's when you break a vow or an oath, right? And then instead of going to the 10th commandment, he sort of goes 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, which is thou shalt not covet, he says, and whatever else, right? He casts his broad net, whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. And here's where the medical metaphor really comes in because that word sound teaching is the word in Greek, hygienos, or hygienic, right? That the law was not made for righteous people, but it's made for anyone who is not hygienic, anyone who is unhealthy in their soul. And he says, this is the glory of God. This is the glorious gospel of God. Now that should be bizarre to you, right? The Paul list is completely sort of long list of sins and the sort of nastyness. If you're honest with yourself, you have to ask, can I escape this at all? And if you're honest, my guess is you'll say no. And then Paul says, that's the glorious gospel of God, that you're a nasty disgusting wicked sinner, praise the Lord. Now why is that glorious, that he would point out our sinfulness? Why is that glorious, that he would sort of take us through the 10 commandments and show us ever so briefly where we stand? And it's glorious because of this. It's because the law, the primary purpose of the law is that it diagnoses illness, right? It diagnoses illness, and that's where it's glory is, right? You look at the law, and the law tells you who you are, it is honest with you. And if you've ever been sicker, you've ever had some kind of chronic illness or disease, you know that there is glory even in being diagnosed with a terrible disease, why? Because at least you know, right? I have a bad stomach and I've been on all medications forever. And it took about 10 years before someone finally decided to do an endoscopy, right? Were they put the tube down your throat? And for 10 years, frankly, I wonder whether or not I had stomach cancer, right? As a pastor, I've seen people die of stomach cancer and it's ugly. And I wondered if I had all these things right in my kept wondering, am I going to be okay? Am I going to be okay? And I was actually afraid to go to the doctor, finally, to get this done, why? Because of the diagnosis. What if it's something terrible? And they did the diagnosis and they realized I just have a genetic anomaly, which causes me not to have a sphincter between my stomach and my esophagus, and acid comes up. And basically it's not a good thing, but it's not a bad thing either. And that was glorious why, because I had a true and proper diagnosis of my illness. And you know what? It's interesting is from pastoral perspective that people actually are very relieved when they're diagnosed with cancer, why? Because they're wondering if something is wrong and they're wondering and they're afraid. And when they go to the doctor and he says, yep, you've got cancer, on one hand it's horrible and you're afraid. And at least you're happy because you know what you can deal with and that's the beauty of the law. You can't be cured unless you understand the sickness and the law says, here is your sickness and if you're honest you'll embrace that. Now the problem with Paul's opponents was this, instead of using the law to diagnose their illnesses, they use the law to treat their illness, right? Instead of using the law to diagnose their illness, they use the law to treat the symptoms of the illness if you will, right? So the symptoms of my illness is that I'm, that I'm lustful and adulterous and murderous and angry and all these things and what I can do with the law is I can use it outwardly to sort of repress these things and I can treat the illness like a cold pill sort of but what's the problem? Even if the illness is treated the law can never fix it, the law can never make it better, the law can never cure it and that's the problem. Paul says to the, to his opponents and the moralists, you can use the law in order to treat the illness but you'll never fix it. You can't. It's sort of like you remember a few years ago in National Geographic there was a great article in the title of the article says no man is an island but every man is an ecosystem. And what that article was about was ectoparasites. What's an ectoparasites and ectoparasite? I'm almost afraid to say this because of the compulsive members of our congregation and ectoparasite, every one of us has covered with millions and millions and millions of microscopic parasites, right? If you've ever looked at them under an electron microscope, they look like space monsters. Even as you sit there, millions of creatures are crawling around your body. You are a complete ecosystem. And the article was actually sort of tongue and cheek a lot of the times because the investigator was basically saying that a lot of people when they find out that they're covered with ectoparasites, they spend the rest of their lives trying to get rid of them, right? They realize that their skin is covered with skin mites and they realize that their eyebrows are filled with mites and they realize their hair is filled with mites and creatures that they spend their whole life scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing to try and get clean. Even some people go to the extent of dalsing themselves with gasoline and letting themselves on fire to get rid of the ectoparasites and even the scientists that says this, the irony of that is when you let yourself on fire, you create burnt flesh which causes even more ectoparasites to come. So no matter what you do, you cannot get rid of the ectoparasites, right? You can take a bath, you can be clean and you can look okay on the outside but if you're honest with yourself, you've still got them. And that's what Paul's point is, is that the law can sort of clean you up, the law can make you look okay but it can never get rid of your sins. It just can't. So now you have a choice. Do I use the law to sort of treat my illness or do I use the law to diagnose my illness? And if they use the law to diagnose your illness, you come to the end of it and you say, I am wicked and wretched and hopeless. And Paul says, if you've come to that point, you're starting to get it. You get it. Why? Because that's the glory of the gospel. You see the first thing with it, the opponent's accused Paul of is he doesn't like the law. He thinks the laws of no use. And Paul says, no, if you want law, I can give you law. I think the law is good if you use it appropriately. And here's what it does. It shows me how wicked I am. Accusation Paul, you're the worst of sinners and he says, I know, that's what I just told you. That's why the second accusation is answered with this, the gospel, the glory of the gospel. And so that's where Paul goes next, listen to verse 12. He says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered 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 acted in it ignorantly and unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant in faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. Paul first says, I thank Jesus why because he strengthened me. Notice Paul is completely passive in here. The first thing that Paul says about what God has done for him is what I say every week in worship is that God always initiates with sinners, right? Paul says I was so weak and so simple and so helpless and so wicked that unless God initiated with me, I wouldn't have had a hope. And what God did is he pursued me and he says, I thank God that he pursued me, right? He says, I thank God that he strengthened me, right? The Paul was an apostle and a preacher of the gospel, not because he got it, not because he knew the law better than anyone else, but because God chose him, simply as simple as that and strengthened him. He empowered him. The word here is to equip him for the task, right? And I say that only because as we take elder and deacon recommendations, it's not uncommon for a man to say, I just don't have what it takes. Do you realize how bad I am? You realize how wicked I am? How simple I am? You know, and that's not the point. The point is whether or not God is willing and able to equip you for the job and Paul says he equipped me for the job. He strengthened me and he considered me faithful. Paul's almost saying that with wonder, you know, here I am, the worst of sinners and yet God has not only entrusted me with his gospel, but he considered me faithful, that he gave it to me, assuming that I would actually go out and do something good with it, and then he says putting me into his service, right? The word there is the iconos that I became a servant of Jesus instead of a blasphemer of Jesus. I became a follower of Jesus instead of a persecutor of Jesus. And that's where he goes next. He said that God not only initiates with sinners, but initiates with the very worst of sinners. That's the glory of the gospel. He says, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor yet, I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. What did Paul do if you remember Paul's story at all? You might not, if you haven't been in church much, but remember Paul, when the church began to spread after Jesus' resurrection, there was a man, a young man named Saul, a Pharisee, who went from house to house, persecuting Christians, blaspheming the name of Jesus and trying to get other people to blaspheme the name of Jesus, right? That Paul went from house to house, basically cursing the name of Jesus, and Paul says, I did that to Jesus. Can you believe that? Nevertheless, I was shown mercy. He says, not only that, I was a persecutor, not only did I sort of badmouth Jesus, but I went from house to house killing Christians and dragging them off to jail, right? It doesn't get much worse than that, yet I was shown mercy. And he says, and I was a violent, insolent man, and the words there basically mean that I was utterly and completely self-righteous and above every person that I came around, right? It's sort of the crux of it because he goes from bad to worse, right? I blaspheme the name of Jesus, that's bad. I killed Christians, that's worse, but the very worst thing was that I was insolent and self-righteous, right? And how did Paul act ignorantly? He acted ignorantly because of this. He thought that he was doing the right thing, right? If you go around murdering people, most people, generally speaking, unless you're mentally ill, have some sort of sense that you're doing the wrong thing. And so you're not acting ignorantly. However, if you're trying to be very obedient to God even to the point of being self-righteous and persecuting others and killing others who aren't, it's easy to be ignorant of your sinfulness. Why? Because you think you're obeying God. You see, what's interesting about Paul is he's saying to his opponents, my sin was the same sin as your sin. I didn't realize the purpose of the law, right? Instead I was self-righteous and in my self-righteousness I went around hurting people. I went around blasphemy, persecuting everybody and I was insolent and did all of these things because I didn't understand the purpose of the law, but once I understood the purpose of the law, everything changed, right? Remember Jesus came to Paul in the roads of Damascus and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he asks, I guess, a valid question, who are you? He says, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. And you know Jesus doesn't ask Paul to say a sinner's prayer, he doesn't ask Paul to do anything. Instead, he says, I'll show him how much he has to suffer from my name. Period. Go to Jerusalem or go to where, and I anonymize his house and wait until I give you instructions. You see, when Paul came face-to-face with Jesus, he was confronted with his sin and self-righteousness why because Jesus is utterly imperfectly righteous, right? And Jesus is more perfect than the most ardent, conservative compare, but thank God he is also more merciful than the most ardent and liberal could conceive of, right? So Paul confronted with the perfection of Jesus, realized who he was and at that point he gave up, right? And that's what the call of the gospel is, the call of the gospel is not to be better, the call of the gospel is to stop trying, right? The call of the gospel is to not get right and be righteous, the call of the gospel is to realize that you're bad and trust Jesus in the midst of it anyway, right? And Jesus went to the cross and he died for our sins and when he died with our sins, that our sins died with him and when he rose from the dead, he now offers free and utter forgiveness. And Paul says, I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly, God just gave it to me. And then at the end, he says, why did all this happen? Because in verse 14, he says, in the grace of the Lord was more than abundant with faith and love which are found in Jesus, for Christ Jesus, right? Paul said, all of this happened because of the grace of God. What grace is is unmerited favor, right? That the law showed me how terrible I was, but the unmerited favor did something else. It utterly and completely changed me, right? Paul says, because of the grace of God, I went from being a hateful, arrogant person to being someone who's defined by love and able to love. And I went from being an unbelieving, nasty person to being someone who's defined by faith. He says, so the grace of the Lord was more than abundant in the faith and love which are found only in Christ Jesus, right? Paul says, that you are starting to get it. If you accuse me of being the worst of sinners, and yet I'm preaching the gospel in spite of that, you're just now starting to get it. You're on the right track. You know, it's interesting. I received an email this week of a review of a movie called The Bad Lieutenant. And The Bad Lieutenant, the review was actually by an atheist. And the atheist said, I can't believe that you Christians are so upset about this movie. It seems that this is what you guys should all be about. The bad lieutenant, and I watched it last night, I had to, many of you know, I have certain compulsions myself, and I watched it last night. And on one hand, I stood there in shock, and on the other hand, I stood there and wept, why? Because the bad lieutenant is about a bad lieutenant, a police, a corrupt police officer. And the movie is so crude and rude, and he is such a nasty human being for the whole movie that it is hard for you not to be just disgusted with this man the whole time. And at the same time, in the plot line, there is a very gracious sweet nun who is utterly brutally raped by two men. And so as her life, the nun who is raped crosses paths with this terrible, horrendous, odious policeman. He has to deal with the gospel, why? You see, because at the end of the movie, he's gotten himself in such a jam that he's $120,000 in debt to a bookie, and if he doesn't pay the bookie, he's going to kill him. And so he raises all the money in cash, except for $50,000, and then he realizes that there was a $50,000 bounty on the head of the men who raped this nun. That the Catholic Church was willing to pay $50,000 if they could just catch the man who raped this nun. And so he goes to the church and finds the nun praying, and he says to the nun, sister, you have to tell me where these men were. You have to tell me. And she looks at him and says, I told you once, and I'll tell you again, that I have forgiven them. And he says, you can't let them get away with this, don't you want justice? He says, we all deserve justice because of that I have forgiven them. And he says, you can't just let them go. And she looked at him and said, haven't you ever been forgiven? And he said, what do you mean by that? And she said, don't you believe that Jesus died for your sins? And he just screamed out profanity, and she got up, and she walked away. And he was at the front of the church, and he turned around to scream at her again, and he looked at the end of the aisle, and there stood Jesus crucified, just standing there. And he begins to scream profanity at Jesus, and Jesus doesn't budge. You see, most of us would think, if you scream profanity at Jesus, that he would get offended, and hold his ears, and walk away, because he can't take nasty things like that. And Jesus stood there, and listened to him be profane, and finally he broke. And he said, I am so bad. I am such an awful, terrible person, I'm sorry, please, please forgive me, please forgive me. And he crawls down the aisle on his knees, and he kisses the bloody feet of Jesus, and when he looks up, there's an old black woman standing there. And she says, I found those boys for you, and so he gets right up. And he goes, and he puts handcuffs on the boys. And you remember, there were $50,000, because he has that amount of cash, and you are certain that he's going to take those kids to the bookie, and say, here's my amount of the money, and if you just turn these two boys into the cops, you're going to get the other 50 grand. And he takes the two boys, and he takes them to the bus station, where he's going to meet the bookie, and he hears the sound of a bus leaving for Palm Beach, then I 95, and he takes the handcuffs off the boys, and he says, you two better get on that bus now. There's no future for you in this town, and he hands them. The box full of money, and they don't know what to do, other than turn around and get on the bus, and he walks away weeping, and he gets in his car, and as soon as he gets in his car, the bookie drives up, and guess what, he shoots him dead, rolled the credits. And what's interesting to me is that Christians were so upset with that movie, not because of the graphic violence, and not because of the nudity, Christians got upset at that movie because it was too easy, right? You can't tell me that a horrible, wicked person like that in the blink of an eye-lash can be redeemed, can trust Jesus, and then it's all over, and as hard as change, and the beauty of the gospel is this, if that is exactly what the gospel says. That's what Paul is saying right here, right? That if you're a Christian, and you watch that movie, and you're offended because it was too easy, you might consider whether or not you really understand the gospel of Jesus, because the gospel of Jesus says this, you can't do anything, right? But you're wicked, and you deserve to have justice for your sins, and yet I have taken them all. I don't care how profane you are, how nasty you are, how wicked you are, please trust me. And the moment you do, it's over, period, and that's what Paul's point is, to his opponents. You guys are caught up in endless speculation and moralism and trying to teach about the law, and the reason that it only ends up in speculation is because your hearts have not been changed by the gospel, and the reason your hearts have been changed by the gospel is because you really haven't looked at the law closely enough. Think about that. Let me pray. Jesus, we thank you that you come and deliver us from our sins, that even when we scream profanity at you, that ask you where you were in our time of need, that you still stand there, and you still stand there with the free offer of the gospel, that you say, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, that you come to the worst of sinners. And I thank you that you have come even and show me mercy, the chief of sinners. And so I pray even this morning, you would write this your word into the hearts of your people and your name, we pray all of these things. Amen. Amen.