Speaker 1: Thank you, Josh. Josh is right. I love this church tremendously.
Speaker 1: It has served Alison and I so well over the years.
Speaker 1: We've been here a long time now and just so
Speaker 1: thankful to get to be up here today. But you know,
Speaker 1: a week on the jobs, so honored and humbled to
Speaker 1: be able to pastor this church and give back. It's
Speaker 1: community that's done so much for me and for my family.
Speaker 1: And it's funny. One thing that had been reminded to
Speaker 1: me over the course of the definitely over the years,
Speaker 1: but again during the elder process was but I sometimes
Speaker 1: forget to smile enough in public. And so then I
Speaker 1: decided I was going to do first Timothy chapter one,
Speaker 1: and I kind of laughed to Alison. I said, man,
Speaker 1: the brand new pastor that never smiles is going to
Speaker 1: sit up here and tell everyone how much of sinners
Speaker 1: we all are. But I hope if I'm effective today
Speaker 1: that while there will certainly be some discussions about conviction,
Speaker 1: that the overwhelming takeaway will be just the mercy and
Speaker 1: superiority of the Lord and just how much he loves
Speaker 1: us to always come after us. So Happy Father's Day.
Speaker 1: It is Father's Day. I'm sure you all have brunch
Speaker 1: plans after this, but stay with me. It will be
Speaker 1: uplifting and it will be a great joy. And I'm
Speaker 1: so thankful to get to get to bring the Word
Speaker 1: with you today. So let's read One Timothy chapter one,
Speaker 1: verses twelve through seventeen. If you could turn there. I
Speaker 1: thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus, our Lord,
Speaker 1: because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.
Speaker 1: Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.
Speaker 1: But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly and unbelief,
Speaker 1: and the grace of our Lord overflowed from me with
Speaker 1: the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The
Speaker 1: saying is trustworthy and deserving a full acceptance that Christ
Speaker 1: Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
Speaker 1: I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason,
Speaker 1: that in me, as the foremost Jesus, Christ might display
Speaker 1: his perfect patience as an example to those who were
Speaker 1: to believe in him for eternal life. To the King
Speaker 1: of ages, immortal invisible, the only God be glory and
Speaker 1: the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. So the
Speaker 1: title of this sermon is how much mercy. We're going
Speaker 1: to look at that in three parts by asking three questions,
Speaker 1: why mercy, how much mercy do we need? And how
Speaker 1: much mercy do we receive? Well, look at why mercy?
Speaker 1: How much mercy do we need, and how much mercy
Speaker 1: do we receive. Let's start first by taking a closer
Speaker 1: look at what Paul is really saying here. In the
Speaker 1: preceding text, Paul is warning Timothy and the church in
Speaker 1: ephesis about false teachings, promising false hopes, and just all
Speaker 1: kinds of poor instruction going on. And so Paul warns
Speaker 1: Timothy and to kind of get back to center, get
Speaker 1: back grounded. He makes his case for the sufficiency of
Speaker 1: the Gospel, and he uses to illustrate his point a
Speaker 1: great tool, which is to use his own testimony. Let's
Speaker 1: look closer at verse thirteen. But I received mercy because
Speaker 1: I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. So what's Paul getting
Speaker 1: out here? Is he saying that being a blasphemer, persecutor
Speaker 1: an insolent opponent, all very bad things somehow earns him
Speaker 1: mercy by no means, He's saying that I, Paul, was
Speaker 1: a prideful opponent to Christ. Christ reconciled me to him,
Speaker 1: and by his grace alone, used me to display his
Speaker 1: perfect patience to those who believe in Him, and I, Paul,
Speaker 1: am a living testimony to that. But why mercy? We
Speaker 1: asked ourselves these three questions in three parts. First is
Speaker 1: why mercy? Why did Paul receive mercy? And why do
Speaker 1: we receive this mercy? Why did Jesus need to be
Speaker 1: crucified for us? Paul is expressing the deep conviction of
Speaker 1: his own sin and acknowledging the need for a savior,
Speaker 1: need for Christ to save him. And make take about
Speaker 1: two things. That same sin dwells with all of us.
Speaker 1: That's one and two we need Christ to save us.
Speaker 1: People sometimes do worse things than us, but we all
Speaker 1: have that capability within us. Notice also that Paul didn't
Speaker 1: say I was the foremost of sinners. He said of
Speaker 1: whom I am the foremost. We, like Paul, are still
Speaker 1: sinners in need of a savior. Paul's warning Timothy early
Speaker 1: in this letter about false teachings and finding hope in
Speaker 1: the wrong places. As I mentioned, he's making an argument
Speaker 1: in this text about the sufficiency of the Gospel that
Speaker 1: the Gospel is sufficient, but we need that same reminder
Speaker 1: about the sufficiency of the Gospel in our lives today.
Speaker 1: Our society today puts an enormous emphasis on self sufficiency.
Speaker 1: Everywhere we turn. That are people, publications, posts that try
Speaker 1: to convince us that we are enough to overcome our
Speaker 1: problems on our own, that we alone possess the strength
Speaker 1: to overcome life challenges, and if someone or something offends us,
Speaker 1: then we just cast them off. It's no surprise, then,
Speaker 1: that our society suffers tremendously from loneliness and despair. If
Speaker 1: we describe to the subscribe excuse me to that ideology
Speaker 1: that we are sufficient and true and right all on
Speaker 1: our own, and that anything suggesting the contrary should be
Speaker 1: cut out, we all get into discouragement and loneliness. Loneliness
Speaker 1: real fast. When the Lord tells us we're enough, we
Speaker 1: rely on our own flesh to save ourselves, and then
Speaker 1: we inevitably fail or fall short. It's just not surprised
Speaker 1: that the result is to spare Living our life unaware
Speaker 1: of the mercy of our need of mercy is like
Speaker 1: building a house on sand. It does not stand the
Speaker 1: test of time. But our God is an everlasting rock,
Speaker 1: a firm foundation. We're in desperate need of a savior
Speaker 1: to navigate this broken world, and we have that savior.
Speaker 1: We cannot do it on our own. Nobody is so
Speaker 1: bad that they can't have mercy, and nobody is so
Speaker 1: good that they've earned a right to have mercy. So
Speaker 1: why we asked this question, why mercy? Why do we
Speaker 1: receive his mercy? We need it because we were dead
Speaker 1: in our sin, and we receive it because we put
Speaker 1: our faith in Him alone to save us from it.
Speaker 1: Because God loved us enough to send his son to
Speaker 1: die on across and not by anything we've done. And
Speaker 1: I think that's an important thing to frame as we
Speaker 1: go on into this text, why we need his mercy?
Speaker 1: We're broken people doing broken things, putting trust in Christ
Speaker 1: to save us from our sin. And the point Paul
Speaker 1: is making in what I hope to reinforce today is
Speaker 1: that we're in sinners and very serious but also ongoing
Speaker 1: need of a savior. And our savior provides a profound,
Speaker 1: victorious mercy for those that believe in Him for eternal life.
Speaker 1: So we are sinners in need of a savior of mercy.
Speaker 1: How much mercy do we need. Our second question, how
Speaker 1: much mercy do we need? And how deep is that need?
Speaker 1: Paul says in verse fifteen. Starting in verse fifteen, the
Speaker 1: saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. That Christ
Speaker 1: Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
Speaker 1: I am the foremost, but I received mercy for this reason,
Speaker 1: that in me, as the foremost Jesus, Christ might display
Speaker 1: his perfect patience as an example to those who were
Speaker 1: to believe in him for eternal life. You look at
Speaker 1: Paul describing himself as the foremost of sinners, and it
Speaker 1: might be tempting to brush this off as theatrics or
Speaker 1: hyperbole from Paul here, and it most certainly is not.
Speaker 1: First off, it's important to note to take Paul at
Speaker 1: his word here he says that it is trustworthy and
Speaker 1: deserving a full acceptance. I think that makes it pretty
Speaker 1: clear that he feels himself to be that way. Prior
Speaker 1: to being saved, Paul was a bad dude, persecuting Christians
Speaker 1: and being an insolent, prideful opponent to the Gospel certainly
Speaker 1: qualifies him to think of himself as the foremost of sinners.
Speaker 1: But what if we start to have that same level
Speaker 1: of conviction about our own sin. How would we describe
Speaker 1: the depth of our own sin. We have all surely
Speaker 1: thought something to the effective that I'm a sinner, but
Speaker 1: at least I haven't done that, or I'm a sinner,
Speaker 1: but it's not like I murdered anybody. I mean, what's
Speaker 1: the big deal. We all have that same sin in
Speaker 1: our heart. Maybe we haven't done some things as bad
Speaker 1: as others, but we have. If we're giving up to
Speaker 1: our own sin, we have that capability, and kind of
Speaker 1: as an illustration. I love, excuse me. I love the outdoors.
Speaker 1: And one of my favorite things to do is to
Speaker 1: saltwater fish in the Base System. And my favorite way
Speaker 1: to do that is to go into and the Bass
Speaker 1: system has these flats that are incredibly vast and wide,
Speaker 1: and you can sometimes not even see the shore on
Speaker 1: the other side, but you can get out of the
Speaker 1: boat and you can walk or wade and fish, and
Speaker 1: the water is never more than waiste deep. And so
Speaker 1: jump overboard, hop out, and just walk across this vast
Speaker 1: flat and can navigate it on my own. No problem.
Speaker 1: Catching fish on my own, that's maybe a problem, But
Speaker 1: walking across it navigating it, that's no problem. But many
Speaker 1: of us think of our sin as if we're jumping
Speaker 1: overboard into that shallow water. But it's really a deep
Speaker 1: gulf that we're leaping into when we jump out. Our
Speaker 1: sin is not shallow water. It's more like the depth
Speaker 1: of the Marianna's trench. As we get closer and close
Speaker 1: to the Lord, we get more and more aware of
Speaker 1: that depth. How often do we acknowledge that our sins
Speaker 1: are vast and far as far reaching, but can convince
Speaker 1: ourselves the implications of our sin are waist deep at most.
Speaker 1: We're tempted in our flesh and often course by the
Speaker 1: world to treat our sin as something that is not
Speaker 1: a big deal, or that is easily navigable on our own,
Speaker 1: or something that can be hidden and stowed away. Our
Speaker 1: sin has consequences. We don't sin in a vacuum. It's
Speaker 1: against the Most High God and against others, and it
Speaker 1: affects the ones that we love. Our pride damages our relationships,
Speaker 1: Our greed clouds our financial stewardship, Our covetousness destroys our joy.
Speaker 1: The list could go on. The more we realize the
Speaker 1: depth of our need, he transforms us for our good
Speaker 1: and his glory. Dave Harvey wrote a book on marriage
Speaker 1: called When Sinners Say I Do? That is heavily influenced.
Speaker 1: Parts of it heavily influenced by this text and on Timothy,
Speaker 1: and towards the beginning of the book, he writes, if
Speaker 1: like Paul, I recognize the enormity of my sin, seeing
Speaker 1: myself as the worst of sinners, then I understand I
Speaker 1: have been forgiven much. That's when biblical reality begins to
Speaker 1: make sense. I start to see God as he truly is.
Speaker 1: His vastness becomes bigger than my problems. His goodness comes
Speaker 1: to me even though I'm not good, and his wisdom
Speaker 1: and power are visible in the perfect ways. He works
Speaker 1: to transform me from the inside out. And that's a
Speaker 1: good word. So with that in mind, knowing how vast
Speaker 1: but also how deep our sin can be, how much
Speaker 1: mercy do we need? We're asking our question how much
Speaker 1: mercy do we need when we hop overboard? How much
Speaker 1: mercy are we going to need to pull us out
Speaker 1: of that depth. We can't underestimate the depth of our sin.
Speaker 1: We cannot take sin lightly, and we can't give residence
Speaker 1: to sin. It's like those stories when you hear in
Speaker 1: the news sometimes every so often about someone that has
Speaker 1: been keeping a wild animal as a pet in their
Speaker 1: home and then they inevitably get out and attack their owner,
Speaker 1: and then we all, if you're like me, we have
Speaker 1: kind of that unavoidable response, like, man, that's really sad,
Speaker 1: but like probably don't keep a pet wild animal in
Speaker 1: your house. Don't get comfortable with sin in your house
Speaker 1: and in your life, in your soul. If you keep
Speaker 1: a pet sin, it will attack you and it will
Speaker 1: destroy you in the same way. Also, don't hide it.
Speaker 1: It's like a blemish or a wound, and you're hiding
Speaker 1: it with your shirt sleeve and you're acting like it's
Speaker 1: not there. It will grow in fester, and then it
Speaker 1: becomes a big problem, and then it is unavoidable. So
Speaker 1: bring it to the Lord. If we're harboring sin, kill it.
Speaker 1: If we are hiding it. Bring it to the best
Speaker 1: physician we could ever find. Expose it to the light,
Speaker 1: bring it in confession to the Lord and to your
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters in Christ, and welcome accountability and fighting
Speaker 1: it together. And I promise you it will be received. Sins,
Speaker 1: deceitful and it's patient. It lies in wait. It might
Speaker 1: feel like it provides promise or comfort or a big
Speaker 1: one upbreak from things that are hard. It's not, and
Speaker 1: it won't identify it for what it is, evil death
Speaker 1: causing relationship to shrawing sin. Realize it now and how
Speaker 1: significant it is. It's better to get rid of a
Speaker 1: caged animal while it's still in its cage, then hope
Speaker 1: that it doesn't get loose, because it will get loose.
Speaker 1: If we harbor and insulate Sin thinking we don't need
Speaker 1: his mercy to overcome it, we will eventually find out
Speaker 1: how much mercy we're gonna need. The legendary Spurs basketball
Speaker 1: coach Greg Popovich, I'm sorry, it's definitely too soon to
Speaker 1: talk about the Spurs. I'm sorry, but the analogy just
Speaker 1: works so well, so I'm sorry. I hate to bring
Speaker 1: it up, but the legendary coach Greg Popovic always encouraged
Speaker 1: his players to have an appropriate fear of their opponents,
Speaker 1: and I always love that. His point is that if
Speaker 1: you don't respect your opponent, your opponent is sure to
Speaker 1: sneak up on you. Sin is a formidable foe. Treat
Speaker 1: it with that appropriate fear to put it into maybe
Speaker 1: some more biblical terms. Charles Spurgeon wrote, too many think
Speaker 1: lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Savior.
Speaker 1: He who has stood before is God, convicted and condemned,
Speaker 1: with the rope about his neck. Is the man to
Speaker 1: weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the
Speaker 1: evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to
Speaker 1: the honor of the Redeemer whose blood he has been cleansed.
Speaker 1: To put it more simply, not acknowledging or realizing the
Speaker 1: depth of our sin from which we've been saved is
Speaker 1: selling short the depth of christ mercy. When we, as
Speaker 1: Christians say things like I'm a sinner in need of
Speaker 1: a savior, let us not allow that to become a
Speaker 1: perfunctory or cursory statement, like some sort of boiler play
Speaker 1: disclaim language. It has weight, it's blood bought, and it's
Speaker 1: a fight against an opponent that we cannot defeat on
Speaker 1: our own. Paul is keenly aware of his sin, and
Speaker 1: he's deeply convicted by it, but it does not in there,
Speaker 1: Praise God, it does not in there. He then gives
Speaker 1: his testimony to the magnitude of the mercy he has received,
Speaker 1: the Christ's perfect patience is displayed through him and his
Speaker 1: work and his ministry. In one Corinthians fifteen, Paul writes,
Speaker 1: for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to
Speaker 1: be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.
Speaker 1: But the grace of excuse me. But by the grace
Speaker 1: of God I am what I am, and His grace
Speaker 1: toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I
Speaker 1: worked harder than any of them, though it was not
Speaker 1: I but the grace of God that is with me.
Speaker 1: Now these are some big statements from Paul, the author
Speaker 1: of a lot of the New Testaments, saying he's unworthy
Speaker 1: to be called and impossible, but in the next breath
Speaker 1: declaring that he, by God's grace, outworked all of the others.
Speaker 1: One takeaway here is that sin is big, but grace
Speaker 1: is bigger. Sin is big, but there's a larger, more
Speaker 1: joyful work, a bigger praise, a big robust praise and
Speaker 1: worship to the one that saved us from that enormous sin.
Speaker 1: The closer we get to Christ, the more we realize
Speaker 1: the magnitude of sin. The more we realize and are
Speaker 1: convicted by the true depth of our own sin. The
Speaker 1: better we unders excuse me, the more we realize and
Speaker 1: are convicted by the true death of our own sin.
Speaker 1: The more we understand what we've been saved from, and
Speaker 1: the more we understand how profound and undeserving our salvation is.
Speaker 1: The more we grow in our worship of Christ, our Lord.
Speaker 1: So we ask why mercy and how much mercy do
Speaker 1: we need? And then now we'll ask how much mercy
Speaker 1: do we then receive? As we examine our sin and
Speaker 1: think of ourselves as the worst of sinners, it might
Speaker 1: be easy to overcorrect into the ditch and start feeling
Speaker 1: way down and burdened by our sin into despair. But
Speaker 1: as vast and deep as our sin is, his grace
Speaker 1: and mercy are infinitely more. Paul and his testimony, describes
Speaker 1: himself as an insolent opponent. The Greek word paul uses
Speaker 1: to describe an insolent opponent basically translates to someone that
Speaker 1: is dangerously and excessively prideful. Before becoming a Christian, I
Speaker 1: was a fearful, prideful and self righteous man. Behind me,
Speaker 1: I left a wake of people that I'd offended it
Speaker 1: best and deeply hurt and wounded at worse. Jesus says
Speaker 1: in Matthew five. You have heard that it was said
Speaker 1: to those of will you shall not murder, and whoever
Speaker 1: murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to
Speaker 1: you that everyone who is angry with his brother will
Speaker 1: be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be
Speaker 1: liable to the council, and whoever says you fool, will
Speaker 1: be liable to the hell of fire. No, I've never
Speaker 1: murdered anyone, but just like Jesus is describing here, I've
Speaker 1: done it with my words and my thoughts a thousand
Speaker 1: times over. I've lived my life thinking my own strength
Speaker 1: and my own morality were sufficient, and when they weren't,
Speaker 1: hit me like a mack truck. It's a pretty desperate feeling.
Speaker 1: But praise the Lord, he humbled me and saved me
Speaker 1: from being dead in that and plenty of other sins.
Speaker 1: He provided a perfect patience with me that I desperately
Speaker 1: needed and I certainly did not deserve. But that's a
Speaker 1: battle that I still fight every day. But I don't
Speaker 1: fight it alone. Praise God, I don't have to fight
Speaker 1: it alone, because I'd be right back where I started
Speaker 1: in addition to the Holy Spirit, I have brothers and
Speaker 1: sisters in Christ that help hold me accountable and helped
Speaker 1: me to stay downwinded myself. I trust in the Lord
Speaker 1: and his word to know how much grace I've been afforded,
Speaker 1: and how selfish and broken it is to withhold grace
Speaker 1: from someone else, someone made in His image. There are
Speaker 1: some wounds that, by God's grace, I've been able to
Speaker 1: help prepare, but there's some that I haven't and some
Speaker 1: that I can't anymore. And I feel the weight and
Speaker 1: saying of those sins often, I feel them deeply. But
Speaker 1: the blood of Christ overflows like I've fountain, and washes
Speaker 1: all those sins away. Praise God, and that calls me
Speaker 1: to worship. It encourages me to work really, really hard
Speaker 1: unto Him, and He gives me a zeal and a
Speaker 1: boldness to share that good news with everyone I can.
Speaker 1: You might be here today and you're already well aware
Speaker 1: of your sin, but you might be here today and
Speaker 1: convicted by sin in a new way, and that way
Speaker 1: of shame and guilt can feel almost like we've fallen
Speaker 1: into the depths of a deep well, as as if
Speaker 1: there's no pulling us out of a certain sin. But
Speaker 1: don't despair. Do not despair. We've asked ourselves, how much
Speaker 1: mercy do we receive? Hard to put that fully into words.
Speaker 1: But it's enough to wash away those sins white as snow,
Speaker 1: enough to take the broken pieces of our hearts and
Speaker 1: put them back together and make them whole again. It's
Speaker 1: enough to seek us out and find us at any depth.
Speaker 1: And as far as the east is from the west,
Speaker 1: so far does he remove our transgressions from us. You
Speaker 1: might be here today as a Christian, or you might
Speaker 1: be joining us this morning and you're not a Christian,
Speaker 1: and you might be thinking, there is no way that
Speaker 1: he covers that sin. Or you might say there's no
Speaker 1: way anyone can pull me out of this sin. I'm
Speaker 1: too far gone. But for those that put their faith
Speaker 1: in Him for eternal life, he can, He has, and
Speaker 1: he will. There is no depth he won't dive to,
Speaker 1: no height to which he won't climb. There's no sexual sin,
Speaker 1: financial mismanagement or ruin, broken family, addiction, broken relationship, nothing,
Speaker 1: nothing will keep the Lord from coming after his own
Speaker 1: in every corner of the world. So don't despair. There's
Speaker 1: a big sin, but there is a bigger savior and
Speaker 1: a bigger mercy. Paul's testimony is a beautiful one. He
Speaker 1: warned Timothy shared the Gospel through his own testimony, and
Speaker 1: then in the following text charges Timothy to get to work,
Speaker 1: to share the Gospel, to share this sufficient of the Gospel. Paul,
Speaker 1: of course, goes on after being saved, to author most
Speaker 1: of the New Testament, a lot of the New Testament.
Speaker 1: It's safe to say, though, that none of us are
Speaker 1: going to be authors of any of the New Testament.
Speaker 1: But the discipleship work of the faithful Christian in San Antonio,
Speaker 1: Texas in twenty twenty six is significant and profound, even
Speaker 1: if it's ordinary. The tears you've shed, the scars and
Speaker 1: wounds that you've carried from waging for against sin, he
Speaker 1: knows them, and they're not in vain, and he's using them.
Speaker 1: So Christians, let us be an instrument of his grace.
Speaker 1: Share your testimony, seek out and be encouraged by others testimonies.
Speaker 1: Just as Paul sends out and entrusts Timothy with a
Speaker 1: recharge on the sufficiency of the Gospel through his own testimony,
Speaker 1: so to you refresh others by sharing your testimony and
Speaker 1: receiving the encouragement of theirs. We'll close with this, If
Speaker 1: we inspect our hearts earnestly and honestly today, it hopefully
Speaker 1: elicits some deep thoughts and convictions. When we begin to
Speaker 1: recognize ourselves as the foremost of sinners, we realize the
Speaker 1: enormity of our salvation and can rest knowing His mercy
Speaker 1: covers it all. It's mercy we don't deserve, but we
Speaker 1: receive freely through faith in Him, mercy that is in
Speaker 1: tremendous need, but is an infinite supply. We ask ourselves
Speaker 1: why mercy, in part because apart from Him we are
Speaker 1: a rudderless ship, completely lost at sea, and asks how
Speaker 1: much mercy do we need? Like a lost sheep wandering
Speaker 1: in the cold dark knight, completely cornered by wolves. We
Speaker 1: need a mighty, merciful rescuer capable of defeating a formidable adversary.
Speaker 1: So then, how much do we then receive? More than
Speaker 1: we can ever fathom or comprehend, beyond where the enemy
Speaker 1: could ever lead us or find us, From the highest
Speaker 1: peak to the lowest valley, from end to end, and
Speaker 1: everywhere in between. It overflows, It fills our hearts and
Speaker 1: it never ever fails. And knowing that transforms our hearts
Speaker 1: from the inside out, it encourages us toward a heart filled,
Speaker 1: zealous and joyful worship of the One who saves. To
Speaker 1: share the deep diving, chain breaking, life saving and giving
Speaker 1: wonderful good news of the Gospel with everyone we can,
Speaker 1: and let us have that mark the spirit of our
Speaker 1: souls as we go out and share that with everyone
Speaker 1: we can. Amen, Let's pray