A great change

Limavady Independent Methodist Church

Sunday 22 November 2020

1 Timothy 1 verses 12 - 16 - A great change

The apostle Paul opens up about his past life - verse 13 "I was before (before I met the Saviour on the Damascus road) a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."  Oswald Chambers said of this particular passage of scripture "it is the bedrock of Christianity.  Just because a man turns good it doesn't mean for one moment he has become a Christian.  Just because a man has given up certain habits in their lives it doesn't mean he has repented of his sin and they have been made a new creature in Christ Jesus."  Paul was pointing to the Lord himself.  He attributed the change in his life to Christ and the death on the cross and the power of God in his life.  We are going to find there is only one way to become a Christian and it is when something dramatic happens within.  It is when the Holy Spirit comes in, only comes through true repentance of sin and coming to faith in Christ.  Paul's message throughout the scriptures is "to the Jew and Gentile, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  All need to come the same way."  Acts 20 verse 21 Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greek repentence toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."  Let's take a look at what Paul is saying here.

Paul is showing the assessment he has made of his life.  He is getting to grips with his life in the past.  First of all we see something of Paul's honesty.  What do we see in this man - an honesty as he assesses the past.  He is not airbrushing the past away but facing up to it.  He knows in coming to Christ he has to.  This was the honesty.  Here is the beginning of a genuine repentance.  Only when we come to that stage in our lives, to own up to what we are in this life that we can truly repent of our sins and trust the Lord as Saviour.  The ostrich hides its head in the sand and thinks there is no danger yet danger is looming all around.  The bible says "it is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment, the judgment is looming for every one of us.  The Lord took my judgment, he faced it for every man and he tasted death for all men.  Not all will be saved.  Only when you trust the Lord as Saviour that we will be saved. Paul attributed everything to Christ.  "I am what I am by the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am what I am by the grace of God in my life."  We need an honesty - are we willing to acknowledge our past and can look for something better.  Paul could "as I was before."  In the letter to Ephesians Paul says "we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works."  If saved by Christ we are a new creature in Christ.  The old things have passed away and all things have become new." Jesus himself said "by their fruits ye shall know them."  Paul says in the past he was a blasphemer.  Te only way he came to Christ was when the Lord drew near to him and called to him.    He said "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.  It is hard for you to kick against the pricks."  Paul was dealt with on the road to Damascus.  Paul says to young Timothy "I was a blasphemer."  That is different to the word we think about today when we think about blaspheming.  Back then it meant unbelief.  Paul did not believe in the Lord as Christ.  He had him down as an imposter that needed to be got rid of.  Jesus himself said to the Pharisees "Ye would not come to me that ye might have life."  Many have a great faith in God but they feel they have no need of a Saviour.  Maybe you cannot see your need of salvation.  The bible tells you have been born in sin.  The bible tells us that Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost.  You say "no that is not me I have been brought up in a good home, attended church, said my prayers, done everything I could possibly do, what more could I possibly do?"  God wants you to repent of your sin and acknowledge your sin.  God wants you to come to him.

We see his hatred.  He is speaking of a time here in the past before he met the Lord.  The day he met the Lord was the greatest day in his life, transformed from the life that he lived into the life he is living now by the grace of God.  God loved this man and sent his son to die on the cross, to die in his place.  He came to die, to save our souls.  Jesus stepped into our place on Calvary. Paul's past needed to be dealt with.  It had to be brought out into the open, it had to be dealt with. "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."  David battled with his sins. He only found comfort and satisfaction when he brought them to God and confessed his sins before God.  He acknowledged his sin before God and he was forgiven.  Paul says "I was a persecutor", that was his hatred.  "I was a blasphemer."  His honesty opened up this hatred he had.  He hated the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and he hated those who professed faith in him as Saviour and Lord.  In Acts 9 we remember the attitude he had when he left Jerusalem to Damascus.  In verse 1 we read "he was  breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord and he went into  the high priest and sought letters if he would go to Damascus - "he desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues that if he found any such was his hatred) of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.  Such was the bitterness and hatred.  If he found any (young and old, weak and infirmed) in that way (the Christian way) whether man or woman (such was his hatred and bitterness against the Lord and the Christian faith) that he might bring them bound to Jerusalem and in prison.  Paul to Agrippa in Acts 26 revealed something of the hatred he had in his heart "And I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them,  I persecuted them even unto strange cities" (I chased them from city to city, I chased them from town to town, from village to village, I followed them with a great passion and zeal, I persecuted this way until death, binding and delivering into prison both men and women.  And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting unto his death I kept the raiment of them that slew him.  This man was not going to change.  He was full of religion, full of good works but there was hatred against the Lord and Christ.  Nothing would change him.  Maybe we think we could never be changed.  There is only one who could change your way.  It is only through God's son when he came into world to bear your sin and mine. 

Notice also his humility.  What do you mean by humility - ready to acknowledge it.  The type of person he was.  Paul is telling Timothy about this - there was a time when he had to come before the Lord, when he had to bow at the cross, confess his sin and took it to the Lord.  There are no back ways to salvation.  This was serious to Paul.  This one time proud zealous Jew, ready to acknowledge all that had done to get right with God.  We ned to admit and own up to everything to get right with God, to trust him as Saivour and Lord.  All we can do.  Remember the one who came and asked "what must I do to be saved?  The rich young ruler asked "what must I do to inherit eternal life."  Nothing could do because Christ has done it all.  We cannot do anything.  All I am commanded to do is repent of my sin, to come before him in honesty and humility and to get before him at the throne of grace and there to confess my sin and believe that he is read to forgive my sin when I confess it.  We see something of the honesty and the humility in the conversion of Zacchaeus.  He was a very rich man.  Perhaps he lived in a lovely house in Jericho, wore fine clothes, everyone came to his house for meals, everyone was invited to his house for a good time.  This man was held in such high esteem in the local community.  What do we see him doing - we see him running down the street.  A rich man did not run.  He was humble enough - running for a purpose, he was running to the Lord Jesus.   He couldn't do it on the main street because it was packed with people was wanted to see the Lord.  He was longing to see the Lord himself.  Perhaps everyone was looking at him.  Didn't matter to him.  Then we see him climbing up a tree - why - wanted to see the Lord.  He was doing everthing he could to see the Lord.  Jesus stopped with him and challenged him.  Then Jesus want to his house.  He didn't ask him to just come down and walk with him and he would be saved.  He opened up his home to the Lord.  Zacchaeus said to the Lord "The half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have taken anything of man by false accusation I will restore him fourfold."  He was serious about his salvation.  No easy believism here.  This was genuine.  In Saul of Tarsus we see a man acknowledging the wrong in the presence of the Lord.  What a transformation in that life.

See also his hope.  He was not looking inward.  He told the young man Timothy of the type of person he was.  We read of the great change came into his life "who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."  The grace of our Lord was exceedingly abuntant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.  He looked beyond himself, everyone else, realised only but one who could change his life - the Lord Jesus Christ.  It took the grace and mercy of the risen Saviour Jesus himself to change his life.  Nothing we have that can change our lives.  Not a turning over of a new leaf, was not trying better, not doing the best you can.  It was trusting in the grace of the Lord.  That is what it is going to take to be saved.  Verse 13 "I did it ignorantly and in unbelief."  Not excusing himself.  Acts 17 verse 30 "And the times of this ignorance God winked at" - he turned aside but then he says "but now commandeth all men every where to repent"  God called you to repentance.  The same repentance Paul of Tarsus used.  He brought it all to Christ, was washed in the blood of Christ.  No longer before this young man.  How many times has Jesus called.  Whenever you begin to exercise your mind, how many meetings has God called you before?  You put it off to another day.  There is only tonight who can save your soul.    There is only one who can rid your soul of sin - Jesus who died on the cross of Calvary to save your soul.