The Power of the Gospel
1 Timothy 1:12-20
Turn to 1 Timothy 1. As I read our passage this morning, I want you to notice the contrast of words that Paul uses. In week #1 we looked at the need to guard the gospel. Last week we studied the importance of knowing the gospel. And this morning I want to address the power of the gospel.
12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He regarded me faithful, putting me into service,
13 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;
14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
15 It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.
16 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.
17 Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight,
19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some, having rejected, suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.
20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.
If the question in week #1 was how is the gospel being challenged? And if the question in week #2 was how is the gospel being misunderstood? I suppose the question this week is how is the gospel being weakened? Or can the gospel be weakened? And that is an important question because we might be thinking about some within our families. Some of you, your own children, or someone that you have been witnessing at work. For imagine in all our prayers of asking the Lord to do a work of salvation in the heart of someone we love and doubting not just that there is no Spirit at work convicting them, but that even if they do believe there is no transforming power to change them. Or maybe as we look at someone who already claims to be a Christian and we see no difference in them. Would we question that person is not really a Christian?
Or even worse would we question the power of the gospel? That it does not have the ability to change someone? And here is where the question might become even harder. What about my own life? For what if I believe in the Bible, I have received Christ as my Saviour and Lord, and yet I do not experience any power within me? In other words, my own unbelief at times or my own weak faith might make me question the very power of the gospel. And I would suggest that some of the questioning of the world regarding Christianity or part of the reasoning for a lack of faith to believe is due to the lack of power of the gospel, or due to the lack of power shown by those who do believe. After all, does not the Bible teach that our actions can negatively hinder someone from coming to Christ? Remember Jesus said:
“And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Matt 18:5-6 (LSB)
So, can the gospel truly change a life? And when we are talking about power are we talking about the power to take someone from being opposed to God and reconciling them with God or are we also talking about someone who has trusted in God being transformed in their life? So, I suppose we are asking that if there is power in the gospel, then how much? What is it capable of doing? Can it take someone who does not believe and grant them faith? And if so, can it then begin to change them? Can they go from a self-centred sinner to someone who loves the Lord and who places others ahead of themselves? And if so, does this not have a tremendous impact upon the world? That the world would look at them and think that something truly amazing has happened to this person. It is unexplainable! Well, I would say that irrespective of how I might think or you or the world concerning these things there is little question from this passage that Paul is convinced of the power of the gospel. Look again at the first verse:
12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He regarded me faithful, putting me into service.
There is no hesitation in Paul’s mind that he did not do any of this on his own, for we always have to be cautious of the wording here. He could have written, because of my faithfulness this all happened. No, it was only because the Lord regarded Paul as faithful, in other words, God had to act on Paul’s behalf, and that the Lord strengthened him. God actually enabled Paul to be faithful. And then Paul goes on to say that the Lord chose him because of his great pedigree. No (vs 13):
13 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 is Paul doing here? Is Paul taking some credit here? Is he trying to dismiss his sin? In other words, the only reason I acted this way was because I didn’t know any better. Could someone say that today? I don’t believe I have really done wrong because I am just acting ignorantly in unbelief. In other words, I act the way I do because I do not know any different. Our conservative nature wants to jump all over that one. If someone who has murdered someone sitting in court said, well, the reason I killed this young person was because I didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t know any better, we would then want to strangle them.
Well, no one had a better understanding of the fallen nature of man than Paul. This is what is often taught as the total depravity of man in the Bible. Total depravity can be a misunderstood doctrine in Scripture, as I believe that any true doctrine can be tainted if it is not taught properly. The doctrine of total depravity is simply that because of the fall of man the Bible teaches that every part of man, his mind, will, emotions, and flesh, have been corrupted by sin. Isaiah 64:6, “…all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” before a holy God. Jeremiah 17:9, man’s heart is “deceitful and desperately wicked.” Psalm 51:5 and Ephesians 2:1-5, man is born dead in transgression and sin. So much so that man loves the darkness (1 John 3:19). He does not understand the things of God (1 Cor 2:14). And Paul will give extensive teaching of this doctrine in Romans 3, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; There is none who does good, There is not even one … Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Simply put, this means that man is under the control of sin and is controlled by his sin nature.
So, when we consider the great amount of Scripture there can be no other conclusion other than total depravity, for this is not what we would have written as humans about all people: 1) no one is without sin; 2) no one seeks after God; 3) there is no one who is good; 4) their speech is corrupted by sin; 5) their actions are corrupted by sin; and 6) above all, they have no fear of God. Hard to argue with these statements, that fallen man is “totally depraved” because sin affects all of him including his mind, will, and emotions so that “there is none who does good, no not one.” Now we have said many times that total depravity does not mean that a person is as bad as they could be, nor does it mean that even those outside of Christ, do not have a conscience that guides them properly at times. Certainly, many unsaved people work hard every day, love their kids, have good marriages, they may even be obedient to much of what the Bible teaches. But the key is as Paul wrote in Romans 14:23 that whatever is not from faith is sin, and without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). And that God does not look upon the outward actions, but on the heart (1 Sam 16:7), and any action not done for the glory of God in His sight is as filthy rags.
So, while the Bible teaches that man is depraved, does this make man so that he is not responsible for his sin? No, it does not. Yes, it is clear that the Bible teaches that man is depraved, yet the Bible never dismisses guilt. It simply states the lost condition of mankind, but never states this is any kind of excuse for sin. In fact, the Bible addresses the sinfulness of man, and instead of saying, well they did not know, it will go on to say that man is without excuse. So, when Paul here says, I acted ignorantly in unbelief (vs 13), he is simply stating a fact, and he is actually admitting his depravity. He is not making an excuse for his sin, but he is admitting that before the Lord changed him, he did not know any better. That without some kind of intervention from God, he did not know any better, that was the truth. But Paul was not using it as an excuse, because at the beginning (vs 14) he writes “and the grace.” There is no need for grace from God if Paul had not done anything wrong. But because he was wrong he required grace.
14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
15 It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.
See, this is the necessity to accepting total depravity as taught in the Bible. Because if I do not realize my sinfulness without Christ, I will never fully rejoice, celebrate, or shout out the glories of the grace of God, amen? If I place any value or goodness or measure of rightness in my own self, I steal from God all that he has done for me. I will steal from God His grace. I will steal from God His abundance. I will steal from God the gift of faith that has been given to me. I will claim some of the love inside of me and I will disregard the trustworthiness of God’s Word. And we need to understand that Paul will go nowhere near this, as he concludes in (vs 15) that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.”
Now does Paul mean he was a worse sinner than anyone who ever lived? Was Paul’s passion for the Law that caused him to kill those who followed Christ. Did that make him worse than anyone else? Is Paul worse than Hitler? Is Paul worse than those today for whatever reason persecute believers? Is Paul worse than a serial killer today who today may rape and kill women? I guess the question is really am I worse than that? Or are you worse than someone today that we might think of as extremely evil? See, I do not think this is the question we need to ask, as I believe that Paul’s understanding of how evil he was, was not necessarily in comparison to the outward actions of others. But it was his understanding of his lost human condition, that made the comparison to God’s grace so stark. See, you might think of yourself in your humanness here, that we are so low and others may be slightly lower and others slightly higher. And yet God’s goodness is way up here! And I think in Paul’s eyes it was immaterial to him. That simply, he knew his own heart and therefore to him, he was the worst. And I believe this is the place we all must come, to truly understand the grace of God. In other words, I might be aware of the sinful outward actions of someone else today and could look at what they did and think, that was awful, I would never do anything like that! But what I do not know is that person’s heart. So, in that sense, it would be hard to actually compare ourselves with others.
And here is where I believe Paul is going, when I realize my own heart because that is really the only heart I truly know, I would conclude like Paul did, that I am the worst of sinners, as mine is the only heart that I can really compare to the heart of God. Paul Enns states what total depravity does not mean: it does not mean that man cannot perform a good action; it does not mean that man does not have a conscience; and it does not mean that man commits every sin he could. Then he goes on to state what it does mean: it means there is nothing man can do to merit saving favour with God; it means that sin extends to every aspect of man’s nature; it means that all men and women are born in sin and are under God’s wrath; and it means that without the regenerating work of God, a person cannot be in a relationship with God. And if I do not come to this reality, I weaken or downplay everything that Jesus Christ has done for me. And if total depravity is understood in the way it is taught in the Bible, it reveals my true condition outside of the work of God, and therefore, elevates in my understanding the greatness of God’s mercy and grace to me the sinner.
16 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.
Admittedly, I have sometimes said about someone who became a believer and been just amazed at the change in their life. And might say that you will not recognize this person from the way they were. Man, God was so merciful to them! And we do want to rejoice in that. But again, Paul has this understanding of the mercy of God directly concerning his own life. Verse 16, “Yet for this reason I was shown mercy, so that in me as the foremost sinner.” In other words, Paul was thinking, because he knew himself more than anyone else, that God showed such an incredible amount of mercy to him. We need to beware of those who speak so badly about others, without pointing to their own sin. So yes, I should be grateful for the Lord’s mercy to all of you, because you were all really bad sinners. But I know my heart more than your heart. So, first and foremost, I should be amazed at the mercy shown to me by God. In fact, Paul would say, I know more than you how patient God must have been with me, because there have been times in my life when I exhausted His patience. And I want you to notice something here in this verse, Christ might demonstrate all His patience as an example for those who are going to believe upon Him for eternal life.” The Apostle Peter wrote:
“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
1 Pet 2:9 (LSB)
If you are sitting here this morning and you are not a true believer, much could be said about the patience of God towards you, for what would keep God from judging you for your sin right now, His patience. And you may be thinking that I do what I want or I try to be as good as I can, but I know that I sin because there are times I want to. So, what would ever keep God from deciding okay this is enough? That you will now be judged for your sin. What would keep Him from that? His patience. In fact, every one of us sitting here this morning who has come to Christ, it required the patience of God, or we would have never had the opportunity to come. We would never know the mercy of God and we would never know the grace of God if it were not for the patience of God.
18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight.
What does Paul mean about the prophecies made about Timothy? Well, it is likely referring to Paul’s confidence in Timothy as it is no secret that Paul had high hopes for Timothy. Paul’s letter to the Philippians was likely written a year or two before this letter and Paul says this:
“But you know of his [Timothy’s] proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.”
Phil 2:22 (LSB)
And this speaks to the potential of such a young guy as Timothy, which should speak to our potential in Christ of what the Lord could do in our lives if we allowed the Lord to use us. And I love what Paul says here, that by the things that Paul hoped for in Timothy. The things he said about Timothy. The excitement of the fruit of Timothy’s love for the Lord. Paul goes on to say (vs 18), by these things Timothy fight the good fight. When we hear the term, fight the good fight, we likely think of such positive things as winning, overcoming, and conquering. But it also means this, fighting, which insinuates some hard battles, some disappointments, maybe even some losses, some heartache, and some battle scars. Sometimes we might think of those who fight the good fight well it means that they are victorious and things go so well for them, but it does not mean that at all.
I was never much of a wrestling fan. Now I am not talking about legitimate wrestling like Addy, Ellie, and Layla do in high school wrestling. And who all three of them do very well by the way. I am talking about the fake wrestling. I remember when I was about 13, my Gramps took my sister and me to a wrestling event in Chatham. And the Sheik was there and Big Chief White Owl and a whole pile of other guys. And as a 13-year-old I loved it! As these guys were fighting each other and hitting each other with chairs. There was blood and sweat. It was great! Now I knew that wrestling was fake, but you could never tell my Gramps that, as he thought it was the best thing going. And he would never miss Saturday morning wrestling on channel 9 All-Star wrestling out of Toronto. But after three hours of these guys beating up on each other in the big event in Chatham, Ontario, we were able to see them in the office off the main arena all sitting together counting the money that came in. And even this did not sway my Gramps a bit, as he was so convinced that it was real.
But in boxing, likely a little more legit. The guy who is the champion, who wins the main event, maybe went down in the eighth round, or came out with a lot of blood and bruises, but he got back up. And maybe when he had retired he had some scars to show all that he went through, but he retired as the champion. Why? Because he fought the good fight. And we need to ask the question, how does one fight the good fight? Well, Paul will tell us (vs 19) by:
19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some, having rejected, suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.
20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.
The Bible uses words like keeping the faith. Last Sunday night we spent the entire night talking about “endurance” from Hebrews 10. The Bible speaks a lot about such things as perseverance in our faith. In fact, endurance is a character quality of someone who is truly saved. Now endurance does not save you, but it is a character quality of someone who is saved. Now Hymenaeus and Alexander were not outsiders, they were people within the church. They probably looked like Christians, maybe some looked up to them, but they did not keep the faith. And here is the warning, these two men were in the church but they were not believers. And Paul’s words here, whom I have handed over to Satan, is the warning to such a person. That though they may be in church and though they may give lip service to Christ, they are really part of the world and therefore in Satan’s realm. There may be those who attend church week after week. They may come to the front and participate in the Lord’s Table, but they are not really part of the church, for they are part of the world, for the true Christian keeps the faith and a good conscience.
I want to go back to the question we asked at the beginning. Can the gospel truly change a life? And we might answer that question by saying well yes, for look at Timothy, he kept the faith and fought the good fight. And those other two guys bailed on their faith. True, but was that just Timothy, and was that just a decision by the other two, that at some point they would leave the church. In other words, is Christianity like Channel 9 All-Star wrestling? Does it look like it has something I suppose at times? People are battling and at times they seem sincere and maybe say some great things, but in the end, is it a big hoax? Because many who sit in church hold to this. They may come week after week and enjoy the singing and the challenge from Scripture but still have this sneaky suspicion that the whole thing is a fake. Now if there are some of those thoughts in your mind or maybe we could call them doubts, you are going to have to consider verse 17:
“Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
1 Tim 1:17 (LSB)
See, our view of this passage is pivotal to our view of the gospel and its power. For if there is no King of the ages, in other words, if there was no Jesus Christ, then He never came. If He was not immortal, in other words, yes, He did live on earth, but He just died like everyone else, then He was sinful like everyone else and He was merely a man like everyone else. If He was not invisible, in other words, if He was not from eternity past, but was merely born in Bethlehem and died thirty-three years later. If He was not the only God, in other words, He was not God in the flesh, if He was not the Creator of everything. If that is all true, then there is no power in the gospel. It is all one big hoax. But if Jesus Christ is King, and He is alive, and He is from eternity past, and He is the only true God. It is the truth. And therefore, the gospel truly does transform men and women from death to life. And they do go from being enemies of God and being brought into His family. And true believers do change in this life, for we truly a workmanship of God’s.
I shared a question from Charles Spurgeon last Sunday night, he asked, do you have faith in Jesus Christ to save you? And he said to answer the question, yes or no. But he said to leave off the statement, I don’t know, because you do know. And leave off the statement, I don’t care, because someday you will care. True, all of us have seen those who may have claimed to be believers, but were not the real deal just like Hymenaeus and Alexander. They appeared like they were in the church, but they were in the world. And so the question that you and I must answer is this, is Jesus Christ the real deal? Because if Jesus Christ is the real deal, then the gospel is the real deal, and therefore, there is power in the gospel. Let’s pray. Lord, might we know the power of the gospel. Might we experience in our own lives and in others. And may we know You may we who know You, the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God. And may we honor You and bring You glory forever and ever, so that others will marvel at Christ. And all God’s people said, amen.