The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Mercy was shown to me. God took pity on me. The very thing that I did not deserve, He gave. That’s what grace is.

Announcer: Grace is one of the most beautiful words in the Christian faith. It is God's love and mercy extended to us, not because we've earned it, but because of who He is. Today, Pastor Jack Morris is here with us to begin our new series, Changed by Grace. By looking at the remarkable transformation of the Apostle Paul, once a persecutor of Christians, Paul became one of the greatest proclaimers of Jesus Christ. Living proof that no life is beyond the reach of God's mercy. Here is Pastor Morris with Marvelous Grace.

Pastor Jack Morris: First Timothy chapter one, verse 12. I want you to read it with me in unison. Hold your Bibles up and read it rather quickly and rather loud. Hold your Bibles up so your voice will come out real loud and clear. Together. "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service." Okay, right there, just stop there.

Now notice, the focus was on our Lord Jesus Christ. If you read the many of Paul's writings, he talks a lot about God. He talks about Jesus Christ, but he's continually talking about how much he thanks God. But here he starts focusing on Jesus and his thankfulness to Jesus Christ. "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength," meaning He has enabled me or He has put power in me.

Now in just a moment, he's going to talk about what a terrible man he was in his pre-Christian days. I want you to hear this. Paul wants you to hear this. This is his own testimony. Then he turns it and tells us a great testimony of what the grace of God has done for him. The grace of God came to him through our Lord Jesus Christ. So he begins to focus on Jesus and he's saying, "All because of Jesus."

It was like we were singing just a moment ago, there's something about that name. This past week, I heard of a lady of our congregation who was experiencing something traumatic in her life. She said that the way she received courage was she takes this bulletin and she puts it when she drives the car. She has so much fear and she puts this bulletin on the passenger side beside her in the car. She sings these choruses as she drives and God takes away her fear and gives her comfort as she reflects on the choruses and sings them over and over.

The name of Jesus, there's something about that name, just as the chorus said. Paul was reflecting on Jesus, "who has given me strength" and "put power in me." Then he said, "who considered me faithful, appointing me to His service." Now in the King James version, it says, "who considered me faithful and put me into the ministry." That is more correct than this is correct. This just says "service," which is general. The King James is much more specific and says what kind of service the Lord put him into.

When I read that, I was on vacation and I read that and I thought, well, I'm going to be away from my congregation that I love and that I pastor, but I'm so thankful. I know what you mean, Paul. That's what I was saying in my heart. I too am thankful that the grace of God has come to me. I begin to think of my situation before I received Jesus Christ and, of all people, now privileged to proclaim Jesus Christ. How unworthy, but I couldn't do it in my own strength no more than Paul could do it in his own strength.

But God put power in Paul to proclaim Jesus. I know beyond a doubt that God put power in me to proclaim Jesus because I couldn't proclaim Him. Neither could you testify or live for Him or reflect Him in your life without a special enduement of power. God has put power in you and put you in His service. I begin to reflect on this and rejoice in the Lord of God's marvelous, wonderful grace to me. I want you to reflect on it and rejoice in God's wonderful, marvelous grace to you.

I've been an ordained minister for 38 years. I sat there in that courtyard where the motel was and by myself, just thinking. 38 years. It's good to get away sometimes and stop and pause and reflect and consider. When you do, allow the praises of the Lord to come. Now, I had pastored and preached three years prior to being ordained. After the education, we then had to prove ourselves that we were really truly called so the church could see it and then lay their hands on it. So it was after approximately three years of preaching and teaching that the church then laid hands on me and the presbytery came and said that, yes, we recognize your gifts to the ministry and we will now ordain you. 38 years ago.

I'm looking at this and I thought, Paul, I'm still thanking God just like you are. You see, Paul never got very far from his conversion experience. We need to mature in the Lord, all of us do. I need to also, and I am growing in the Lord and I thank God for that. I boast only in the Lord because of that. But I never want to forget what God did for me. I never want to get too far from my conversion experience. I want to remember what I was, thank God what I am by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you remember your salvation experience, your baptism, your testimony? How God changed you, how old things passed away and the newness of God that came into your life? Just think about it. As you think about it, you'll have to be thankful. You'll have to start rejoicing. It's a wonderful experience. I never want to get far from that experience, remembering God's grace.

Now notice, he's going to tell us now, under point B in your sermon outline, write down the word Paul's pre-Christian life. And he gives it to us in verse 13. Write down the word "pre-Christian." Now, take your Bible and look at verse 13. He's going to tell us what his pre-Christian experience was like. Will you read it with me? Will you do that? Hold your Bible up and read verse 13. I know you're writing and reading and pencils and Bibles and bulletins. Your hands are full. But look at Paul's pre-Christian experience as he remembers, as he reflects on the kind of person he was. Now he begins to rejoice in the Lord.

Let's read it. Here's his testimony. Together. "Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief." Okay, stop right there. Now notice he calls himself a blasphemer. "I was a blasphemer." Now that's a word that we don't hear very often outside of Bible or church. But it's a word that I almost hesitate to say anything about what Paul is saying here.

See, none of the other apostles in all of their writings called him a blasphemer. He calls himself a blasphemer. There is no place in the Bible that documents that he was a blasphemer. You see, Paul could have gotten away with this terrible, terrible sin. Here's a trilogy: a blasphemer, a persecutor, a violent man. He starts at the worst sin he can possibly remember of having committed, and that's the sin of blasphemy. He said, "I was a blasphemer."

Paul, and it almost sticks in my throat right now as I want to tell you what he did as a blasphemer, what this meant, what he revealed about himself. You see, Paul wrote over half the New Testament. He's a revered apostle. There's no apostle that is greater than the Apostle Paul. But he's telling us something here. He says, "You don't realize how bad I was, how sinful I was. I was a blasphemer." "Oh, you were a blasphemer." "No, no, you don't understand. I was a blasphemer. I cursed the name of Jesus Christ."

"I cursed Him. I hated Him. I used the most vulgar, filthy, slimy language and I called Jesus you are a blankety-blank-blank. I hated Him. Do you know what I mean when I say I blasphemed?" You don't know. Paul was saying you don't know what kind of person I really was. Now, that's why he is saying the grace of God that would touch a filthy, foul-mouthed anybody that would openly call Jesus the names that I called Him. You don't know how bad I was. I was a blasphemer.

Now what Paul is saying, he's saying if God can touch me, if God can save me, if God can make a preacher out of me, if God can inspire me to write over half the New Testament, if God can do that for me, God can do anything for anybody. I was a blasphemer. Not only did he curse Jesus, he cursed the people of Jesus. He said, "Those blankety-blank people that are stealing my birthright in Judaism, they're destroying Judaism. They're following that blankety-blank Messiah, so-called Messiah. I'll kill them and send them all to hell." I mean, Paul was a blasphemer.

Now, I want you to listen to this. No apostle wrote that about Paul. As I said, it can't be documented in the New Testament because no one wanted to tell Paul's sin. If anyone wants to tell your sin, Paul, you can tell on yourself. You see, there's a lot of people that will confess their sin after they're caught. After they're caught and everybody knows about it. "Oh, I'm sorry." You're sorry because you're caught. But Paul wasn't caught.

Paul said, "I want to tell you something that none of my preacher friends, none of my apostles will tell you. I want to tell you how bad I was. And in telling you how bad I was, that will help you to believe and know how great God's grace is. I was a blasphemer." All the other apostles were hush-hush. That's your sin. We all know it. We're not going to tell on you. Paul said, "I want to tell on myself because in telling on myself how bad I am, it'll help you to understand how great He is." Can you say praise the Lord? Praise the Lord.

Notice he goes on to say, "I was a persecutor." Now here in the Scripture, let me read these two scriptures. There's plenty of documentation for this, but nobody would document what Paul only Paul documented himself. In Galatians he says, "For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." And then in Acts chapter 22, he says, "I persecuted the followers of this way to their death." Now, I want you to you talk about terrorism.

Now here's a terrorist. Here's one of the most ungodly, feared terrorists on the face of the earth in his day. Oh, we think of Saint Paul. He was a devil, Paul. The Saul of Tarsus. Listen, "I persecuted the followers of this way to their death, arresting both men and women, throwing them into prison." He said, "I imprisoned and beat those who believed." I beat them within an inch of their life, and some of them I beat them to death. And I took mothers away from their children and their children suffered. Do you know what kind of man I was? I'm your pastor, but I was the filth of the earth. It was as though I was just regurgitated out of hell. I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor.

And what's the last trilogy in the trilogy? A violent man. I was a violent man. He didn't know what else to say. You know, we're always trying to dress ourselves up. I'm a Christian gentleman, I'm a Christian lady. Yes, we are now. But I want you to remember what you were before now. What I was before now. The only reason I want you to remember that, I want you to remember your conversion experience. What God has done, the wonderful grace of God.

Jesus was invited to a Pharisee's house and the Pharisee had him eating a meal. You have to see how this is done. In those days, they would recline like on a couch. They didn't sit up in a straight chair and put the feet under the table. They would recline and they would eat reclining. And a woman came in the house and she came up behind Jesus as he was reclining and she began to weep and her tears fell on his feet. And then she took her hair and she began to wash his hair his feet with her and dry it with her hair. And then then she started kissing the feet of Jesus. You see, she remembered her conversion experience. Don't forget your conversion experience.

That Pharisee sat there and he thought the thoughts to himself. He didn't know Jesus could read his thoughts. You see, Jesus knows what's in your heart and my heart. He knows everything. There's nothing hidden from Him. And the Pharisee thought, "Now if this man is the man that he claims to be, if he's truly a prophet, he would know that that is a sinful woman that's crying those tears all over his feet and drying his feet with her hair and kissing his feet. He would know what kind of woman that is."

So Jesus turned to the Pharisee and he said, "Tell me, sir, there are two men. They are both in debt. One man and I'll use just my terminology today to maybe convey the message. One man owes his creditor a million dollars. Another man owes his creditor a hundred dollars. A million dollars, a hundred dollars. They're both in debt, but one owes a million and one owes a hundred. And the creditor comes and says, 'I forgive both your debts. Both your debts. You don't have to pay me back. You're both forgiven.'"

Jesus then said to the Pharisee, "Which of those loved the creditor who forgave? Which of those people loved him the most?" And the Pharisee said, "Well, I guess the one that owed a million." And Jesus says, "The one who knows how much I have forgiven him, that person loves me the most." You see, some of us really don't love Him a whole lot. Well, we really do, but we're not that much aware of it because we haven't seen that much of a change.

We'll come into the church, we'll say, "Well look, you know, I've always been raised in the church and Sunday School. I haven't been that bad." Jesus said, "You don't love me a whole lot because you don't realize that you've been forgiven a whole lot. But you let a person come in like Paul and says, 'Hey, I have been that bad. I have been a persecutor. I have been a blasphemer. I have been a violent man.'" Wow. Not very many of us would tell on ourselves, would we? Like this man. I mean, he put it in the Bible and the Bible is here forever. And so there's that testimony of what this man did all those lie all his lifelong before a Christian.

Now, the only difference between Paul and a terrorist today and we're hearing a lot about terrorism today. As we were singing that song, "Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that name." Friends, there's no place to hide but in Jesus. There's no place to hide. But there is a hiding place in Jesus. They're taking care of the Washington Monument now. I mean, where are we going to escape from the terrorists of the world?

In Paul's day, now Paul had a good pedigree. He was of the tribe of Judah and of Benjamin, and he read his pedigree. He was an admired man in Israel. Now what he did as a terrorist, he did within the law. He got papers and authorization to beat mothers to death, to beat fathers to death, to imprison and to kill Stephen. Paul stepped back and said, "I'll hold your coats. I have the authority. I've been deputized. I have the papers. Stone him to death. Get him out of this world." And he stood there and encouraged them. Kill the man. Under my authority. The first deacon was killed under Paul's authority.

I think of that holy name. And now look back at verse 12. Do you look at verse 12? He said, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength to be a new man, to change from what I was." He knew what Jesus had done for him and he was thrilled. You see, terrorism today is acting outside the law. Paul did it legally, but it was as heinous a crime as anybody could possibly commit and he knew it, he recognized it, he was ashamed of it.

He was not telling his sin to boast in his sin. He was here like a terrorist who blows up buildings and kills the innocent to make a statement. Paul is trying to make a statement for Jesus and he said it's Jesus, it's Jesus, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength. And he said he saved me, and he said look what he's done for me. Now he's even put me in the ministry. I write the New Testament, I teach God's people, and he's rejoicing.

Now look at verse jump down to verse 16. Do you have your Bibles in? Come on, read verse 16 with me together. "But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example of those who would believe on him and receive eternal life." He put it down. He said, I'll just put it down flatly. I was the worst of sinners.

Now again, Paul is more than making a statement and he's not trying to tell all of this just for the sake of effect. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit and the words "the worst of sinners" was coming right from the heart of God and he was writing it. God knew. Now, I've never called I'm your pastor Jack Morris, I've never called myself the worst of sinners. I have never said that. But I'll say this: I am no better than the worst of sinners. For we have all sinned. We have all sinned and the blood Jesus shed on the cross was to cover my sins and Paul's sins and your sins. For we have all sinned. Friend, Paul knew about conversion. He knew what God had saved him from.

Someone says, "Oh, I think I'm saved. I don't know when, I don't know where. I've always been raised in the church. I've taken communion, I've been baptized, hum and the hymn and the ho and the, you know. It's so vague to them." But this conversion experience is truly a born again experience. It's like saying, "Well, I've got this baby and I don't know where it came from and I know it was born and it's now part of our family and it's here." We know when the baby was born, we know where it was born, we know the date it was born. And God talks about another birthing, birthing into His kingdom. But some of us don't even seem to understand when or where it has happened and it's so vague. Now, if you can't know, if you don't know when it happened, if you're really not aware. Like my daughter gave her heart to the Lord when she was five years old and it's so vague to her.