Untitled Sermon

I grew up in a bit different environent and than most of the children here and even my own. I was not homeschooled but went to a public school with several thousand students. I graduated in 1999 with over 400 other students. One of the things that was tradition in alot of schools was to have year book superlatives. You know it goes something like most likely to be president, or most likely to become a billionaire, you get the idea, I wasn’t memorable enough to people or popular enough to get one of these prestegious titles. Sometimes its good enough just to fly under the radar unnoticed. For the most part I was able to graduate and survive Highschool relatively unscathed.

If the early church was taking votes on the most likely to take the Gospel to the world, it would not have been Paul, but such is the wisdom of God. His ways are not our ways and God’s chosen instrument to take his Gospel to the world was Paul formerly known as Saul.

Acts 9:15–16 “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.””

Burden:God was merciful in saving Paul...and He can be merciful to you too.

God’s mercy in Paul’s appointment.

The contrast here is in the false teachers who were trusting an improper view of the law and were puffed up with pride and conceit, to Paul who was humbled my the gospel the mercy of God that came apart from the law. From one who blasphemes to one who proclaims the glorious gospel.

Paul was thankful to the Lord though it was difficult and painful,( Paul suffered greatly for the Gospel) This text here forms a sort of inclusio, as Paul opens in Praise and ends with praise.

 “God does not choose anyone who is worthy, but in choosing him renders him worthy” Augustine 4th century

Crysostom a contemoroary of Augustine adds, that Paul’s faithfulness was only possible through God’s empowerment.

God did not choose Paul to be his instrument because of His merit or anything in Paul himself, for that would be contrary to the entire point of this passage that Salvation come not through merit or my the law but entirely through the Grace and mercy of God.

Infact this verse is very reminiscent of Philippians 2:12–13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

God who entrusted Paul would now enable and give strength for HIm to discharge that very duty. SO baked into the very very heart of the gospel is the idea of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.

Spurgeon when once asked how he reconciles God’s soverengty and mans responsibility and his response was. I didnt know tha you had to reconcile friends. He then goes on to describe them as tow parallel tracts that run together. At first they are easy to distinguish but the further away they get the more they come together until they are indistinguishable to the naked eye.

God’s mercy in Paul’s ignorance.

Paul had lots of zeal, but zeal with ignorance is a dangerous thing, just ask Stephen the first christian to be martyred by the hand of Paul. The fiery and zealous and intense Pharisee who acted in ignorance needed only mercy to guide and redirect his energy not in persecuting the church but in promoting and proclaiming the gospel. Paul would show the same zeal, the same fire , and same intensity the true Gospel as he did in his former lies.

Philippians 3:6–9 “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—”

Paul, the pattern for God’s mercy

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Exodus 34:6 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”

God’s patience and longsuffering had never met such a test as in the Apostle Paul, the cheifest of sinners and yet it was more than up for the task.

Romans 5:20 “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”

Paul is the pattern for our salvation, for mercy, that if God could save Pauls, the cheifest of sinners then He can save anyone.

We sometimes can be our worst enemies, when we don’t see just how great and how vast God’s mercy really is. Perhaps thoughts have run through your own mind “How could God ever save some one like me? But we must remember that Paul was a blasphemer the unpardonable sin, Persecutor of Christ Himself, and yet God showed Him mercy. There is no sin so bad, no offense too grevious, no sinner too far away that God’s mercy cannot find him and cannot forgive if He will but believe on Christ. You too can find mercy.

God’s mercy is the single most prominent attribute that God displays. Some of us view God as some one who is out to get us, just rubbing his hands together waiting for the right moment to strike us down, taking pleasure in the punishment of sinners, but this is far from the truth, while it is true that the Lord will bring swift justice and He will not allow even one idle word to go unpunished, His prime characteristic is love. He loves to love, and he loves to show love. God is not just a merciful God, God delights to show mercy. If we were reading from a Psalm we ought to say “Selah” pause and reflect.

Micah 7:18 “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.”

For those old enough you might remember a song from 1995 by Phillips Craig and Dean.

the words go like this:

Mercy came running Like a prisoner set free Past all my failures To the point of my need When the sin that I carried Was all I could see And when I could not reach mercy Mercy came running to me

Mercy girds up the hems of its tunic and comes running towards the sinner faster than the Father of the prodical son. God is merciful and kind, and eager to forgive those who believe on Christ.

Psalm 25:6 “Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.”

Longsuffering- the words in the ESV is patience refers to a strong emotion held in check by God mercy, where God’s justice demands that the sinner be punished, God’s mercy hold’s His anger in check and instead offers kindness and favor

Grace and mercy can only operate in light of Christ sacrifice. The demands of God’s justice that were required of us according to the law had to be satisfied, and they were satisfied just not in us, not in our law abiding and keeping, but in Christ’s law abiding and keeping.

The nature of His sacrifice being perfect is that Mercy overwhelmes our sin, it sin is helpless in the relentless pursuit of grace and mercy, it searches every last room and every last corner of our souls and clears every room, that we might be set free. That is not to say that there are not still remnants of sin that hide in the corners, but mercy is on patrol, constantly eradicating even the residual sin in our lives that still clings to us until the day when Christ returns and sin and death will be decisively once and for all dealt with never to palgue us again.

BUT BROTHERS AND

IF we live according to the law then what else can we expect but justice, condemnation. If we live according to mercy then what else shall we expect but just that.

I want to do something a bit unconventional but perhaps it is fitting. That we too who have been strengthen by God’s grace should offer up praise and doxology, to the Lord, that we should stop and reflect, upon God’s