March 2014 USPS 184720 Volume 53 Number 3 In This Issue: PUBLIC SINNER NUMBER ONE Part One
Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto him by God (Hebrews 7:25). There s no one so far away from God that the arm of salvation cannot reach. In the Old Testament, Jesus is called the arm of God: Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? (Isa. 53:1). It was a metaphor for Messiah: To whom has God revealed His Son? He can reach down into the lowest pit of sin and bring you out: Behold, the LORD s hand is not shortened that it cannot save (Isa. 59:1). Is There Anyone God Cannot Save? Not according to Apostle Paul s testimony to Timothy: And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding, abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation (1 Tim. 1:12-15). At this point, it is as though Paul is taking his yellow highlighter to emphasize that what he was about to write was the most important thing in his whole letter: This is a faithful saying in other words, it s true, it s trustworthy, it s reliable, and it s worthy of all acceptation, for everyone to hear and believe Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen (vv.15-16). Basically, Paul said: I was the worst of sinners and the most unlikely person to ever get saved. Do you know anybody like that? 2
Is there someone in your family, or on your job, or in your neighborhood who seems like he or she is the most unlikely person who would ever get saved? Sometimes we get frustrated when we come up against such people, and we tend to back off on our witness to them, and to let up on our praying for them. We certainly know that the whole world is not going to get saved, and unfortunately, sometimes we meet certain people whom we feel are unlikely to ever get saved. But Paul said: Look at me! I was a blasphemer He blasphemed the name of Jesus Christ. Thank God, that s not the unpardonable sin. It s a terrible thing, it s a wicked thing, but Paul said, I did it in ignorance and unbelief. There are a lot of sinners we will come up against, who blaspheme the name of Jesus, and we might even feel like punching them in the nose. But that s not a good idea, because they are ignorant. Do you think if they really knew Jesus like you know Jesus, they would do that? Of course not they too are in unbelief. The Scripture says in 2 Cor. 4:4: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Paul said that was the condition he was in. He was blind and went around blaspheming Jesus. He was angry, because Christians were saying that Jesus is the Messiah, even though Jesus had been crucified and should have been history. But Christians wouldn t give up preaching His Gospel, and they went around preaching that He was raised from the dead. Paul said, I hated the name of Jesus, and I persecuted everyone who called on His name, and called Him their Saviour and Messiah. And I was injurious. This is a strong word in Greek and means, I was violently outrageous against them. Remember when they stoned Stephen for his witness for Christ, the first martyr of the Church. The Bible says, they gnashed on him with their teeth (Acts 7:54). This was pure rage! You ve got to explode with anger to do that. And while they were stoning Stephen, there was somebody standing there holding their cloaks, and his name was Saul aka Paul. He too was full of anger: And Saul was consenting unto his death (Acts 8:1). Saul s Campaign of Death As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison (Acts 8:3). He was literally busting into people s houses, and was not going to let one Christian get away. The word havoc is akin to injurious. It means to treat outrageously with personal injury. We are talking about one-on-one. He was going in and personally grabbing them and pulling them out, because it says that he was haling them, which means to forcibly drag somebody. Are you getting the picture of how much anger, outrage, and blasphemy were in the heart of Saul? And Saul, yet breathing out 3
P UBLIC SINNER NUMBER ONE threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord (Acts 9:1). If you have ever seen someone so angry that their nostrils were flared, and their lips looked swollen, and you could almost see the breath coming out of their mouths, that was Saul! He was breathing out threatenings! He wasn t just talking he was blaspheming and raging till he almost couldn t get his breath. Went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues... Damascus wasn t even part of Israel. It was Syria. He wasn t satisfied with rounding up Christians from all around Jerusalem and Galilee! He wanted to go to Damascus and get the Christians there! That if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem In the beginning of the early church, believers weren t called Christians, but were called those people of this way. I kind of like that, because Jesus said in John 14:6: I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life. There is only one way. People today say that there are many ways to God, but not according to the Bible; there is only one way. Saul went to arrest the people that were in this way, whether they were men or women. This is important, because in Bible days, woman were not given much identity or credit for anything. They weren t allowed to sit in the synagogues with the men. Many weren t educated, and they often didn t 4 know the Scriptures like the men, because they weren t given that privilege. Yet when it came time to kill Christians, Saul had no mercy on women, but went to bind them and bring them to Jerusalem. He later wrote to the Galatians: You have heard of my past conversation (Conversation means whole lifestyle and not just speech), How that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it (Gal. 1:3). Now I have always thought wasted was a fairly new word that usually means that someone was shot and killed with a gun. Now I realize that it is an old word. I know Paul didn t have any guns, but he went around wasting, putting Christians to death by any means possible. Generally, it was by stoning with large stones that were so heavy that one or two could kill you. Saul went around raging and wasting the church of God. In Acts 26, Paul recounted his past to King Agrippa as he awaited trial in Cesarea: I verily thought of myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus... Many of the saints did I shut up in prison having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceeding mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities (vv.9-11). Not only did Saul blaspheme the name of Jesus, he tried to force Christians to blaspheme!
I tell you, if God could save Saul, He can save anyone! Because he said, But I obtained mercy, because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Saul s Conversion You know that person that looks like he will never get saved? You have preached to him and done everything to win him, and you still don t see how he will ever get saved. Well, just keep pouring on the prayer, because God can come into somebody s life and turn it upside down in a flash! When the Holy Ghost gets on someone s tail, he won t get very far. And that s what happened to Saul. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined around about him a light from Heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou Lord? (Acts 9:3-5). We need too understand that the term Lord here does not refer to Jesus as Lord like we refer to Him. The word in Greek is really a term of respect, such as Sir. He was saying, Who are you, Sir? Obviously, he didn t know it was the Lord Jesus or he wouldn t have asked. Who are you? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest; and it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. (When the Holy Ghost gets on somebody s trail, it s hard for them to keep kicking back!) And he trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened (I prefer to read it this way: And when he opened his eyes, because it makes better sense.) He saw no man, but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink (vv. 5-9). When he opened his eyes he saw no man, because he couldn t see. That light that shined had blinded him. There he was on his way to Damascus, in a rage to drag Christians back to Jerusalem to be executed, and Jesus could have said, When you persecuted them, you didn t know you were picking on somebody too big for you. When someone persecutes a child of God, God takes it personally. Jesus takes personally the persecution of His saints. He said, You weren t just persecuting them you were persecuting Me! Don t worry about it when people persecute you; don t react in anger and revile them. Jesus said that we are to pray for them that persecute us and despitefully use us (Matt. 5:44). God s eye is on them, and He says, You are messing around with My children. You know how you are as a parent when somebody messes around with one of your kids. Maybe he or she needs somebody to grab him and shake him up a little bit, but you don t take 5
P UBLIC SINNER NUMBER ONE kindly to it if someone does it without your permission. And neither does our Heavenly Father! Still blind, Saul was in the house for three days, and he didn t eat or drink. When your soul is really in the crucible, and the Holy Ghost is on your case, your appetites will leave, because your soul is being weighed in the balance. I can only imagine what was going through his head for three days, knowing all that he had done to God s people, and he knew God was not happy about it! While he desperately waited, the Holy Ghost gave a vision to Ananias, one of the Christians in the city; probably one of the ones who would have been dragged to Jerusalem to die. In a vision God said, There is a man named Saul of Tarsus in the house of Judas, on the street called Straight, and he is praying there, and I want you to go pray for him so that he can have his eyes opened and receive his sight (vv.10-12). When Ananias heard who it was, he basically said, Excuse me, Lord, but are You talking about the Saul I think you are talking about? The one who is going around wasting Your people? And he has authority to bind all that call on Your Name, and You want me to go pray for him? And God said, Don t worry about it, because while I m giving you this vision, I m giving him a vision. He sees a man named Ananias coming to lay hands on him to give him his sight. For he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and 6 kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him what great things he must suffer for my name (vv.13-16). Sometimes I think that often the devil somehow can see when someone has a dynamic talent and gift and are using it in the world, that if God ever gets a hold of them and sanctifies it, they will be mighty for God. So he works over time to keep them from getting saved. And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord (and he clarified Lord), even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, has sent me that thou might receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales, and he received sight forwith, and arose and was baptized (vv.17-18). Just like that, he received physical and spiritual sight. That s the power of the Holy Ghost. Chief of Sinners Back to his testimony in 1Timothy 1:15, Paul said, I want you to know that this is a faithful saying, worthy to be accepted by everyone:jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and I am the chief sinner. What we deduce from this is, Jesus Christ came to save all sinners. If He can save the chief sinner, He can save anybody! He can save respectful sinners and disreputable sinners. He can save high-class sinners and low-class sinners. He can save educated sinners and uneducated sin-
ners. He can save the rich, the middle class, the poor, the destitute, and the homeless. He can save liars, thieves, murderers, fornicators, adulterers, and homosexuals. Jesus can save all sinners! He can save Mr.& Mrs. Goodie- Two-Shoes-sinners, and generally they are the hardest of all to reach for the Gospel, because they say, I m a good guy. I m a good person, and in the community they are hailed as great citizens and good people who are generous and charitable and do a lot of good deeds. But being good is not good enough. In order to say that something is good, there must be some form of measurement. There must be a standard by which to measure good. You may have gone to the store to buy paint or carpet and the displays said: Good. Better. Best. There is a standard by which they measure quality. When you look at the pile of the carpet, you will see that the thickness is so many millimeters. The Better one is a little denser and has more weight to it, and the Best has the greatest weight and density of all. You can t just say, Good, Better, Best by your opinion, because if it is only your opinion, then who says your opinion is better than my opinion? I may think this is good, and you say, No, that is good. Therefore, in order for there to be a measure of moral good, there must be someone to measure it against. And Jesus said, There is none good but God (Lk. 18:19). Your measurement of good and my measurement of good may not be God s measurement of good. You or I may be good compared to that lady down the street, because she is really a sinner! She is out in the streets all the time carrying on, and we re not like her! You may be good compared to everybody else you know in your family, or on your job, or wherever you go. But does that mean you are good in God s eyes? The Scriptures say, There is none that doeth good, no, not one (Ps. 14:3). There is none righteous, no, not one (Rom. 3:10). When we stand beside the pure, sinless, Holy Son of God, who did no sin, nor was any guile, not even one unkind word, in His mouth, we cannot measure up to His standard of good. The Scripture says: As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. (Out of the way! Paul was going after people in the way. If you re not in the way that is on the way in Jesus Christ, you are going out of the way.) They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one (Rom. 3:10-12). Then in verses 13-17 he described some of their sins, and in verse 18 he said: There is no fear of God before their eyes. You see, this is the real problem that is the core problem. If you have a healthy reverence of God and fear of God, you won t be in sin. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (vs. 23). The Wiseman wrote in Ecclesiastes 7:20: For there is not a righteous man upon the earth that doeth good 7
P UBLIC SINNER NUMBER ONE and sinneth not. This is the Bad News, but the Good News of the Gospel is: Jesus came to save all sinners, whether it was Saul Public Sinner Number One, or that one who says, I m a good person. He came to save good sinners and bad sinners. Jesus came to save all kinds of sinners. Another Bad Sinner In Luke 19 th chapter, we read about one of those really bad sinners that nobody wanted around. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named Zaccheus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, (or the big crowd) because he was little of stature (He was a short guy). And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zaccheus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. 8 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (vv.1-10). Jesus can save the chief publican! A publican was a tax collector. He was your unfriendly IRS agent, and he was rich. How do you think he got rich? By cheating people on their taxes. Zaccheus was a Jew and was the go-between his Jewish brethren and Caesar in Rome to collect their taxes. That alone was enough to make them not like him, because he collected taxes for their oppressors. But if that was not bad enough, he also cheated them, and there was nothing they could do about it. They couldn t say, I m taking you to court, or I m reporting you to this agency. They didn t have any recourse for justice, and he spent his life getting richer, robbing the poor by raising their taxes and putting some in his own pocket. So he was despised He was a chief sinner. But he heard about Jesus. We are not given information about how. All we know is that he heard that Jesus was coming to town, and the Bible says, Faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17). Someone had talked about Jesus, and it had excited his interest. When Jesus arrived at his home town, there was a crowd of people following Him and thronging Him, and Zaccheus, being a short guy, couldn t see Him. Sometimes people who are very short are aggressive. They feel that they have to be more assertive or people might take advantage of them, because they are short. Have you ever known short people
who are mean as a bull dog? And yet, you can meet some huge big guys who have gentle spirits about them, and that s a good thing! I guess Zaccheus, a short guy, was like a bull dog, but we know that God can save the most unlikely sinner! He climbed up in the tree, because he wanted to see Jesus. When you go out of your way to seek after God, He will meet you! Somebody said, I ve never found God. I ve never felt God. He s never told me anything. I don t know if I believe, but if God does give me a sign, or a miracle, or speaks to me, and I can hear His voice, then I ll believe. But that s not how it works, God said, The day that you seek Me with your whole heart, you will find me. Some people only say such things, because they really don t want to know the answers. They just want to be able to say, I don t know. as an excuse. Zaccheus went out of his way to see Jesus, and when you say, God, I m going to go out of my way to seek Your face I m going to open this Bible to read Your Words, and I want You to reveal Yourself to me through Your Word, His Word will come alive in your spirit, and the blinders will come off like they came off of Saul. The people were thronging Jesus, but He stopped right at the very sycamore tree and looked up and said, Zaccheus, come on down. Hurry up! Go to your house and get the dinner table ready, because I m coming to your house today. I imagine that Zaccheus could hardly believe it! He s coming to my house! He was happy and joyful, and came down to Jesus. A lot of people probably said, Oh, doesn t He know that this man is a sinner a chief sinner the worse kind of sinner! We don t read that Jesus gave him a sermon. He didn t have to preach to him; He didn t have to tell him that he was going to Hell. Now sometimes we do, because the Bible says, Save some by fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments stained by the flesh. But on others have compassion making a difference (Jude 22-23). Zaccheus had never met anyone that like Jesus. He had never met anybody that was so nice to him. Because he was the tax collector, people hated him and treated him hatefully, and he treated them back the same way. But here was Jesus, being kind to him, and do you know what I really find ironic? The name Zaccheus means pure. When his mother and father held their baby in their arms, and looked down at their new little son as he was circumcised, they said, We name you Zaccheus. We name you pure. But he had lived a life that was unclean, because he had a covetous heart of greed. His parents had high hopes for him, but the devil said, I want him.. He s mine. But Jesus said, That s where you are wrong, because today I m coming to his house. He didn t preach him a sermon. He didn t say, You need to do A, B, C, D to be saved. No, just the presence of God, just the love of the Saviour when Jesus said, I want to come to your house, was enough to convict 9
P UBLIC SINNER NUMBER ONE his heart. Without any prompting, he stood up on his own volition and said, Lord, all the people I ve cheated, all the money I ve taken, all the things I ve stolen, I will give back, and I will it back to them four-fold. That was double what he was required to do by the Law. If someone was caught stealing, he had to pay restitution by paying back double of what he took. But Zaccheus wanted to pay quadruple! This showed he was repentant, and his heart was sincere. He had a covetous heart, but now he had a heart change. Jesus said, Today, salvation is come to this house (because in spite of some of you murmurers on the sidelines) I am come to seek and save the lost (especially chief sinners!). Jesus said, The thief is come to steal, and to kill, and to destroy men s lives. But I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Sooner or later, the devil will show you his hand who he really is. It will be to your benefit if it is sooner, so that it will to cause you to realize that Jesus is the One that has life more abundantly. The First & the Worst Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am chief. You have probably figured out that the word chief in the Greek means first. It can mean, first in quantity or first in order. It can also mean, the greatest, the best. So when referring to sinners, it would mean the worst. Paul said, I am the chief or worst sinner. 10 He put himself as the worst of sinners including murderers, of which he was an accomplice. Notice he did not say, I was. He said, I am. Now please don t think that this means that Paul was still living in sin. It s not what it means, but that he saw himself as a sinner saved by grace. He said, I obtained mercy I obtained grace. The purpose of this mindset is, every day we must be cognizant of our daily need of God s grace, both for ourselves and for others. When we see someone stumble, when we see a brother or sister fall, we re not to be high-minded, holier-than-thou, and pharisaical. Galatians 6:1 says, When you see your brother overtaken in a fault, you being spiritual, in a spirit of meekness, are to restore that one, considering your ownself, lest you be tempted. You ve heard it said, and it s true: But for the grace of God, there go I. This is exactly what Paul was saying, that it is by God s grace he stood, and he realized that every day he was dependent on that grace, and he never got over it. Because God not only saved him, the chief of sinners, but he said, He put me in the ministry. Oh, the depths of the love and the grace of God, that not only saved Paul, Public Sinner Number One (another way to say chief of sinners ), but He put him in the ministry of a great evangelist and apostle. 1 Cor. 15:10: But by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed upon me was not
in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Paul said that he labored more abundantly than the other apostles, but he was quick to add: I m able to labor, because His grace is with me. To me, this says: The worst sinner became the greatest apostle! Became the greatest soul-winner! He said, I labored more abundantly than them all, but he did not mean he was in competition with them. Ministers of the Gospel: Don t misunderstand: We are not in competition with one another! The only person I am in competition with is myself. We, like Paul, must be able to say: That I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord to testify the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24). What Paul was saying was: I am the worst sinner of all, and yet by the grace of God, the worst sinner became the greatest apostle. The worst sinner of all, who persecuted the Church and wasted it, became the greatest soulwinner in church history! Jesus can save to the utmost, the very one who denied Him and killed His followers. That day on the road to Damascus, the grace of God caught up with Public Sinner Number One, apprehended him and put him on the road to Heaven. When converted, Paul said, I m not going to Heaven by myself. I m going to be just as fervent to bring souls to Christ as I was to take their lives. Somebody wrote the song: I saw the light. I saw the light, and when Jesus opened up Paul s eyes to the truth, the same fervor and urgency, dedication, devotion, and zeal that he had to waste Christians, to kill them, he then had to snatch people out of the authority of Satan s kingdom of darkness and translate them into God s kingdom of light. Later, when Paul the aged was tried before Roman Governor Festus and King Agrippa, he recounted his Damascus Road experience where he was accosted by Jesus who told him: I have appeared unto thee for a purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness to the Gentiles To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision (Acts 26:16-19). Coming Next Month: Part II 11