1 Timothy 1:16 However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering… Judgment and mercy are to be our songs in the house of our pilgrimage; and judgment and mercy are the chief subjects of God's Word. In one page of that Word we read of God's destroying the world with a deluge — in the other, of saving Noah and eight persons in the ark. In one page we read of His giving up the nations of the earth to the basest idolatry — in the other, of His calling Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, and bidding him separate himself in mercy from them. In one page we read of His destroying the cities of the plain, and the inhabitants with them — in the other, of His rescuing Lot and his family lest he should be devoured in the coming devastation. God's wisdom and love are surprisingly manifest in these portions of Holy Writ, and in thus setting before us judgment and mercy. Some are monuments of His wrath, to alarm, arouse, and convict the impenitent, hardened, and profligate sinner; while others are monuments of His grace, His free mercy, and His sovereign love, to, show how boundless it is in its extent, and to animate penitent sinners to come to the same source from whence these individuals obtained so large a share. The apostle tells us that his conversion was "a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on Christ to life everlasting." Is there any one supposing that his sins are too peculiar and too aggravated to find mercy? I call upon him now to look at the peculiar case presented, at the specimen of the divine workmanship here brought to his view. It is to be held up as "a pattern," to show the vast and boundless extent of the grace of God in the conversion of the sinner, and the plenitude of the mercy of Christ in its extending to the utmost bounds of a sinner's guilt. Those of us who have believed through grace, ought to find our minds refreshed by looking at these patterns which God has set up in His Word. I. THE SINFULNESS OF SAUL'S LIFE BEFORE HIS CONVERSION. 1. He was a horrid blasphemer. "I verily thought," he says, "that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth; which things I also did in Jerusalem." His name was like poison to his very soul; he never spoke of Him but with the most daring impiety; he would never examine the evidences of His mission, never look to the prophecies of olden time, never examine the types which the prophets represent and set forth of the great Messiah who was hereafter to come: but he took it for granted that He was an impostor, and he treated Him as such. He was a man of great learning, and he turned all his learning to despise his Saviour. He insulted Him and His disciples, and as far as lay in him he was determined that the name of Christ should never be known in the world, but as a name of execration fit only for the mouths of swearers and blasphemers. This was his determination. 2. He was a furious persecutor as well as a blasphemer. Whoever professed the name of Jesus Christ was the object of his inveterate rage. But let us trace the gross features in his character as a persecutor, in order to discover the strength of his enmity to Jesus Christ and His disciples. (1) He tells us that he was "exceedingly mad against them." And in Acts 9:1, there is a peculiar phrase used: "Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter." You have seen a man in a great passion; the passion affects his breathing, so that he breathes out his words; he cannot utter them with that coolness, and conciseness, and readiness, which he does when he is quite free from passion; but he breathes them out; it seems to affect all his powers. This is the exact metaphor used in the words of the passage: "breathing out." He was "exceedingly mad against them": not only angry, but mad; and not only mad, but exceedingly mad. (2) He threatened them with "slaughter." His tongue was a servant which he employed in the devil's service to a vast extent; he used the most desperate threats to these poor individuals, these lamb-like persons, of confiscation, of imprisonment, and even of slaughter. (3) He "compelled them to blaspheme." And methinks this is the cream of his defilement, that he was not content to be an infidel himself, that he was not content to degrade Christ himself, but he made this the price of being let loose from his grasp, that they should deny Christ, that they should forswear Christ, that they should give up Christ, and that they should sever themselves for ever from Christ. (4) He "haled men and women to prison": not only men but women. Their sex might have excused them and pleaded for pity; but that was nothing to him; women were no more regarded than men: his bowels were shut against the mother with the child at her bosom; she might plead them — it was of no use. (5) Look at another point of his character: "many of the saints did he shut up in prison"; not one family, but many, numbers; all within his own reach or power — he not only took them before the magistrates, but "shut them up in prison." And mark what he also tells us in Acts 26; he was not content with his rage exerting itself in Jerusalem, but he persecuted them "even unto strange cities." He extended this madness of persecution not only to Jerusalem and its suburbs, but to strange cities, cities that he had no connection with, and among whose inhabitants he had no need to go; only if there was a saint there, if there was one who named the name of Jesus there, that would bring him to that city. (6) He "caused them to be put to death," and triumphed over them in their sufferings. Acts 26:10. This was the character of Saul previous to his conversion. I do not know whether there is a persecutor present; of course I could not suppose that there is such a persecutor as Saul was. God be thanked that in happy Britain the government of the country would not allow it, or else the spirit, in numbers, is the same. But I refer to that man whose wife has just begun to be serious; he does not take a razor and cut her throat; he does not shoot her with a pistol; he does not drag her before a magistrate; but everything that can embitter her life, everything that can cross and aggravate her temper — this he does; and in this manner he persecutes her because she prays for him, because she loves Christ, and serves Him, and delights in His service. Art thou here, O man? Look at the spirit of the individual whom I present before you this evening, and see yourself, and hate yourself while you look at it. 3. He was not only a furious persecutor, but he was an injurious neighbour. He himself tells us this: "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious ": that is, he never did any real good; that is, he never sought God's glory, or his fellow creatures' true happiness: he would not only not enter in himself, but he would not let others enter in. How many widows did this man make! How many orphans did he make! How many hearts did he break! How much poverty did he occasion! 4. There was another point in his character: he was a proud Pharisee. This may appear light to some, but this was the crown of his character, this is the greatness of his guilt; this is (if I may use the expression) his scarlet and his crimson sin — that he went about to set up and establish his own righteousness, not submitting himself to the righteousness of God. "Publicans and harlots," says our Saviour, "enter into the kingdom of heaven before them." Now there are many individuals who are similar to Saul. We hear numbers say, "I am not a liar; I am not a drunkard; I pay my way; I live respectably in the world, and endeavour to train up my children respectably; and if I don't go to heaven, who ought to go?" And where is Christ, and where is the Saviour of sinners? "Yes, but then," you say, "I know I have done wrong in many things; we are all guilty in some respects: but then I have never been a great sinner, and I do hope that if I do as well as I can, the Lord Jesus Christ will help me, and give me some of His merit that I may die in peace." Now this, though not uttered in such plain and direct language, is often implied, and is the meaning of thousands of sinners. II. THE FREE GRACE OF CHRIST EXHIBITED IN HIS CONVERSION. Perceive how his conversion was effected by Christ. Imagine yourselves in Jerusalem a few minutes, and see Saul just as he is setting out on his journey to Damascus, for the sake of persecuting the poor saints in that city. See him mount his horse; see the numbers around him — what a splendid guard the man has. Look at the Sanhedrim, the chief priests and the great men of his nation coming to him, shaking hands with him, and saying, "God speed your way, and give you the success of your mission": look how the people are congratulating him all around. See the poor saints trembling. "Now," they say, "I fear for the safety of my sister, who has gone to Damascus. Now is my dear friend who lives in that city about to be butchered by this furious tyrant." See the people all running to John Mark's house, to engage in prayer, and bring down the blessing of heaven, that this man be stopped in his persecution; and going home to write letters, to prevent, if possible, the danger to which some of their friends and relations will be subject by this man's arrival. Never man thought himself more secure; never man thought he was going on a more virtuous embassy; and he had pretty nearly reached Damascus, he was within sight of the gates; and just as he was going forward, and some of the saints perhaps looking out of the windows, seeing him advancing, and trembling for fear of his entry — just as he approached the gate, the Lord Jesus Christ opened a window in heaven, and let one single ray of His glory fall down from heaven upon him. This was the manner of his conversion; now let us see what effect did his conversion produce? What effect did it produce on the spot? It turned proud Saul into humble Paul: he that was raging with madness against the disciples, was now trembling and astonished for himself. See what it did for him the three days afterwards. The light that came from heaven had taken away his natural sight, but how it had illuminated his mind. How great his anguish now he saw his past life! Oh, the grace that could soften such a heart, melt such a mind! But see what his conversion did for him in after days. And here mark, there was not only grace to make him a Christian, but there was grace to make him a minister: he was not only taken from the world as the Church are, but he was taken from the Church as Aaron was, and made a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now let us see him in his ministry. What was the subject of it? "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." And he went and preached boldly before kings, and rulers, and magistrates, and assemblies of different classes, the glories of his Saviour, and the triumphs of His grace. Oh, the labours of this man! Oh, the prayers of this man! Oh, the zeal of this man! Oh, the melting pity of this man over lost souls! Oh, the subjugating power of Divine grace, and the influence of Divine love! III. THE DESIGN OF CHRIST IN HIS CONVERSION. I know not which to admire most, the sovereignty and grace of Christ in converting him, or the sovereignty and grace of Christ in exhibiting his conversion as a pattern to others, as an example from which they might take encouragement as long as time should last. 1. Here is the pattern of the infinite merit of Christ's death. The atonement of Christ reaches back to the first sin, and extends itself to the last: "He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." "He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him." 2. The unquestionable willingness of Christ's heart. 3. You here see the great design of Christ's gospel. Why is the gospel published? This is the pattern. To show you the great design of Christ's gospel — that is to encourage the souls of sinners to come to Him and be saved. 4. Again: look here and see the pattern of the renovating power of Christ's grace. Oh, how it changes the hearts and lives of sinners! In one of my village stations, a little time ago, I looked in at a cottage, and inquired of a poor woman there how things were going with herself and family. She said, "Oh, sir, I have more reason to bless God for the gospel than I can tell you. When we first came to this cottage, both my husband and myself were drunkards, our children were but barely clothed, and everything we had in the world was marked by the extremest poverty and misery; but now, instead of that, the Lord laid hold of my husband's heart first, then He was pleased to convert me by the preaching at the place of worship; and now the children are blessed, and I am blessed, and we are all happy together." And now you will see her one of the most respectable women in the village, with a little money in the savings' bank: on the Sunday all the children are catechised, and the husband delights to read and pray with his wife and children. Is not this an exhibition of the renovating power of Christ's grace? And this is not a solitary instance: you yourselves know instances like this in the neighbourhoods wherein you reside, where Christ's renovating power has been manifested. You are to look at this for a pattern if you are ever downcast for any individual. Here see what the power of Christ's grace can do. In the first place, corruption has a power over the individual, and makes him a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious, and a Pharisee: and now the grace that has renovated his heart makes him a humble seeker of the Saviour, a zealous disciple of Christ, an anxious neighbour, desirous of the good of others, and pondering the way to heaven, and walking in it. (J. Sherman.) Parallel Verses KJV: Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. |
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