The sermon text this morning is taken from the first chapter of 1st Timothy

verses 12 through 17. I thank him who has given me strength for this, Christ

Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful by appointing me to his service.

Though I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted him, but I received mercy because

I had acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our

Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

And I am the foremost of sinners.

But I receive mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

To the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and

glory forever and ever. Amen.

Now today we are focusing on truth number five, which is the very heart of the gospel, and in order to understand truth number five, which is at the top of the third panel here inside. You really need to

know something about these first four truths. In a sense the first four truths are not the

gospel. They are the necessary prerequisites for understanding

the gospel. It's not necessarily good news to tell anybody you're a sinner. But it is, in a sense, if the diagnosis of a disease is as important

as the prescription. At any rate, these four truths at the beginning are necessary to understand the full impact of the fifth truth.

So I want to review them briefly with you. Truth number one was that God created us for his glory.

This is God's design. He meant when he created man and woman and every one of us here that his glory his beauty his honor his

power his wisdom his justice all of his manifold perfections would be displayed in the world through our behavior, through our

attitudes, through our words.

We are to be like prisms or like crystals or like mirrors that reflect the glory of God to the world.

The second truth is that every one of us, therefore, should make it our highest priority, our life goal to live for the glory of God.

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