Good evening. And I'd like your attention to First
Timothy chapter one. First Timothy chapter one. My
text will be verse number 15. My message is titled Jesus Christ
and sinners. Let me say that my beloved and
I are blessed to be here with you tonight. We are thankful
for the invitation to be here, thankful for the fellowship and
the friendship we here have enjoyed for so many years. And it's always
good to come back and to be with you. And we pray that the Lord's
blessings be upon us tonight as we have gathered here in the
name of his son. I'm going to read one verse.
This is a Faithful saying. It's true. There's no lie in
it. You can take it to the bank of
faith and truth. This is true. This is a faithful
saying. And it is worthy of all acceptance. You may accept what here is said,
Completely and wholeheartedly, do not hold back. Just grab every
bit of it with as much strength as you can. What you are about
to hear, it is worthy of your acceptance. It's faithful, it's
true, and it's good news if you fit the qualification. What is this saying? That Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. of whom I am chief. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And I know that because he saved
me and I'm the chief. Because I assume that the man
behind the pulpit tonight is the only sinner here. Am I right? Any other sinners other than
this one? The scriptures say that all are
sinners, but not all know that. Joseph Hart has written, a sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. You ask many people if they're
sinners and they're just quite offended. No, quite frankly,
I'm not. I know some sinners, but not
me. Well then, I got no good news
for you. There's no good news from God
to you unless you're a sinner. I can tell you right now that
if you're a sinner, this is a faithful saying. If you are a sinner,
this saying is worth of your acceptance. Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. Christ Jesus and sinners. The
conduct of Jesus Christ towards sinners quite different from
the conduct of many others towards sinners. He did not despise sinners. He was not like the Pharisees
who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised
others. Pharisees walked around with
their noses stuck in the air and just boasted about how much
better they were than others. Jesus never did such a thing.
Jesus was never arrogant towards sinners. He did not despise them.
He did not shun sinners. He was not like the holier than
thou who say, get away from me, I am holier than thou. It's an
interesting thing that you'll find the word holy many times
in the scriptures. There is a holy this and a holy
that and a holy the other. You'll find the word holiest
a number of times in particular with regard to the tabernacle
that was the holiest of all. Only one time in the scriptures,
only once in the scriptures do you find the word holier, and
when it is found, God says, I despise it. They that say I am holier
than thou, they are a stench in my nostril, a fire that burns
all the day. Anybody who thinks he's got long
and progressive sanctification so that he's holier than any
other person, God says, I despise that, I despise. Jesus was not
of that short sort, and he did not shun sinners. Jesus did not condemn sinners,
did not condemn them. He was teaching in the temple
one day, And the Pharisees came with a
woman and they cast her in the midst where Jesus was. Said,
teacher, we found this woman in adultery in the very act,
which means they must have burst right into the room where she
was and dragged her out of the bed, brought her to Jesus. She's
probably naked except for perhaps the sheet from her bed she might
have dragged with her. Another note of interest is that
the Pharisees brought the woman but let the man go. But who can
account for the way a Pharisee thinks anyway? But anyway, they
say, we caught this woman in the very act. Now, Moses said
she must be stoned. Now, what do you say? And they're
saying, Look, we've got him on the horns of a dilemma. If he
says, well, let's see, we need the stoner. Oh, people listen,
you see how cruel he is? If he says, ah, let her go. They're gonna say, aha, Moses
said stoner, he disagrees with Moses. So Jesus, assumedly in
their minds is on the horns of a dilemma. What's he gonna do?
He handled it rather masterfully. He just, he got down and began
to write in the dust. What did he write? Scriptures
don't say. I would not be at all surprised
if he was just not doodling, because that's what you do when
you're bored, right? And they keep asking him questions.
What shall we do with this woman? What do you say? Moses said,
condemn her and stone her. What do you think? Whatever it
was, he was rocking, and he stood up. And he said, he who is without
fault, let him cast the first stone. And then he got back down
and started whatever it was he was rocking. He just did it again. And it's deadly silence, except
for the faint footsteps of people walking away. The Pharisees,
from the eldest to the youngest, they thought, he who is without
fault, let him cast the first stone. And the eldest said, well,
that's not me, and off he goes. And then the next youngest thought,
well, now, if he is not without fault, then neither am I, and
off he goes. And finally, you know, even the
youngest who's there, who perhaps thought he was braver than any
of the others, he's gone. And so Jesus then rises when
they're gone and he looks around and he says, woman, where are
your accusers? Has no one condemned you? And
she says, no, no one condemned me. He said, neither do I condemn
you. Go and sin no more. She deserved condemnation. She
had broken God's law. Moses said her sin was one to
condemn. But Christ Jesus did not come
into the world to condemn sinners. God did not send his son into
the world to condemn sinners, but that sinners through him
might be saved. He said, I do not condemn you. And these other fellows, they
do not condemn you. Even the self righteous and holier
than thou, they do not condemn you. And I do not go and sin
no more. He did not come to condemn sinners.
Or he could have. But he did not. Furthermore,
Jesus did not castigate sinners. He was not one of these moral
crusaders who is going to, you know, start some moral campaign
against this sin and those sinners or whatever. He never did such
a thing as that. He never castigated sinners.
He did say this. to the Pharisees and other religious
leaders. He said, harlots enter my kingdom
before you do. Harlots enter my kingdom before
you do because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Let us look tonight at the way
Jesus treated sinners. I've got 10 points and I'm not
gonna keep you long. One, Christ condescended to sinners. He condescended to sinners. For
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Why? Christ came down to sinners because
sinners could not come up to him. He came down to them. Very
God, a very God laid aside his heavenly glory, took on our humanity. He was born of a woman like me
and you. He was born under God's law,
the one that condemned you and me. He came in the likeness of
sinful flesh. God himself took on our humanity
and came from heaven to save sinners. He condescended to them. No one ever stood so low for
a sinner as Jesus did. He left the very throne of glory
to come to the gutters of this earth. He left all the purity
of heaven to come down to the dung heaps of sin and shame.
He came and condescended to sinners. Second, Jesus identified with
sinners. He was numbered with the transgressors
and he bore the sin of many. Numbered with the transgressors,
it would be as though God said, all you who are righteous stand
against that wall. And all you who have broken my
law, you stand against that wall. Well, everyone goes to the wall
of the transgressors either voluntarily or ushered And there's no one
over here but Jesus Christ, the righteous. He stands on the side
of the righteous. And everybody else is with the
transgressors. Jesus walks from that side and
he comes over to the other side. And he taps this man on the shoulder. He says, you, go stand over there
with the righteous. Lord, I am an adulterer. I know
that. I know that. I'm taking your
place. I'm your substitute. I will be
numbered with adulterers. He goes to another man and taps
him or a woman and taps her on the shoulder. You, go stand over
there with that righteous man. And she says, but Lord, you have
no idea what kind of a sinful woman I am. Oh yes, I know, I
know, I know exactly what kind of a sinful woman you are. I'm
taking your place. I am your substitute. I am numbered
with the transgressors. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ identified
himself with transgressors and took the sin of many so that
transgressors could be numbered among the righteous. Third, Jesus
sought sinners. He went looking for them. When you begin to read in the
gospel of John chapter four, it begins with a very interesting
phrase. We read, and Jesus had to go
through Samaria. He had to. He had to go. Why? There's a sinner down there
that needs to be saved. And he's going to do what no
one else would do in his part of the country. He's going to
go down through Samaria to do it. Oh, and by the way, there's
going to be some mothers who are saved there because Jesus
had to go see this woman. But Jews wouldn't do that. They would not go down through
Samaria because Half-breeds live there, they're
half-Jew and half-Gentile, and the Gentiles don't like them
and the Jews don't like them, and so they're kind of down by
themselves, and we don't even let our feet set foot down in
the land of the Samaritans. But Jesus had to go through Samaria. A good Jew in Galilee would walk
10, 20, 30, 40 miles east He needs to go due south. But
he would walk 10, 20, 30, 40 miles east, cross the Jordan
River, or go around the Sea of Galilee, then walk down the east
bank of the Jordan, and then come to Jericho, cross the Jordan
again. It's not all that easy a river
to cross at all seasons of the year. And then he'd get to Jericho,
walk another 20 miles to get to Jerusalem. And you know, 20
miles is not that far unless you're walking. That's the way a good Jew would
do it. Walk way out of his way, or a long distance out of his
way, just so he could say, I did not go through Samaria. But Jesus had to go through Samaria.
And at high noon, he reaches Sychar, Jacob's will. It is high noon. The sun is at
its zenith. It is the hottest part of the
day and he has been walking all day. His disciples have gone
for bread and Jesus sits by the well. He has an appointment with
someone who does not know it. And here she comes. She's coming
to the well that I knew. Oh, that's a little strange.
I mean, Women came to the well at sun up or at sun down when
it's cool. What kind of a woman goes to
the well in the middle of the day? A woman who had to sleep late. She was busy all night. And a
woman who's going to be busy in the evening with something
that's going to make her sleep late. And so she cannot come
to the well at sunrise nor at sunset. And besides, if she does,
all the good women, even amongst Americans, when are they gonna
talk about her? So she comes when nobody's there. She's got
the well to herself. Except on this day, Jesus is
waiting on her. He had an appointment with her.
She did not know it. He said, woman, give me a drink.
She said, you're a Jew. You Jews have no dealings with
us, Samaritans. He says, yes, but if you knew
who I was, you'd ask me, I'd give you water, and you would
never be thirsty again. Oh, really? Yes. Call your husband. Tell him to come. Sir, I have
no husband. You said that right, woman. You have had five men, and the
man you have now is not your husband. She says, wait a minute. You know more about me than I
do. You must be a prophet. We're looking for the Christ.
He says, I am he. I am he. She believes in him, goes into
the village and she looks for men. I'm assuming the kind of
man she would know. She says, come see a man who
told me everything I ever did. This must be the Christ. He is. Jesus went looking for her and
found her and she brought many others to him. Now that's my
Jesus. I'm so glad. I'm so glad he goes
looking for sinners. I'm so glad that many years ago
he came walking down a certain street in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina and found this one, found this one. Is anybody here
glad that Jesus came looking for you one day or one night? It was not you looking for him.
It was him looking for sinners. He sought sinners. Forth he beckoned
sinners. He says, I did not come to call
the righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance. He beckons them, come, come. There is a sweet beckoning call
from Jesus to sinners. He'll walk by self-righteous
holier-than-thou people all day long, but when he spots a sinner,
you come. I did not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Fifth, Jesus forgave sinners. Forgave sinners. Pharisee by the name of Simon
invites Jesus to come to his house for a meal. Jesus goes. There's a certain woman, a sinful
woman, and she hears that Jesus is there in Simon's house, and
here she comes. She has brought an alabaster
box or a jar full of precious, expensive ointment. She comes
into where Jesus is, and Jesus is there in the house of Simon,
and he's sitting at the seat of Simon's house, and she comes
up to where Jesus is, and from behind him, she begins to weep,
takes her tears, and she washes his feet. Took the hair of her head that
hair that probably had had some man's hands running through it
just a few moments before, she takes that hair and she dries
his feet. She takes that alabaster container
with the precious ointment and she pours it on his feet. And
old Simon, he's just sitting there and he's watching all this.
He says, you know, this Jesus fellow, if he knew what kind
of woman she is, he would not let her do that. And what Simon
did not know was that Jesus was reading his thoughts as he thought
them. And he said, Simon, I came into
your house and you gave me no water to wash my feet. It's common courtesy. Alright,
common courtesy. You did not even do it. And Simon,
you did not greet me with a kiss. It's a it's it's, you know, a
common courtesy. You see this woman? Not only
did she wash my feet, she did it with her own tears. And she has given me the kiss
like I have never had. My feet, she has kissed them
and washed them And look at her. You did not give me any oil for
my face, a common courtesy in a dry, arid climate with dry
skin. You gave me no oil for my face.
Look what this woman did. She has bathed my feet with expensive
ointment. Now, Simon, I tell you, and I
tell her, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Your faith
has saved you. Go in peace. He forgave sinners. I mean, even the worst of sinners. He forgave the worst of, there
was no sinner ever beyond the forgiving power of Jesus Christ. He forgave sinners. Number six,
Jesus justified sinners like that tax collector who went to
the temple to pray one day with a Pharisee. They both went to
the temple to pray, and the Pharisee stood in some prominent place,
and he said, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I do this, and I do that, and
I'm not like that tax collector publican over yonder, not at
all like him. Yes, it's an interesting prayer.
Jesus said he prayed with himself. Prayed with himself. His prayer came out of his mouth
and then just made a U-turn and went back in his ears because
he was praying to himself with himself. Furthermore, he probably
is the only man in scripture who in his prayer did not ask
God for anything and was not disappointed that God gave him
nothing. And over here, kind of hidden, there's a man
and he's afraid to look up at heaven. He's afraid if he looks
up to heaven, he might see God looking at him and he does not
want to see that. He dared not raise his eyes toward
heaven. He smoked his breast and said,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The sinner, the Greek text has
the definite article. The sinner, be merciful. Interestingly, that word merciful
is the same word for mercy seat. He's saying, Lord, provide to
me a mercy seat. He's standing very close to one
in the temple. but he wants a mercy seat that
he knows will be effectual. God provide to me a mercy seat,
be merciful to me the sinner. And Jesus said, that man went
down to his house justified rather than the other. Why? Jesus justified
sinners. He never justified the self-righteous. They didn't want justification
anyway from anybody except themselves, and they thought they could get
it, so they did not want it from him. But when sinners see themselves
as guilty of God's law, when sinners beg for mercy, when sinners
plead for a mercy seat, Jesus says, you're justified, declared
righteous. Number seven, Jesus welcomed
sinners. Welcome sinners. There was a
rich man and had two sons. And the younger son, kind of
an insolent boy, he decided he could not wait until his father
died to have the inheritance that he assumed would be coming
to him. So he goes to his father and
he says, father, Looks like you might live for a long time. So I'd like to have my inheritance
now while I'm young enough to enjoy it. And the father being
indulgent, gave the son the inheritance that would come to him. And the
son took off and, you know, dressed in his nice robe. And he's got all this money with
him. And he goes out to live the life
of wine, women and song. And then his money ran out, and
the wine is gone. The women have forsaken. There's
no song worth singing now. He's in destitution. He's looking for employment,
and the only one he can find is keeping swine. They're definitely
working for a gentile. Good Jewish boy keeping swine,
working for a gentile, living in a pigsty, and the pigs were
eating better than he is. He would have filled his belly
with the pods that the swine did eat, and no man gave it to
him. Whatever he ate, it's hard to say. But anyway, anyway, he's
in a pigsty. His robe is now in tatters, and
it stinks to the high heavens. And he's thinking, wait a minute. The servants in my father's house
have it better than I do. Well, I will arise and I will
go to my father and I will say, father, I have sinned against
heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called
your son, but I sure would like to be your servant. Would you
please let me be your servant? And off he goes. picks himself
up out of the pigsty and begins to walk home. Well, the old father's been waiting
for that boy to come home. If you've ever had a child run
away from home, you know how you spend hours by the window
just looking, just looking. Will my son, will my daughter
come home? I'll be looking when he does.
And the father looks out one day and he sees someone walking
down the road toward the house. Kind of walks like my son. That
is my son. And up the old man gets and runs
down the road. It is my son. And he throws his
arms around his son. That boy in the tattered rags
smelling like a pig sty. The father kisses him. The son
gets ready to make his confession and the father will not even
let him complete it. No, it's not needed. Not needed. Hey, bring the best robe in my
house. My son does not need to be wearing
what he's got. You. Go get a ring and put it
on his hand. He needs to wear my signet now. You, go kill a bat at camp. My son has come home and he's
happy. We will rejoice and be merry
and I had a great feast. My son has come home. Now, that's
the way Jesus welcomes sinners. That's the way he welcomed me.
That's the way Jesus welcomed sinners. Take that filthy rag
off of him. I'll clothe him in my own righteousness. I'll put the signet of my father
there on his hand. We'll put sandals on his feet. Servants did not wear sandals.
Sandals were for the sons of the house. Put sandals on his
feet and we're gonna be glad. I tell you right now, Sinner,
if you ever come to Jesus Christ, if you can ever say, I will arise
and go to Jesus, you're gonna find the most glorious welcoming
you ever saw in your life. Like the father did to that prodigal.
There will be rejoicing in heaven. Even the angels in heaven will
rejoice when one sinner repents. Jesus welcomes sinners. Number
eight, Jesus accepted sinners. For when sinners drew near to
him to hear him, the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying,
this man receives sinners and eats with them. This man receives
sinners and eats with them. What? Self-righteous and holier than
thou, people are, you know, kind of reluctant to eat with him.
But sinners have come. Sinners have come. Zacchaeus,
come down from that tree. I'm going to your house to eat
with you. And then you're coming to my
house to eat with me, sinner. And Jesus welcomes sinners. And
Jesus accepts them. He receives sinners. He even
eats with them. When they are received into glory,
they're gonna eat the biggest feast they ever had. And Jesus
will sit at the table of heaven. And everybody at the table is
a sinner on this earth. Sinners, Jesus eats with sinners. Number nine, Jesus befriended
sinners. Pharisees called him a friend
of sinners. It was a term of derision. He
bore it and wore it as a badge of honor. Friend of sinners. Some people like to talk about,
you know, I have a friend in government. If I get a speeding
ticket, I can probably get off because I've got a friend in
government. And someone say, I have a friend
in the banking business and other people may have difficulty getting
a loan, but I got a friend in the banking business and I've
got a friend in this business and in that trade. And, you know,
we like to, you know, or people like to talk about their friends
in high and influential places. Someone has sung a song that
says, I have friends in low places. Jesus's friends are in the lowest
places, the lowest places. Jesus, who are your friends?
That droppard? That harlot? that cheat and this
and that and the other, all my friends are sinners. Every one
of them's a sinner. And you know, this is true. He's a friend of sinners. Every
friend Jesus has is a sinner. Well, I'm glad because I'm a
sinner and he'll be my friend. He'll be my friend. All right,
last point. Number 10, he saved the chief
of sinners. That's Paul's testimony here.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I am the
chief of them. Now, let me tell you that I have read every word Paul ever
wrote. A few hundred times. The Lord
saved me quite a few years ago I've read every word Paul ever
wrote a few hundred times. I'm not going to disagree with
anything Paul ever wrote because he wrote under divine inspiration. But I do have a question about
this verse. Paul says he came to save sinners
and I am the chief. And I wonder, Paul, you did not
know me, did you? And every sinner that I meet
says, you know, I think I'm the chief of sinners. But then again,
well, you know, the Lord has saved people from every tribe
on earth and every tribe has a chief, and I'm gonna be the
chief of my tribe. You can be the chief of your
tribe if you want to, and Paul's the chief of his tribe, and whoever
the chiefest of the chief is, God has saved him. But I will
tell you this. that if Jesus has already saved the chief of
sinners, he can save you. He can save you. I say all this
because I never assumed that even in a worship service that
everybody there listening to me is a believer in Jesus Christ. I do not assume that everyone
in this auditorium nor everyone else who is listening and watching
your live stream. I do not assume that just because
you're listening to a preacher that you're a Christian. I do not. I was a sovereign grace
Calvinistic Baptist preacher when the Lord saved me. Saved
me on the same night he saved Tim James. We both were good
sovereign grace preachers, we thought, when the Lord saved
us. And so I never assume. I will say this, if there is
a sinner tonight here, I got good news for you. Jesus came
to save sinners. I have more good news for you. He saves all sinners who come
to him. They're drawn, they come. He
saved this center the first time I came to him. Then he saved
me again this morning when I came to him again. And I've been coming
to him every day since that first day. And every time I come, he
saves me. He saves me. Christ Jesus came
into the world to save centers. Well, that's my message, and
I'm sticking to it. It's a faithful saying. You can
count on it. It is worthy of all acceptance. Receive it wholeheartedly and
completely. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. If you know it, sing it with
me. Come, ye saints, nurse, poor
and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, joined with heart. I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms. In the arms of my dear Savior. Oh, there are ten thousand children.