Today I would like you to turn
in your Bible to the book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter
1 at verse 15. Let's read this verse together.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and Paul says,
of whom I am chief. Martin Luther called this verse
a condensed version of the Bible, a condensed version of the Bible. It is the gospel, the glorious
gospel of the blessed God that magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ
and his great mercy to the salvation of his people, to the salvation
of sinners. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. The Apostle Paul had experienced
this saving mercy. He describes what he was by nature
up in verse 13. He says, I was a blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious. You remember Paul hated the gospel
and hated those who believed the gospel. And then he describes
what God had revealed to him and gave to him by his grace
in verse 14. He said, the grace of our Lord
was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Down in verse 16 he says, how be it for this cause I obtained
mercy. I obtained mercy, didn't earn
it. He certainly didn't deserve it, did he? He said, I obtained
mercy. by the grace and mercy of God,
I obtain this salvation. Now out of this experience and
revelation of God, The Apostle Paul gives to us his very plain
statement of the Gospel of God's mercy in the face of Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. Now I want to point out three
things to you from this verse this morning. The first one is
this, the certainty, the certainty of the Gospel. The Apostle said
it's a faithful saying. And I'm sure that he means by
that it's a true saying, the gospel is true. It's a faithful
saying. This gospel is faithful to God's
law. Our Lord has magnified and honored
the very law which we have broken. That's why He came. That's why
He took upon Himself our humanity, to magnify and honor the law
in every precept and every penalty, and He did that without fail.
This is a faithful gospel, faithful to honor and magnify God's justice
and God's law. Secondly, this gospel is faithful
to all the promises of the Word. Our Lord Jesus Christ in coming
and dying as our substitute has fulfilled all that was written
of him. You remember Paul wrote to those
Corinthians and said that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. All that he did, he did according
as it had been written. He fulfilled every promise of
the Old Testament. This gospel is faithful. to all
the promises of the Word of God. And thirdly, this gospel is faithful
to those who believe it, though we often fail, and we do. Our hope and our confidence is
this, that he will never fail. The love of God and the love
that's in Christ never fails. He's not a failure. He can't
fail because of who he is. You see, my friend, what Paul
was saying here? This is a faithful saying. This is a faithful gospel
that Christ came to save sinners. The second thing he says is this.
He said it's a worthy gospel. It's worthy of all acceptation. The gospel truth is worthy to
be received, believed, and love by all men. It's entirely true
and absolutely necessary to the salvation of our soul. Now this
gospel is necessary for our salvation. This gospel meets all my need.
The Lord Jesus Christ is made unto the believer what? Everything
that we need. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's our sanctification. In Philippians
4.19 we read that He is able to meet all our need according
to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus. See, this is a worthy gospel.
It's worthy to be received and believed and loved by all men.
This gospel meets my need. Something else, this gospel is
also worthy to be preached to all men. Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It is a power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. You see the certainty of this
gospel? It's faithful. It's a faithful, true saying,
and it's worthy to be received and loved and believed. The second
thing we see in this text is this. We see the person of the
gospel. Christ Jesus came into this world. Now here's what gives the gospel
its power, its merit, its glory, the person of Jesus Christ. Now we see two things in this
text. He's the Christ, and that simply
means he's the anointed. He's the blessed one. He's the
one that's sent of God. He's Jesus Christ. The person who came to ransom
and to rescue the ungodly is none other than the Son of God
himself. And all that he did to accomplish
our salvation, he was abundantly anointed and blessed in all his
office as prophet to reveal, as priest to atone and put away
our sin, and as our king to rule and reign over us with power
and wisdom. He is the Christ of God. Jesus of Nazareth is the very
Christ. They said, Peter or Paul there
in the book of Acts said, this Jesus whom you crucified is Lord
and Christ. He's the one sin of God. Not
only that, he's the Christ, but he's also Jesus. That means he's
the Savior. That's what the word means. The
angel from heaven declared, call his name Jesus, he shall save
his people from their sin. He is the savior, the savior
of sinners. Now my friend, he is both totally
God, the anointed, the son of God, God himself, and at the
same time, he's the God-man, Jesus, the savior, the substitute,
the shepherd, the sacrifice to put away our sin. Now how can
he be God and man at the same time? Good question, isn't it? Listen to the scripture in 1
Timothy 3, 16. Look over there. Paul says, without
controversy, without debate, great is the mystery of godliness. God, God was manifest in the
flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into
glory. The one who died for our sin
is both God and man, and he had to be both. You see, God can't
suffer and man can't satisfy, but the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is our mediator, there's one mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. This is the person of
the gospel, and it's who he is. that gives power and glory and
merit and saving efficacy to what he did. Something else we
see on this point, Christ Jesus came into this world. This is
the very one who came. God Almighty came into this world. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. He didn't come of His own will. He came being sent of God as
the God-man. He didn't come unsent or uncommissioned. He had the Father's authority.
He prayed in John 17, The Father hath given me power over all
flesh. He had the Father's approval.
The Father spoke from heaven and said, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. He had the Father's appointing,
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. You have taken Him by wicked
hands, have crucified and slain the Lord of glory. You see the
certainty of the Gospel, it's faithful and it's worthy. You
see the person of the Gospel, Jesus Christ, came into this
world. Now lastly, my last point is
this, I told you three things from this verse. The third point
is this, we see the purpose of the gospel, the purpose of the
gospel. Look at the text again. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptation that Christ Jesus
came to the world to save sinners, to save sinners. There is not
a word in this text, nor in the entire Bible about Jesus Christ
coming to help sinners save themselves. We read in the book of Titus,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us. You see, we were lost. He must
find us. We were dead. He must quicken
us. We were guilty. He must justify
us freely by His grace. There's not a word in this text
nor in the entire Bible about Jesus Christ coming to help us
save ourselves. He must save us. He's the Savior.
Nor does this text in Scripture teach us that he died to put us in a savable
state or to make our salvation a possibility. Now, will you
hear me? My friend, when he shed his blood
at Calvary, dying in the place and the room and the stead of
his people as their substitute, as their surety, those for whom
he stood, those for whom he died, They must be saved from all their
sin. You see, He didn't come to put
all men in a savable state or to make salvation a possibility.
My friend, He died to put away the death, to put away the sin
by His death. By his blood, by his sacrifice,
he died to accomplish salvation for his people. This is what
we read in scripture. He said at Calvary, it is finished.
He didn't say it was started. He didn't say I have begun a
work. He said it is finished. We read in Hebrews 9. As our
high priest, he didn't bring the typical animal sacrifice,
he brought his own blood, and with his own blood, and by himself,
he obtained eternal redemption for us. You see, this text says
that he came to save, not to attempt, not to try, but to save
and to put away the sin of his people. He came to save, whom
did he come to save? Look at the text again. He came
to save sinners. Whom did he come to save? Sinners. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, but sinners unto repentance. You see, the only
one who needs a Savior are those who are guilty. Christ Jesus,
the real Savior, came to save real sinners. We read in the
Book of Romans that Christ died for the ungodly. The chief Savior
came to save the chief of sinners. That's what Paul said. He said,
I'm the chief one. here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation
for our sin, for sinners. He shed real blood to put away
real sin. Now, let me make three obvious
conclusions. The first one is this, sin is
difficult to put away. The blood sacrifice of animals
that flowed on Jewish altars could not atone for sin. Sin is so difficult to put away
that God Himself had to provide Himself a sacrifice to put away
our sin. He is the Lamb of God. He did
appear once in the end of the age to put away sin. Let us be
careful to give Him all the glory for this great salvation, all
the glory now and forever. and help us to say with David,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name do we give
glory. The second conclusion is this.
If Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, depend
upon it He accomplished it. He can do it. He paid the price
enough to redeem. We're not redeemed with the corruptible
thing, but with the precious blood of Christ. The blood he
shed is sufficient to redeem, and the blood he shed is sufficient
to cleanse us from all sin. My friend, never despair. The
Lord Jesus Christ is able to save even you. He can save a
sinner like me. Surely He's able to save such
as you. Listen to the promise of Scripture.
He's able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him,
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us. And the
third conclusion is this. The question at the moment is
really this. For whom did the Lord Jesus Christ
die? It says here that He came to
save sinners. Now, the question is this. Are
you a sinner? Guilty, condemned, ruined, dead
in sin, born in sin, shapen in iniquity. Is that your case? Is that your condition? There's
always hope for real sinners because we have a real Savior. Our Lord said, Believe. Paul
said to that Philippian jailer, when that jailer said, What must
I do to be saved? And Paul corrected him and said,
the gospel's not doing, the gospel's not received by doing, but by
believing. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The father loveth the
son, and giveth all things into his hand. He said, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God will abide on him. Listen to this promise of the
gospel again. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners of whom I am chief.