Good morning. It's good to be
here with you all. Abby wasn't able to come along
with me, and she was sad about that, but Isaac and Clara seemed
to know the way down here, so they were happy to travel along. Appreciate them, appreciate Jimmy
and Sarah taking such good care of us last night. We felt like
we were home just as soon as we pulled into the driveway.
I'd ask you to open your Bible with me to 1 Timothy chapter
1. We're gonna be looking at verse
15 of 1 Timothy 1, but before we begin, let's go to our Lord
in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity
to gather together. Lord, thank you that you've brought
us together here in this place and pray that you would bless
us with your presence. Lord, that you would take this
time, take this word, bless it to our hearts. Lord, teach us
from these thy scriptures. Lord, we pray for this gathering
here and in all places where thy people, Lord, where you've
brought them together to meet, bless the preaching and the hearing
of your word. Lord, we thank you for your many
blessings. We thank you for all that your hands provided. Lord,
above all things, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray
you would teach us more of him. Bless us to know the Savior.
It's in his name we pray and give thee thanks. Amen. We're gonna look at verse 15 of 1 Timothy
1. Here we read, this is a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Paul says this
is a faithful, this is a faithful saying. This is a sure saying. This is a true saying. This is
a statement to be believed. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. It's a saying that's not to be
debated. It's not to be doubted. It's
not to be argued. It's simply to be believed. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. I have three questions. I want
us to ask and answer in relation to this passage. Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. The first question is this. What
is a sinner? What is a sinner? In God's word,
we read of those who were known. Known as sinners. People knew
them as sinners. Turn with me to Luke chapter
7. Luke chapter 7, beginning with verse 36. Luke 7, 36, And one of the Pharisees
desired him, desired the Lord Jesus Christ, that he would eat
with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and he sat
down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city,
which was a sinner. She was known as a sinner. When
she knew that Jesus said it meet in the Pharisee's house, brought
an alabaster box of ointment. I tell you, she was wise, wasn't
she? She was a sinner and she sought,
she sought Christ. Verse 38, she stood at his feet,
behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears,
and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet,
and anointed them with ointment. Now when the Pharisees, the Pharisee
which had bidden him saw it, when he saw this, he spake within
himself saying, this man, he only knew him as a man, this
man, If he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner
of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. Others, others knew her as a
sinner. We read in God's word of those
who knew themselves as sinners. They knew of themselves to be
sinners. Paul, in this text this morning,
he says, he says, he says, not only am I a sinner, he said,
I'm the chief. I'm the chief of sinners. You
know, Paul had grown up in, Paul had grown up in false religion.
But he would have been seen in his time as a religious man. as a religious man. Turn with
me to Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three. Beginning in verse four. Paul said, though I might have
confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he might
trust in himself, whereof to glory in himself, in this flesh,
I mourn. I mourn. Circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness, which is of
the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, he said, those I count loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, whom I've suffered the loss of all
things. And he said, I count them but done. that I may win
Christ. And this man, he says, I'm the
chief. I'm the chief of sinners. In
Luke 8, I won't have you turn there, but remember that publican? Remember that publican that wouldn't
even raise his eyes to heaven? But he smote upon his chest,
crying, Lord, be merciful. Be merciful unto me, the sinner. So what is? What is a sinner? It's one who has broken God's
law. Broken God's law. Transgression
of God's law, and we can trace it back to the garden. All the
way back to the garden, when Adam broke God's law. One law,
one law at that. My Sunday school class at home,
we talk and, you know, I think most classrooms, they have four
or five rules that everybody's supposed to follow. Just four
or five. And they're usually simple little
rules. Stay in your seat. Raise your
hand to be called upon. Things that would be very easy,
we would think, to follow. And I'll ask them, how many of
you have obeyed all of those rules all year? And nobody can
raise their hand. I said, well, how about four?
How about three? How about two? How about one? Just one of them. Nobody ever
can raise their hand. It's our nature, isn't it? We
cannot obey the law. Adam had one law. God told him
this. He said, of every tree, imagine
how beautiful that garden had to be. Of every tree in that
garden, you can freely eat. but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Don't eat it. Don't eat it, for
in the day you eat thereof, you're gonna die. Thou shalt surely
die." And we don't know how long that lasted. We don't know how
long that took, but I suspect it was a short, short amount
of time. Adam took that fruit and he ate
of it. He disobeyed, he disobeyed God. He sinned against God. And that
sin that he's guilty of, we're guilty of. We're dead in trespasses
and sin. Romans 5 19 says this, by one
man, by one man, by Adam, sin entered into the world. Now,
I'm not asking this question. I didn't say, listen, am I a
sinner? Let's ask that question, am I
a sinner? Not is the person next to me
a sinner, person behind me, the person in front of me, or can
I think of someone who's worse than me? Am I a sinner? That's personal, isn't it? Am
I a sinner? Have I broken, listen, have I
broken God's law? Have I broken God's law? Just
even in one part. Just in a small, small way. God's law requires absolute perfection. God's holy. God is absolutely
holy. He can't treat sin like a grandparent
treats the mess up of one of their kids, right? We can wink
at that. We can overlook those things.
When God looks upon sin, he's offended by it. And the wages
of sin, the wages of sin is death. James 2.10 says this, whosoever
shall keep the whole law, the entire law, and offend in one
point, he's guilty. He's guilty of all. He's guilty
of all. And you know, we're not at liberty.
We don't have the freedom to obey and neglect God's commandments
as we see fit. The Pharisees tried this. They would do that. They were
outwardly moral. On the outside, I'm sure they
looked, dressed in their robes and all those fancy things, I'm
sure they were impressive when they walked the streets on the
outside. But on the inside, no different
than any of the rest of us. Wicked and sinful. Turn with
me to a couple of scriptures. Turn to Matthew 19. Matthew chapter 19. What is a sinner? It's one who's
broken God's law. Am I, am I a sinner? Look at Matthew 19. Look at beginning
with verse 16. And behold, one came and he said
unto him, he said, good master, what good thing shall I do that
I may have eternal life? And he said unto them, why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God, but if thou would enter into life, keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. And I just think that the nerve
of this young fellow, he says, which? Which one? And Jesus said,
thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou
shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy
father and thy mother, thou shalt love the neighbors thyself. And
the young man said unto him, all these things, all these things
have I kept from my youth up. Is that possible? Is that possible? I mean, that's a pretty good
list to start with here. Is it possible that this young
man obeyed and did all these things? The Lord Jesus Christ
on the Sermon on the Mount, he said this, he said, whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause, he shall be in danger
of the judgment. I wonder if he'd ever been angry
with his- the only way he could have never been angry with his
brother is if he had been an only child, right? He said, whosoever
looketh on a woman with lust after her hath committed adultery
in his heart already. But yet this young man, he says,
all of these things, all these things have I kept from my youth
up. And you know, I would say outwardly,
outwardly, he probably kept them. I'd say in front of his parents.
I'd say when he was around his parents, he kept those laws.
I'd say he kept them pretty well, outwardly. I'd say in front of
his neighbors, he probably kept them. Probably somebody crossed
the street, pulled in the driveway, and they was carrying groceries,
he probably ran over there and opened the door. That probably
looked real good. I'd say in front of that religious
crowd. I'd say when he went to the synagogue, he was maybe the
first one there and the last one to leave. Probably seemed
sweeping and dusting and all these things, outwardly. No doubt he looked good. But
think about all the way back there in the Old Testament. Remember
what God said to Samuel when he would anoint David king? He
said this, he said, don't look on his countenance or on the
height of his stature, for I have refused him. For the Lord seeth
not as man seeth. Man looketh on the outward appearance.
That's the best we can judge, folks, by the outward appearance.
And that works, that may work among us. But God, God looks
so far beyond that. God looks on the heart. God knows
our thoughts. God knows what's going on up
in our mind, what's going on in our heart. Not the outward
appearance. God looks on the heart. Paul
writing to the Hebrews, he said, neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things. All things are
open and naked unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God sees, God sees all. So back
to this man who said, all these things have I kept from my youth
up. Are you still in Matthew 19?
Look at verse 21. Jesus said to him, He said, if you'll be perfect,
you go and you sell everything you have and you give it to the
poor. And then, then you'll have treasure
in heaven. You go do that, you'll have treasure
in heaven, and then you come follow me. Well, that's where the rubber
met the road, so to speak, wasn't it? But when the young man heard
that, when he heard that saying, he went away sorrowful. He went because he had great
possessions. That rich young man, he didn't need Christ, did he?
He needed his possessions. He needed his possessions. He
wasn't interested. He wasn't interested in Christ.
He was simply interested in the things of this world. We read
this earlier, but Paul said, he said, I count all things.
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. He said, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but done. That I may
win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is of
my faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of
the dead. Am I a sinner? Am I a sinner? Have I broken God's law? Have
I offended in even one point? Again, to be just one point,
to just come up that short is to be guilty of the whole law,
a transgressor. A sinner is one that's broken
God's law and helpless to do anything, to do anything about
it. The scriptures use different ailments, but leprosy, blindness,
death is a picture of sin and inability. That leper, remember
when that leper went to our Lord and he said, if you will, if
you will, you can make me, you can make me whole. I can't do
anything about it. I can't do anything about my
leprosy. That blind man, remember blind Bartimaeus out there on
the roadside? And he cried out, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. I need you. I need you to do
something for me, something I cannot do for myself. Lazarus, and if
that's not convincing enough, what about Lazarus? What could
Lazarus do for himself? There he is laying in the grave.
His body smelled horrific. He had laid there so long. What
can Lazarus do? Can Lazarus walk an aisle? Can
Lazarus straighten up and fly right? What can Lazarus do? Lazarus
can do nothing because he's dead. That's where the Lord Jesus Christ
finds each and every one of his people dead. Dead in trespasses
and sin and in power. In power, he speaks. He says,
Lazarus, come forth. And what did the scriptures declare?
He that was dead came forth. How's that possible? How can
a dead man come forth? Well, with the command comes
the power. It's all of Him. It's all of
Him. Am I a sinner? Have I disobeyed
God's law? Have I broken God's holy law?
Am I helpless to do anything about it? The scriptures declare
this. In case there was any wondering
in your mind, am I a sinner? The scriptures declare all have
sinned. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. I think about this. Daniel told
King Belshazzar, he said, you've been weighed in the balance and
you've been found wanting. You've been found wanting. Well,
my third question. My third question is this, for
whom did Christ die? For whom did Christ die? Who did the Lord Jesus Christ
come to save? Well, we read he didn't come
to call the righteous. The righteous don't need a savior,
do they? They're banking on themselves. Mark 2, 17 describes And the Pharisees, they saw our
Lord eating with publicans and sinners. And they said unto his
disciples, how is it, how is it that he eateth and drinketh
with publicans and sinners? How is that? And when Jesus heard
it, when the Lord Jesus Christ heard that, he said unto them,
he said, the whole, the whole don't need a physician. but they
that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners, sinners to repentance. And this is repeated in Matthew
and Luke. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners. He came to call sinners to repentance.
You know, that doesn't mean much to some folks, that the Lord
Jesus Christ came to call sinners, but to a sinner To a sinner,
it means everything, doesn't it? It means, it means everything. He's everything. Isn't that what
the scriptures declare? Christ, Christ is all. Christ
is all. And that's good news. That's
good news for a lost sinner, isn't it? I was thinking about
this, 40 years ago, about 40 years ago, me and my cousin,
My grandparents had a little vacation spot by a lake. And
we would go there three or four times a year. And there's really
nothing there. We'd get all excited about it.
But it was just an old cabin with, I think it had electric.
There was no running water. Had to go to an outhouse. I mean,
but it was a fun place to go. And not too far through the woods,
there was a lodge. And that lodge was nice. Oh,
it was nice. It had an indoor pool. It had
an arcade. Some of you younger ones probably
don't know what an arcade is, but most of us in here do, right?
We'd take our pocket full of quarters and we'd go running
through the woods to go to that lodge. And my grandpa told me,
Papa told me, he said, boys, be back before dark. It was about
a mile walk through the woods. He said, be back before dark.
Well, young boys being young boys, we found ourselves at the
lodge, and it was dark. And we came back, we thought,
surely, we didn't have no flashlight, we had no way to get back. And
we went to the edge of the woods, and we stopped. We were scared. There was no way we were going
to get home. We were lost. Even though we
were in that big, we went back to that lodge, and we were lost. No way home. And I don't know
how. I don't know how, but my papaw
showed up in the front of that place in his pickup truck. And
we were relieved. We were relieved. He said, boys,
get in the truck. We're going home. And you know,
he never said nothing about that. He never breathed a word about
it. I thought we were going to be in big trouble. And he took us home. And again,
not another word about it. I looked this up, that lodge
is still there. There's room for about 200 people
in that lodge. And as I recall, it was full. To those 200 people, my papaw
showing up in the driveway and saying, get in the back of the
truck, it didn't mean nothing to them. But boy, it did to us. We were lost. We had no way home
without him. And he came and he got us. And
He took us home. Boy, it meant something. It meant
everything. It meant everything to us. Turn with me to one more scripture
and we'll close. Look at Luke chapter 23. When our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God, when He made Himself of no reputation, when He came
to this earth and He took upon Himself the form of a servant,
when He was made in the likeness of man, being found in the fashion
of man, He humbled Himself and He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. He that bore our sins in His
body on the tree. As He hung there on that cross,
He was between two thieves. Two thieves. Look here in Luke
23. Look beginning with verse 39.
It says here, one of the male factors.
Here He is between these two thieves. One of the male factors
which were hanged railed on Him. Oh, he was just giving him a
time. He said, if thou be the Christ,
you save thyself and us. That was one of those thieves.
He had no need of Christ, did he? Look at verse 40. The other answering rebuked him. And he says, dost thou, dost
not thou fear God? seeing that we're in the same
condemnation, we're gonna die. We're gonna die right here. And
we, we indeed justly, we got this coming to us, this thing
of death, we've got it coming to us. But this man, he's done
nothing amiss. He's done nothing wrong. And
he said unto Jesus, he said, Lord, Something had been revealed to
this thief on the cross. If we read back earlier, he was
railing on him as well, but something had changed. He says, Lord, he
says, Master, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, verily, truly, I say unto thee today,
today, this very day, thou shalt be with me in paradise. I suspect that fellow was able
to close his eyes in peace. Salvation. Deliverance. It doesn't
mean anything to most, but boy, to a sinner, to a sinner, to
a hell-deserving sinner, it means everything. This is a faithful
saying. This is a true saying. This is
a saying worth believing. This is not to be debated. Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners. Well, we'd be wise
to take our place as a sinner, wouldn't we? All right. Let's go to our Lord in prayer.