All right, beloved, 1 Timothy 1. I just wanna read verse 15, 1 Timothy 1, 15. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. This is a faithful saying. This is God-breathed. All scriptures, God-breathed. The Holy Spirit gave men the word to write, and they penned it, they wrote it, but this is the word of God. That's why it's a faithful saying. It's the saying of the one faithful God concerning the one faithful Redeemer, Christ Jesus. And it's worthy of all acceptation. All men should accept this. All men should believe on Christ. All should. But it's gonna take the grace of God creating a new heart. It's gonna take the grace of God creating faith in a man. It's gonna take this Lord Jesus power making a man willing Only then will a man accept this faithful saying, only then. Now here it is, Christ came into the world to save sinners. Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. God the Father sent him, but he came willingly. The Son of God came down willingly. He took flesh like unto his brethren, willingly. Our Lord Jesus made himself under the law like his people, willingly. He did everything he did in perfect obedience to the Father, in love to God and to his people, and he did it willingly. He went to the cross, laid down his life willingly to save his people. Christ came into the world to save sinners. But note that second part there. Note who he came to save. He came into the world to save sinners. Our Lord didn't come to call the righteous. He didn't come to call men who think they're righteous by something they've done. He didn't come to call them. He came into the world to save sinners. Our Savior came to this world to save those that Adam made sin by his disobedience because we've rebelled against God. He came to save those that have a sin nature that's corrupt, those that cannot save themselves, that know they cannot. That's who he came to save. Now, here's my first question. I only have two questions. Here's my first question. Are you the sinner? Are you the sinner? You that have never confessed Christ, are you the sinner? The question must be answered for ourselves. We must be brought to the place where we answer this question for ourselves. Am I the sinner? All are sinners. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All are sinners. But not all know themselves to be sinners, and not all confess to God they are the sinner. When Adam sinned, you know what he did right away? He made fig leaves to try to cover his nakedness. He knew he was naked. Men know something of sin, but they try to cover their sin with fig leaves. Fig leaves like, well, I'm not as bad as that man. That's a fig leaf. You know, I do this, I do that, I do the other, that's a fig leaf. But the fig leaf's never enough. Because when the voice of the Lord came walking in the cool of the day, and Adam heard the voice of the Lord, his fig leaf wasn't enough. He went and hid in the trees. He tried to cover himself in the trees. That's what men do. Their fig leaf's not enough, so they try to go into an assembly amongst the trees of righteousness, which are the planting of the Lord, his people, and try to hide themselves in religion. That won't hide you. That won't hide you. You and I can't make a garment to cover ourselves. The sinfulness we are, we can't cover ourselves. And we can't hide ourselves and do enough religion to make ourselves accepted of God. See, the problem is this, all are sinners. All are sinners, but not everyone knows themselves to be the sinner. Only those the Lord makes to know and confess, I am the sinner. Are you the sinner? Has the Lord made you confess, I am the sinner? Joseph Hart wrote this hymn. To understand these things are right, I'm only reading about three verses, but he said, to understand these things are right, this grand distinction should be known. Though all are sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in their own. To such as these our Lord was sent, they are only sinners who repent. What comfort can a savior bring? to those who never felt their woe. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. New life from him we must receive before for sin we rightly grieve. This faithful saying led us on. Well worthy tis to be believed that Christ into the world came down that sinners might by him be saved. Sinners are high in his esteem, and sinners highly value him. You see, we have to be made to know we're the sinner by the Spirit, by God, before we will know our need of Christ. Our Lord Jesus said, they that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You see, if we don't know we're sick, if we don't know we're the sinner, we're not gonna need the great physician. If we not see what sinners we are, we will not need Christ Jesus the righteous. As long as a man thinks he's whole, he doesn't need a physician. We gotta be made to see we're sick. He gotta make us know personally we're the sinner. Are you sick? Are you the sinner? This is what the Lord's gonna bring us to deal with personally. And the Lord knows the heart and he's gonna bring us personally to answer this question. Can you confess to God from a true heart and declare what God declares? Look at Isaiah one and look at verse five. Here's what God declares. This wasn't just so of Israel, this is so of every sinner in this world. This is what the Lord makes his child know. Look here, Isaiah 1, 5. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. It's not gonna do any good for the Lord to try to whip you into obedience. He said you're gonna keep rebelling. The whole head is sick. And the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even to the head, there's no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they've not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Brethren, look at verse nine. Except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like Gomorrah. They brought all these sacrifices, and look at verse 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I'm full of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed bees. I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who's required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblation. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies. I cannot away with it, its iniquity, even the solemn meeting. On and on he goes. Look at verse 18. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse or rebel, you'll be devoured with a sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. How you gonna be obedient? You gonna be made to come to Christ and confess, I am the sinner. From the sole of my foot to the top of my head, I'm sick, I'm full of sin, that's all I am. I need mercy, Lord, I need you, Lord, I need you to make me white as snow. Is that you? Are you the sinner? Here's the good news, if you are, Christ came into the world to save sinners. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, We deceive ourselves. We're not deceiving God, we deceive ourselves. The truth's not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word's not in us. Now that's the first question. To you that have never believed on Christ, are you the sinner? Now, here's my second question. For us who have believed on Christ, for us who have confessed Christ, are you the sinner? Am I the sinner? The Lord Jesus made Paul to own this about himself. This man who Christ had called, this man who Christ had made righteous and holy, this man declared right here And he said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. He said, I am chief. I am the chief of sinners. Now, one of the devil's most cunning methods, one of his most cunning methods is to deceive a professing believer into thinking he's no longer a sinner. I said a professing believer because the Lord's not gonna let his child be deceived with this. The man who professes to believe Christ, who thinks he has grown to the point where he no longer sins, that he just needs to work on a few more things, he's almost right, that he's not sinning like he was and that he's getting better and better and better, that man's deceived. That man's deceived. It's a deceptive means of the devil to make a professing believer think that the sinful Pharisees are those people in that other denomination. They're out there. That's a deceit of the devil right there. If a man that claims to believe on Christ thinks he's grown beyond sin or thinks he's He's put away so much and he's so much better by what he's done and he's making himself more holy by his works. This man is deceived. He doesn't need Christ. If we just need Christ to make up the difference, that's not a sinner. That's not who Christ came to redeem. Not somebody just needs you to make up I got it this far, I just need you to make up the extra. That's not a sinner. That's not who Christ came to redeem. What's the problem there? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? We can't know our own heart. Our own sinful nature, our own sinful heart can deceive us and we not even know we're deceived. Galatians 6.3 says, if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. The spirit of the Lord's gonna keep his child knowing, I am the sinner. Brethren, isn't it, doesn't it cause you sorrow to know you're a sinner? Doesn't it cause you grief to know you are a sinner? But I'm gonna tell you something, that's a blessing of the Lord to keep you knowing you are the sinner. That keeps you knowing you need the physician. That keeps you knowing you need Christ. You need Christ today the same as you needed him yesterday. We're not getting to a point where I don't need him quite as bad today, because I'm not quite at the center I was yesterday. Nobody that's, claims they're making themselves holy by their work. Nobody would make that statement. Nobody would say, I don't need Christ as much now as I needed him yesterday. They wouldn't say that. But that's what they're saying when they're saying, I'm not as bad as I was. I'm better, I'm getting holier. That's saying, I don't need him quite as bad. I just need him to make up the difference. That's not a sinner. The Lord's gonna keep you who he is, as painful as it is for you, He's gonna keep you knowing you're the sinner. Whom he loves, he chastens. To keep you partaking of what? His holiness. Not any that you produced. His holiness. Paul was the sinner in days past. He was in days past. He said there in verse 12, he said, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelieved. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Yes, he said, the Lord, I was before. He persecuted the church. He was blaspheming God. He was very injurious. He held the coats while they stoned Stephen. He voted to put believers to death. So yeah, he was. But here he is now, present tense, toward the end of his life, and he said, this is a faithful savior. The Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. I am chief. Go with me to Romans 7. Oh, there he goes again to Romans 7. Oh, brethren, I'm gonna keep going to Romans 7, and the Lord's people want you to keep going to Romans 7, because we need to hear this. We need to be reminded, Romans 7, 14, this is Paul, holy Paul, made holy by the Lord Jesus. given true faith by the Lord Jesus, granted real repentance by Christ from trusting anything about himself. This is the believer, the holy believer Paul, and he said in verse 14, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, soul under sin. See, he just got through answering this question in Romans 6, what we get accused of. Are you saying that if I believe what you believe, I just sin that grace may abound? We don't preach that, we don't believe that. We don't. That's a self-righteous Pharisee unwilling to let go of his so-called righteousness and believe Christ alone. But Paul, in answering that, the Spirit of God made him start right here. This is where he started in answering that question. No, we don't believe that we sin that grace may abound, but the same as we're not justified by the works of the law, we're not sanctified by the works of the law either. Why? Because we know the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it's good. It's doing what it was made to do. It's telling me I'm the sinner. Now then, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Christ dwells in our new man. There's our holiness. Sin dwells in our old man. Sin. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with me, that's in the new man. That's why I said this morning, brethren, you have to have a new man, given a new will. It's not the flesh believing, it's the new man. The will is present with me, but how I perform that which is good I find not, look at verse 20. And if I do that, I would not. It's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me all the time. For I delight in the law of God after inward man. See, that's the new man, the inward man. That man is not corruptible, born of the incorruptible seed. I delight in the law of God. but I see another law in my members, in my sin nature, warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. It's not been put away, it is in there, it's in my members. Oh, wretched man that I was, know that I am. that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then, with my new man, I serve the law of God, but with my old man, the law of sin. But here's the good news. There's now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. To you that have this warfare in you, No condemnation, Christ has redeemed us. Now, Paul was a pattern. He said back in our text in 1 Timothy 1.16, he said, I bid for this cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth a pattern for all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. But that pattern, brethren, is not only that Christ called him when he was dead in sin, That pattern is the mercy of our Lord Jesus to his people as believers because we still need mercy and we still need grace and we see the long suffering of our Lord Jesus continuing to lead us and guide us and keep us and provide for us. Our Lord Jesus redeemed his people. He put all this in a way and made us righteous. Everybody the father gave to him and he shall come to each one and give us life. He is the life that he gives. He prayed in his high priestly prayer, John 17, and said, Father, you've given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. He said, I've manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. He said, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them thou hast given me. And he said, and for them who shall believe on me through their word. And I pray, Father, that you sanctify them, keep them sanctified. And he said, and I sanctify myself. I have walked separate and holy from sinners. And he went to the cross that he might be the gospel, the truth, whereby his people are sanctified and kept sanctified. And God, our Father, for the sake of his Son, for the sake of our Savior, because his justice is satisfied, He's gonna send this gospel and call each one of his people, and when he calls us, he's not gonna let us perish. He's gonna keep us. But because the wisdom of God, he's chosen to leave us in this body of death, with this sin that we still have, to keep us knowing our need of the Lord Jesus. But because of the Lord Jesus, the Father's long-suffering to us. Psalm 103.10, He's not dealt with us after our sins. He hath rewarded us according to our iniquities. Our sins are our immorality. Our iniquities are the righteous things that don't equal the righteousness of God. They're inequitable. They don't equal up to what God requires. But the Lord has not dealt with us by what we deserve. As heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy to us, to them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Like a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him, because he knows our frame, he remembers we are dust. There's the pattern of longsuffering we see in Paul. The Lord through the Spirit, he makes us mortify our flesh. He makes us, he, through this gospel, Christ speaks in power, and he makes the old man decrease, and he gives you strength to mortify. But we don't glory in that. We don't look at ourselves and say, look what I did. We know the Lord did that, and the Lord does it in a way that you know the Lord did it. So we give him all the glory for that. But brethren, the Lord's gonna make you discern that that sin nature's still with you. Hadn't he done that? We see our sin. We're like David. My sin's everywhere before me. I took a nap yesterday afternoon. I never do this. I took a nap yesterday afternoon. So last night, 10 o'clock, I'm wide awake. And I couldn't sleep. And I laid there last night just thinking, I'm such a sinner. I am such a sinner. Somebody, you know, somebody will say, well, you act like that we have to be sinners or we won't know anything about the grace of God. That's exactly right. That's exactly what this is saying. You have got to be made to know your sin. or you won't have a need for Christ. He came to save sinners, and he's gonna keep his born again, the child he's robed in his righteousness, imputed his righteousness to, he's gonna keep you knowing that you still need him because you're still a sinner. I kept thinking of that, and oh, I'm the sinner, I'm the sinner, and then I just said, I started thinking about the Lord. I started thinking about how holy God is and how righteous God is. And I started thanking him for what he's done for me. And that's the only thing that I have. I have nothing else. I don't have reason to put confidence in anything else. This is my life. This right here has been my life. for 30 years preaching. I study and I go preach. I study and I go preach. And I can't put any confidence in this to make God receive me. I cannot, I don't want to stand before God saying, the Lord, will you receive me because I preached in your name? I can't stand before God based on that. There's enough sin mixed with my study and my preaching. I don't see myself as faithful. There's enough sin mixed in that. Here's my confidence, brethren, the Lord alone. Can't you say that? Isn't that what we, this is why he keeps you seeing your sin, so your only confidence is Christ. And here's growth in grace, brethren. Let me talk about this growth in grace. Yes, the Lord makes you mortify your flesh and you put away sin. He makes you put it away and put on the new man. But the Lord makes you discern as he grows you in the grace and knowledge of him, knowing more of him, having more of the light of Christ. As he does that, you see yourself sinful. You see more sin that you didn't see that was sin. You thought sin was just outward. But now you see sin, you see sin is in what you didn't see it was in before. And it's present with you. And growth in grace and knowledge of Christ doesn't make a true believer imagine that we no longer sin. That would be a foolish thing to think. It doesn't grow us to the place where we think that we're getting more and more and more holy and making ourselves ready for heaven, it makes you see Christ more. And he makes you see your need of Christ more because you see sin in things you didn't see it. But you see yourself as being as forgiving as God says be, or as merciful as the Lord says be, or as forbearing, never saying anything negative about brethren, never thinking anything negative about brethren. These are things that we didn't see these things as sinful when we were younger in the faith. We were focused on the major outward thing. You see, you see sin where you didn't see it. But the Lord keeps you seeing Christ more and more. And it keeps you confessing to him your sin and your need. Because now you see that it's against Christ. It's against the Lord. Go to Psalm 51. I can't preach this without reading this. Psalm 51. Listen to David. This is him confessing his sin to the Lord. He said, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, "'Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, "'and done this evil in thy sight, "'that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, "'and be clear when thou judgest.' "'He said in verse seven, "'Purge me with hyssop, and I'll be clean. "'Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.'" That's what the Lord, that's where he brings you, brethren. He brings you because you see your sin, more and more you see, He ascends against Christ, the very one who put it away. And that's the sorrow about sin, is it's against the Lord, I want to please because of what he's done for me. But see where it brought David, he keeps you coming to him and begging of him. And this is the joy we have. Here's the joy he restores in your heart. What John said in 1 John 2, But when you do, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the propitiation for our sin. Wherever his people are in this world, he's their propitiation. And this is the purpose, brethren, of the Lord continuing to chasten us and make us see our sin and come to Christ is that we might see him in his glory. and in his glory as our advocate. And no, he's my only righteous. He's my only sin atoning propitiation before the Lord. I've shown you this and I know other preachers have, but I'm gonna show you again. Go with 1 Corinthians 15. Show you what true growth in grace is. 1 Corinthians 15. This was earlier in Paul's life as a believer. And this is where the Lord, when you start out, the Lord makes you to see this right here about yourself. Paul said, 1 Corinthians 15, nine, I am the least of all the apostles. Now think about that. That's pretty bad. You got 11 other apostles. Paul said, I'm the least of them. that I'm not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace which bestowed upon me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Go to Ephesians three. Lord kept Paul. gave him more light to see Christ, and with that light comes a little better discernment of our sin. And now listen to what Paul says. Ephesians 3, 7, he says, I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power. unto me who am less than the least of all saints." Now he sees himself worse than he did in the beginning. Now it's not just the apostles, you take all the saints and he says, I'm less than the least of all of them. You see how he's growing? He's growing down in his esteem of himself. He said, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. No more talk about his labor, now he's talking about the unsearchable riches of Christ. And then in our text now, he's at the end of his life, and he says, This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Do you see it? Do you see that? Less than the apostles, less than the least of all the saints, I am the chief sinner. That's growth in grace. That's growth in grace in the knowledge of the Lord. When the light of Christ first shined, You see this building I'm in, it's got some flaws. And light comes up, starts shining, and it starts coming in through the windows, and you get more light, and you start saying, that wall doesn't look right. The floor doesn't look even. This thing's a little worse than I thought it was. The light keep continue, the sun of righteousness continues to rise, and that light shines more and more and more. And you begin to see, This whole house I'm living in is thoroughly condemned. There is nothing of which to depend on in it. That's growth in grace. You're growing down in your esteem of yourself. You see yourself more and more and more as nothing but a sinner, and you see Christ more and more as all, all and in all. That's growth, brethren. And then at the end of his life, in 2 Timothy 1.12, at first he sort of said, I labored, but not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Then he just spoke of the unsearchable riches of Christ. At the end of his life, he said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I've committed to him. It's all him or nothing. That's growth. That's different from this haughty thing of, well, I put away so much sin, I'm just almost right. John said, he must increase, I must decrease. He must increase, I must decrease. Our children grow up and they move out. The Lord grows his children up and he grows us nearer and nearer to him to trust him only. That's true growth in grace. And who do we glory? Who gets the glory? 1 Timothy 1.17, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Can I say amen? All right, Brother Greg.