If you will, let's open our Bibles
to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. Four times
in the Scriptures, Paul writes to us, this is a faithful saying. Three times he said this to Timothy.
One time he said it to Titus. This is a faithful saying. That's
going to be our text tonight. Our title, Faithful Sayings.
And those four scriptures, that's going to be our divisions. That's
what we'll look at. What is Paul getting at when
he uses words like faithful saying? This is a faithful saying. He
says this is trustworthy. What I'm about to tell you, this
is from God. This is His Word. It is sure. You can rely on this forever. You need to write this down,
and you need to read it often. Take notice, is what He's saying.
And these four statements, these sayings that the Holy Spirit
used Paul to write, and these four things that will
greatly comfort a sinner in need. If my words happen to fall in
the ears of a sinner in need, this will comfort you. These
are four great sayings. And if you just believed a long
time and you're real strong, strong in the faith, it's going
to help you have a better understanding of what the fundamental nature
of salvation is. Who saves? Who saved? And how we're saved? Then we're going
to look at what a faithful saying that gives us security, that
gives us comfort, that lets us know that we're preserved forever. Who preserved us? How we're preserved?
And finally, you who believe and you who are yet to be believers. The Lord is yet to call. In these
faithful sayings, we're going to see the product of salvation.
The fruit of salvation. That's what happens after a man
or woman is saved by the Lord. And they're given hope and reassurance. What that produces. There's a
product of that. There will be some evidence that
cups will spill over and something will come out. There's proof. What I'm about to show you, these
four sayings, they are trustworthy, these are from God, these are
His Word, and these are four things worthy to be accepted
by everyone. Young or old, rich or poor, weak
or strong, it doesn't matter. These are worthy of acceptance. These sayings merit acceptance. Look here in 1 Timothy 1 verse
15. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. This is the shoes, the
feet shod we looked at this morning of the gospel of peace. This
is the very foundation of salvation. This is where it all starts.
That's where it all culminates too. Jesus Christ came into this
world, the very one who thought it not robbery to be equal with
God because He is God. The one that left His throne
in glory. He descended to this sin-cursed
earth on purpose to save sinners. Of whom? Out of all them sinners,
I am chief." Who came? Christ the God-man, the Messiah,
came. That's who came. That prophet
that Moses wrote about. That priest that Melchizedek
was a type of. And He is the King that David
was picturing. He's the Lord of Glory. He is
the Christ. That same Jesus. That's who came. The angel told Joseph there in
Matthew 1, he said, She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall save his people. This is the same one Isaiah wrote
to us. He said, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a
sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and
shall call his name Emmanuel. Angel told Joseph, said, that's
God with us. Who came? Christ, God, the Savior
of His people, the Lord, God with us. That's who came. What
did He do when He came? He came into the world. The very
world He created, He came to. And you know what? The world
knew Him not. This condensation is so easy
to look at concerning those sinners. Isn't it? He was here and they
didn't even know Him. I'd have known Him. Would you? I checked, I was a sinner too.
I was born in this same dirt as everybody else is. He came
to us and we didn't even know Him. He came into this world
where I live. He walked the dirt that I'm made from. And for 33
years, God dwelt among us. He perfectly walked among demons. He perfectly walked among hell-deserving
sinners and Satan. And He walked perfectly in perfect
holiness, thought, word, and deed, looking solely to His Father,
honoring His Father, honoring the law perfectly. Why? Because those He came to save
must be holy. They must be perfect. They must
walk that way. That's why He came. That is how we're saved. Substitution. If you boil the whole gospel
of peace with God and Christ, free and sovereign grace, saving
grace, amazing grace that we sing of, if we were to boil that
down to two words, it would be substitution and satisfaction. Christ, the Almighty Godhead
in a body, came to this world that He created, living as our
substitute, was punished as our substitute, as us. He died as
our substitute, as us. He's risen from the tomb for
us, and us in Him, made one together because the Father was satisfied
in all points, forever. Because He was the substitute.
He was the Lamb. The Father satisfied. Who was
this for? Sinners. Not just people that's a little
bit bad. Not just somebody that needs a little bit of help. Sinners. That's who He came for. This
is a faithful saying, 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. God made me a preacher. I'm His ambassador to tell His
Word. Here's what I preach. If you
are the chief of sinners, if you are enmity with God, not
enmity at God, enmity with God, you're at war with Him. You're
His enemy. You're the worst offender against the Holy God of heaven
and earth. That's exactly who Christ came to save. That's good news. The Lord teaches
you you're a sinner. Not that you kind of sin or you're
a little bit bad. I'm the chief. That's good news. That is witnessing. Why is telling
someone about the gospel called witnessing sometimes? Because
we witness. We are eyewitnesses. We saw something
and we tell what we saw. It's not a fable. We don't add
to it. We don't puff it up. But you can't tell about something
you ain't never seen. You can't tell somebody about a God you've
never known. You can't tell somebody about love you've never been
loved with. We witness what we see. We're
ambassadors. We just give the word of the
one that sent us. I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the worst one
that ever lived. And Christ came to this earth
and was made sin for me so I would be made His righteousness. That
propitiation, that bloody sacrifice was accepted by God the Father
and I was plumb saved forevermore. You know what happened after
that? I was born. I came on the scene after that.
And then God the Holy Spirit come to me. And He told me about
this. He announced it. He revealed
Christ in me. Revealed the righteousness of
God in the face of Christ. Revealed my sin. That that's
what I am. A noun. To all of me. Every fiber in me. Christ is
all righteousness and that everything required in judgment is complete.
It's finished. Nothing's left other than me
to praise my Savior and to tell people about the man who saved
me. There was an old quote, it said,
the tribe of Christ is the only tribe where every member is a
chief. They're all chiefs of sinners.
It's only members. You know that guy that went to
the temple? There's two of them, didn't he? One of them went up
and said, Lord. He looked up, didn't he? And
he prayed to himself. Didn't he? Where was that other
man that was accepted of God looking? Down. Down at the ground. Was he looking next to him? He
said, boy, look at that publican. Where did he hit? Right where
the problem was. That's a chief of sinner. That's
who God came to save. When Christ sat down to eat lunch
one day, I'll tell you, every one of us would have a problem
with this. I've spoke about this a little bit in private. Every
one of us would have a problem if God started saving some real sinners
in this place, or what's told about it in this book. We'd cringe. If we saw what we was on the
inside, we'd cringe too, if He truly showed us. Christ sat down
to eat lunch one day, and He sat down with some dirty people.
He sat down with some uncomely folks. There was some publicans
there. There was sinners there. Prostitutes were there. Fishermen. Oh, they smelled, had hooks,
scars all over them, tattoos. Crippled folks were there. Blind
folks, sick folks were there. Lepers were there. Lepers. That's contagious. Uh-oh. Those self-righteous, prideful
men, they looked on and they said, who do you eat and drink
with, publicans and sinners? Who are you to eat with them
people? And he turned around and he said, they that are whole
need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to
call the righteous you self-righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance. Sinners. Inside and outside sinners. Seen and unseen sinners. That's
who He came to save. Preaching is one beggar telling
another beggar where he found bread. Where is there living
bread for sinners? Where is there life for sinners?
It's in Christ. He came to this earth and He
died for sinners. The very chief of them. The worst
ones out there. William Jay and John Newton.
Both faithful men of God back in the late 1700s. John Newton
wrote Amazing Grace. We all know him. Fewer people
know William Jay. I wander in Spurgeon's church.
If you listen to Spurgeon, you probably went back and read William Jay.
But William Jay went to John Newton one day and he said, Brother,
there's this man down the road, Mr. So-and-so. That guy's bad. And you know what? I was preaching
and the Lord worked in his heart and the Lord saved him. And after
I saw that man be saved, I knew that God would save anybody. John Newton looked at him and
said, you know what, Brother Jay? He said, after God saved
me, I realized God could save anybody. Are you the chief? Yes. Are you the worst sinner? Then to you! If that ain't you,
I ain't talking to you. I ain't got nothing for you.
Go on out. See how it works out for you. But to you, if you're
the chief of sinners, I've got a word for you. You can carry
this around in your pocket all week. This here will give you something
to chew. It is like a baby. You don't tell a young child, children of God, eat more.
Take bigger bites. Take small bites. Chew with your
mouth closed. Don't talk with your mouth open, with food in
your mouth. Here's something you can take.
You chiefs of sinners, put it in your pocket and carry it around
with you to last you all week. Verse 15, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. That's faithful. That's a good
saying. We ought to dwell on these things.
Soak it in, like a piece of hard candy. Wall it around your mouth
for a while. Take your time with it. Enjoy. That's good news. Alright, what's next? What do
sinners contribute to this work of salvation? Turn over a couple
pages to 1 Timothy 4, verse 8. 1 Timothy 4, verse 8. For bodily exercise profiteth
little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise
of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation." There's
a Lord writing to us through Paul to tell us not to do push-ups
and not to exercise and not to run, not to break a sweat. That's
not what He's telling us. Okay? but to obey the law. Not to do those things, but you
obey the law. You do good works. That's not what he's telling
us. He's telling us that all that physical exercise of religion,
outward religion, profits nothing. Profits very little. All the
doing, that's what he's talking about. What's the context of
this? Look up in verse 1. 1 Timothy 4.1. Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly that in the latter times, that's when we're living,
Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits."
And doctrines of devil. They don't have the helmet on.
Their ears are exposed. They start listening to everything.
Speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared
with a hot iron. Well, that's scary. What's going
to be the product of that? Two things. Watch it. Verse 3. Forbidding to marry and commanding
to abstain from meats. And the body, what's that mean?
Before you get married, you gotta go through my program. You young
folks, there's some counseling sessions gotta take place before
you get married. You gotta stay away from some meats. Child of
God can't eat a BLT. That ain't what it is. Forbidding
people spiritually to come to God. Forbidding them the meat that
He's allowed or anything else. You've got to be circumcised.
You can't eat this. You've got to eat that. You have
to wash your hands before you can be a child of God. You can't
wear certain clothes and be a child of God. Observing days. Children of God don't go to Halloween. What about all these restrictions?
What about all these meats? These heretics put on God's people.
Read on. "...forbidding to marry and commanding
to abstain from each which God hath created to be received with
thanksgiving of them which believeth and knoweth the truth." You that
have been taught of God, not taught of a man and not taught
of yourselves. If God's taught you something,
you know better. You know better. This exercise
does not give you salvation. It doesn't give you sanctification.
It doesn't give you repentance. It doesn't give you anything.
You eat whatever you want as long as it's received in our
body with thanksgiving, knowing that your Lord provided it, even
if that meat is sold from a false temple. God's got to teach us
that too, isn't He? Some people ain't learned it.
The Lord's got to teach it. Verse 4, for every creature of
God is good and nothing is to be refused if it be received
with thanksgiving, for it's sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
I'm going to shock some folks, and they ought to be shocked.
Lord, thank you for Christmas. There's one day a year that most
people have to acknowledge. It's in everybody's face that
Christ came to this earth. Well, that's something. Even
if they don't know what it means, they have to acknowledge it.
And I'm going to take that day, and I'm going to receive that
day, and I'm going to thank my God for that day. And some say,
well, other people abuse it. They didn't abuse at my house.
Don't bother me none. That don't affect me, does it?
If I was looking down, if I was beating this chest, not somebody
else's, don't bother me none. I'm thanking my God for it. I'm
going to thank my God for that day. What ought we to do out
of a debt of love? What's profitable? Those things
aren't. What's profitable in godliness? What is that? Witnessing
the truth of Christ and man. Telling God's Word. Proclaiming
it. Avoiding fleshly religion of our vain minds and looking
to our Redeemer. Look to Christ. That's good. That's godliness. Did you know
that? Look at verse 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance
of these things, You're a sinner, but Christ came to save sinners.
That's putting the brethren in remembrance. If thou put the
brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good
minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and
of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. How did you get
where you're at? God came and gently and loving
kindness, tenderly, nourished you and brought you up, didn't
He? Boy, it's easy with you. What'd
he say to Peter? Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know I love you. Whip my sheep. Well, no, that
ain't what he said, was it? Feed my sheep. Peter, do you
love me? Lord, I love you. Feed my sheep.
Peter, do you love me? Lord, you know all things. What'd
he say after that? Feed my giraffes. Feed my big
old rams. Feed my lambs. Feed my lambs,
the smallest, most tender lamb I got. Go give it tender grass. Verse 7, But refuse profane and
old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
You want to do something to serve God, our Lord that saved us? I want to do something to serve
God. Then do it. Here's your chance. Here's your
chance to serve Him. How can sinners BORN OF THIS
EARTH, SAVED BY GRACE, HOW CAN WE SERVE HIM? WE REMIND OUR BRETHREN
OF CHRIST. WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER. YOU THAT
WANT TO SERVE GOD, BE LONG-SUFFERING. BE KIND. BE GENTLE. BE MEEK. MAKE OURSELVES A SERVANT
AND NOT OURSELVES A HEAD HONCHO. MINISTER, PUT ON OUR HELMET. LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU. BE HUMBLE. I want to serve God. Humble yourself.
Verse 8. For bodily exercise profiteth
little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise
of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Put away
all religion. Superstition means overly religious. Put away superstition and believe
Christ and love the brethren. in the life now and in the life
to come. Don't put on a show for men.
Don't put on a show for God. God looks on the heart, doesn't
He? Outside, man, that really looks
like a child of God. You don't know the heart. Outside,
that sure don't look like a child of God. You don't know the heart.
Remember that act of faith that Rahab had? Every time I read that Christ
went up into the mountain. Isn't that what he did? He went
and preached to folks. He'd minister to them, feed them, and he'd
go up into a mountain to pray. Why do you think he went up into
a mountain to pray? Couldn't stand being around religious
folks. That drives me nuts. I can't stand it. And he was
holy. If it bothers me, imagine how
much it bothers him. people going on and on about
their faith, what they know, the scriptures they remember.
I know my own experiences. People tell me everything they
know. How much more so my master. God help us to come into His
presence and into His people with two ears and one mouth.
Let us look to learn something and to serve and not to instruct
and be submitted to. Those that declared to God They
said, look at all our wonderful works. He said there in Matthew
7, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. What is it to do the will of
the Father that's in heaven? Is that keeping everyone in check
under the law? Better not be eating that. You know what day
it is? Keep them lined up. Is that saying
what's going to come to pass and then it coming to pass? Well,
if you keep down that road, you know what's going to happen? Is it casting out
devils? That would be impressive to us,
wouldn't it? Healing sick folks? The Lord said, many will say
to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? In thy name have we not cast
out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? Lord, haven't
we done all these wonderful things in your name? Then while professing
to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. They came to Him declaring what they did, didn't they? Later
on in Matthew, back down in chapter 25, God speaks to His children
first. And He says, Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation
of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me meat. He goes
on, and they said, Lord, when will we ever see you hungry?
When we ever see you in prison and come visit you, when we ever
see you sick, he said you done it to the least of one of these.
That little, tiny, defenseless, helpless lamb, you did it to
me. Good or bad. What power, you did it, you did
perfect. Perfect. Why? Because my substitute
did perfect. What did the Lord tell us to
do there in verse 6, doing the will of God? 1 Timothy 4, 6.
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be
a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the word of faith
and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. That's a
great attitude change. That's a huge difference, isn't
it? From the first part of that chapter of keep the law, do,
those first three verses, to I'm a sinner saved by grace.
Look to our Lord. Here's what the Lord did with
me. I used to do the same thing you did. I've lived through the
same thing. And you know what the Lord did? X, Y, and Z. Here's
how He kept me. Here's how He taught me. Gently. Reasoning together. At first
Satan says, this is a faithful saving and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I'm chief. If you're a sinner, that is worthy of us bowing to
fully. He is faithful. He saved His
people. And here it says, for bodily exercise profiteth little,
but godliness is profitable unto all things. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. I didn't save myself. I didn't
perform an exercise to be saved, to be made more holy, or to stay
that way. Christ did it. And believe in
God. Love in Him. Love in our brethren
as Christ loved us. serving them as He served us,
laying down our lives for our brethren as He laid down His
life for us. That's worthy of everyone in the world accepting
it. That's profitable. That's profitable. Is all this
going to last forever? Are we really going to be preserved
forever? This is too good to be true, isn't it? Is it? Turn
over to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy 2 verse 11. It is a faithful saying, for
if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will
deny us. If we believe not, yet He abideth
faithful. He cannot deny Himself. If we
died with Christ, we will live with Christ. In this physical
body, in this world we walk in, we call the end death. When this
body dies, we say, well, that's the end. In the spiritual world,
death of this body, that's the beginning. That's when you start
living. for the child of God. That's
when it begins. When Christ came to this earth
and lived, and we lived in Him, and He died, and we died in Him,
and now we live because He lives on His throne. He's seated at
the right hand of God, and we are made one with Him. It says
there, if we suffer with Him, what's that? What is it to suffer
for Christ? That's to be counted with Christ,
not some Jesus, some other Jesus. Not the God of people's imaginations.
That's to be counted with be Christ. Bearing the reproach
of Christ in our hearts against that old man that's in us. Those
arrows we looked at this morning. Flying from ourselves to ourselves.
And that's in our families. That's when the Lord said, you
depart from mother and father. If you don't forsake your wife and
your children and everything. Well, honor your mother and father.
I'd give my life for that woman over there. I'd give my life
for these children. What was he talking about? They're under
another gospel. Is that taking sides with Christ?
Well, Christ saved me under grace, but he saved Aunt Susie under
works. She's still his, but he saved
her a different way. That's not suffering with Christ.
That's appeasing yourself. That's putting a big old pacifier
in a sore spot. and the reproach of our friends
and co-workers, it's our family, our friends, those that we're
working with every day, to suffer, to be counted with Christ, to
be fellows in the same ship with Christ, you know, same boat as
Him. He told us, marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates
you, they hated me before they hated you. The servant ain't
gonna be above his master, is he? If we deny him, he will deny
us. But verse 13, if we believe not,
he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. What does this
faithful saying mean? This is precious. You take this,
you put it in your pocket and you walk around all day. You
start having a rough day, go read this. This is precious.
There are times we don't believe. We have unbelief. I believe,
Lord help thou my unbelief. I'm more unbelief than I am belief
most of the time. I'm in a valley more than I'm
on a mountaintop. We get frail. We get weak in faith sometimes.
And sometimes we even ask, Lord, do I even believe at all? Am
I even your child? When our faith is as small as
it can get, when it gets to the lowest point, almost gone, Christ
abides faithful. His faith does not and will not
fail. He will never deny Himself. Who's
that? Us. We're made one with Him.
His bride. We're put in Him. He can't deny
Himself. He'll be faithful for us. Turn over to Titus 3 and
I'll wrap this up. Titus 3. Titus 3, verse 8. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that
thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed Not
they that's going to get ready to believe, and this is what
you've got to do, but they that have believed. Those that the Lord
did a work in. That they which have believed
in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are
good and profitable unto men. Here's the fruit of faith. This is the fruit. The root is
believing on Christ. That's the root. The fruit of
faith is walking in His footsteps. our walk in this world, you who
believe, you that are saved by the blood of Christ, you be careful
not to bring reproach on the gospel of grace. You be careful
not to bring reproach on those that are redeemed by the blood
of God. It's not profitable, not just
to the brethren, but to all men to bring reproach. What is profitable?
Not to bring reproach. to walk in this world as people
who believe God. That helps all society. Your
neighbors won't mind living next to you. They'll be alright with
it. Lord, love me that way I can
love. Lord, give me joy so I can be
a joy to others. Give me peace so that I can calm
another. Be long-suffering with me, so
I'm shown how to suffer long. Show me how to suffer a long
time with my brethren. Show me how long-suffering you've
been with me. And be gentle to me, so I know gentleness. These
are faithful sayings. Paul gave us four of them. Christ
came to save sinners of whom I'm chief. I didn't do anything
to merit it. It's all of grace. I died to
sin, death, and hell in Him. And I live in Him now. And when
I weaken the faith, when those first three, when I forget them,
I breathe in, I breathe out, they're gone. I'm worried about
something else. I go out the door. Oh, what am I going to do? Start
looking at everything around me instead of myself and my Lord.
When I'm weak in the faith, when I would perish, He's faith. He's faith. I hope that's a blessing
to you.