It's good to be here with you
all tonight. If you will, turn with me to 1 Timothy
chapter 1. I remember seeing Brother Henry and he would always hold his
notebook up here so he could see. I have a hard time seeing. I've always had a hard time seeing.
And I have an eye problem. Both of these eyes are bad, and
they're never going to get any better. But I also have an eye
problem in here, me, myself, and eye. That's my biggest problem. 1 Timothy chapter 1, it is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. I want to make sure you all heard
that. 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 good news of the
gospel. Christ came into the world to save sinners. Our God
is faithful and true and cannot lie. We should believe everything
he says. But if you're like me, I don't
always believe. My sin is ever before me. My sin grieves me. It's over
my head. I've got this plague in my heart
called sin. And it blocks out my view of
my Lord. It seems so much bigger than
I am. But He's bigger than all. He
is the Lord. In Isaiah 41 it says, Fear not
thou worm Jacob. I'm a worm. I'm a Jacob. I'm a cheat, a supplanter. In
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Always looking for a reason to
sin. I'm a sinner. That's all I can
do. I don't want to sin. And then again, in my flesh,
yes I do. I can't quit my sinning. I wished
I could. I can't save myself from my sin. I'm totally unable. Fear thou
not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Jesus Christ is the righteousness
of God. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.
Do you need mercy? I need mercy. Our Lord delights
to show mercy. In 1 Timothy 1, verses 12 and
13, it says, And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he catered 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 in unbelief. Paul persecuted the early church. He was a self-righteous Pharisee,
religious, but he didn't know God. He was going about to establish
his own righteousness, but it wasn't the righteousness
of God. He thought he was doing God a service by killing people
of this way. Jesus Christ said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. But Paul revealed himself to
Paul on the road to Damascus. Our Lord caused the light to
shine out of darkness and shined into Paul's dark heart. giving
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 1.16 How be it for
this cause I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might
show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Mercy is for the guilty. The
long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. How long does he have
to suffer with us? All the way. All the way. Paul was a pattern of the kind
of sinners that God saves. Guilty sinners. There's no other
kind. First Timothy 115, this is the
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. We have every reason to believe
that God saved sinners. Our God is true. Let God be true
in every man a liar. But the Lord is the true God.
He is the living God and an everlasting King. And this is life eternal
that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou sent. God's word is truth. The law
of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. Our God is faithful. Know, therefore,
that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God which keepeth
covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments
to a thousand generations. Our God is faithful by whom ye
were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, for
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. It's
written in stone. Have you been called? 1 Corinthians 1, for ye see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men ask the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty and base things of the world. His ways are not
our ways. Man thinks God's going to choose
the good people, the good people, the righteous people, those who
are righteous on the outside. But on the inside, they're dead
men's bones. Self-righteousness. God hates
it. A proud look. He hates it. And that's just
by nature. But God. But of Him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that Glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is all
our salvation. He's all I have. I have no other
way. I have nothing, no one else to
save me. I can't save myself. Does our unbelief make void the
faithfulness of God? Oh, we're so full of it. 1 Timothy
2.13, If we believe not, yet he about is faithful, he cannot
deny himself. He can't deny his sovereign electing
grace. He can't deny the blood of his
only beloved Son. He cannot deny his Word. Feelings come, feelings go. My work is the Word of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
Jesus Christ alone. Our God is worthy to be believed. In Hebrews 3, Brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the apostle and the high priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as
also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted
worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who had built
the house had more honor than the house. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom we are chief. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
chosen one, the anointed one. He is the Messiah, the only mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He's not like us. He has all
power. He has all power to save. He
came into the world. He came. For I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which he hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up
at that last day." He came. Well, where did he come
from? Well, Proverbs chapter 8, it
says, The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before
His works of old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the earth was. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was with the Father in the very beginning. He said,
Let us make man in our own image. In fact, Christ was the one who
created this world and everything therein. When he established the clouds above,
when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to
the sea his decree that the water should not pass by, the Lord
Jesus Christ was with him. Then I was with him as one brought
up with him. I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him. Our Lord Jesus Christ came. How
did he come? God became a man. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. justified in the spirit, saint
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up unto glory. He is made of a woman. When the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that are under the
law. Don't you feel the power of the
law? It says, do, do, do, don't, don't, don't. I'm guilty. I can't keep it. I need a Redeemer. Christ is that Redeemer. He was
born of a virgin. In the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. The
Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And when she
saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind
what manner of salutation this should be. The angel said unto
her, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And
behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son,
and call his name Jesus. Has Jesus Christ been conceived
in your heart? Is Christ in you, the hope of
glory? Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates? Our Lord came without spot, without
blemish. He came into the world. He was
in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew
Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name. which were born, not of blood,
nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but God. And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. He came to save sinners. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
Most men are not sinners. They are. They just don't know
it. I spoke to a man one time. He
was a religious man. I said, Are you a sinner? He
said, Well, I'm not perfect. I said, But are you a sinner?
Well, I'm I'm a pretty good fellow but I'm not as bad as some people.
Yes, yes you are. Yes you are. We're all bad. We're
all bad. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? But we are all as an unclean
thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all
do fade as the leaf And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. All we like sheep have gone astray. Oh boy. For the Son of Man has
come to save that which was lost. Do you feel lost? I feel lost. My sin gets me lost. I lose sight of Christ and I
get lost. Oh, have mercy on me. Seek thy
servant, because I've gone astray. I love that last verse in Psalm
119. Jonah said, Salvation is of the
Lord. Jonah disobeyed God and went
astray and got in trouble. He ended up in a deep mire with
seaweed wrapped around his head. He was brought to his wit's end. All he could do was cry. In his
heart, he looked toward the temple, to the mercy seat, to Christ,
the only Savior of sinners. Salvation is of the Lord. How is a sinner saved? For by
grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. For the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet per a venture for a
good man some would even dare to die. that God commended His
love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Are you yet a sinner? I'm yet
a sinner. Or do you say, I used to be a
sinner? I quit my drinking, smoking, cussing, chewing, running around
with women who do. No, boy. Anyone who says that doesn't
know sin. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if
when we were enemies we are reconciled to God by the death of his son,
much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. He ever liveth to make intercession. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The Lord Jesus Christ became
the sinner's substitute. In my place condemned he stood. He's the only offering God will
accept. The Lord Jesus Christ, perfect,
spotless Lamb of God, He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Jesus Christ is the sinner's
substitute, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the
tree. Jesus Christ is the sinner's
scapegoat. upon whose head we confess our
sins, and by faith see him take them on himself, take them away,
remove them far from us, never to remember again. By looking to him and to him
only, we find peace. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. I always substitute that word
faith with Christ. Being justified by Christ, we
have peace with God. Because my faith is so up and
down, I have no faith in my faith. But Jesus Christ is my all. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. I can't make peace. Everything
I do is wrong. God has no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. The blood of a sinner can't satisfy
God's justice, only the blood of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is able to save us. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost than that come to God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession. Ephesians 3 verse 20 and 21. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's all I got. May the Lord
bless His word to our hearts.