Here's what Paul writes, one
of the things that he writes. This is a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Now who could deny that this
verse of scripture is bursting with great doctrine and with
scripture truth and with biblical salvation. Majestic words they
are. Christ Jesus came into the world. And the purpose of his coming
into the world is that he might save sinners. You know some way
that put me in the mind of the angelic announcement that God
made in Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21, she shall bear a son,
thou shalt call his name Jesus, and he shall save his people
from their sin. We notice that there are three
shalls in that one verse of the scripture. She shall, no doubt
about it, bring forth a son. She shall call his name Jesus. And thirdly, he shall save his
people from their sin. Now, just a word about the name
Jesus, as it appears in connection with our Lord. The name is descriptive
of His mission. Call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sin, so that His personal and official
name, which was given to Him at birth, is Jesus. And you may
already know that this name is of the same significance as Joshua
in the Old Testament, or Hosea in the Old Testament. Because,
you see, the meaning of the name Jesus is, when it's coming from
the Hebrew, Joshua, or Jeshua. And it means Jehovah, the Savior. so that the Lord is named Jesus,
our Savior. His name is the One who saved. He shall save His people from
their sin. He saves His people because of
who and because of what He is. So we have these two strong statements
that we might lay side by side. The one in Matthew, he shall
save his people from their sin. And 1 Timothy 1 and verse 15,
he came into the world order that he might save sinners. Now
the text that we've highlighted upon here, he came into the world
that he might save sinners. Notice the first of the verse
that he labels this a faithful saying. Paul said this is a faithful
saying and then he strengthened it by saying and is worthy of
all acceptation now the word saying is a word a faithful word
is this This is a faithful word. It is reliable, it is trustworthy,
it can be believed in, it can be relied upon, and it can be
believed in with great confidence. Christ came into the world that
he might save sinners. In reading the pastoral epistle,
you'll find that this is a favorite expression of the Apostle Paul. This is a faithful saying. I look, there's some five times
that we have that word in the pastoral epistle. It is here
in our text. It is also 1 Timothy 3.1, 1 Timothy
4.9. 2nd Timothy 2 and 11 and over
in Titus chapter 3 and verse 8. And I think the phrase here,
this is a faithful saying, is pistos ho logos. This is a reliable word that
can be depended on. And this is the same word faithful
that is applied to God in such verses as I believe 1st Corinthians
chapter 10 and And verse 13, faithful is God. God is faithful. And of Christ, in Hebrew, chapter
2 and verse 17, the word faithful means that it is fully trustworthy. It is trustworthy to the last
degree. It is dependable, it is reliable,
and it deserves being heard It deserves being believed, and
that without any reservation or doubt or speculation whatsoever. Therefore, it is more than approval. because it deserves acceptance. This is a faithful word and worthy
of all acceptation. It is worthy of complete and
absolute acceptation without any reservation whatsoever. It is worthy in the sense of
being weighty. And then we ask the question,
what is it that Jesus Christ, number one, came into the world
And number two, that he came into the world to save sinners. He came into the world. What a doctrine is that in the
scripture. This implies that he existed
before he came into the world. He was in existence before he
came into the world and assumed flesh and took on the likeness
of man. But he didn't know, I suggest,
that he brought his humanity with him from heaven as opposed
to His being in an anti-incarnate state, for He existed ever. He is absolutely eternal. Now, His coming into the world
refers, therefore, to what we call the incarnation or the assuming
of flesh, being made of a woman or born of a woman, partaking
of flesh and of blood, as the Hebrew writer writes in the second
chapter, being born of a virgin, being sent by God and from God
and from heaven. And in John chapter 3 and 17,
God sent his son into the world that the world through him might
be saved. You have it in 1 John chapter
4 and verse 9. God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. It is interesting,
the confession of Martha. In John chapter 11 and verse
27, she said to the Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the
son of God, which should come into the world. The death of
her brother, Lazarus, had not shaken her firm confidence. that testimony regarding the
Lord interesting in Hebrews 1 and verse 6 when he bringeth the
first begotten into the world the writer says there when the
fullness of time was come God sent forth his son Galatians
chapter 4 and verse 4 but Paul does not intend to restrict his
statement to the arrival of the Lord in the world, for he came
not just for the purpose of arriving. It was not just simply that he
might go somewhere or that he might arrive at a place. It was
not simply a matter of relocating in the case of him coming into
the world. or being in the world simply
for the sake of being in the world, but a stated purpose is
attached under that. He came into the world that he
might save sinners. So let's do a quick word study
on the use of the word save. You meet that word in the scripture
regarding sinners being saved in connection with salvation. We see the word or the tense
say, thus the scriptures speak of sinners being saved and of
God saving sinners. And it's again and again in the
scripture. And the two texts we have referred
to both use the word saved. say Matthew 1 21 he shall save
his people 1st Timothy 1 and verse 15 Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners in the scriptural sin in a salvation
contact the word I think is often the word suds all and which primarily
meaning is to deliver or to rescue. Go deliver one who's in great
danger. Rescue one from out of a perilous
condition or a perishing condition. And it means to preserve from
danger. It means to bring one safely
out. or safely through. We can see
a dual meaning in the word when we look at it carefully. Number
one, to deliver from a serious and a direct and an imminent
threat. And number two, to bring one
out of that danger onto a safe and a sound place out of their
dangerous condition. And in this sense, it is used
in scripture, we confess, both of temporal, mundane, and also
of spiritual deliverance. Sometimes the word saved is used
of physical life in the New Testament and in the scripture. So therefore,
one is rescued when they're saved from that great danger, a serious,
a real peril that threatens them and threatens them for eternally. Now as we saw sometime the temporal
deliverance as when Peter and the disciples in a fierce storm
cried out in anguish unto the Lord Jesus, Lord save us or we
perish in the gospel. And of course they meant physically,
delivering them from the storm and the threat to their life
and unto death. When Paul said to the sailor
in the midst of the storm in Acts 27 and verse 31, except
you abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. But in the salvation
context, the word saved is the antithesis of the word lost. Luke 19 and verse 10. The Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost, to
recover and deliver from peril, danger, those that were lost. And in the salvation context,
it also means deliverance from the condemnation of sin and eternal
death. So when we say to save, or the
scripture said to save, it is to deliver from the condemnation,
the guilt of sin, and from eternal wrath and death. And the word
often is mocked The world rather often mocks the Christian for
the use of this word save when they use the word saved in their
story they often put it in a quotation mark as a if it were a thing
not real, or something only possible, or something of that sort. But
the idea of being saved is interwoven deeply and continually in the
theology of the scripture, and it is connected to the person
and the work of Christ. He it is that's saved, and he
came into the world that he might save sinners. But now we take
the next step in that verse that we read to inquire, who is it
that Christ Jesus saved? What sort of persons or character
are they which the Lord came into the world to save? Did he
come into the world that he might save the good, the righteous,
and the law-abiding? Did our Lord come in order that
He might lead them in the way of salvation? Did He come to
save the Jew or the Gentile especially or particularly? Did He come
to save those that were seeking for Him and asking after Him? Did He come that He might save
the moralists? and what we call the upright
man, or the religionate, or the person that we call civil, that
lives in a civil way. No, Paul identifies the objects
of his deliverance, and they are sinners. He came into the
world to save sinners. Now this is a degrading name
to those self-righteous people in our day. The title is an insult
to self-righteous people like the Jews were and the Pharisees
were in the days of our Lord. We have both the singular sinner
and the plural sinners in the scripture. What does it say of
a person to say that they are a sinner? He is a sinner, or
she is a sinner, Luke 7 and verse 40. And indeed, that woman was
a great sinner. Also, Zacchaeus is said to be
a sinner in chapter 19, verse 1 of the Gospel of Luke. He's
gone to be guests with a man that is a sinner. And our Lord
in Luke 15 and verse 2 received sinners and ate with them. When challenged about it, the
Lord Jesus said in Luke chapter 5 and verse 32, I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners unto repentance. You have that
again in Matthew's gospel and in Mark's Gospel chapter 2 and
verse 17. And he made the comparison in
Mark 2 and verse 17. They that are whole have no need
of a physician. It is they that are sick that
have need of a physician. They would be the object of a
doctor going to treat those that not are well, but those that
sick? Must he only treat the well? Must he only treat those who
have no symptoms or malady? Does he not train? Does he not
practice in order that he might be able to diagnose and to treat
them that are sick? But then we come to the question,
there are sinners. What then constitutes one to
be a sinner? The most common word I believe
used in the New Testament is the word harmatulus, with the
meaning one who misses the mark, who strays off course, who does
not hit the mark or stay on the mark, on the straight and on
the narrow. In Romans 3, 23, Paul says two
things. One, all have sinned. Two, all
have come short of the glory of God. And the errorless tense,
all have sinned, views everyone collectively as a sinner. It is a historical fact of the
past. They have missed the mark. They
are sinner. Though there may be a difference
in the degree of the sin of one person unto the neck, yet all
without exception are reckoned in the category of being a sinner. John Murray wrote on Romans 3.23,
quote, the tense use is one that can do service for every aspect
from which the sinfulness of the human race might be viewed,
unquote. The point being, none whatsoever
can deny the charge that they are a sinner. Well, they may
deny the charge, but it would be a false denial indeed. We look at the legal, self-righteous
Jews, and they did that. because they imagined themselves
the keepers of the law. We do this, we do that, we do
the other. They only looked on such people
as being sinners as the publicans and the harlots and such like
as that. They only thought they were in
the definition of a sinner. I guess we could make this distinction
that there are sinners in a dual sin. Number one, there are sinners
actually from God's standpoint, for all have sinned. There are
sinners of the Gentiles, Galatians 2.15. Genesis 13 and 13, we read
that the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners exceedingly before
the Lord. 1 Samuel 15, 18, sinners of the
Amalekites. Isaiah 33 and 14, sinners in
Zion. Proverbs 1, if sinners entice
thee, consent thou not. But then secondly, there are
those who see themselves as sinners. Some do not, and probably never
will, maybe never will, but there are those who see themselves
as sinners. who are or have become sinners
in their own eye and in their own estimation, though all are
sinners, yet many never really come to see or acknowledge themselves
as such. Oh, I might have a fault or two
here. I've made a misstep here, a misstep
there. Almost anybody will admit that,
but they don't want to be put in the category of being a sinner,
a sinner against God, a sinner in danger of judgment. So the
text said Christ came to save sinners. Therefore, only sinners
can and will be saved. None but sinners will be saved. You'll never be saved until you
own yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God. Take your place
as a sinner before the just and the holy God who is the judge
of all. Confess, acknowledge that you
are a sinner, which is probably the most humbling experience
that we may ever experience on our way into the grace of God
and the everlasting salvation. It may be the most humbling thing
that we've ever had to do. We cannot take a refuge in that
old adage that we so often hear. Listen, I'm not any worse than
somebody else. I'm not any worse than my neighbor
or so-and-so. I'm as good as he is. I'm as
good as some of the people who are in church every Sunday of
the year. I'm better than some professing
Christian. I do a lot of good. I believe
in helping people and such like. I'm really not a bad person at
heart. You ever heard those things?
They're everywhere. But the last portion in our text
is the confession of Paul, and let us look at it. The greatest
of the Christian ministers in the esteem of almost any Christian. The foremost Christian in the
eyes of many. And yet, what does he say? Sinners
of whom I am chief. I'm the first. I'm the greatest.
That's what he's saying. That's his estimation of himself. I'm the foremost of all. Now, Paul was a self-righteous
Pharisee before his conversion. and after he was a dedicated
servant, minister, and Christian in the sight of our blessed Lord.
But he speaks of himself here as the worst of all. Paul is one of the greater examples
in all of scripture of one coming to be of another mind about themselves. and becoming a sinner. Once,
before Christ calls him, when he was a Pharisee, he considered
himself blameless before the law. You find that in Galatians
or Philippians chapter 3 and verse 6. Others thought him to
be the same. being the most zealous practitioner
of Judaism in his day. You'll find that in Galatians
1.14. He considered himself a great friend of God, a great ally of
the law and of Judaism and of religion. But then the work of
God in him caused him to become of another mind. He came to view
himself before Christ as a foremost sinner. And his foremost zeal
was no more than blasphemy and a persecutor of the church. He had been a violent and an
insolent man, he said in his past, 1 Timothy chapter 1 and
verse 13. Yet one, he said, who did such
things in ignorance and who obtained mercy from the hand of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I did it ignorantly in unbelief,
but I obtained mercy. Thank God, that's a hope, that
great blind ignorant sinners may have their eyes open and
become of another mind and be saved by the mercy and grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us inquire, how is it that
we are sinners, sinners in the sight of God? Is it from environment? Some people will say, yes, it's
from the environment that is round about us. Others say it
is the example, it's a bad influence that we see from others. But
these could never account for the first sin, the sin of Adam. Neither example or environment
could explain that. It is said that evil, it is the
evil deeds that are done. How then can one have an inclination
unto evil? if they are born innocent and
born pure? Were we born good and later turned
away from God, then later only to turn back? What an amazing
passage is that in Romans 5, 18 and 19, as Paul sums up his
thought in that great chapter. By the one offense came condemnation
upon all. By the one righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ came justification of life. Murray put it like this,
Sinnership becomes theirs by reason of their descent from
Adam. Having received a corrupt nature
from Adam, we need not sin to become sinful, we sin because
we are already sinful. And therefore The scriptures
have pronounced us guilty in the sight of God. How will Christ
overcome these? How will he overcome our corruption? How will he overcome our deadness
in sin? How will he overcome our living
in sin? and save us. When Abraham would
rescue his nephew Lot who had been taken away, he simply raided
the stronghold of his captors and by sword and might and power,
he overcame them and he took his nephew Lot again into safety
and into freedom. But Christ saves his people by
taking away their sin, taking away their guilt, taking away
their condemnation. And he assumed our nature without
sin or without depravity. He assumed flesh and blood. He came even in the likeness
of sinful flesh, but without any sin. and being impeccable,
therefore, in that God-man, theanthropic person constituted by the incarnation,
he bore those sin in his own body on the tree. He made satisfaction
unto God and unto the law of God. He answered the debt, for
he was our surety. He bore the curse, He endured
the wrath due unto our sin, because as we stood in the sight of God. He died in the place of sinners,
even being made sin, but not sinful, in 2 Corinthians 5 and
21. Sin was laid upon him, Isaiah
53 and verse 6. and being punished then in the
stead of his people, he saved sinners from their sin. What
a wonderful salvation it is. A faithful saint worthy of all
the acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. I think sometimes we all make
that last confession, of whom I am chief. When we really see
our heart, how wicked and corrupt it yet is, then we are of the
same mind of Paul, of whom I am chief. But thank God, where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound.