I invite you this morning to
turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 1. This is one of those
passages that some of the old writers like to refer to as little
Bibles. That's what they called them,
little Bibles. Passages like this. And there's
many of them in the Scriptures. If any man thirst, Let him come
unto me and drink. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good
Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. These are little Bibles.
That's what the old writers called them. Little Bibles. The Bible
in a sentence. The Gospel in a sentence. Verses that set forth the Gospel
in a few words. Now let's read our text together
here. 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." Now the text seems to imply that
there were issues over the message that he preached. He insisted
that what he was preaching was a faithful saying. He wouldn't
have done that except somebody said it wasn't. Somebody said,
no, that's heresy. No, that's a lie. No, he said,
this is a faithful saying. There were issues. There were
issues. And gospel preaching has always
and will always be accompanied with issues. There's going to
be issues. You're not going to preach this gospel in the world,
and when people hear it, they'll just smile and say, well, thank
you. And whether they believe it or not, there's going to be
issues. When we insist on it, when we
preach it dogmatically, when we declare this to be so and
this not, there's going to be issues. Who's sin of God and
who isn't? That's an issue, isn't it? I remember one of Winston's boys
asked him this. He said, well, yeah, you all
say that your pastor's sin of God. He's preaching the truth.
But that pastor down there said he's sin of God, too, and he's
preaching the truth. That's an issue, isn't it? Who's
sent and who isn't? Who's telling the truth and who
ain't? Is His message the message of
God or is this just something He come up with? There's issues. What are the consequences of
believing or not believing? Issues. There are all kinds of
issues when the Gospels pray. And churches, I'll be honest
with you, churches without issues and controversy are not really
churches at all. Listen to what Paul, there was
a huge controversy among the Corinthians. Paul spent two letters
correcting them on things that they were doing. But there was
all kinds of issues involved here. And listen to what Paul
told them. He said, there must be heresies. This is 1 Corinthians 11, 19.
There must be heresies among you that they which are approved
may be manifest among you. Must be heresy. Must be these
issues. There's going to be issues when
the gospel is preached. Going to be issues. Now, there's five things I want
you to see in our text this morning, five things which are as much
an issue today as they were when Paul preached these things. And
these are not nitpicky things, things of no consequence, but
vital, critical things essential to the salvation of men's souls. And I encourage you this morning,
if you have a piece of paper, jot down some notes and give
these five things your study and prayer. The first issue involved in this
thing I've already mentioned, which is the source, the source. The truth cannot be refuted.
It's a ridiculous thing. You can't refute truth. What
are you going to do with the Word of God? God said, I'm unchangeable. Somebody said, well, no, he's
not. Does that change anything? That doesn't affect God in the
least, what you say. It doesn't affect him. He's the
same, yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. He's sovereign.
Somebody said, well, no, I have a free will. No, God's sovereign. And you can jump up and down
and talk about your free will all you want to. He's still sovereign.
He's still sovereign. So the first thing I see here
is the source. The source. I want you to see
that this statement is in defense of His person and calling. Look
back here to 1 Timothy 1, verse 12. He said, and I thank Christ
Jesus, our Lord, who enabled me, for 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 unbelieving. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
And then, he said, this is a faithful saint. He defends first his person
and his station as a preacher. There's no such thing as a preacher
who does not have to defend his calling. He's going to have to
defend his calling. Men who believe that they're
called to preach the gospel do so because they want to preach,
but they have no calling. They have no calling. And so
they don't want to talk about calling. They don't want to talk
about defending their calling. They just want to tell you, when
I was seven years old and I saw a bright light or I was in a
closet and it suddenly came to me and a feeling came over me
and on and on and on it goes with men. They do that because
they can't defend their calling. God's ministers can defend their
calling. And especially the Apostle Paul. Let me see if I can tell you
the difference. The Apostle Paul was accompanied
by miracles, wonders, and signs, and gifts of the Holy Ghost.
He did things that nobody else can do. And the reason he could
do those things is because God was confirming him as an apostle,
and that his writings, these epistles that he wrote, were
actually inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, and they are to
be received as the Word of God. The Word of God. And this man
is defending his calling as an apostle. And he's telling these
folks, this is a faithful saying. You can write this down. This
is the word of God. This is not the word of somebody who's just trying to
get some attention and to promote himself or to promote some kind
of a movement. This is the word of God. And
he said it's a faithful saying, and it's worthy. Worthy. Think about what he's saying
here. This is worthy of all acceptation. And he defends his calling. Preaching is not a vocation.
Not a vocation. You don't go to school and learn
how to preach and then send out resumes and then find a job and
practice your craft. Preaching is a divine calling.
It includes the revelation of Christ in you which enables you
to preach. It includes God's providence
arranging the opportunities. It includes a work in the hearts
of God's people to call you and support you and to rejoice in
your preaching. It includes a burden to preach
which cannot be ignored. It includes a willingness to
sacrifice all that you have to this end. It's a calling. to calling. And Paul was a gospel
preacher. How'd he get to be one? He said,
God put me in the ministry. I don't know any other way to
explain that. God put you in the ministry. He either does
or he don't. He puts men in the ministry. And you cannot bring
God's message to this world without defending your calling as an
ambassador of God. And I'll tell you this, false
prophets cannot refute the Word of God, so they attack, accuse,
and attempt to destroy the reputation of the messenger. That's what
they do. And that's what they did with
Paul. They couldn't refute his truth. The truth is the truth. You know, I told you not too
long ago, and I took you through the Scriptures, and showed you
how plain, and these things don't need interpreted. They're playing
us a nose on you. You have not chosen me, I've
chosen you. That don't need interpretation,
does it? According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. You don't need an interpreter
to understand what that means. There's nobody in here that don't
understand. If they didn't understand it, they wouldn't get mad. Is
that right? Yeah, they understand it. They
just don't believe it. And you can't bring God's message
to this world without defending your calling. And so they can't
refute the Word of God, so what they do is they attack the messenger. They attack the messenger. Oh,
he's just got issues. He's got issues, you know. He's
over there. Ain't nobody else. If there was
anything to this truth, there'd be somebody somewhere believing
this. But the multitudes don't believe this. He's a recluse. He's the leader of a cult. Sometimes
they say that. They try to lambash that man,
put him in a bad light because they can't refute what he's saying.
What he's saying is the Word of God. And then the second thing
I want you to see in our text is what is being questioned or
doubted. It's the message he preached.
This is a faithful saying. A faithful saying. I looked up
this word saying and here's what it means. It means a maxim. It means a statement, a fundamental
principle. It's an utterance. It's an expression
of thought. It's truth asserted, declared
to be truth. This is a declared truth. And
he said it's faithful. It's worthy of all acceptation. In other words, what I'm preaching
to you, Paul said, What I'm reading to you is without question the
truth. What I'm preaching to you about
this book, he affirms to be a faithful. This declaration of truth, this
fundamental, these fundamental principles that I'm preaching
to you, this, my utterance to you, he said, is a faithful saying
and worthy to be believed. And Paul is not here defending
the Word of God so much as he is his declaration of the Gospel. His preaching was to be accepted
and approved as a faithful saying. And then another thing worth
mentioning here is that this faithful saying is in harmony
with all the faithful. With all the faithful. Faithful
preachers and faithful hearers. It's in harmony. They hear it,
they know what it is. They know what it is. And they
acknowledge it. He's saying that his preaching
is to be believed, received, and trusted. Why? Because he's
the minister of God and carries the message of God. All right,
here's the third thing. His message was all together.
What was his message? Well, his message was all together
concerning the person of Jesus Christ. Nearly 2,000 years went by since
the coming of Christ, and my generation is as ignorant of
the Christ as they were when the Christ came. Maybe more. Maybe more. Nobody knows who
the Christ is, or what the Christ is, or what the Christ was supposed
to do, or even that He was promised of God to come. The generation I preach to knows
nothing about sin. They know nothing about God.
They know nothing about Christ. They know nothing about sin,
that by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so that this death passed upon all men. And the evidence
of it, that all have sinned. That by the offense of one judgment
came upon all men the condemnation. They know nothing about He that
believeth not is condemned already. He is condemned already because
he hath not believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. By
nature, the children of wrath. And we live in and preach to
ruin sinners, sinners under the judgment of God, ignorant, blind,
deceived men and women who believe they can at least in part contribute
something to the salvation of their souls, although they don't
understand why they need to be saved, because they're not all
that bad to start with. That's who we preach to. They're
sinners. Sinners. People are ignorant. If they
knew that, they wouldn't preach the way they preach. They wouldn't
preach the way they preach. They wouldn't be pleading with
the sinner. Let me tell you something. God took Ezekiel out in a desert,
out in a wilderness. And he said, son of man, what
do you see? He looked around. He said, I
see bones, dead, dry bones. He said, can these bones live?
Oh, Lord God, thou knowest. I don't know. Don't look good
to me. Thou knowest. Thou knowest. He
said, preach to them. Preach to them. Now, you try
to get a vision in your mind of Ezekiel standing in a valley
trying to get bones to come down an aisle. You can't even get
a picture of that, can you? That prophet up there, we're
going to sing one more verse. We've already sang 29, but we're
going to sing one more. And we're going to keep on singing
until somebody comes down that aisle. You can't even get a vision
of that in your head. And that's why these men do these
things, because they don't understand to whom they preach. They don't
understand that men are dead, spiritually dead. Preaching is
a declaration. Faith is a gift. It's the gift. And Paul had a message, and he
preached, and he said, this is a faithful saint. It's a faithful
saint. Oh, this is where men's condemnation
is manifested in their unbelief. This is condemnation. Light has
come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light.
They'll take the darkness of the Catholic priesthood and ceremonies
over the clear revelation of Christ. They'll take the darkness
of freewill works religion over the free and sovereign grace
of God in Christ. They'll take the self-righteous
lies of the legalist over the imputed righteousness of Christ. And they're looking for the Antichrist.
Everybody's talking about the Antichrist. Looking for the Antichrist. Who's he going to be? When's
he going to come? And in fact, the Antichrist is in him already. The Antichrist more than likely
is in the church he attends. It's that spirit of Antichrist.
We're surrounded with it in our day. They're looking for the
Antichrist when in fact he dwells in them and is all around them.
And they have eyes for the carnal but are blind to the spiritual.
They have put heavy stock in the natural but none in the spiritual. And everything they think is
true is a lie. And everything they think is
a lie is true. I told somebody one time, they
were talking to me about this thing. How am I supposed to know
what's true? I said, everything you think
is not true is true. And everything you think true
is not true. And that pretty much goes right
across the board with what man thinks. There is a way that seemeth
right unto you, he said, but the end thereof is death and
destruction. Paul preached a representative
man, one chosen by the Father to save sinners. He came into
this world to save sinners. That's the faithful say. What
an unthinkable act. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God made himself of no reputation, took upon him
the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of sinful
flesh. and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and become obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. I always laugh around Christmas
time and I watch these programs and all the cattle and the sheep
and the chickens and everything is all gathered around the manger
and they've all got this little light over their head and they're
all bowing down Outside the stable, outside the barn, if people gathered
out there, there's a multitude gathered around there and they're
all singing praises to Him and all this kind of thing. Listen
to the Scriptures. He hath no form or comeliness. And when we shall see Him, there's
no beauty that we should desire Him. He's despised and rejected
of me and a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was
despised and we esteemed Him not. There wasn't a multitude. Actually, the reason they were
in the stable, the reason they were in that barn, that cow barn,
is because there was no room for them at the end. It was full
of Pharisees. That's why the Christ had to
be born in a stable. Because we despised Him. There
was no beauty. There was nothing about Him showing
us that we should separate Him or honor Him or any of those
things. We didn't see that. That's what this prophet is saying. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. And how pitiful a world of beggars
and thieves our Lord came into. It's beyond our imagination to
measure the condescension of Christ. How far down He came
to save sinners. He came to save sinners. That's the faithful saying. How
far did He come? Top to bottom. From top to bottom. From the purity of heaven to
the filthiness of earth. From the throne to a cow's table. From royalty to obscurity. From the top to the bottom. Oh, but listen to this. How did
He come? How did He come? He came into
the world to save sinners. How did He come? He came personally. Personally. That's hard to fathom, isn't
it? The second person of the Godhead. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The second person,
God, was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's God. We can't even conceive of
that. In Him we live and move and have
our being. And yet, Simeon took Him up in
his arms and held Him in his arms. That's hard to conceive,
isn't it? How did He come? He came personally. He took upon Himself the form
of a servant. Jehovah's servant. Jesus Christ condescended to
be made in the likeness of men as Jehovah's servant. And His
coming was according to God's eternal purpose of grace. The
appearance of Christ in this world as a man was not the frustrated
attempt of a disappointed God to save as many as He could.
He came on purpose. On purpose. Boy, I love how old
Henry used to tell the story of Ralph. He'd shout out, purpose! God saved men on purpose. And
He came on purpose to save sinners. That was His mission. That's
why He came. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Christ Jesus came into this world
to do the will of His Father. To do the will of God. Not born
of circumstance, but of sovereign, eternal will of God. In Hebrews 10, verse 5, Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come. Now listen, in the volume of
the book, it is written of me to do thy will, O God. He came to do the will of God.
Verse 10, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ, that body which God prepared
Him, once for all. Once for all. He came to do the
will of God. What was the will of God? To
save sinners. To save sinners. This is a faithful
saying, and that which is worthy of all acceptation. that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He was sent to
save sinners. Chosen sinners. Chosen sinners. Giving power over all flesh to
give eternal life to as many as the Father had given Him.
Chosen sinners. My sheep hear My voice. You believe not because you are
not of My sheep. I give unto them eternal life
and they will never perish. I am the good shepherd. I give
my life for the sheep. There are sinners who know they
are sinners. They are made to know that they
are sinners. And He calls sinners to repentance. When the Holy
Spirit has come, He will convince men of sin, and then of righteousness,
and then of judgment satisfied. And I will tell you this, there
are sinners who are in need of saving. They didn't need a saving. Men and women who believe on
Jesus Christ have nowhere else to go. Isn't that what His disciples
said? We cut through all these complicated
matters, and our Lord said, well, you go also. And they said, where
should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Where are we going to go? Life's
in you. You're the way. You're the shepherd.
You're the resurrection. Where are we going to go? Everything
is in you. And then fourthly, this salvation
which Christ has accomplished and which He sends still today
in the form of the Gospel glorifies God. It glorifies God. To save men by reformation or
works or to save men by His will does not necessitate the coming
of the Lord into this world. Does it? Huh? You think about it. If all
I need to do is talk you into reforming your lives, talk you
into making a decision, why does Christ have to come? Why does
God have to become a man and be born of a woman in this world?
Why does He have to live under the law? He's the lawgiver. He
has nothing to prove. You see what I'm saying? I don't
care what else you preach. This is the only thing you can
preach that necessitates the coming of God into this world
as a man. This is the faithful saying.
To save men by reformation or works or will does not necessitate
the coming of Christ into the world as a man, but to satisfy
a holy God does. God's righteous demands must
be honored. His law must be lifted up. If
there's one thing my generation is more ignorant in than anything
else, it's the very character and attributes of God. They don't
know who He is. Religion sets before men a God
willing to compromise, a God willing to change, a God willing
to back up, a God willing to make Himself
in subjection to men. He's willing to excuse sin without
satisfaction. Listen to this. God declared
His glory to Moses and He said, I'm merciful and gracious and
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands and forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. But He
said, you write this down. I will by no means clear the
guilty. Those I save, I save because
I have been satisfied. And the heart and soul of the
gospel is that Jesus Christ came into this world as a representative
man and lived a perfect life in motive, thought, and deed.
And then as our substitute, satisfied the justice of God by dying in
our stead on a cross. And this is the only gospel that
truly glorifies God. In II Thessalonians 2.13, He
called you by our gospel. Listen to this. He called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we see in Him. We
see the very glory of God in His person and work. Glorify
me, he said in John 17. He prayed that as our high priest,
that I might glorify thee. And write it down when God's
character is not fully glorified in the preaching of Christ, there's
no ambassador of God and no message worthy of acceptation. What makes
this worthy of acceptation is the glory of God uncompromised. Now these men like Peter and
Paul and these apostles, God verified their calling through
the miracles and wonders and signs and gifts of the Holy Ghost
that they did. You know, I get bit by a reptile,
I'm going as fast as I can get to a hospital. I'm going to get
me some antivenom and hope for the best. Paul just shook it
off in the fire. I don't have that. But I don't
need that. I'm not writing the Word of God.
It's already written. All you have to do to prove my
calling is take my message and look at it in the Word of God.
And if it's in harmony with the Word of God, you better take
it. You better listen to it. If it's not, you can walk away.
You can walk away. And then, fifthly, we've got
here a fitting example. He said, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners. Now listen, of whom I am chief. I am chief. How be it, verse
16, 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. Those who preach
grace have experienced grace. Paul said what qualified him
to preach to the heathen was the revelation of Christ in him. And what an encouraging word
this is to seeking sinners. Christ has already saved the
chief of sinners. Now, every one of us He saved
says to ourselves, I'm the chief of sinners. But in reality, Paul
was. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisee. That was the bottom of the barrel.
Bottom of the barrel. And He saved him first. So everybody
else. This was an example of just how
far down Christ will go to save sinners. It's a faithful saying. Something affirmed by all God's
faithful saints because this is their experience and this
is how God saved them. And it's worthy of all acceptation.
Because all those who have done so have found favor
and peace and grace and rest in Christ. What about you? What about you? What have you
found? What have you found? What have you heard? Where have
you looked? And what have you found? Will you hear His gospel? It's a faithful say. It's a faithful
say. Henry used to tell us, we got
a doctrine. He said, put it on a fence post
like a can. Get you a handful of rocks and
see if you can knock it down. If you can't knock it down, it's
of God. It's of God. You can't knock
this gospel down. You can't shoot down election.
You can't shoot down God's sovereign grace. You can't knock them down
because they're of God. They're of God. It's a faithful
saying. God has approved it both by His
Son and His Apostles. And there's only one Gospel.
Be careful you don't miss it. Be careful you don't miss it.
Be careful you don't lose it. Be careful you don't lose it. Paul said this Gospel will be
saved by it if we continue rejoicing in it, resting in it, believing
in it, and all those saved by God's will who are preserved
in Christ.