Well, we've looked for a couple
of weeks at one of Paul's faithful sayings, the one about being
united with the Lord Jesus Christ in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses
11 to 13. But this week, because we'd started
that theme, and because we're just two days away from what
this Western world calls Christmas Day, I thought we'd consider
another one of them. It's found in, it's probably
the best-known one, found in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse
15, and I've called this message sound doctrine, which is a term
which is used at the end of verse 10 of 1 Timothy chapter 1. Sound doctrine. Because in 1
Timothy chapter 1, Paul writes to Timothy about the stark contrast
between false religion and the true religion. Because religion,
mere religion that's all around us, is full of what is called
here vain jangling in these verses. Read these verses, verse 6, vain
jangling. They've swerved and turned aside
to vain jangling. It's full of empty talk. Again, another expression that's
used in this passage. It's full of works, what you
do, rather than what Christ has done. This is the religion that's
all around us, even that which names the name of Christianity
and speaks the name of Christ. You examine what they're truly
saying, you look at what they're saying, and you find it's works
religion. They're talking about what you
do. to make yourself right with God, to get yourself in a position
of favor with God. Their views of who they worship
are purely idolatrous. They use the name Jesus, but
the Jesus they worship is not the Jesus of this book. He is
not the Jesus who is the Son of God, the eternal Son of God.
He's a God of their own making, and therefore it's idolatry.
Their hearts and affections are drawn aside to all sorts of other
things, anything other than God. It's covetous, which of course
the scriptures tell us is idolatry. It's human rationalism. In place
of the word of God, in the pulpits of churches up and down this
country, you now have everything subjected to human rationalism.
Whether it be about marriage and human relationships, or the
place of bishops and teachers in the church, All of it is subjected
to human rationalism and not the word of God. Self-righteousness
dominates. Legalism dominates. Even where
churches are supposedly orthodox and true, legalism absolutely
rampant and permeates everything that they do and talk about.
And this season of Christmas is full, in religious terms,
of vain jangling. Empty talk. They take a grain
of truth that God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of
the Trinity, became man 2,000 years ago, the incarnation of
which we've been singing in those first two hymns. They take a
grain of truth and they mix it with myth and superstition and
false doctrine and we end up with that which is, as it says
at the end of verse 10, that is contrary to sound doctrine. And what does it do for people?
That, all the stuff we see around us in the religious world, the
world of Christmas and all this stuff, it leaves people lost. Lost! You're living human beings,
lost! Because why? Without Christ. Without a true knowledge of the
Christ of God, and therefore without hope in this world, and
facing death. And as you know, Hebrews 9.27
tells us, it is appointed to man to die once. That's you and
me, all of us. And then, after death, the judgment. The judgment. You'll either stand
there in your own sins, or you'll stand there and responsible for
them, or you'll stand there knowing this, that another one has stood
in your place. So what is sound doctrine? Well, look at verse 15. I'm sure most of you know these
words by heart. 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. Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. It's a faithful
saying, first of all, a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. In contrast, to all of the fables,
a myth that is all around us. In contrast to all of the disputes
he talks about in these earlier verses, disputes about genealogies,
endless genealogies, fables, questions, not godly edifying,
all of these things. In contrast to that, this is
a faithful saying. They contend about the law. rather
than the truth of God, declaring the truth of God. And the truth
of God is about Christ coming into the world. Christ Jesus
came into the world. It's true that the God who made
all things, to whom we're responsible and accountable, the one who
is over all, the one with whom we have to do, came in the person
of his son into this world to save sinners. This is the sum
and substance of the gospel. You could say that here is the
message of scripture in one verse condensed right down to one verse
about salvation from sin because Christ has come. Salvation from
just condemnation. You know, we face this judgment
which is to come and if we face it in our own sin, we must know
that we're the enemies of the living God. And yet this is speaking
about salvation from sin, salvation from just condemnation. And this
is the sum and substance of the gospel, the good news for the
sinner who knows what he faces in eternity. This is why the
gospel is the gospel. It's good news. There is salvation. For Jesus Christ has come into
the world to save sinners. What must I do to be saved? Jesus
Christ has come into the world to save sinners. There's good
news. And it's a faithful saying. Because
it's faithful. It's truthful to God. To the
very nature of God. This saying is faithful. that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It's faithful
to the nature of God. It doesn't do violence in any
way to the holiness of God, to the justice of God. It doesn't
say His justice doesn't matter. It doesn't say that His hatred
of sin doesn't matter. It's faithful to Him. It's a
faithful saying. Faithful to His justice, faithful
to His love, to His grace, and to His mercy. It's a faithful
saying to God's law. God has declared his law. That
which is right in his eyes, that which is true, that which we
break, it's faithful to God's law. It's this saying that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. God's law is made
honorable and established as right in all of its precepts. And this saying is entirely faithful,
truthful, compatible with that fact of God's law. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. It's a faithful saying because
it's faithful to the rest of God's word. Because what is God's
word all about? These are they, said Jesus. What? The Old Testament? He wasn't
there then was he? Oh yes he was. These are they
which speak of me. These scriptures speak of me.
This statement that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
is a faithful saying because it's faithful to God's word.
Because in that saying All the promises of the Old Testament
concerning the Messiah who would come to save his people in grace
by establishing justice and making satisfaction to the law of God
is all fulfilled. In all of its promises, it's
a faithful saying. And it's therefore worthy of
all acceptation. This is what Paul says. It's
a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. What does that mean? Well, many people have told that
that means that everybody, by nature, has a reasonable nature. And if you present this saying
about Christ Jesus coming into the world to save sinners in
a reasonable way that appeals to their reasonable minds, then
they're reasonable people. It's a message that's worthy
to be accepted, and so if you present it in the right way,
they will accept it. That is not what that means.
That cannot be what that means. That is not the way God has declared
his truth. God said Jesus came into the
world to save his people from their sins. That's why his name
was Jesus, Savior, because he shall save his people from their
sins. That's how God works, by sovereign
grace. Not by us being clever and smart
and coming up with all sorts of schemes to persuade people
to believe that which is readily acceptable. No, it doesn't mean
that. Worthy of all acceptation means
it's worthy of being believed by all sorts of people. All sorts of people. This isn't
a message just for certain types. All sorts of people. The educated
people. The simple people. You'd think
if you went to some churches, that if you didn't have a second
degree in something or other, you were not fit to be a member
of the congregation. No. All sorts of people. This statement, the highest educated,
the lowest educated, can believe this statement. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Rich people. You're never too
rich to need this. Think about Jesus' parable of
the rich man and Lazarus. rich people and poor people.
Moral people need to hear this. It's worthy of acceptation. Moral
people and immoral people. You can't say that. Surely the
gospel isn't for immoral people. It was for Mary Magdalene, wasn't
it? It was for Mary Magdalene and
others like her. Maybe it's for peaceful people.
It's a saying that's worthy of all acceptation by peaceful people. But it's also worthy of acceptation
by violent people. It's all sorts of people. It's
worthy of all acceptation. And it's to be accepted and received
as the word of God. for one Thessalonians chapter
2 verse 13 says when you receive the word of God which you heard
of us you received it not as the word of men but as it is
in truth the word of God which effectually works also in you
that believe this saying written by Paul Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners is the word of God. This is the
word from on high, from the one that made you, from the one who
upholds all things now by the word of the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says this, it's his word,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. It's a
word that was given by the Father to Christ, for Christ said, the
Father told me all things, and by Christ to his apostles, and
by the apostles to the saints, which is, not special people
with halos, but those who believe him. It's like the Jewish Kabbalah,
the oral law which God sent down as his truth from heaven. He
gave it to Moses and then to the prophets and the elders and
so on. It's that which comes from on
high. In John chapter 8 verse 40 Jesus
said this, he said that he told them the truth, those that were
hearing, which he had heard from God in heaven. Hence, this statement
is worthy of all acceptation. Who are you going to listen to?
There's all sorts of opinions out there. We never quite know
what the truth is. God has spoken. This is a statement
that's worthy of all acceptance. Well, my friend so-and-so says
this. It doesn't matter what your friend thinks. What does
God say? This is worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Hence, it's worthy of all acceptation. And what is the statement? that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Let's think
about sinners for a moment. Sinners. It's you and me. What
a bad condition to be in. We so much like to talk about
how good we are and the good things that we do. But actually,
in our flesh, in ourselves, we're sinners before the law of God.
And that's a perilous condition to be in. in the context of eternity,
in the context of eternity you and I in our flesh as we are
alike People adrift in the North Atlantic Ocean in a little tiny
inflatable life raft. Your chances of surviving unless
someone come and save you are zero. You're going to perish.
You're going to freeze to death, starve to death, die of thirst. You're in a perilous condition.
And to be a sinner in the context of eternity is like that. That's
you and me as we are. Why do I say that? Well, because
we're the children of Adam. Yes, I know that, but that seems
remote from me. Ah, no, but we've all broken
God's law daily, in every single way, in thought, in word, and
in deed. We've broken his law. We cannot,
not one of us can say, Jesus said to those religious Pharisees
and scribes who were bringing the accusation against the woman
caught in adultery, And they all said, the law says we must
stone her, what do you say, Jesus? And he leant down and wrote with
his finger in the ground. And I believe he was writing
words from the law. And they looked at it, and then
he stood up and he looked at them, and he said, let him that
is without sin, you holy folks, all of you, let him that is without
sin cast the first stone at her. And you know what they all did?
One by one, they all knew, because they were convicted, that not
one of them, however good they appeared outwardly, however religious
they appeared, however much it seemed on the outside, that they
never ever broke the law of God, they knew in their hearts that
they were vile sinners, and they walked out, one by one, because
not one of them could pick up that first stone. And like them
we've neglected God's holy will. We've gone our own way. We've
rebelled. The rule of God is benign. loving,
gentle, and yet we've all rebelled against the benign rule of God.
In our hearts and in our natures, we've always erred, leaned towards
evil rather than good. We've always, in our flesh, as
we are, gone in selfish pursuit of our own advancement at the
cost of others. That's what we are by nature.
We've broken God's law. We're sinners by nature. We have
a mind that doesn't love God. Rather, by nature, we're like
all those that Psalm 2 speaks about. We're like the heathen
that furiously rage together against the Lord and against
his anointed and say, we will not have this man to rule over
us. We want our own way. That's always what we're like.
We're sinners. And let me tell you what the
scripture says about sin and God's view of it. God hates sin. And God hates sinners. Psalm
5, verse 5. This is what the scriptures say.
Ah, but don't evangelists tell everybody, God loves you and
has a wonderful plan for your life. I wonder where they get
that message from. Because the Word of God says
this. God is angry with the wicked every day. It says in Psalm 5,
verse 5, Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity. That's God. Hates all the workers of iniquity.
Sinners, as they are by nature. Psalm 11 verse 5. The Lord trieth
the righteous, but the wicked, sinners, and him that loveth
violence his soul hateth. God hates sinners. That's you
and me by nature. That's why the New Testament
says that we're at enmity. We're enemies of God by nature. In your fleshly nature even now,
that is you and me. And divine justice cries out.
Do you know what the sentence of divine justice is? The wages
of sin is death. Is this speaking to you? Is it
speaking to you? Is it saying anything to you?
You're a sinner and the justice of God must condemn. What can
you do? Is that what your cry is? What
can I do? Like that Philippian jailer when
he saw his accountability, his sinnerhood before God the judge
and he cried out, what must I do to be saved? I'm desperate to
be saved. What must I do to be saved from
the just eternal consequences of my sin? I'm in a dilemma. I'm like the leopard with my
spots and I can't change my spots. There's nothing I can do about
it. And I fear that I'm amongst that number that Jesus spoke
to in Matthew 23, 33. He talked to those religious
righteous folks in Israel of his day, and he said, O generation
of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Think
of the seriousness that the Son of God come from on high should
say that to a group of men. O generation of vipers, how can
you escape the damnation of hell? We're in a dilemma, we're in
a perilous condition as sinners. But here is the blessedness of
this statement. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners from that condition, from that situation. This is
why it's good news. He came to save sinners. Hebrews 2 verse 3 says, how shall
we escape? Are you going to neglect it?
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? It is great
salvation. It's salvation to the uttermost.
Salvation beyond anything that you could imagine. Salvation
to the uttermost. How shall we escape if we neglect
it? Think of this. Think of how serious this is. Think what it took to save sinners
who are in such deep peril of their sinnerhood. the infinite,
perfect, holy one of God, God in the flesh, God made man, had
to come and lay down his life, and shed his precious blood,
and be separated from the Father, that that could be achieved.
That's what it took. As another hymn says, there was
no other good enough to pay the price of sin. Nobody else would
do. No other good man, no other righteous
man. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let his people
in. He is Christ. Christ means the
Anointed One of God. Christ means the Messiah, the
Commissioned One of God, for this specific purpose. He's spoken
about throughout the Old Testament. He's foretold throughout the
Old Testament. He is coming to save His people
from their sins. He's the anointed one of God.
But also, God himself made flesh. And you shall call his name Jesus.
And Jesus means like Joshua. It's the same name as Joshua.
It means savior. The one who comes to save. That's
why he was to be called Jesus. To save his people from their
sins. And he came in the flesh. You
know, God came down before. God came down in the flood when
he looked down and saw the violence and the evil and the sin that
was in the world. And it repented him and he came
down and he sent a flood upon the earth. He came down again
at Babel, at the Tower of Babel, when man tried to build his own
way to heaven and usurp the place of God. And he came down there
and condemned and confused the languages. He came down at Sodom
and Gomorrah to exact sin's price in natural disaster, very graphically. He did it there. When Christ
came, John 3,17 says this, for God sent not his son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might
be saved. That's why he came, to save sinners. Galatians 4 and verse 4, but
when the fullness of the time was come, there were centuries
of waiting for the time to come, but when the fullness, the right
time, the prophesied time, the time according to scripture was
come, God sent forth his son into this world as a man, made
of a woman, made of a woman, the same flesh and blood as we
are, made under the law, subject to the law, to live as a man
subject to the law of God as all men. to redeem them that
were under the law. That's people like you and me.
To redeem, to buy back, to pay the price, to pay the price of
redemption, to pay the price of satisfaction to the justice
of God, to the law of God. To redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, that those
who are enemies by nature might be made children, children with
a new nature. And God could not save from his
position in heaven. God could not save from that
position. He had to come to earth to save. This is why it's a faithful saying.
He came into the world. He couldn't save unless he had
come into the world. You might have seen film of helicopter
rescues. Let's say there's a ship that's
sinking at sea and they're rescuing the crew members from the deck
of that sinking ship. And have you noticed the helicopter
doesn't fly over and just dangle a rope down for them to grab
hold of and bring themselves up into the helicopter. No. No,
the helicopter winch man has to go down into the raging sea
to pluck the one that he's saving out of that sea and bring him
up. And so the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, had to come
down. He had to come into this world.
He must come down into the raging sea of the judgment of God against
sin to pluck his beloved people from certain eternal destruction.
And to satisfy justice is why he came. Justice demands the
death of the sinner. Justice demands that the soul
that sins it shall die. And to satisfy divine justice,
a man of infinite worth must pay the price of that justice.
And the price is the life of this infinite one. And the life
is in the blood. And so the blood must be shed.
Human blood, but divine blood. We read in Acts chapter 20 verse
28 where Paul is talking to the elders on the beach at Ephesus
before he leaves them for the last time. And he talks about
them shepherding the church of God which he, God, purchased,
bought, how did he buy it? With his own blood. God bought
his church with his own blood to satisfy divine justice God
became man, that in a human body, with human blood, but without
sin, that he might pay the price of sin in the place of his people. A body must be prepared, says
the scripture. Hebrews 10, 5 quotes it. The
animal sacrifices were merely pictures. They couldn't do it,
but a body must be prepared. He must have something to offer.
Hebrews 8 verse 3. Every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices. Wherefore it is of necessity
that this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, have somewhat also to
offer. He did. He was the sacrifice. Christ is our Passover. He came
to pay the penalty for the sins of his people, that justice might
be satisfied. He came down into this world
to pluck his people out of the raging sea of the justice of
God against the sins of his people. He came down into the fire of
judgment and bore that judgment to pluck us as brands, as burning
logs out of the fire that we might not burn up. This is what
he did. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. This is how he saves. He saves
men and women as sinners. And sinners, in terms of the
justice, in terms of the righteousness that God demands, Sinners are
bankrupt. Do you know what it is to be
bankrupt? Some people tell you that they've not got any money
at all, when in actual fact what they mean is they're down to
their last hundred thousand in the bank, you know? They say,
oh, I've got no money at all, and it means that, you know,
there perhaps isn't as much as they used to be, but there's
still an awful lot there. No, bankrupt means bankrupt. Nothing. Empty pockets. Empty
bank account. Absolutely nothing to offer.
Not like the respectable folks in so much religion who mix the
old and the new covenants. You know, you go some places,
you go many places, you can barely tell whether the church that
you're in is still in the old covenant or is in the new covenant.
They jumble up the mercy of God with the merit that they earn
by sanctifying themselves. They work for sanctification. And they know that they can't
quite make it to heaven. but Jesus tips the scales in
their favor. Do you know that? I'm sure, sadly,
is the mistaken religious philosophy of so many people in mainstream
churches today. They know they're not quite,
they're pretty good, they're okay, but they just need Jesus
just to tip the scales in their favor so that God will accept
them. That's not what the scripture says. Jesus saves bankrupt sinners. Jesus saves nobody but sinners. Jesus doesn't even save repenting
sinners. or believing sinners, or humble,
sanctified sinners, who come with a little bit of their own
good in their hands. No. Only those, you know what
the hymn says, nothing in my hand I bring. Not my reputation,
or the work I've done, or the tradition, or the fact that I'm
trying my best, and I'm repenting of this, that, and the other.
No. Sinners. Absolutely bankrupt. And religion doesn't like that.
The religion all around us doesn't like it. Spurgeon uses an illustration
that I quite liked. He says it's like murderers condemned
to be hanged in the condemned cell and the king shows them
mercy and pardons them. The king shows them mercy but
they refuse to accept it and prefer to go to the gallows because
if they accepted his mercy it might encourage others to go
out and murder. That's what it's like. That's
what so many in religion are like, mixing up their own efforts
with the salvation that is in Christ. Now, only sinners. Jesus said that he didn't come
to save the righteous, but sinners. He didn't come to heal those
that are well, but those that are sick. Only sinners. And that is such a contrast to
the vain jangling and disputes about the law that is in so much
other religion. The more we know of the true
gospel, few know the true gospel, if I do, the more we know that
in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. You know
that you're a sinner. And the more you see of the gospel
of Christ, The more like Paul, because this was the last thing
he wrote about himself in terms of his sinnerhood, the more you
see that you're the chief of sinners. Well we can't all be
the chief of sinners, well I think it means in this sense. I'm no
nearer to saving myself than anyone else. How many folk have
you known of a religious nature who You look at them and you're
pretty convinced that they're certain that they're so far down
the track towards saving themselves. But if you're the chief of sinners,
you know that you're no nearer to saving yourself than anyone
else. You're nothing other than a bankrupt sinner in the judgment
of God. But praise God, praise God. The holy just judge, praise him. The one who is holy, the one
who is just, the one who is the judge with whom we have to do.
He sent Christ Jesus into the world to save such as me, sinners. And how did he do it? He did
it effectually. He accomplished his purpose.
He did it perfectly, completely. He said it is finished. He did
it certainly. Certainly. Sinner, if you're
trusting in Christ, if you're trusting in Christ and not one
shred of anything that you are or have done or could do, know
this, He has saved you to the uttermost. Come that day of judgment,
which we all must face, what a day of joy that will be for
you. But I tell you, you go there with one shred of your own goodness,
one shred of your own self-worth, and you will poison that entire
gospel as far as you are concerned. Do you know that you're a sinner?
Are you burdened with your sin? Are you thirsty for righteousness?
He says, He says, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, with a burden of sin, a knowledge of sin, and I will
give you rest. He says, whosoever thirsts, nearly
the last words in the Bible, Revelation 22, about four or
five verses from the end, whosoever thirsts, let him come, let him
drink, let him drink freely, freely. Jesus Christ, Christ
Jesus, came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Oh, praise God, as this world
goes mad over Christmas things yet again for another year, as
it's bound to do, oh, the blessedness of knowing this. He really did
come to save sinners such as me. Amen.