Last Sunday I tried to preach
to you on the subject, actually a question, for whom did Christ
die? The answer to that question is
in Romans chapter 5 and verse 6. Christ died for the ungodly. before we can be Christians we
must first discover ourselves to be ungodly, without God, haters
of God. Now this world of modern-day
Christianity thinks that if you just come join the church you
got your ticket for heaven. I'm telling you There ain't a shred of truth
in that whole statement. Not one. So this morning I'm
taking the same subject, For Whom Did Christ Die? But I want
to take our text from 1 Timothy chapter 1. So if you'll join
me in 1 Timothy chapter 1, we'll read the first 17 verses of this
chapter, and then we'll come back and take verse 15 as our
text for this morning. But I want to emphasize, if I
can possibly do so, and you please understand that what I say ain't
got nothing to do with much if God doesn't take it up for His
own self and pursue His own ends. It ain't up to me to convince
you nor to convict you, but if God, the Holy Spirit, takes the
words of a sorry poor preacher and speaks them with power to
your soul, the result will be transforming. Now to show you how important
this is, Most of you may not remember
this, but some of you probably do. But, oh, I would say it was about
the year, oh, about 25 years ago, standing right here. Back then, we didn't have scripture
reading at the beginning. Matter of fact, we didn't have
much scripture reading at all. But you know the routine, you
just sing a couple of hymns, take up a collection, and the
preacher's supposed to preach for 15 minutes and give the rest
of the time to an invitation. You know the drill. You can find
it in about every Baptist church in this state. And some people came to church
on Sunday morning to take a nap. And there was a guy sitting on
the end of that row between Curtis and Tommy Parker. And I got in that morning before
he got to sleep. I said, for whom did Christ die? And I answered, Christ died for
the ungodly. And I lit his fields on fire
with that statement. And when he went out at the end
of the service, he was still livid. And probably still hates
that to this day. I won't give you any names. All
right, let's read this chapter now. Remember, our question is,
for whom did Christ die? Now if you don't know this already,
you've got a long ways to go. He didn't die for everybody. He died to save sinners. He died
to save the ungodly. But we'll get to that in a minute.
Let's take our reading first. Have you found 1 Timothy chapter
1? Alright. I'm going to comment a little
bit, but try not to overdo it. And I've promised you that before
and haven't kept it, so you can do what you want to with it.
I want you to notice that this chapter begins with a man's name,
Paul, who used to be called Saul of Tarsus. It doesn't say Mr. Paul, it doesn't say Bishop Paul,
and it doesn't say Reverend Paul. Now if the apostles dared not
attach to themselves such names as Reverend and Doctor of Theology
and so forth, what on earth are we doing with it? Any man to tell you he's mastered
the study of God Either he's lying or he's just
a plain fool. If you're a believer, you count
yourself to get worse every day instead of better. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ."
And all of that statement is together and it's all speaking
of God the Son. And speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, King James says, which is our hope. I personally like
it would be better if it was who is our hope? Christ is our
hope. How much of our hope? All of
it! My hope is not part in me and
part in Him. If it is, just go ahead and throw
away the part that's in Him because it's not real. Unto Timothy, my own son in the
faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord. As I besought you to abide still
at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that you might charge
some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to
fables and endless genealogies, who minister questions rather
than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do. Now listen very
carefully. Now the end of the commandment. Now what commandment is that? The end of the commandment. Many people like to use the word
the moral law. But our Bibles nowhere distinguishes
God's commandments under that word moral. Therefore the law
is composed of three essential things. One was the law of sacrifices
and offerings, the other was the law of ceremonies, and the
other was the law of commandments in the Ten Commandments and many
other commandments for that matter. So just three parts to the law.
Here it seems that we are looking at that aspect of those commands
as summarized in the Ten Commandments. Let's see if that fits. Now the
end of the commandment, the end of the Ten Commandments, the
goal, the purpose of the Ten Commandments is love out of a pure heart. Now don't you just know you were
born with a pure heart? Heavens know you were not and
neither was I. There ain't been but one pure
heart in a human body and that's our Lord Jesus Christ. But every poor sinner that trusts
in Christ and Christ alone for salvation has a new heart and
a new nature, and that heart is pure. Therefore, this statement, I've got to find my first five,
the end or goal of the commandment is love or charity out of a pure
heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned or unpretended. from which some having swerved,"
boy, you'd have to have a bigger word than swerved in our day
when it comes to this matter, "...have turned aside unto vain
jangling." The vast majority of religious people under the
umbrella of Christianity, it ain't a thing in the world in
their meetings except vain jangling. Desiring to be teachers of the
law? Understanding neither what they
say nor whereof they affirm? Verse eight, but we know. that the law is good if a man
use it lawfully. And may I suggest that a synonym
for the word lawfully is this, the law is good if a man uses
it gospelly. Is that a word? It ought to be
if it isn't. That is to say, this book tells
us that the law is our schoolmaster unto Christ. It cannot save us
and the words in italics in the King James Translation in Galatians
3 verse 23 or 24, I don't remember, I've got it written down somewhere
but I don't know where it is. The actual King James Translation
says Christ is our schoolmaster. The law is our schoolmaster to
bring us unto Christ. But I'm here to tell you that
the law can't bring you to Christ. It can bring you to despair.
It can bring you to damnation. But it can't bring you to Christ. The Holy Spirit of God alone
brings sinners to Christ. And if he don't do it, it doesn't
get done. Verse 8, But we know that the
law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. for the ungodly and for sinners,
for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for manslayers." What did our Lord teach us about statements
like this? It's not confined to the hand
or the foot but involves the ear and the eye and the mouth
and involves the heart to approve of sin in our soul is equally if not more damning
than the outward act. Now what does this mean? It means
there's never been a soul living in a human body except our Savior
who kept and honored God's law. There were many people in the
Bible who claimed to, but none of them ever did. The rich young
ruler in Luke chapter 18 came to Christ and he said, Lord,
what can I do that I might inherit eternal life? And the Lord started
citing him the commandments. He said, Oh, I've kept them from
my youth up. So the Lord just took one of
the ten and showed him what it meant. And the man went away
sorrowful because it The commandment was to go and sell your possessions
and give it to the poor and come and follow Me. He could not do
that. He could not even do one commandment,
let alone ten. Surely you do not think we are
any better? The law is not made for a righteous
man, but for this awful catalog of persons. Verse 10, I think,
did we not leave off at verse 9? for whoremongers, for them
that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars,
for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that
is contrary to sound doctrine." And notice that's not the end
of the sentence. According to the glorious gospel. Here's a
statement now. The glorious gospel of the blessed
God. My soul which Paul said was committed
to my trust. Now if I remember right, the
sentence began at verse 8 and doesn't end until we get to the
end of verse 11. Verse 12, And I thank Christ
Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry, which was before. Paul says,
I was before. And if there ain't been a before,
there cannot be an after. Now let's understand this plainly
and clearly. Grace doesn't save good people. It saves sinners who was before a blasphemer. And I was too. a persecutor and injurious, but
I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." This
is a faithful saying, a true saying, that Christ Jesus came
into this world to save sinners!" And that's all. If you ain't a sinner, you cannot
have an interest in Christ. And then Paul adds, "...of whom
I am chief." Now Paul surely, you meant to say, I was the chief
of sinners. No, it is I am. Most of today's professing Christianity
will not stand for that particular tense of the verb to be. Same
is true in Romans chapter 7 where Paul identifies himself as being
at the very time that he penned that letter as well as this one. Howbeit, 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 unto life everlasting. Now unto the King, this is King
Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal, immortal, Invisible,
the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Verse 15, 1 Timothy chapter 1,
the question is what? For whom did Christ die? Now if he supposedly died for
everybody, and not everybody is in heaven
when this thing is all wound up and finished, then Christ
is no Savior. If there are people for whom
he died who are not in eternal glory when they leave this earth,
then they cannot be believers. And therefore it cannot be true
that Christ died for this whole wide world. This, this is verse 15, this
is a faithful or true saying. It's worthy of all acceptation,
of universal acceptance. that Christ Jesus. Now our Lord has many titles
and names. His complete name for the most
part is Lord Jesus Christ. But here it is just Christ Jesus. And it's not Jesus Christ, it's
Christ Jesus. There's significance in that. Christ Jesus came He was somewhere else and He
came to this earth. He existed before this world
was ever made. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. To save them. Not to save good people, to save
bad people. And Paul adds, of whom I am chief. Someone wrote these words, I
think they're Joseph Hart, but I'm not sure. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. That means that sinners are divinely
made. We can't even make ourselves
sinners, though we are. And we behave like it. Of whom I am chief. Now let's talk to the Lord and
beg Him to come Take these words and speak them
to our hearts. I can't do that. Before I was saved and was a
preacher, I thought I could. If I could figure out a way to
get you from where you are now to up here, I just figured I
had it made. Turns out the whole thing's a
deception. I'm telling you, The Lord doesn't
take his own word. I mean Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Ain't nothing taking place. Let's
pray. Lord, we bless you and thank
you for the privilege of meeting in this house. Thank you for your word. Thank you for these songs of
the gospel. Thank you for our Savior, the
Lord Jesus. Lord, we've met here for the
solemn purpose of hearing a word from heaven, of doing good to the souls of
men, including our own, But Lord, you know, your word
plainly tells us this, that you alone can deal with spiritual and divine
things in the soul. We can't even make ourselves
a sinner. But Lord, You know how to make sinners
confess themselves to be sinners. The man, the human author of
this book, the Apostle Paul, he was one of the most arrogant
of men in any religion of any day. And you brought him down
and he here relates it to us. Oh, we beg for the same mercy
for ourselves. Lord, please take up your own cause, pursue
your own end, bring to pass your perfect will in all things. We beg in our Savior's name,
Amen. Now if a sinner is a sacred thing,
Some other person said he's scarcer than hen's teeth. And the story is told about a
little girl that went with her father to the cemetery. And she
must have been a pretty smart little girl because she said,
Papa, where do they bury sinners? She said everybody in this cemetery
are good people. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Religion has reached the point in our day that there ain't no
such thing when he's lying in the casket. There ain't no such
thing as a sinner. Some of you remember old John
Berridge that preached in England from about 1756 to about 1790-something. went to the pastorate of a little
church in a village called Everton, England. And when he first went
there in 1754, he was as lost as his church members. He preached
the law for two years Sundays and Wednesdays without fail. And he said there were more immoral
people in the little country village of Everton than ever
before, that the result of preaching obedience to the law by sinners
who cannot obey it is just absolute useless. It doesn't work. It just makes us worse. Ain't
but one thing can help us, and that's the blood and righteousness
of God's Holy Son, Jesus Christ. So when Berridge died in like
1793 or 1794, I don't remember exactly. Spurgeon died in 1892.
This is 1790-something. So their deaths were like 100
years apart. But when Mr. Berridge died, he
had left instructions not only as to what to put on his grave,
which is an elevated grave sitting out of the ground about like
that with a marble side on one side and the remarks that he
asked to be put there are there. But here's the interesting thing
that will help us with this verse. I've not seen this in the states
but it may well exist, I just don't know about it. They had
a section of that cemetery that was reserved for unusually bad
sinners. You know, the alcoholic, and
in our day, the drug dealer, the prostitute, you know, and
so forth and so on. Well, guess what? When John Berridge
died, his instructions were to bury him in that exact part of
that cemetery. It ain't more than six feet from
the wall of the church building. And after he requested to be
buried there, there were some other people that understood
why he did so, because they too had come to terms with the fact
that they're sinners, and they asked to be buried in the same
place. But if we can't, We'll make distinctions not only down
here from the church to the graveyard, but we'll insist on the same
distinctions in heaven and it ain't so. And the ones we make
down here are just simply artificial, meaningless, just simply proves
what we are. All right, let's get down to
business. for whom is salvation intended? Who does God intend to save through
the death and life and blood and righteousness of His only
begotten Son? Who does God intend to save? The answer in our text is simply
sinners. Sinners. All kinds and types of sinners. Sinners without any other qualification. Though we sometimes qualify ourselves. I think, if I'm not mistaken,
I've heard a few of you talk about yourself as the worst sinner
that ever lived, and that's qualification. But I kind of like that qualification,
don't you? But God simply says Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. To save sinners who are under
the curse and wrath of God in God's broken law. In Romans chapter
5 and verse 6, our text for last Sunday, it is to save sinners
who are without strength. When we were still without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. Today, when you ask people something
about their religion, they want to tell you what their denomination
is. They want to tell you what they've done for God. It's a rare thing to find a man
or a woman who will say, I'm a sinner saved only by grace. Only by grace. My second point is that Christ
Jesus came to save sinners. Now listen carefully. This is
where many people leave the straight and narrow and begin to bring
into this arrangement things that spoil it and ruin it. Christ came to save sinners. That means He did not come to
condemn us. John 3.17 says we're condemned
already. You know why? Because we have
not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. We're
already condemned. He doesn't need to come to condemn
us. How did we become condemned? when Adam rebelled against God
in the Garden of Eden. And this book declares that Adam
is the federal head and representative of the human race. Now listen
to me. When Eve sinned, and she sinned
before Adam did, when Eve sinned, nothing happened. But when Adam sinned, it all
went to hell in a handbasket, as we would say. It just all went downhill all at
one time. You see, Adam's sin is passed on to all
his descendants. Therefore, with the exception
of our Lord, which I'll explain in just a second, Every person
who's ever been born since the beginning of time in this world
is a born sinner. Scripture speaks of Adam's fall,
that is his fall into total depravity. And so this disease of sin is
inherited by every one of his descendants down to the present
moment. But how can the Lord Jesus come
in human flesh and not have the same poison and contamination
that we have? Now you talk about wisdom, the
gospel of God in Christ is altogether wise. Christ is not born of the
seed of Adam. This book plainly says He's born
the seed of the woman. And there's only ever been one
birth like that, and that's the Savior, the Son of God. He not only was not born a sinner,
He Himself never committed a sin. But when He died, the sins of
all His people were upon Him. So the Lord Jesus did not come
to condemn us, but to save us. He did not come to help us to
save ourselves. Oh my soul, that's the blight
of our day. We want to trust Jesus a little
bit and ourselves a little bit and we'll just happily go on
our way. He did not come to help you and me to save ourselves. Ed said it this morning, you
do your part the Savior says and I'll do the rest. But it's also not true that He
came to save us partly, in part, that we might do the rest or
the remainder. These arrangements that people
speak about and it spills over into all aspects of their religion. But especially when it comes
to dealing with the souls of men, trying to get them to come
to their church and to their brand of religion and be a church
member and be a tither and be this and that and the other. So they come up with all these
ideas to get people to move them emotionally. instead of letting
the Spirit of God work and move men spiritually. They'll tell you to take the
first step and God will take the second step. Listen. Please listen. There
is no salvation, never has been. There's no salvation in getting
up from a spot that you're in and coming to another spot. People
can call this an altar all day long, but it ain't no such thing.
The book of Hebrews tells us as plainly as words can say it,
Christ is our altar, Christ is our sacrifice, Christ is our
priest, and Christ is the God to whom the sacrifice is offered.
If that means Christ is everything, that's what I'm trying to say. Well, I don't want to get you
all completely lazy, so let's turn to Philippians chapter 3.
You all will think I'm sick. I was sick last Sunday, I'll
tell you that, when I got home. I don't want to crawl under a
rock. Let's see, I can't find my verses. Philippians Chapter 3 and verse 3. There are not too many places in our
Bibles that distinguish things as clearly as Philippians 3 and
verse 3. Now remember Paul is writing
to the church at Philippi. He says to them, having already
issued some warnings and so forth, because the Judaizers were at
work in Philippi trying to get people to not only have faith
in Christ, but to follow Moses as well. And there's plenty of
places in this county right now this morning that are disseminating
the same poison and trash. telling you, you must not only
have Christ to save you, but you have to keep the Ten Commandments. I've got news for you. Saved
or lost, we can't keep them. But our Savior has. Our Savior
has. So look what Paul puts together
in a little trilogy in verse 3 of Philippians 3. For we are the circumcision,
he's speaking here of spiritual circumcision, the circumcision
of the heart, which is the operation of God alone. We are the circumcision,
number one, which worship God in the spirit, spiritual worship. Religion in our day likes its
color schemes, its candles, its robes, its trinkets, and a thousand
and one other thing. But I'm telling you God cannot
be worshipped lest it be spiritual worship which He's created in
our souls by His grace to us in Christ Jesus. Second thing
in Philippians 3, not only worshiping God in the Spirit but rejoicing
in Christ Jesus. We don't rejoice in good old
Bethel Church, do we? I don't think so. If we do, we're
sadly mistaken. Rejoice in who? I believe it's
the same way as it is in our text. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now Christ means Messiah. God's anointed and appointed
Messiah. This has to do with Christ being
God. Whereas the other name, the word
Jesus, that's his human name. It literally means Jehovah is
salvation. In Matthew 121 it goes like this,
the angel said to Joseph, who was beginning to get cold feet
about marrying a woman that was already pregnant with a child,
and the angel instructed Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Never a thought about saving
everybody. But look at this third one in
Philippians 3 in verse 3. And have no confidence in the
flesh. None. You mean not even a little
bit? No confidence in the flesh. Well if it's like this God sure will have to do everything,
and that's my whole point. He does. I've got one more question. If you'll
go back to 1 Timothy for a second. We've got one more little phrase
here to look at, and that's the last five words of this verse,
"...of whom I am chief." Paul nominates himself as the
chief of sinners. Now calling ourselves the chief
of sinners, And by the way, this is very late in Paul's life on
this earth. He was shortly going to leave
this earth. If Usher's chronology is correct,
it was in the year A.D. 65 and he, if I'm not mistaken,
he left this world in A.D. 66. Others date these two books a
good many years earlier than this and I can't tell you which
one is right because I wasn't there and I just don't even care
about it. I'm not interested in trying
to look it up. Details like that you're welcome to, I don't want.
But here's my question. Those last five words now. Of whom I am chief. How can I know that the Lord
Jesus has saved me? How can I know that? How can
you know it? Well, this last phrase is how
we can know it. I mean a genuine, honest to goodness
confession of whom I am chief, the chief of sinners. The only
people that can truly say this about themselves are people who
are born again. born from above, born of God. I'll tell you this, if you'd
have met Paul the day before we meet him on the road to Damascus,
I'll tell you where you can find him. At the very end of chapter
7 in Romans where the stoning of Stephen takes place and the
first verse of chapter 8 And then, lo and behold, in chapter
9 of the book of Acts, we find him hot on the road of these
crazy people called Christians. He's headed to Damascus to arrest
them, men and women. Imprison them or put them to
death, it didn't make any difference. Now that man is an arrogant,
Saul of Tarsus is an arrogant, arrogant fellow. He's going to
take God's place and rid this world of undesirables. And then he met Christ, or should
I say Christ met him and conquered him. And now Instead of being such
a big man, so well loved and respected by his peers and honored
in every honor that could be bestowed upon men, now he's a
hated, despised believer and preacher of the Lord Jesus Christ. My, what a change, what a change. Wouldn't leave the second one
to go back to the first one for anything. Saul was just like the rich young
ruler, and just like the Pharisee in the temple. But now, now he's
different. Oh, I do mean different. Let
me remind you of three things in closing. Here's the first
one. It's a little hymn, part of a hymn by Joseph Hart. Oh,
beware of faith ill-grounded, tis but fancied faith at most. To be healed and not be wounded
is to be saved before you're lost. Now let that one settle in. To be saved before you're wounded
is to be found before you're lost. Here's another one by a
fellow named James Proctor in 1858. Till to Jesus Christ you
cling, by a simple faith Doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends in death. Do you remember that little track? Do or done. Christianity is done. The work's been done. It's finished.
Christ said on the cross, it is finished. Finished forever. Here are the words of another
hymn by Joseph Hart, part of which you'll find in our song
books. I don't know about the present one, but the previous
one. But they leave off some things. You can tell who the
editor is by what he leaves out of hymns or changes about them. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly prove. nor a fitness fondly dream, all
the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him." Oh, we
can do that. No, you can't. Here's the rest
of the verse. This he gives you, this God gives
you, tis the Spirit's rising beam. It's the very first evidence
that a work of grace is begun in the soul. If I can get my
wife to do this, we'll put this in the bulletin for next Sunday. One more little statement. If I see it right, the cross
of popular religion is not the cross of the New Testament. It's rather a new bright ornament
upon the bosom of self-assured but false Christianity. The old
cross slew men. The new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned. The
new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence
in the flesh. The new cross encourages confidence
in the flesh. All right.