Now, turn in your Bible once
again to 1 Timothy chapter 1, and notice carefully verse 15. This is a faithful sign. This is a true, true sign. And it's worthy of all acceptation,
worthy to be received, believed, counted upon, You can count this
down. Write it down as a certain sure
promise that Christ Jesus came. And He came into this world to
save. He came to seek and to save that which is lost. He came
to save sinners. And then Paul said, certainly,
I am the chief. I am the chief sinner before
God Almighty. Now, Martin Luther called this
verse a condensed version of the Bible. The Bible in one verse. It is a glorious gospel of the
blessed God that magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ in His great
mercy, His great salvation that He abundantly sheds upon His
people. Notice verse 14. The grace of
our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
in the Lord Jesus. He says in verse 13, he said,
I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, one who caused injury, injurious,
but I obtained mercy. I didn't earn it. Mercy is a
gift of God. You can't merit mercy. Merited
mercy is no mercy at all. None at all. Salvation is for
sinners. Paul had experienced this saving
mercy. by God's grace. And he describes
what he was by nature in verse 13, a blasphemer, a persecutor.
And then he declares unto us what God revealed and gave him
by His grace, by His sovereign grace. Grace alone. I'm never weary of hearing of
that glorious truth. Grace. Have you ever noticed
how similar grace and Christ Similar, when you have grace,
you have Christ. When you have Christ, we believe
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be justified
and saved by God's grace. Free, sovereign, eternal, immutable,
calling grace, electing grace, saving grace, fetching grace,
redeeming grace. Salvation is all by the grace
of God in Christ Jesus. And then he said, this is a faithful,
faithful gospel. Now here's my first point. This
is a faithful saying. We see the sureness and certainty
of the gospel. The certainty of the gospel.
This is faithful. This is faithful. You know why?
It's based upon the faithfulness of God. It's based upon the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not my faithfulness. His
faithfulness. His faithfulness to honor the
law of God as the God-man mediator. His faithfulness to be obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. He said, no man takes
my life from me. I lay it down. I have power to
lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of the Father. This is a faithful
saying. You see what it says right there?
The certainty and sureness of this gospel. The gospel we have
is yes and amen and in Christ. It's not maybe, it's not if,
it's not perhaps. Certain and sure. It's laid upon
a sure foundation, is it not? The sure foundation is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. God said, I lay in Zion for a
foundation. Tribestone, precious cornerstone. He that believes on that foundation
shall never make haste, never be forced off, never be ashamed
of a confounded world without end. This is a faithful saying. This gospel is faithful to honor
God's law. The Lord Jesus said, I didn't
come to destroy the law. I came to honor the law of God. He honored every picture and
satisfied every picture and type in the Old Testament. He is that. atonement on that day of atonement.
He is that Passover lamb. He is that smitten rock. He is
that brazen serpent lifted up. This gospel is faithful to all
the promises of God's Word. Our Lord Jesus, in coming and
dying as our substitute, has fulfilled all that was written
of Him. He died for our sins according
to what? According to the Scriptures.
He died according to the Scriptures, fulfilling all the decree and
purpose of God. You see, this is God's Lamb provided
of God. And this Lamb is God Himself. You remember what Abraham told
Isaac, my son, God will provide Himself a Lamb? He is the Lamb
of God. God Himself provided the sacrifice
for Himself, and He provided Himself as a sacrifice. Behold the Lamb of God. This
gospel is faithful to those who believe it. It will never fail. The gospel will never fail you.
Never fail you. This gospel is faithful to those
who believe. Though we often fail, He never
fails. Turn in your Bible to Isaiah
42. One of my favorite scriptures.
Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42. This is a faithful
gospel. It will never fail us. Faithful
to honor God's law. Faithful to honor every promise
of God. Faithful to us based upon the
faithfulness of Christ. Isaiah 42. Look at verse 4. Isaiah 42. For he shall not fail. Who's he talking about? Look
at verse 1. Behold my lex. Behold my servant. whom I uphold, my elect, and
whom my soul delighteth." He is the elect. Whatever election
is, it's in Christ. He is the elect. We're chosen
in Him. And then it says in verse 4,
He shall not fail. He can't fail because He's God.
He shall not fail, He shall not be discouraged till He has set
judgment, righteousness in the earth, And we'll wait. We'll wait for His law. We'll
wait for His gospel. His promises are worth waiting
on. You see, it's a faithful promise. I like the last words
of men. The last words of David. Do you
remember what they were? God had made a covenant, ordered
in all things, and it's sure, this is all my hope and all my
salvation. How about the last words of Joshua? Do you remember his last words? Recorded in Joshua 23, he said,
"...of all that God had promised..." These are his last dying words.
"...of all that God had promised, not one thing had failed." You
see, this is a faithful gospel. Faithful to God. Faithful to
the Word. Faithful to the Law. Faithful
to those who believe and look to Christ. Faithful in all things. He cannot fail. That gives me
good hope. Knowing that my salvation is
not based upon me, but based upon him, upon his faithfulness
alone. And then it says, talking about
the sureness of the gospel, faithful, and then it says here it's worthy.
This is a worthy gospel. Worthy of all acceptation. The
gospel truth is worthy to be received, believed, and loved
by all. It's entirely true and absolutely
necessary to the salvation of our soul. Neither is there salvation
in any other. For there's no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must. We're going to be saved. We must be saved by Christ. He
alone justifies the ungodly. This gospel, like this, this
gospel meets all my need. I have a lot of need. I have a need of pardon. I have need of redemption. I
have need of a new nature to worship God and love God and
believe God. None of those things I can produce.
But the promise of the gospel is that God shall supply all
our need according to His riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ. All I need is according to His
mercy, glory, and grace in Christ Jesus. This gospel meets all
my need. This gospel is worthy. to believe,
to be believed and worthy to be preached. We have a good gospel
to preach. Our Lord commanded His apostles
and commanded His church to go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Paul, when he writes to the Romans
in that first chapter, said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
He said, as much as in me is, verse 15, I'm ready to preach
the gospel to you at Rome. Also, I'm not ashamed of this
gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes it. In that gospel is the very righteousness
of God revealed, how he can be just and justify the ungodly,
not compromise his holy character. It's a gospel worthy to be believed
and worthy to be preached. It's the blessed gospel of the
glory of God that shines in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So my first point is this, the certainty of the gospel, the
sureness of the gospel. I like things that are certain
and sure, don't you? You remember the verse over here, turn over
to, is it 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 19,
2 Timothy 2, 19. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure. You see that? The foundation
of God stands sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that
are His. Let everyone that names the name
of Christ depart from any other gospel than the Lord Jesus Christ."
Any other gospel is iniquity. That's right. It's iniquity. There's just one way, one gospel.
Anything else? Doesn't glorify God, does it?
It's not true to the word of God. It's another gospel, another
spirit, another Jesus that Paul warned about. Be careful. There's
counterfeits out there. So the sureness and certainty
of the gospel. Second point is this. Back to
the text, 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful, sure gospel
worthy of all acceptation, worthy to be heard, worthy to be believed,
worthy to be preached. The second point is this, the
person of the gospel. Salvation is in a person. My
pastor preached that for over 50 years. Salvation is not you
being in this church, that church, or any other church. Salvation
is not in a church. Salvation is in Christ. In His
blessed person, this is a faithful saying, worthy of acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came. He's all our hope. He's all our
salvation. You remember what we read? Turn
back to the first verse in this chapter. 1 Timothy 1-1. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior,
Lord Jesus Christ. And notice the two words, which
is? They're italicized. That means they've been added
by the translators. So we can read it, God our Savior,
Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. That sums it up. Jesus Christ
came to save. He's our hope. He's our hope. He is the Christ of God. You
see that? He is the Christ of God. That
is, He is the anointed. He is the anointed Messiah. We don't look for another. There's
not another going to come. He is God's Messiah. He said
in Isaiah 61 and again in Luke chapter 4, the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach
the gospel. He has sent me to set at liberty
those who are captive. He has sent me to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord. He is the anointed. We don't
look for another. He's this. He's God's Christ. The person who came to ransom
and to rescue us is none other than God himself, God incarnate,
God in human flesh. And all that he did to accomplish
our salvation as a God-man, he's blessed of God in all of his
office. Prophet, priest, and king. Prophet, priest, and king. He's anointed. You know, no one
in the Old Testament held all three of those offices. Aaron
was a priest. David was a king. Samuel was
a prophet. Moses was a prophet. But no one
held all three of those offices. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
fulfillment of all, prophet, priest, and king. He's prophet. How are we going to hear from
God? Well, He represents God to us. He reveals the will of
God to us. And He is our priest. How are
we going to approach God? You go back and look at the days
of Moses, how they approached God. Boy, they better come by
Aaron. Nadab and Abihu, they thought
they'd come another way. Offered strange fire. You know
the story there. God killed both those boys. We
must come by the designated anointed priest, and that's pictured in
Aaron, fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the priest
of God that represents us before God. And He's our King. to rule and reign over us. Aren't
you glad we've got a king? He is my king. He is king of
kings and Lord of lords. We own him as such. We worship
him as such. The wise men came on that day
when the body was birthed. The Lord Jesus, God incarnate. And the wise men said, where
is he that born king? He was king when he got here.
He's not king by something we do. He is Lord, by the decree
of God Almighty. He's anointed of God. God said
in Psalm 2, I've set my king on my holy hill zone. He's God's Christ. Not only that,
you see the person of the gospel. He's the Christ of God. And then
it says there, he's Jesus. Jesus. We usually qualify this
word because there's so many folks that go around using his
name in, I think, a demeaning way. I always refer to him as
the Lord Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus. But the Scripture
here often calls him, Matthew 121, Jesus, Savior. You know,
he is exactly what he's called. He is the Savior of His people. He is the Savior of sinners,
and that's what His name means. He is. He is the Savior of His
body. He is the Savior of His people.
He is what He's called. God had made that same Jesus
whom you crucified. God had made Him both Lord and
Christ. He is both God to satisfy and
man to suffer in my room and in my stead. One blessed person,
the God-man mediator. One God, one mediator between
God and men, God and men now, not mankind, God and men, and
that's the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Savior
of His people. This is the person of the gospel.
This is the very one, it says here, who came. He came in the
fullness of time. He was the Lamb set forth before
the foundation of the world, the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world, decreed of God, but Him being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. But in time, what happened? In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them. that were under that very law. This is the one who came. Immanuel. Call his name Immanuel. God with
us. He came to save his people. God sent forth his Son. He didn't
come unsent. He didn't come uncommissioned.
He had the Father's authority. He said and prayed in John 17,
the Father had given me power over all flesh, that I should
give eternal life to as many as the Father had given me. He
didn't come unsent, uncommissioned. He's God's Christ, God's Lamb,
God's Sacrifice, God's Priest, for us. Here in His love, not
that we love God, but He loved us. And he sent his son to be
the sacrifice for our sin. He had God's authority. He had
God's approval. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. He had God's appointing. He's
appointed of God as a sacrifice for our sin. That's the person
of the gospel. You see the certainty of it?
Faithful saying, the person of it, the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is all our hope. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and we stand complete in Christ. That's my standing. In Christ,
complete. Nothing lacking. Third point
is this. Here we see the purpose of the
gospel. The purpose of the gospel. Chiefly, The glory of God is
involved here. The glory of God. It's the blessed
gospel of the glory of God. But in saving sinners, who gets
the glory? Well, God's done all He can do,
and that's up to you. Well, who gets the glory in that
scheme? Well, the creature does. God's done all He can do, and
that's up to you. Well, you're going to pat yourself on the
back. But salvation is not left in my hand. Salvation is always
determined, dependent, and accomplished fully by the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. You see that? I tell you, He
came to save sinners in such a way that gives Him all the
honor and glory in doing so. God forbid I should glory save
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is determined to
get all the honor and glory. He made unto us, but of Him are
you in Christ who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Let's turn and read that. Where's
that at? 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Turn
over and read that. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians
1, look at this, verse 30, But of him, but of him are you in
Christ Jesus? You got it? 1 Corinthians 1.30.
Now look at this carefully. But of him are you in Christ? How did you get in Christ? It's
of him. He did it. He chose me unconditionally in
Christ. Christ Jesus. Who of God? It's of God. He is made to me.
He's my wisdom. He's all my wisdom before God. He is my very righteousness before
God. A justifying righteousness we
have before God. He is my sanctification. He is
my holiness before God. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
He is my deliverance from sin. That, look at verse 31, that
according as it is written, He that glorious, let him glory
in the Lord. You see, God determined to save
sinners and do it in such a way that He's going to honor and
glorify Himself in all that He does. You see, He came to save. Look what it says there back
of the text. 1 Timothy 1.15. He came to save. He came to save. There's not a word in the text
or in the entire Bible about Jesus coming to help sinners
save themselves. Not at all. That's a myth. We're
lost. Who's lost here? We're lost. And Adam all died. He must find
us. He's a good shepherd that goes out and finds that lost
sheep and brings it home. We're dead in sin. He must quicken
us. together with Christ. Of His
own will beget He us with the word of truth. We are guilty.
He must justify us. We are justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Nor
does this text teach us that He died or came, now watch this,
to put us in a savable state or to make salvation a possibility. Did He just make salvation a
possibility? Or did he, the text says he came into the world to
make salvation a possibility. I thought what it said. It says
here he came to save. He came to save. He didn't come to put us in a
savable state, nor to make salvation a possibility, my friend. When
He shed His precious blood, dying in our place as the sinner's
substitute, those for whom He died must be saved from all their
sin. He accomplished salvation by
Himself with the sacrifice of Himself. He obtained for us eternal
redemption. He didn't fail when He died.
His death's not a defeat, it's victory. Victory over sin. He said it, Calvary's tree, it
is finished. He was manifested to take away
our sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and in Him is no sin. He got
the job done is what I'm saying. Affectual substitute. What does that mean? It means
He got the job done. It means He came, took my place
in my room and in my stead, lived a life I couldn't live. honored
God's law that I couldn't, and in His death, He died to put
away my sin, satisfying not only the precept of the law in His
life, but the penalty of that law. He redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. He said at Calvary's
tree, it's finished. It is finished. Complete. It's
done. It's over. Salvation is certain
and sure. in Christ Jesus. So much so,
he said, that all that the Father had given me, they'll come to
me, and those that come to me, I will in no wise cast out. I
came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
of Him that sent me, that all that the Father had given me,
I'll lose nothing, nothing. Raise it up again at the last
day. That's good news. He can't fail. He can't fail. So he came to save. The second
point under this third point, the purpose of the gospel to
save, do it in such a way to honor God's justice and His holiness. But it says here that He came
to save. Whom did He come to save? What does it say there? Sinners. Sinners. Can you identify
with that word? Can you take your place before
God as a guilty, vile, wretched sinner? having sinned against
God and come short of the glory of God. I'm born in sin. Shapen in iniquity. And that
gives this, oh boy, hope. Because the Scriptures teach
in Romans 5, verse 6, that Christ Jesus died for, He died for ungodly. The ungodly. Oh, it's a faithful
gospel. Worthy of acceptation by all.
Christ came to save sinners. Whom did he come to save? You
remember our reading of Matthew 9? Why does your master eat with
publicans and sinners? Well, the well don't need a doctor.
Those who are sick. I didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners. Sinners! To repentance. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. The chief... Now, get a hold
of this. He's our shepherd. He's called in Scripture the
chief shepherd, the good shepherd, The great Shepherd of the sheep.
Here's the chief Savior, the chief Shepherd who came to save
the chief of... What does that say there? He came to save the chief sinner.
I reckon he got it done, didn't he? Amen. He got it done. The chief of sinners. The chief
Savior came to save the chief of sinners. He shed real blood
to put away real sin And those for whom He died cannot be lost
or justified by His blood. It says in Acts 20, 28, God bought
us with His own blood. He purchased me with His blood. I'm His. He bought me. Lastly, the conclusion of this
message found in this verse, He came to save sinners of whom
I am chief. Here's some obvious, three obvious
conclusions. Three obvious conclusions. Number
one, sin is very difficult to put away. The blood sacrifice
of animals on Jewish altars that flowed for thousands of years
could not put away sin. The blood of bulls and goats
cannot take away sin. Sin is so difficult to put away
that God himself had to provide himself as a sacrifice to put
away sin. He appeared once in the end of
the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Let us
be careful to give Him all the honor and glory, both now and
forever. And say, as Paul writes here
in verse 17 of our text, look at verse 17, Now unto the King,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. Can you say amen to that? To Him be the glory both now
and forever. David expressed it this way,
Lord, not unto us. In Psalm 115, not unto us, but
unto Thy name do we give glory for Thy mercy and Thy truth's
sake. It seems difficult to put away.
Number two, if Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,
depend upon it. He got the job done. The price
He paid is enough to redeem. We're redeemed not with corruptible
things, the silver and gold. Our vain conversation don't work,
but with the precious blood of Christ. The blood He shed is
enough to cleanse us from almost all my sin. Thank God it doesn't
say that. The blood of Jesus Christ, His
Son, cleanses us from all our sin. Past, present, and sin to
come. All gone. complete redemption
in Christ. The blood He paid, the price
He paid is enough to redeem. The blood He shed is enough to
cleanse. Never despair, He is able to
save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him, upon His
merits. Never despair of God saving you. If God can save me by His glorious
grace, Nothing can hinder him from saving others. If he can
save me, surely he can save you, your family, your friends, your
neighbors, and save you and keep you. The question of the moment
is this. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? Well, I used to be. You've got
big trouble. No, that's what I am. That's
what I am. Salvation. You see, this is a
sinner's gospel. Salvation for sinners. Salvation
for the guilty. Salvation for the young godly.
Are you a sinner, guilty, condemned and dead in sin? He came to save,
such as you are. There's always hope for sinners. If I could ever find somebody
that lost, lost, the problem is nobody lost. Nobody's hungering
and thirsting after righteousness. Everybody's okay. That's what
they tell me. I'm okay. You're okay. We're
all going to hell. But if I could ever find somebody
who's lost, who is guilty, who is needy, our Lord said, all
you who labor in a heavy laden, come to Me. I'll give you rest. I'll save you. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe on Him. Turn over to Acts chapter 10.
I was preaching from this this morning. Acts chapter 10, verse
42. Acts 10, 42. This is Peter in
the house of Cornelius preaching the gospel to him. And he commanded
us, Acts 10, 42. He commanded us to preach unto
the people, to testify. It was he who was ordained of
God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him give all
the prophets witness that through His name, through His blood,
through His sacrifice, for His name's sake, whoever it is, Jew,
Gentile, young, old, bond-free, black, white, young, old, male,
female, whoever it is that believeth in Him shall receive forgiveness
of sin. My message is, look to Christ.
He's the sufficient, able Savior. He came to seek and to save sinners. Turn to Acts 13. Acts 13. Be it known unto you, verse 38,
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sin. It's always through Christ, through
His sacrifice, through His blood. By Him all that believe are justified
from all things. from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Cannot be justified by the deeds
of the law. Well, look back at the text and
I'll quit. 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful saying. I want
you to think about this all week long. I want you to take this
verse and write it down and look at it all week long. This is
a faithful saying. Worthy of all acceptation. that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I'm the chief
one. I am. Make that to your person. I am the chief sinner who needs
salvation, who needs mercy in Christ Jesus.