Why Jesus Christ Came Into The World

Last Sunday morning, I brought
you a message on the subject, what is saving faith? This morning,
I'm going to be speaking on the subject, why Jesus Christ came
into the world. Now, these two messages are most
important. I want you to listen carefully.
If you missed the one last Sunday, you can get it on tape along
with this message. I have both of these messages
on one tape, one on one side and one on the other. And I'd
like for all of our listeners to have this cassette tape. What is saving faith and why
did Jesus Christ come into the world? You know, an old-time
preacher once said, we preachers take for granted that our heroes
are well acquainted with the condition of sinners, with the
remedy for sin, and with the gospel of salvation, while in
reality, Most people know practically nothing about how God saves sinners
and how God can be just and justify the ungodly. Most people are
ignorant of the whole system of grace and redemption and the
Word of God. And it's better, he said, to
suppose too little knowledge and preach the way of life than
to suppose too much knowledge and let people perish without
instruction in the way of life. So what I'm trying to do in these
two messages is be faithful to your soul and faithful to the
Word of God, and deal from God's Word with the subject, what is
saving faith and why did Jesus Christ come into the world? Now,
if you'd like to have these tapes, The address will be given to
you at the close of the broadcast, and you write to us. There's
a small charge of $3 for the tape. But I'd like you to have
these messages now this morning on why did Jesus Christ come
into the world. In Luke 19, verse 10, the Scripture
says, "...for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that
which was lost." That's very clear, isn't it? In the book
of 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 15, Paul writes, this is a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am cheap. Now, that's our text
and our topic, why did he come into the world? And the text
tells us he came to seek and to save that which is lost. But
what does this mean? And then Paul tells us in 1 Timothy,
he came into the world to save sinners. But what does this mean?
Do you know what it means? Back in the book of Luke, chapter
2, verse 41, we have an interesting story. Mary and Joseph had gone
to Jerusalem to observe the Passover. The Lord Jesus Christ was about
12 years of age, and he'd gone with them. While they were in
Jerusalem, they observed the Passover, and when the days were
ended or the days were accomplished, they packed up, probably in a
great caravan with other neighbors and friends from their own town. They left Jerusalem, and it says
they journeyed a day's journey. They traveled a day's journey,
supposing that Jesus was with them. And at the end of that
day's journey, they began to look for him. And they found
that he was not there. that they just supposed He was
there. They took for granted He was there. He was in Jerusalem. He never did leave with them.
They left without Him. And they traveled that whole
day's journey thinking that Jesus the Lord was with them and He
was not with them at all. Now, the Bible talks about life
being a day's journey. Wouldn't it be tragic for you
and me preachers, deacons, and Sunday school teachers, and church
members, and religious folks. Wouldn't it be tragic for us
to travel the entire day's journey of life supposing that Jesus
Christ is with us, supposing that we know the way of life,
supposing that we have a relationship with God, supposing that we're
redeemed, supposing that we're in His will, and then find out
at the end of that day's journey when darkness had fallen, And
all hope was gone, and life was over, that he was not with us,
and he never had been with us. Like those in Matthew 7 to whom
our Lord said, I never knew you. But Lord, we preached, and cast
out demons, and did many wonderful works. I never knew you. I was
never with you. I never traveled with you. You
just suppose that I was with you. Years ago, a ship called
the Titanic left the American shores. There were all kinds
of people aboard, all kinds of folks, you know, every class
was represented. There were rich people and poor
people and educated people and unlearned people and black people
and white people and important people and unimportant people,
just all classes represented on that great ship, the Titanic.
But after it went down and the names were posted at the port
where it had departed, There were just two classes, saved
and lost. That was all. And when this life
is over, there'll just be two classes. There'll be the saved
and the lost. And it would be well for you
and me to examine our hope. Examine our hope. You know, the
Scripture says for us to be able to give an answer to every man
that asks us a reason for the hope that is in us. It'd be well
for us to examine our faith. Now, the Son of Man, why did
Jesus Christ come into the world? Do you know? Are you acquainted
with the gospel of redemption? I'm not talking about are you
acquainted with the Bible or with religion or with the deep
doctrines of the Word. Are you acquainted with the Redeemer? Why He came? What He came to
do? There are six questions that I would like to deal with in
this message. I think they are important questions, and I'm
going to deal with them very plainly in words you can understand. I'm going to try to answer these
questions from the Scripture. Now, here are the six questions
that I want us to deal with in this message. First of all, how
did man become lost? The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save the lost. Well, how did man become lost
in the first place? And then secondly, what does
the word lost mean? What do we mean by lost? And
then the third question, well, who is lost? And then the fourth
question we're going to deal with is, how does God save the
lost? How are men saved? And then,
what does it mean to be saved? And then the sixth question is,
who can be saved? Now, those are important questions.
How did man get lost to start with? Well, let's look in the
Scripture. First of all, in Romans 5, 12.
Now, listen to this. Romans, the fifth chapter, deals,
the fifth chapter of Romans, with how man got lost. What happened? In Romans 5, 12, the scripture
says, Wherefore, by one man, and that's Adam, sin entered
into the world. That's how sin entered into the
world, by one or through one man. And death, that's how death
came, death by sin, spiritual death and even physical death.
Wherefore, by one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin.
So, Death passed upon all men for all sin. That's where it
started and that's how it started. And then in Romans 5.18, listen
to this. Therefore, by the offense of
one man, the sin of one man, the rebellion of one man, by
the willful disobedience of one man, judgment came upon all men
to condemnation. That's what God's Word said.
That's how man got lost. And then in Romans 5.19, 4. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. So if you ask me the question,
how did man become lost? I say, first of all, by representation,
by imputation. Now, Adam in the garden needed
no salvation because he had no sin. Adam in the garden needed
no redemption because he had no guilt. Adam didn't know anything
about shame. He didn't know anything about
fear. He didn't know anything about hate. He didn't know anything
about envy. Adam didn't have any of these
feelings. He didn't have any of these sins, any of these guilts.
In the garden, he was made in the likeness, in the image of
God. And he had no sin. He was holy and upright. But
something happened. Adam fell. And Adam, out of the
garden, now guilty, Adam, with shame, he ran and hid from God. He was ashamed because he was
naked. God said, who told you you were
naked? How'd you find out you were naked? When were you impressed
with the fact you were naked? Adam knew fear. He tried to hide
from God. Adam was a foolish person now.
Think about trying to hide from God. Adam knew something about
hate. He began to lay the blame for
his fall on somebody else. Instead of taking that blame
himself in love, he blamed Eve for the whole thing. So Adam,
outside of the garden, needs help. He's now guilty. He's now filled with shame, fear,
hate, and all of these things. He's lost now. And what happened?
Adam sinned against God. God said to him, Adam, in the
day you eat of the forbidden fruit, you'll die. This is spiritual
death. You see, most people think when
we talk about eating of the forbidden fruit and dying, it's physical
death. But Adam didn't die physically then. He lived for 800 years. But something happened to him
spiritually. Something happened to him in
his spiritual relationship where he lost that relationship with
God. He was filled with shame and
fear. Adam is man. That's what the Hebrew word Adam
means, man. Adam represented all men. I saw
a bumper sticker the other day that said, God created man. My
friend, God created a man. A man. You weren't created, you
were born. God created a man, Adam. And all men were created in him,
in Adam. That's a deceptive statement,
God created man. God created a man. Let us make
man. And out of that man came all
men. Adam is man. And by Adam, all died. In Adam,
all died. So in Christ, we'll be making
life. You see, the first Adam was of the earth earthy. The
second Adam is the Lord from heaven. They're just two men.
And all men are represented in those two men. That's what we
mean by imputation. Adam stood on this earth with
the whole human race in his loins, in his seed. We all came from
him. And when Adam sinned, we sinned.
That's what the Scriptures teach. And read Romans 5. By one man,
sin entered the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon
all men by imputation, by representation. Adam represented us. And sin
came to us by one man's disobedience. Now, Adam also not only imputed
guilt to us, but he imparted guilt to us. That is, when Adam
and Eve came together and he conceived and bore a son, just
one kind of son she could have, and that's a sinful son. You
see, the seed of Adam was fallen, just like every faculty of his
being. And David wrote in Psalm 51,
5, I was shapen in sin, I was conceived in iniquity. In sin,
my mother conceived me. I was born of a sinful father.
That made me a sinner. He imparted to us a guilty nature. He imputed unto us by representation
guilt before God, and he imparted unto us by natural generation
guilt in our souls, and in our minds, and in our hearts. You
see, that's why Jesus Christ was virgin-born, that he might
not partake of the sin of Adam. If Joseph was the father of Jesus
Christ, he's a sinner just like you are. But the Holy Spirit
came over Mary, And the holy thing born in her was the Son
of God. That's why the virgin birth's important. I hear preachers
always saying, well, you have to believe in the virgin birth,
but they don't tell you why. You see, when Adam stood on this
earth, the whole human race was in him. And when he fell, we
fell. When he sinned, we sinned. When
he died, we died. And when he begat his first son,
he begat a sinful son. He imparted to him his nature.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's what Christ
said. So that's how man got lost. All right, secondly, what does
it mean to be lost? What does it mean to be lost?
What are the consequences of this fall? And what are the consequences
of this fall? Well, a verse that ably describes
it and sums it up is Ephesians 2.12. It says, we are without
Christ, without hope, and without God, in this world. That's what
it means to be lost. That's what happened when Adam
fell. He lost God. He lost the weight of God. He
lost the truth of God. He lost the life of God. And
when we're born into this world, we're born in sin. And we're
born without God and without Christ and without hope. What
does it mean to be without Christ? Well, Christ is wisdom. Wisdom. If you read the book of Proverbs,
you'll find the book of Proverbs talking about wisdom. That wisdom
is Christ. Christ is wisdom. And without
Him, we do not know God. Christ said, you neither know
me nor my Father. Without Christ, we have no righteousness. He is righteousness. And without
Christ, we're unholy. And God cannot look upon us outside
of Christ because we're unholy. God is holy. And then without
Christ, we're without a mediator. There's no one to plead for us,
no one to pray for us, no one to represent us, no one to make
contact with God. There's one God and one mediator
between God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. So without Christ
is to be without a representative, without a mediator with God,
without a high priest. Christ is the high priest. And
if we have no high priest, we have no sin offering. We have
no sacrifice. We have no atonement. So what
does it mean to be lost? It means to be without Christ.
It doesn't mean just a fellow goes to the picture show, so
he's lost. A fellow takes a drink, so he's lost. A fellow curses
a little, so he's lost. That's not what it means to be
lost. To be lost is to be without Christ. No knowledge of God. No life of God. No mediator. No contact with God. No knowledge
of God. No sin offering. No sacrifice.
No representative. Without Christ. And he says without
hope. without the hope of forgiveness.
God cannot forgive arbitrarily without a sacrifice. God's just
and holy. Sin's got to be punished. So
without Christ, we have no hope of forgiveness. We have no hope
of life, no hope of resurrection. We have no hope of eternal glory.
We have no hope of reunion with loved ones. Without Christ, He
is the resurrection and the life. Without Him, we have no hope.
And then without Christ, without hope, and without God. A lost
man is without God's presence. He's without God's mercy. He's
without God's blessings. He's without God's love. That's
right. That's what it means to be lost.
It's a problem. It's trouble. And then the third
question, well, who's lost? Well, the book of Romans chapter
3 verse 19 says this. Now listen, now we know, we know
this. That what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law. And that's every
man. Because every creature in God's
universe is under the law of God and the law of that universe.
So the scripture says to everyone who is under the law, that they're
lost, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become
guilty. All the world. That's you, me,
every son of Adam. All have sinned and come short
of God's glory. So we're all lost. This thing
of without Christ, without hope, without God is true of all of
us. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. And Christ said, go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature
because every creature needs the gospel. Every creature needs
to hear about salvation. Every creature is lost. It's
not just the drunkard who's lost, it's the preacher too. It's not
just the harlot who's lost, it's the good mother and grandmother.
It's every child of Adam. In Adam, death passed upon all
men, all sin. Judgment came upon all men to
condemnation. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. God looked down from heaven to
see if there were any that didn't understand, that any that didn't
seek God. He said they're all gone out
of the way. Every imagination of man's heart is evil continually. You're not by yourself. You're
not by yourself. Every son of Adam, by flesh,
by birth, is lost. All right? How are men saved?
Fourth question. How are men saved? Well, I'll
give you three statements here. First of all, we're saved by
the grace of God. We're not saved by the merits
of the flesh, we're saved by the grace of God. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It's
the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Where
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Salvation began with the
Father. We love him because he first
loved us. That's where salvation began. Salvation began in the
council halls of eternity. It didn't begin in the church
here on earth. It didn't begin in a heart or mind of a human
being. It began with God. He is the
author and finisher of our faith. It all started with God. He said
to Moses, I will be merciful, to whom I will be merciful. I
will be gracious, to whom I will be gracious. Jesus Christ was
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. We were chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. God set out to
show mercy to sinners before sinners ever became sinners.
That's right, before Adam ever fell, there was a Redeemer in
the mind and purpose and plan of God Almighty. So we're saved
by the grace of God, because God willed to redeem us. He did
not will to leave us alone or to pass us by, but He willed
to have a people. For whom he foreknew, he predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son might
be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom he predestinated, he
called. And whom he called, he justified. And whom he justified,
he glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? So salvation starts
with God. We're saved by the grace of God.
Secondly, we're saved by the person and work of Christ. That's
right, by the person and work of Christ. He is the surety of
the everlasting covenant. And not only that, now I talked
about man falling in a representative, Adam. He's restored in a representative,
Christ. Now listen to Romans 5, 19. By
one man's disobedience, we were made sinners. So, by the obedience
of one, Jesus Christ, shall many be made righteous. In other words,
when Adam stood in that garden, We stood in Him. When He fell,
we fell in Him. When He sinned, we sinned in
Him. Now, God sent the second Adam from heaven, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was born of a woman, made under the law. As our representative,
as our federal head, He came down here in the flesh, and He
was tried and tempted and tested in all points as we are, yet
without sin. And by His perfect obedience,
He imputed unto us a perfect righteousness. Even as in Adam
we had imputed unto us a sinful fleshly nature, in Christ we
had charged to our account and reckoned to us and imputed to
us a perfect righteousness before God. And in the flesh he went
to the cross, the God-man, and there he endured the wrath of
God and the judgment of God and honored the law of God and satisfied
the justice of God and paid our debt and was buried in a tomb
and rose again and now he's at the right hand of God interceding
for us. You see, God planned salvation,
and Jesus Christ purchased it. God Almighty, in His eternal
counsel, purposed to redeem a people, and Christ Jesus in the flesh,
the God-man, purchased those people. Now, we talked about
Adam imparting unto us. a sinful nature. Christ imparts
unto us by His Holy Spirit a righteous nature. The Holy Spirit comes
and quickens. You who are dead in sin, as He
quickens, He awakens. He makes alive. He gives a new
nature, a divine life. He brings people to love Christ,
to believe on Christ, to repent of sin, to receive Christ. He
gives them a new nature. He makes them a new creature.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. That's what the
new birth is. It's not walking a church aisle
or joining a church or getting baptized or turning over a new
leaf. It's being born from above. It's receiving a new nature.
It's receiving a new nature, a divine nature, a holy nature.
We were born the first time of sinful parents, and we became
flesh, and we received a fleshly nature, fleshly carnal lusts
and desires and passions. When we were born of the Holy
Spirit, we received a spiritual nature with spiritual love and
with spiritual desires and with spiritual passions. You see that? That's how I'm mean to say it.
If you read the first chapter of Ephesians, the Father chose
us, the Son redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit enlightened us.
The Father blessed us, the Son of God saved us, and the Holy
Spirit is our pledge or our token of redemption. Now, the fifth
question, what does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to
be saved? Well, in Matthew 1.21, the angel
said to Joseph, Mary will have a son, and thou shalt call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. To
be saved means to be saved from sin. The word saved means delivered. And it's a fourfold deliverance.
It's a fourfold salvation in regard to sin. First of all,
we're saved from the penalty of sin. Now, God must punish
sin. He says the wages of sin is death.
The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. Sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death. God must punish sin. So in Christ,
our sins have been punished. They've been paid for. So we're
saved from the penalty of sin, the curse of the law. There is
therefore now no condemnation, no curse, no penalty to them
who are in Christ Jesus. Secondly, we're saved from the
power of sin. There was a time when sin reigned
over us. Sin had complete power and dominion
over us. But when we receive a new nature,
sin is still there. It's still to be dealt with.
It's still to be mourned over and prayed over and repented
of, but it doesn't control us. Christ controls us. The tenor
of our life is holiness to the Lord. The bent of our wills is
to do His will. We have been saved from the dominating
power of sin. It's still to be dealt with.
It's still a force, but we are delivered from its control. The
redeemed man is not controlled by sin, he's controlled by Christ.
The unregenerate man is controlled by sin. That's the reason he
does what he does. You say, well, why do folks do
like they do? They're controlled by the force and power of evil.
God's people are controlled by the force of His Spirit. All right? Thirdly, it means
to be delivered from the practice of sin. The Scripture says, he
that is born of God does not commit sin. Now then, that word
is practice. You and I both know. that he
that saith he's without sin is a liar. And if we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves. We say we have no sin, we make
God a liar. We do sin. We know that. The
thought of foolishness is sin. To know to do good and to do
it not is sin. But that's not the practice of
the believer. He practices holiness. The tenor
of his life is holiness unto the Lord. That old Mississippi
River flows south. That's the direction of that
river, basically. Sometimes it goes north, sometimes
it goes west, sometimes it goes east, but the direction of that
river is south, and the direction of the believer is holiness.
And then someday we'll be saved from the presence of sin. There'll
be no more sin. When we're raised from the grave
and made like Christ, no more sin. No more sin. John Newton
once said, I know I'm not what I ought to be. And I'm not what
I want to be, and I'm not what I expect to be, but thank God,
I'm not what I used to be. Saved from the penalty, the power,
from the practice, and someday from the presence of sin. Now,
last of all, closing, the sixth question, who can be saved? Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever,
that's a big word. That's black and white, old and
young, rich or poor, learned or ignorant. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord To call is to call out of need.
To call is to believe, to trust Christ on His name. The name
of Christ signifies who He is, and what He did, and why He did
it, and where He is now.

Why Jesus Christ Came Into The World

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Why Jesus Christ Came Into The World

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book