It's Trustworthy that Christ Saves Sinners - Tim Conway

Would you please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy, chapter one. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God, our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope. To Timothy, my true child in the faith Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The...

Now, as I’ve mentioned, over the last three different times I’ve spoken from the pastoral epistles, that repeatedly the Apostle Paul will be moving along discussing something very practical, discussing some out-working of the Christian life, or Christian ministry, as he is here. Here he is discussing to Timothy certain persons, who “by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers.” So we have certain persons in verse three who are not to teach different doctrines like myths and endless genealogies. We have certain persons who are having some lack of clarity with regards to the law of God. And as happens so often with Paul, he suddenly will burst out into what I… (incomplete thought).

Really, this is a mini-series that I’ve entitled, “Outbursts of Glory”. And what happens here in verse 10, “sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers…” You see something starts happening in Paul’s mind. “whatever else”, you see, he puts all this stuff in a camp, he puts all this stuff in a realm over against sound doctrine. All of this in his estimation is contrary to sound doctrine. And as soon as you get Paul thinking about sound doctrine, he is just one step away from one of these eruptions of worship. Because in his mind, sound doctrine is all about Christ. “In accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” I think maybe I’m gonna preach on that verse next time. “…with which I have been entrusted. I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, appointing me to His service.” Verse 13 is what I preached on last week. “…though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me” or was exceedingly abundant”… with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

And here’s my text for today, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

And again, Paul comes back to speaking about certain problem people in the church. Repeatedly throughout the pastoral epistles, Paul will break out into very glorious eruptions, for which we are very thankful for. We get glorious sayings. “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost”. The thing about it is no matter when Paul’s writing these letters, he never got over what Christ did for him. He never got over the gospel. “This saying is trustworthy…” Literally, we have “logos” here. This is a faithful word. And it is worthy, or deserving, of full or all, acceptance.

Now that word “all,” what does that mean? All acceptance. It’s worthy of full acceptance. What does Paul mean by that? And you know, the thing is that it can mean several different things. It’s not actually clear, in the original, exactly what is being spoken about here. It could mean that it’s a message that’s worthy of being considered and received and embraced with all the powers of your soul. That’s what he might mean. It’s worthy of all acceptance! I mean everything you have in yourself, it’s worthy to be received with. All of your faculties! All of your powers! It may mean that. It may mean that the gospel message is worthy to be accepted and embraced at all points. All the different truths that make up this gospel message, they’re all to be embraced! Or it could mean that the gospel message is worthy to be accepted universally. By all people. It’s worthy to be received by all. The full totality of humanity. This is a worthy message to be received.

Which one is it? We’re not gonna get in the same kind of debate James got in in the first hour. Brethren, it’s all of them. I mean Paul’s not gonna argue against any one of those. Sometimes I think Scripture’s ambiguous on purpose, because you can use word meanings to mean more than one thing, and often, more than one thing is meant in the author’s mind. But full – it’s vast!

Brethren, this saying is trustworthy. Now I want you to really think about that. It’s trustworthy. Yeah yeah, I know you read that. It’s a faithful word. Brethren, that is no minor matter in our day. To find something that is trustworthy! Do you hear all the noise? Do any of you keep your ear to the ground? We’re in the information age! You’ve got your cell phones. You can pull out your cell phone. You can go on the internet. You can go to Drudge Report, you can go to Fox News, you can go to CNN; you can see everything! Up to the minute, up to the second; everything is coming in! We’re hearing all that the media has to say. We hear all that the politicians have to say. It’s all flooding. There’s YouTube out there, and Facebook out there; information! Brethren there is so much noise today. There is so much being said. So many words. So many opinions. So many promises.

Does anybody get weary of it all? I mean, what can you believe? What can you trust? What does it all come to? Brethren, do you recognize that the politicians have been saying the same thing for decades, and for centuries? They’ve been making the same promises. They just keep saying these things. We’ve got every…the scientists, they got all their theories, and all their things. And then there’s theologians, abundant and galore in this world! People that are religious leaders and religious authorities, and saying this, and saying another thing. Is there not something dependable!? Something reliable? Does anybody want something they can just rest their soul on and know: this is true! I can confide in this!

I was driving home with my family this last week. The radio host played a clip of our president. A reporter asked our president a question, and the president, in very demeaning tone, responded, “I’ve been asked that question 3 times.” And the radio host said, “He was asked the same question 3 times because he never answered it once.” Have you ever noticed how the politicians do that? Is anybody weary of it? Does anybody just want a straight answer? Tell me something true. Just say it how it is! Just tell me the truth! Tell me you’re a liar, tell me you have an agenda! Tell me what it is! It’s not like he didn’t respond, He just said words. He just said words that didn’t mean anything.

That’s what this world is. We are surrounded by these talking heads. All the words, all the politicians, all the media, all the opinions, all the advertising. All the advertising: “this will make you happy, this will satisfy you.”

Does anybody in the midst of this just long for a word of truth? I do. Can you imagine this Lord, before whom every knee is going to bow? They’ll be bending and bowing down… Brethren, those of us saved, and will be saved To be in a kingdom, where the King has a scepter. And it’s the scepter of righteousness! No lie. No hot air. How many promises are made to us? Promises… and the world just goes on repeating them. We hear them so often; is there nothing reliable!? Is there nothing!? We hear it all, over and over. Just give us something that we can rest our soul on! Our welfare, our eternity! Something I can look at and say, “Solid! That has substance!” So much of what’s said it’s like… just dribble! It’s… (sighs)

Paul says, “Yes, as a matter of fact there is something you can rest your soul on.” There is something that is faithful, and it’s worthy of all, full acceptance. You need not have any reserve about this! No question needs arise in your mind about the integrity and the authority of this: “That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That, you can rest your soul on! That has substance! That is solid! That is worthy of full acceptance.

There’s only one qualification. Do you see it? That you be a sinner; this is a word for sinners. Sinner! I know people wince at that word. Sinner! Have you called anybody that recently? Sinner. I think we know, more and more, that preachers don’t use that word. It doesn’t come across pulpits very often these days. Sinner. Sinner! People wince at it. But if Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, I suspect that you can see the great danger in removing the term “sinner” from our vocabulary. It wouldn’t be good, It wouldn’t be safe. If Jesus came to save sinners, perhaps it would be good for us to be able to clearly identify who those sinners are, so that we might recognize who it is He came to save.

Brethren… “Well, we might offend somebody!” Okay, we will, we will offend somebody. That’s a given, we probably will. But brethren, what’s the alternative? Should we tone it down, so that when they hear that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, they don’t know that it’s for them? Is that what we should do? Their only hope ….you have to remember what’s being talked about here. “Save.” This is the only thing that saves sinners from the fierce wrath of God. Should we tone it down? So that they don’t know that they’re the ones being talked about? If a man is a sinner, and Christ came into the world to save sinners but he’s not aware that he’s a sinner (even though he is one but not knowing that he is one) he fails to recognize that Jesus coming into the world to save sinners has everything to do with him. But not knowing it has to do with him, he just blindly goes on his way and perishes and loses his own soul! Should we not have risked offending him? You answer. Sinners. Yeah, that’s a strong name and maybe an offensive name but brethren, it’s the name that God uses. Why? Because it’s an accurate term.

That’s what we are. If what we are in reality is offensive, let’s say so. Isn’t that part of what we’re just tired of with regards to this world? That nobody says it how it is? Everybody’s glossing things over. Everybody’s got trivial things to say. Everybody puts slants and bents and spins on everything! Don’t you want somebody to shoot straight with us honestly? “You got cancer, you’re gonna die! It is not well with you, but here is a cure!” What would we say? “Well you really don’t have cancer, you’re really not that bad off, you’re really not.” Sinners have a hope because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

What is a sinner? If that’s who he came to save, we should know what that is. Well you know what? Notice here in 1 Timothy. Paul actually gives us (when he’s talking there about the law) verse 7, “desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, understanding that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, etc.”

But I want you to notice something. Notice the first six words that he uses to describe people who are opposite of just people. Six very expressive, very defining words. They’re broad, they’re somewhat synonymous, somewhat overlapping. But here we have a great idea about what we’re talking about when we talk about sinners. Do you see the words I’m talking about there? Lawless, disobedient, ungodly, sinners, unholy, and profane. Let me ask this question. Have you ever seen that stamped on your own forehead? It’s so easy for us to look at others and see bad. To see crime, and criminality, and guilt; dishonesty, pride; sin. But have you ever looked and seen these emblazoned on your own forehead? Because these are the kind of people Jesus came into the world to save.

Let’s look at those six words. The first one: “lawless”. Sinners are lawless. God has communicated his will to mankind in commandments. That’s what the law is all about. This isn’t some arbitrary thing. This is God expressing His will to mankind. And what does God express to us? You know what they said? “Jesus, tell us…when it comes to the law of God, sum it up for us. Or give us the greatest commandment.” He said, “Okay, here it is: You’re to love God with all your heart, your mind, your soul. And you’re to love your neighbor as yourself.” And you know what Paul says about mankind? “Lawless”. We don’t do that. Listen, love God. Love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. Which one of you is ready to stand before God? The God who knows all your motives, all your thoughts, all you ever did in the dark when you thought no one was watching. Are you ready to take that standard and run into the presence of God and be judged by that? and be judged by that? Are you ready for that? I’m not ready for that. We don’t even need to go to the second one “love your neighbor as yourself.” We can just stop right there. I’m not ready for that. It’s there: “I’m a law-breaker”.

Second one, sinners are disobedient. You see the word there. Lawless and disobedient. Sinners do not obey God. Now listen, don’t misunderstand me. I know a man, physically, very close relationship of mine. To the best of my knowledge, he’s never killed a man. And you know what? I’m sure he thinks he’s obeyed God in not doing it. But guess what? He got tired of his wife. And he told me: “Tim, I think God wants me to be happy.” He divorced his wife.

And you know what? That’s just like all of us. We can think that as long as it suits us not to kill anybody, that we’re obeying God. But you know what? Your very willingness to disobey God at any point, shows what you really are. It shows that when it really comes down to your will against God’s will, you’re going your way. And you can think simply because it hasn’t pleased you to divorce anybody or kill anybody, you’re doing God’s will. But that’s only because it’s suited you thus far. And if it ever got to the place where it didn’t suit you…

Folks, the rebel is in all of us. We’re disobedient. God is King! God is Lord! God is Creator! God is Master! God is Husband! He demands and is worthy of our allegiance. And the thing is, His ways are good, and His ways lead to life and joy and eternal fellowship. But like sheep, we’ve turned everyone to his own way. Look at the next thing, sinners are ungodly. Ungodly…oftentimes that can be a very difficult word. We have an idea about what it means, but it can be one of those words that can be difficult to define. But we might think about being destitute of a reverential awe for God.

The question is: Do I even begin to speak and act and live as though God is who God is? Brethren, if God showed up here in a manifest way… people didn’t stay on their feet. God said, “Moses, if I show you what you wanna see, it’ll kill you.” You know what happens? We live our lives like God is small and we’re big. We do not live in light of who He is. That’s the height of ungodliness. We do God untold amounts of dishonor and disrespect, when with all of His greatness, all of His glory, all of His magnificence; We don’t trust Him. You remember how it says there in Romans 1? They don’t honor Him or give Him thanks. Do you know just walking around through this life not thanking God for all you have is massive dishonor!? That’s us. Ungodly. Sinners are sinners.

That’s the fourth one. Devoted to sin. You see, we don’t think so, but have you ever noticed how Paul says: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. We’re always thinking about what we do. You know, “Did we do that? Did we kill somebody? Did we divorce our wife?” And Paul says, “Look this is about what you don’t do. This is about what you never achieved. This is about falling short of something.” Why? Why do we fall short? Because you know why? We don’t aim at it. You know what we aim at? Our happiness. By nature, that’s what we do. Our happiness is the goal, not God’s glory. Sinners are sinners. Sinners are unholy. You know “holy” has to do with being consecrated to God. Set aside for God. Sinners are unholy! We’re not dedicated to Him. You remember how it was with Belshazzar, there in Daniel? He took the cups that came from the Temple. Cups that had been dedicated, they were holy, they had been dedicated to God! And do you remember what he did? He brought them out at one of his drunken festivities, and drank wine to false gods. You remember that? That’s what we are. We’re unholy. We’re not dedicated to God. We dedicate ourselves to 10,000 other things.

And the last thing that he says here is profane. Sinners are profane. Sometimes we lose a sense of just what’s the meaning of that word. Profane simply means: Common. The idea there is…literally the word means “that which is trodden under foot” That which is permitted for human use. We’re profane. We’ve just become common. Do you recognize mankind was created in the image of God. We were created for God by God. And look what we’ve become. We’ve got to the place where the Bible calls us animals. Dogs. Pigs. What have we become? That’s a picture. Sir, You are a sinner. Ma’am, You are a sinner. This is us. This describes us.

And why do sinners need saving? Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners! Why do they need saving? Why? If you can even begin to grasp these things that we just looked at! Lawless, disobedient, ungodly, sinners, unholy, profane. If we can even begin to grasp what an offense we are, as sinners, to God! Offensive. Hell-worthy. Damnable. Can we even begin to recognize the hell that we as sinners deserve? The awful, hopeless state that it is for a sinner to be in. Then it might enter our minds why sinners need saving. You know there in the fifth chapter of Romans, Paul talks about being saved from the wrath of God. We are children of wrath, like the rest of mankind! (He tells the Ephesians) We are under the condemnation of God. We are under His wrath, we are children of wrath!

Those little children that break forth from the wombs of their mothers, even to Christian parents… Brethren, the idea that there are children of the covenant is not found in my Bible. They come forth from their mother’s wombs as liars. They come forth dead in trespasses and sins. They come forth unholy, they come forth profane, they come forth children of Adam. They come forth in their sin, they come forth in the natural state. That’s us. We come into this world profane and unholy, as sinners, disobedient, ungodly. You do not have to train those children to be ungodly. You do not have to train them to be law-breakers and rule-breakers and to be hateful towards and spiteful towards their brothers and sisters. That’s us! It’s branded on our foreheads!

And why do we need to be saved? Why? Because man is under the wrath of God and he’s gonna suffer eternally in hell, and rightfully so! Our sin is against God! And God is who God is, and His greatness demands: To sin against such a being as Him, the smallest sight of sin demands eternal torment; eternal punishment. Brethren, you have to recognize something about the greatness of God in this! We like to think of men big, we like to think of sin small, but just think for a second of what hell is. One sin, deserves hell! One sin lost the Garden!

How much has one sin done throughout history? One sin damns your own soul! One sin of Adam, and the whole vast humanity is sinful, and under condemnation, and facing eternal death. Sin is no small thing, we’re sinners. And sinners need to be saved, primarily from God Himself because He is angry and He damns people and He casts them into hell. And hell is His creation, and hell is no myth. It is no fantasy. So, brethren, you know what? It would be one thing if in this information age, all the information coming at us, the vast majority of it, it would be one thing if we were just in this world and we’re getting bombarded with all this stuff that just has no substance. I mean, that would be bad enough. But brethren, if that was it, we just simply didn’t end up with what we’re promised… But that’s not it. To be under the wrath of God, to be under condemnation, to be a hell-bound sinner.

Then I don’t know about you, but we need something better than useless words. Is there any hope? Is there any substance? Listen, folks. You’ll find a lot of answers out there but Paul comes along and says, “Here’s one to build your life on. Here’s one to rest your soul on. And this is the only one. Everything else is sinking sand. When that storm comes, every other foundation is gonna give way. Every one!” Are you looking for some authority? An authoritative word? Something with substance? Well, here we have it! A message from God! Here is something you can commit yourself entirely to! It’s trustworthy. It’s faithful. It deserves full acceptance. All acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. You look at that and you say, “Yeah well, come on. On what basis can we be so certain about that? Where’s the evidence?”

Brethren, let me remind you of some of the facts. I’m gonna tell you about the facts. Think about the facts here. There’s basically three individuals named, if we can say it that way in this verse. You have Christ Jesus, you have sinners, and then you have one particular sinner, who’s the foremost, Paul Himself. Let’s just think for a second in light of this truth. You want some facts to back it up? I mean, we could just say, “Hey, it’s the word of God, it’s inspired, that should be sufficient.” Yeah, it should be, but listen. This was said 2,000 years ago. Let’s think about some of the facts that back this up.

First, I wanna just consider the facts concerning sinners. If Christ Jesus came into the world 2,000 years ago to save sinners, then if this is indeed a faithful saying, we better be able to find some sinners who’ve been saved. Would you not agree? If it’s a faithful saying? Show us. I mean, come on, let’s bring this before the judgement bar. Let’s put this statement on trial. Does it stand? Is there sufficient evidence and proof to say: “Yeah, that’s faithful!” When we consider sinners themselves.

First one that came to my mind: Mary Magdalene. You say, “Why?” Because she’s there in the Bible. We have her account. How did she start out? How do we find her in the beginning? What does Scripture say? She had seven demons. Seven demons. Can you imagine what a woman walking around with seven demons… I just read recently about a woman, I believe she had fourteen demons. Now how… Who are the people who can accurately number those? Probably not myself, but some people think they can and some people seem to have unique gifts concerning that. But this woman I read about: she was a prostitute, she was involved in witchcraft, she was involved in Satan-worship. When there are seven demons inside a woman, it’s not a good sight. You can imagine what kind of woman this was. Do you know how we find her in the end? She is the first one that Jesus Christ revealed Himself to when He rose from the grave. “Rabboni!” She came over to wrap her arms around him! He said, “Not yet.” As though, “You will, just not yet, I haven’t gone to my Father yet.” And he talked to her about His God and her God. His Father and her Father. This woman is in glory! This woman ran around…who knows, she was probably a prostitute, wicked woman; foul mouthed.

Who else? Brethren, think about Iraq! Some of you may be visiting today. We sent a team over to Iraq. Just about 40 kilometers off the front lines of ISIS. We sent a team over there on several occasions Last time, John and Tawfiq went. Isn’t it amazing that they are able to come back and say: “We met a man who took Bibles into Iraq and got caught, and they were gonna kill him, somehow he got out of that situation, and the government is after him right now. There’s a warrant out on this guy and they want him put to death. Isn’t it amazing that in the midst of Islam, they can find men and women who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you explain that! How did that happen? You know how it happened? Because Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinner-Muslims!

Or a sinner-Catholic. We can put whatever religious terminology we want on our sinnership. But He came to save! I got to thinking about… Think, brethren, think! Think about the pagan darkness and idolatry When Paul and Barnabas went forth out of those doors whatever that building was…from Antioch. And what happened before he’s dead? Before he is dead, there is a church at Ephesus. There are churches at Galatia. There is a church at Laodicea. There is a church at Colossae. There’s a church at Philadelphia, a church at Smyrna. There’s a church at Thyateira, a church at Sardis, there’s a church at Philippi, there’s a church at Berea, there’s a church at Thessalonica. There is a church at Corinth, there is a church at Rome. These were pagans! Now listen, they burned their magic books. These people were under the power of the demonic and the occult. They turned from their idols! They turned from the ignorance! The ways of their fore-bearers; their forefathers! What does it take to get somebody to let go of family tradition and family religion, and to turn away from that? It’s because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. How do you explain those churches coming up in the midst of Greek and Roman god-worship and pagan idolatry?

How about this? You grab off your bookshelf… I hope you have these on your bookshelf. You grab off of there Adoniram Judson, you grab off of there William Carey. You grab off of there John G. Paton, (David) Brainerd; the list goes on. Pull them off and begin to read. And what did they do? Typically those guys, those pioneer missionaries, they went into places where there were no known converts! And what did they do? They preached the gospel and they prayed and they laid hold upon the Lord. And not usually months, but it took years. But eventually what happened? There were people who had been wicked and they were now transformed! And they were new creations! They could preach Christ in the darkest places, and eventually people were transformed. Christ-loving, Christ-trusting. Brethren, you have to think about this. The Spirit of God came down upon people in a room made up of about 120 people. They came down out of that upper room… They came down and they went out on the streets.

You, think about this! You’re gonna waltz into a pagan culture out there in the world. You’re going to walk into a Jewish culture, where people are locked into their Judaism and the religion of their forefathers; And you’re gonna preach what? “A Jewish carpenter? And He’s dead? He died? How did He die? No white charger? No crown on His head? Born into a carpenter’s family? Nazareth!? The Romans got a hold of Him? No victory…they killed him!? Yeah, and He’s Lord of all. Yeah, okay.” And you’re gonna convince people that they need to follow Him and give up everything else. Oh, but wait, He rose from the dead. “Okay, where is He?” Well, you see, He ascended. “Oh okay, so I can’t see Him either?” “You want me to believe this?” Those 120 went down from that upper room with a message that quite honestly, brethren, if it wasn’t for the fact that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners and to unleash a power from God… brethren, there is no explanation for how that succeeded. None at all!

It is not difficult to know how Catholicism can succeed for 1,000 years. Why? Because it’s a religion of works, and man always want to trust himself. It’s no mystery why something like that would continue. But when you wanna talk about a Jew, a carpenter, who is dead, who supposedly lives and has ascended, but you can’t see Him, and that is the path to eternal life? If you’re gonna ask how that has prevailed from back then until now… And by the way, there has been a continuous succession of God’s people preaching this message, who in turn have seen the fruit of that! In church after church, generation after generation! How do you explain that? A message like that? There is no other explanation, brethren, than the fact that He broke into this world. That man who died really is the Lord of all! And He came to life, and He came forth proving that He was victorious over sin and the grave; and that He satisfied God! And He is ascended on high! Brethren, He came into this world to save sinners and you can be certain that if He came to do it, He’s God of all! He’s the eternal word of God! He is going to accomplish what He came to accomplish! And we have in fact seen that in over 2,000 years the church has not ceased to exist. Even in the darkest and most difficult and most persecuted places on the face of this earth!

Let’s talk about the facts of Paul. “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Or I am the chief. He’s saying I’m first. Paul says here, “Here are the facts” “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…look at me. Look at me! I myself vindicate the faithfulness of this saying.” Look at the next verse. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the chief-of-sinners, “as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.” Paul can tell you, “I was going down the road to Damascus. I had many thoughts about how I should oppose Christ. I thought I was one of God’s people. I thought I was good. In fact, I thought I was better than most others, and I thought I had God’s approval. I thought I had God’s smile. I thought if there was anybody upon the face of the earth that would certainly get a good spot with the Lord, it would be me! I thought when it came to the law, I was blameless. I thought I had all the proper credentials. I’m going down that road, my mind is set on getting to Damascus. Why? Because I am gonna go to the synagogues, and I am gonna seek to sniff out those Christians! Those Christians! I am gonna haul those people off to jail, if I can find sufficient charges to get some of these people put to death, I’m gonna do that!” He believed like other Pharisees believed. He believed Jesus was a deceiver.

And you know what happened on that road. In a moment, it all changed. In a moment, the Savior came to Him and changed it all! He was saved, He saved him. Paul says, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) He obeyed. “Lord, Lord, who are you?” He was saved. He was saved from opposing God, he was saved from opposing the true Messiah. He was saved from what his sins deserved. He was saved from… Can you imagine? Coming to stand before God thinking you lived the perfect life and to find out you were actually 180 degrees opposed to God’s plan and to God Himself, and to God’s Son, and to God’s people. You were never one. He was saved from his blindness, his hardness of heart, he was saved from the penalty of his sin, from his ignorant unbelieving dark heart that he talks about. Paul is telling you the very truth that rocked his whole perspective on all reality. How do you explain Paul? How do you explain this? How do you explain him being a very successful rising leader in Judaism, and suddenly the very truth that he resisted he’s now preaching!? How do you explain that? He had everything over here: he had success, he had reputation! He had righteousness, he had the approval of the leadership, obviously because they were sending him letters that gave him authority to do this. How do you explain how a guy just abandons it all? Abandons everything he trusted in! Everything he counted gain, in a moment, he counts them as excrement! How does a man’s eyes go from seeing all these things over here and saying: “I put my chief value, I prize these things above all!” And in a moment…bang! It’s excrement! “And this very thing over here that I opposed, and that I thought a deceiver – this One who I attacked and thought to do many things… ” “There’s nothing more excellent to me now than knowing Him.” You cannot explain that, except for Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And I would just end with this.

Last of all, there are the facts about Christ Jesus Himself. “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus…” Now watch this. He came into the world to save sinners. We may talk about a child coming into the world. They were inside their mother’s womb, they came out into the world. That’s not what’s meant when this terminology is used of Jesus Christ. He came. You don’t need to turn there, but listen to this. In John, chapter 16, verse 28 Jesus says this: “I came from the Father.” He was born of a virgin, there’s no question. But when Scripture says He came, it doesn’t mean that He simply came forth from the womb, like you and I. When He is said to have come, Scripture tells us where He came from, not his mother’s womb. He says in John 16:28, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” He came because He was sent.

Listen to Galatians 4:4-5, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son.” He came from the Father, but He didn’t just come from the Father the Father sent Him forth! Why? He sent Him forth, born of a woman. Born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons! The eternal Son of God came into the world! Because He was outside the world, He came into the world. We’re not talking about somebody who’s simply a man! We’re not simply saying: “Yes, He was conceived in the womb and He came forth from the womb. And He came into the world that way.”

Brethren, if that’s all we can say about Him, we would just simply conclude what? The same thing we would conclude about any of us. “Was He a man? Yes He was a man, just like we’re men.” But no! He wasn’t just like we’re men, because He was actually conceived in the womb of a virgin! The Holy Spirit came upon her! But that still is not where it started! You have to go back in time before that – absolutely out into eternity! What happened? There is the eternal Father and from His bosom comes forth, from His presence; from His unity and His oneness, comes forth the Son of His love! The Word, who was back there at the beginning! Whenever! Go far back as you want, whatever beginning; He’s there! He’s there! The Word! And He’s with God, and He is God! He’s the Radiance of the glory of His Father, and He came forth! The Father sent Him forth! On purpose, with a reason, and why did He come?

Brethren, it is interesting, repeatedly in Scripture – Scripture tells us why He did not come. He did not come to judge. Sometimes we wonder, He comes in – they take this woman taken in adultery, but I’ll tell you this: He did not come to judge! He did not come to condemn! Brethren, He did not come to bring peace! That’s an important one. Some people think, “Well, He came in to bring this universal brotherhood.” Brethren, He did not come to bring peace. In fact, He prophesies that there will be wars and rumors of wars. And there will be earthquakes, and there will be calamities. He did not come to put an end to that! He did not come to bring peace. Scripture’s very clear about those things. Why did He do it!? Why? Did He simply come just as some gesture? Some exhibition? Brethren, He did not come to just be an example. He did not come just to teach. He did teach, and He was an example; but why did He come? “I did not come to judge the world”, He says – “but to save the world”. Now we’re talking about the first time He came. Not the second time. All of this has to do with why He came the first time. When He comes the second time, He is coming to judge! And He is coming to bring eternal peace. And He is coming to put a stop, and an end to all the war and terrorism, and the wrong.

We’ll talk about the first time He came. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. He says, “The Son of Man does not come to be served but to serve.” Like we heard: To become a man, to become a servant. To obey His Father all the way to the cross. Why? He came to give His life as a ransom for many. Brethren, He came into this world to save sinners. Sinners! He said, “I did not come to call the righteous…” No. “I came to call sinners to repentance.”

There are a lot of places in Scripture that tell us why He did not come. But repeatedly, it comes back to this: He came to save! He came to be a ransom. Are you looking for real help? Real Solutions? Something faithful? Do you want something you can just put your weight upon? Just turn off the politicians. Stop listening to men! Jesus Christ did not come into this world to show us how to save ourselves. He came to save us. Jesus came into the world to save. Jesus came into the world because we are what we are. That’s why He came. No one is this world could save us. The thing is: There was nothing in this world that could give us any hope. There was not a suitable sacrifice. The blood of bulls and goats…Sometimes I think about it, when Solomon was dedicating the Temple. It talks about the vast numbers of animals that were slaughtered. And all that blood put together, never washed away one sin. Not one. There was no suitable sacrifice. We needed somebody like us in every respect, but it had to be more because if there was one man there, who was like us in every respect, but He was perfect, maybe God could exchange one innocent man for one guilty man. Perhaps. But where does the value of His sacrifice come in for the making of a ransom for many? He had to be more than just man. Oh, the second Person of the Godhead to appease…to appease God on our behalf! It had to be the sort of sacrifice that would really have the value that could satisfy God! That could extinguish that wrath against us! For many! Ransom for many! Where do you find value like that!? Not just in somebody merely a man, but He had to be a man. Why? Because it was man who broke God’s law! It was man who must die! It’s man who is expected to keep that law!

And He came as a man, and what did He do? Brethren, He came! He was born of a virgin. He came from the Father! He… The second glorious Person of the Godhead He came, and what did He do? He came into this world and He lived and by His obedience, the many are made righteous. Brethren, He kept His Father’s law, He had to. He came under that law. And He kept that law, and the Father could say, “My Son in Whom I am well pleased!” He was pleased with Him! And what did He do? He died. He died! You cannot believe that the Son of God’s affection was lightly made to be crushed and forsaken. What it means for us to be a sinner, the fullness of that can be seen in the cross. What sinners we are is no small deal. God did not lightly forsake His Son. But that’s what it took. Christ Jesus came, He lived without sin, He suffered, He died, He rose, He ascended; that’s how He saves! And He saves to the uttermost!

And there He is! Interceding! Brethren, God forgives sinners on this basis alone! That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. That’s what He did! He lived…righteous! He obeyed…unto death! After three days, He came forth from the grave! It could not contain Him! He satisfied His Father; and after forty more, He ascended to the right hand of God. And that’s what He did to save. And if you die without that… A sinner who goes out into eternity without having accepted that (embraced it, put your weight on that) – faith, it’s no myth. There’s a lake of fire there. And there is no end, and there is no hope. It just goes on and on and on… and on. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

You can be a bad guy, you can be like Paul, you could’ve done the most wicked, foul things that you’re ashamed of. And he says, “Look, as the foremost, I’m there as an example to you. You can see what Christ did in my life, and it proves the worthiness of that saying. Look at what He’s done in my life! Look what he’s done through 2,000 years of church history. Think about what He did! Think about the Word of God; the eternal Word of God coming and doing such things as He did! At cost to Himself! Do you think it was easy!? He recoiled in the garden, “Father, please, please! Take this cup away!” Watch the blood drip from His body, before you think too lightly of your sin, and what it means to be a sinner. He was made sin for us! And it was such a thing as made Him recoil! I’ll tell you. If you do not accept this reality; this one Remedy for sin! This one hope of the sinner… you don’t wanna walk away from this! It’s something you can put your weight one! But listen. God does not give you the right to go to Hell! He commands men to repent! All men, everywhere! You are to believe this! You are to accept this! And oh, what will it be for you if you despise the shed blood of the Son of God!? Can you imagine? You all have sat here today. Should any sit under the sound of this, and yet perish… will those words not come true? “It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in that day, than for you!” Listen, there’s only one thing that makes it difficult to embrace this immediately: It’s your love of sin. That’s it. But maybe somebody’s saying: “Yes!” “That’s the sure word my soul has been looking for!” It’s worthy of all acceptance, accept it at once! Embrace it! You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and He’ll save you now! You have it on the authority of that faithful saying! Amen.

Father, we thank you for the glory of the gospel! The beauty of the salvation! A hope, that sinners have been given. We thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.