Jesus Came to Save Sinners

For our scripture reading this morning, we turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1.

We're going to read the first 17 verses.

While you're finding that, the consistory announces that it has given permission

to Reverend Joo Hyung Lee's mother, Sionae Lim, to partake of the Lord's Supper with us this morning.

1 Timothy chapter 1, the first 17 verses.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior,

and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.

Unto Timothy, mine own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father

and Jesus Christ our Lord.

As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia,

that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

neither gifting.

Give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions,

rather than godly edifying which is in faith.

So do.

Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart

and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned,

from which some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling.

Desiring to be teachers of the law,

understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.

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, 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.

According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust,

I have not received this, but I have received the gospel.

And I thank Jesus Christ, our Lord, who hath enabled me,

for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious,

but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief,

and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant,

with faithfulness and faithfulness.

Amen.

and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all

acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am

chief. How be it for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus

Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them

which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Now unto the King

eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and

ever. Amen. We've read that far, and our text this morning is verses 15 and 16.

This is a faithful teaching.

saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to

save sinners of whom I am chief how be it for this cause I obtain mercy that in

me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them

which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting beloved in our Lord

Jesus Christ the Apostle Paul begins this chapter and indeed this book

written to the young minister Timothy by asserting his apostleship he says he was

made an apostle by the commandment of Jesus Christ whom he calls God our

Savior

he goes on in verse 13 to say that

Lord himself enabled Paul and put him in the ministry and gave him only one charge, one

duty as an apostle, and that is to preach the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ

to the glory of God.

That gospel, the one great gospel, the one great duty of Paul to preach, is the very

gospel of our text.

Our text stands at the center of this entire chapter and that assertion of Paul about himself.

Paul here teaches that to preach that gospel.

The gospel of our text is not only the one great duty of the minister, but the church

that calls the minister to his work, that Jesus calls to the work through the church.

Churches today and pastors even since the time of Paul, he mentions too even in this

chapter.

Hymenaeus and Alexander, who were delivered over to Satan for refusing to preach this

gospel and contradicting it by their own law preaching, the church and such pastors show

themselves to be false by rejecting this very assertion of the apostle Paul.

These are churches and pastors that say the church's main duty, and therefore the minister's

main duty, is to teach and to help the world deal with social injustice, to eliminate poverty,

and generally make the world a better place to live.

Paul tells the minister, Timothy, that he must preach no other doctrine and teach no

other truth, and that especially over against what he calls the doctrine of the lawyers

or the law teachers, or those who dabbled in genealogies and fables or moralistic sayings.

.

The gospel that the church and its ministers are called to teach, the members of the church,

and indeed all to whom that gospel comes, are called to accept, to believe that word

of God.

And that word of God is simply this.

.

The gospel that came into the world to save sinners, that is the gospel

that is preached off of this pulpit, by you, not just me, this morning.

And this is the gospel.

.

. That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, that you are called to receive

by faith.

. .

. . And this is the very gospel.

. . .

himself gives visibly as a sign and seal this morning in the sacrament and thus

also called to receive by faith consider with me this morning Jesus came to save

sinners we consider in the first place the faithful saying that this is when

the Apostle says that to say Jesus Christ came into the world is a faithful

saying what he means is this is the one great true fact that the church is

called to preach and the church is called to believe and to receive unto

salvation about that fact the great word

and even emphasis is upon whom Jesus Christ comes to save that is sinners in

the original language of the scriptures this word even receives the emphasis it

literally reads Jesus Christ came into the world sinners to save that word

therefore is highlighted

it's highlighted because that's an offensive word and we show the offense

of that word even by our own behavior we avoid that word even when describing

ourselves and our behavior we will admit we erred we will admit we made a

mistake we strayed we did something wrong but

not because we are sinners we are sinners we are sinners because we are sinners

because we are sinners we are sinners because we are sinners because we are sinners we will say and admit that we had an

affair but not adultery we will admit we spoke evil of someone else but we did

not murder them by our slander we took something that isn't ours but it wasn't

stealing we have a problem with drugs and alcohol

but were not a junkie or a drunkard this word sinner describes our

relationship before God according to our nature as human beings we are sinners we

are sinners because we are responsible for our behavior and our sin and

not only that but responsible for the behavior and sin of our first father by

that sin we are depraved and depravity is in all that we do we are sinners

because our behavior before God is against him our behavior before God is

rebellious it is against his law and his word

it is disobedience according to the just judgment of God and we are sinners

because we are responsible before God for all of that behavior we cannot blame

others we cannot even blame Adam we ourselves as rational moral creatures

made in a relationship with God must admit and know that sinners we are

you

And the idea of that gospel that Jesus Christ came to save sinners is that this is all and

the only individuals He comes to save.

The idea of that word is that those whom Jesus Christ comes to save are only sinners.

That's all that they are.

This is all that they are in all of their being, in all of their thoughts, in all of

their words and deeds.

Only sinners.

And these are the only objects of the salvation of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ did not come to save the righteous.

Jesus Christ did not come to save merely those who sinned.

Those who made some mistakes, who erred a little bit, who have some problems with drugs

and alcohols, or who occasionally stray in their marriage.

Such people really have no need of salvation.

They have nothing from which they need to be saved.

Furthermore, the text does not say either that Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

Jesus Christ came to save all sinners.

That would be an unfaithful saying and not worthy of any acceptation.

For if Jesus Christ came to save all sinners, then all sinners would indeed be saved.

These are the very truths that were being denied by those whom the apostle especially

mentions in this chapter.

The men like Hymenaeus and Alexander who were delivered over to Satan, those who were

dabbling in genealogies and fables, those who the apostle calls the teachers of the

law.

They were teaching that God saves righteous people.

That salvation is either in whole or in part due to the worth and the working of the God.

Jesus Christ was a clever man.

He was a man of the law.

men Jesus Christ came to save sinners and only sinners notice also about this

faithful saying that emphasis is upon the fact that this Savior is Jesus

Christ and he came into the world there is one name one person one individual

that alone saves sinners there may be many that claim to save sinners there

may be many that claim salvation of a different sort but there is only one

Savior

who came into the world that is Jesus Christ the Savior is a man the Savior is

a baby that was born in Bethlehem whose mother is the Virgin Mary this is a

Savior who is a full man and a complete man in body and in soul he came into the

world therefore by virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ the Savior is a man and a

baby that comes into the world through the child through the spirit and the

Holy Spirit Jesus Christ so this is the issue of conception and birth the Savior

is one exactly like you and me and this is important for that salvation for one

who saves sinners must be Himself One who is those who are sinners he must be

a man he must bear the iniquity of those sinners

He must come in their stead and fulfill the righteous judgment of God upon sinners.

But that's not all that he is.

This one who comes to save sinners is one who came.

That is, one who is not naturally a part of this world.

By saying he came into the world to save sinners, the apostle is saying this is one whose existence

before coming into the world was outside of this world.

In other words, setting forth that this one who saves this person, this individual, is

nothing less than the eternal Son of God.

This, too, is important for the salvation of sinners.

For there is no sinner that is up to the task.

There is no individual man who is a mere man who is able to save us sinners.

Furthermore, this one who came to save sinners is not only Jesus, Jehovah Salvation, who

was born of the Virgin Mary.

But the Christ.

Christ.

This is no man-made individual.

This is no individual that just simply happened to come from heaven because he wanted to.

But is God's Christ.

That is, God's chosen Savior.

This is the one that God chose and God sent to come into the world.

Behind the Savior is God.

God who ordains him and authorizes him, commands him and equips him to save us sinners.

That is, his work is official work.

This is the work he was sent to do.

And he carries out that work by giving sinners faith.

That's brought out in the passage, verses 16 and following.

Faith by which they believe this Savior.

They believe this faithful and worthy saying.

He also saves them by giving them Himself.

He does not save them from afar or save them with anything else,

but saves them by giving Himself.

That is, by giving His own life, His own mind and heart and will.

By giving His own righteousness and sanctification.

And again, not by giving it from afar,

by making us part of Him.

These are the very things that are visible signs and seals of the sacrament this morning.

The sacrament.

The sacrament this morning confirms the very word that is preached to you this morning

that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners as His official work and duty.

And He carried out that work such that He was crucified,

His body was broken, His blood was shed,

and He saves by giving Himself so that we eat and drink Him by faith.

This is the very faith that believes unto salvation.

Faith is to believe in this faithful saying.

This faithful saying that Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

The Apostle himself does not simply make that statement.

But he goes on to prove it.

The Apostle calls this faithful saying worthy of all acceptation.

That is, it's dependable and reliable.

It's the truth.

In the original, that word saying is the word word.

This is a faithful word.

This is a reliable word.

This is a dependable word.

You can, as we say, take it to the bank.

You can trust in it.

You can believe in it.

What's amazing is that when you consider the Apostle says this about this particular saying,

he's highlighting it.

Keep in mind here that the whole Bible is a faithful saying.

All of the word of Scripture is the word of God.

You can trust it.

You can believe it because it is truth.

And the Apostle here, knowing that, understanding that, yet takes this one saying and says,

this is a faithful saying.

In other words, above all else, take heed of this word.

And understand this word.

Know this word.

And believe it, that it is trustworthy and reliable.

The Apostle is saying, this word is the very heart of the Gospel.

It is as good a summary of the Gospel as you will find.

You can take all of the Scriptures and all of its teaching.

And all of its wonder.

And all of its glory.

And all of its truth.

And condense it into those simple words.

Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

That word, to sinners, is unbelievable.

Sinners do not want to receive that word.

And so unbelievable is that word, that, speaking now as a man,

even when sinners are given faith to believe that word,

they are prone and tempted to unbelief.

Faith may say, as it were, oh yes, Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

I believe He came and saved many sinners.

But not me.

Not me.

And why?

Because I'm too great a sinner.

Perhaps you experienced that this past week.

You know in your heart and understand in your heart that Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

And then you examine.

And I see why it is

that third point.

Not man, man.

Not my father.

Not you.

That's unbelief.

Yeah.

If you can see the thing about me.

y That's unbelief.

And it says,

It's as serious and it's as debilitating as to say, I don't think Jesus Christ came to

save sinners.

I don't believe there is a Jesus.

I don't believe there is a Christ.

I don't believe He actually saved anyone.

It's as much unbelief as to say, I think Jesus Christ came to save sinners who do enough

good works or make themselves worthy of salvation.

And knowing that, knowing that particular danger and propensity to say that about oneself,

the Apostle gives us proof to dispel our unbelief.

That proof is the Apostle himself.

Which is why

1.

He adds, of whom I am chief.

And to get at that proof and understand that proof, you may not misunderstand the Apostle

here.

And we do.

We often read this and we say to ourselves, well the Apostle is speaking about all of

us here.

What he's really saying is this is how he feels about himself.

This is his own judgment.

And this is really the judgment I make.

I take these words upon my lips and I really need to make that judgment about myself too.

So that in the end the Gospel is, Jesus Christ came to save sinners and we all are chief

sinners.

I'm a chief sinner, you're a chief sinner.

But you understand that's not correct and it can't be correct.

That would be to minimize what the Apostle Paul is really saying here and understand

why he's saying it.

It would be to say, well I'm a chief sinner too, to call the Apostle a liar.

You're mistaken, Paul.

The fact is the Apostle means what he says and he says it by inspiration.

He's saying that's not true of you.

It's not true of anybody else.

It's true of me.

And me alone.

And he makes that plain in many, many, many places in Scripture.

I'm not worthy to be an Apostle.

I am the least of all the saints.

And that's exactly why he adds, of whom?

Of all the sinners whom Christ saves.

Me and you.

Of Peter and John.

I am chief.

You see, Paul understood sin better than you and me.

When we look at sin and we look at ourselves, oh yeah, sin is sin.

And all sin is great and all sin is worthy of damnation.

It could be a dangerous thing to say this sin is more great than that one.

Because we can lose sight of that.

That's the thing that we think of when we minimize our sin.

And we say, well, it was just a weakness or an error.

No, we don't understand.

Sin is sin.

All sin is damn worthy.

And yet some sins are indeed greater than others.

When we look at it, we say, oh, adultery.

Oh, there's, that's a great sin.

We have long lists of sins that we think are greater than others.

Why?

We will come to that.

Why?

We will come to that.

Why?

Pharisee. If there was somebody worthy of salvation, it was me. And I told everyone that.

And all of that was blasphemy. I knew the Scriptures better than you all.

But I didn't understand them at all. I was injurious. That is, I deliberately went about

hurting people. I compelled people to forsake the faith, their new faith, their newfound faith.

I compelled them to change it, to go back to blasphemy, to go back to condemnation.

I went about imagining I was so righteous and good. Anyone who wasn't as righteous and good as me,

I looked down at my nose at them. I considered them wicked.

And evil, unsaved, including those that believe this gospel.

And so far did I go that I persecuted the church. Now, Paul gets at the heart of it.

Paul knew, Paul knew that the worst sin is to injure Christ's church. That the most precious

thing to Christ the Savior who came to save sinners is the sinners whom he saves.

That collection.

That unity. That body. That are all joined together by faith in him. That's the most precious

thing to this husband, his bride, to this head, his body. And therefore the greatest sin

is to injure and to harm that body. To speak evil about it. To divide it. To split it up by sin. To

trying to get our family together. To set it up by schism. To try to get people away

from that body by slander and lies. To leave and depart. And Paul knew. Paul knew that a

that sin, he had done that more than anything else. He said, I breathed out threatening

and slaughtered against the disciples. I gave my approval and sat in the hands of those

and sat and held the coats of the men who stoned the spirit-filled Stephen to death.

I went into houses and hauled men and women out and delivered them over to prison,

knowing they would be killed.

I'm the chief of sinners.

Now the apostle does that because he's arguing from the greater to the lesser.

And this is why he adds what he does in verse 16.

He's saying to us, saying to us who are tempted to doubt our own salvation,

even with the faith that we have, and saying,

do you need infallible proof that Jesus Christ came to save sinners?

Then note something very, very important.

That at the very beginning of the preaching of this gospel,

especially to the Gentiles,

Jesus Christ gave infallible proof and is me.

He took me, the chief of sinners,

living in unbelief and doing what I did.

And he saved me.

And he put me in the ministry to teach that gospel.

And that's why he says in verse 16 that this was a display,

he did this to show his loving kindness.

He did this to show his loving kindness, his long-suffering, in other words.

Do you want to know the long-suffering of Jesus?

Because that's what it takes to save sinners.

Long-suffering.

Putting up with their sin.

Not giving unto them what they deserve.

He's saying, you have it.

You have it in me.

You could see it.

You could see it in me.

You should have destroyed me.

You should have let me perish.

You should have treated me like the chief of sinners that I am.

It's not often the example that we give.

Notice the apostle calls it that.

He calls himself that.

As a pattern.

You want to know how Jesus saves.

You want to know who he saves.

You don't want to know who he's capable of saving.

I'm the pattern.

You don't want to look at Job.

Look at Paul.

And then his great mercy.

There are two.

This is the idea of scripture.

That if you want to know the greatness of the mercy of God, then look at the chief of sinners.

Look at the greatest of sinners.

See, we like to hide our sin.

We like to cover it all up.

We don't like to admit our sin.

Why?

Because we really don't believe we're saved by the mercy of God or his long-suffering.

We're kind of saved because while we're saved, we're not saved by the mercy of God.

We're kind of saved because while we didn't sin as much as the other guy.

That doesn't extol Christ.

That doesn't extol God.

And the greatness of his mercy.

The greatness of his mercy is extolled in saving a guy like Paul.

And isn't that what you see when you read the scriptures?

You look at the New Testament.

It's just amazing.

Here's this guy, Paul.

Most of the books of the Bible in the New Testament are written by him.

The doctrinal instruction.

The biblical instruction.

The practical instruction.

So much of it.

It doesn't come from Peter, James, and John.

Or Matthew.

It comes from this guy.

This guy that thought he was the most righteous and the most holy.

If someone was worthy of salvation, it was him.

But in fact, he was the chief of sinners.

We may take that upon our lips.

Let Paul be the chief of sinners.

Let ourselves just be sinners.

That's enough.

Sinners.

And the point of it all

is if Jesus came to save Paul,

the chief of sinners,

then certainly he came

to save me.

And he's capable of saving me.

And he can save me.

That's the point of the apostle

when he said this is worthy of

acceptation.

That is acceptance. That is of receiving.

That is of believing.

How do we do that?

Is that just a matter of words?

No.

We accept this

faithful saying

that is worthy of our acceptance

by confessing

and repenting of our sin.

That's where it starts.

I

am a sinner.

And that's all I am.

By myself and in my heart

and my mind and soul

and all that I'm capable in myself

I'm a sinner.

That's accepting

that saying.

Oh more than that

that Jesus Christ

came to save

me.

Faith is not

Jesus Christ came to save

sinners,

came to save Paul,

came to save you even.

That is

a sort of confession of faith.

But true genuine

faith believes

Jesus Christ came

to save me.

And I believe

he saved me.

That he came to give himself

for me.

That was what we examined

ourselves about.

We're going to read

that again. Notice

that what the form condenses

is really this here.

What it sets forth

is really condensed right here.

And that's

the testimony of the

table this morning.

Jesus Christ came

to save sinners.

And he came

to save me.

Amen.

Let's now turn