Why Did Christ Come to Earth?

Introduction: The On-the-Street Survey

0:05 You, young and old alike, and everything in between, were handed a clipboard. You kids know what a clipboard is? It's one of those pieces of fiberboard with a big clip at the top, and you can stick papers in it. You each were handed a clipboard, a pad of paper, a ballpoint pen, and on your clipboard, the paper attached to it, were three questions, and we commissioned you all to go out into this great metropolitan area and find the first group of people you could find.

0:41 You kids, you find fellow kids. You young people, people of your own age, you adults, people of your age. And we all engaged in an on-the-street survey with reference to the particular season into which we've entered. And the three questions you were to ask are, number one, what is the general significance, of this holiday time called the Christmas season?

1:08 And I think if we gathered back here at two o'clock to compare answers, we'd find that in answer to that question, most people would say that the general significance of the Christmas season is to be found in looking at the season as a time of peace and of goodwill, a season in which we, for a time at least, forget hostilities and remember, renew our hopes for peace on earth, a season in which all the Scrooges of the world and all the Scrooge within us is changed into the spirit of generosity and the spirit of sharing. I think most people would say that's the general significance of the so-called Christmas season.

1:52 And the second question you were to ask as you do your on-the-street survey was this, is there any special religious significance to this holiday season? And if so, what is it? Well, a lot of people would answer in the negative and say, don't even try to spoil the season with religion. But there would be a goodly number who would say, well, the special religious significance of this season has something to do in some way or another with the birth of Jesus Christ.

2:26 You know, all that stuff about Mary and the manger and Joseph and the shepherds and the wise men and all that business. The religious significance has something to do with the birth of Christ.

2:38 Then you would ask a third question. And that question would be this, granted that there is some special significance and it has a special relationship to the birth of Jesus Christ, sir, friend, man, or however a fellow, a girl, a boy addresses another boy or girl, whatever term would be proper, here's your third question, why did Jesus Christ come to the world? Why was he born?

3:13 And if there would be some difference in the answers to question one, and even a greater difference in the answer to question number two, in answer to this third question, why did Christ come? What we would reveal as we shared our answers with one another would unfold appalling ignorance, gross misconceptions, and unwarranted perversion of the purpose for which Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem's manger nearly 2,000 years ago. Now I'm not going to occupy your minds this morning

3:57 with answering question number one, what is the general significance of the Christmas season, nor am I going to occupy myself with question number two, what is the special religious significance of this holiday season, or Christmas season, and just speak in generalities concerning the birth of Christ, but I do want to address myself to question number three. Specifically, why did Christ come to the manger in Bethlehem? And in so doing, I'm not trying to put Christ back into Christmas. I'm not sure he was ever there or wants to be put into Christmas.

4:40 As a holiday that may be legitimate in itself, I have no concern to put Christ into Christmas. But I do have a concern to take the occasion of a holiday that in some way or another is related to him and use it as an occasion to proclaim what is a biblical truth. Why did Christ come to earth? And I know a few texts in the Word of God which more explicitly, that's just a big word, kids, for clearly, pointedly, sets forth the purpose of the coming of Christ than the text which, by the help of God, I shall attempt to expound this morning,

5:24 and it is found in Paul's letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 15.

5:34 1 Timothy 1 and verse 15. He who understands this text, its words, the relationships of the words to each other, understands, the meaning of those words, can give an answer to that third question which can never be improved upon. Why did Christ come? Here's the answer of God.

The Problem: Appalling Ignorance of Christ's Purpose

6:00 Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. I want to say just a word about the setting. of this great Christmas text. Beginning with verse 12 and concluding with verse 17, the Apostle Paul is extolling the grace of God to him.

6:32 He says in verse 12 that he thanks the God who has enabled him, even Christ Jesus the Lord, for that he counted him faithful, putting him into the ministry. And he's amazed that he should be found in the position of a gospel minister. He says, in the light of what I once was, a persecutor, a blasphemer, injurious to the people of God, he says, I'm amazed that I should have obtained mercy and forgiveness and added to that mercy and forgiveness this wonderful position being a minister of Jesus Christ. And then after he makes this glorious statement of verse 15,

7:14 he continues to extol the grace of God to him. Verse 16, how be it for this cause I obtain mercy that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering. In other words, Paul has been contemplating his own experience as an amazing display of the grace of God to the vilest, to the neediest, to the chiefest of sinners. And in the midst of extolling the grace of God to him, he makes this, this declaration, faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners

7:59 of whom I am chief. In other words, he is telling us that what Christ came to do in a general sense is wonderfully illustrated in his own experience in a specific way. And what happens to him as a specific sinner is consistent with the purpose of his life. The purpose of Christ in general to all the sinners whom he came to save.

The Text: 1 Timothy 1:15

8:26 So that briefly is the drift of thought. Now we address ourselves exclusively to the words of verse 15. And there are three basic divisions of thought in the text. First of all, the apostle tells us something about the nature of this saying.

8:45 Secondly, the substance or essence of the saying. And thirdly, the personal application of the saying. First of all, then, the nature of the saying. Look at the text.

8:57 Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation. As many of you no doubt are aware, there are five of these so-called faithful sayings in the pastoral epistles. Five times when the apostle uses this same identical construction and says, faithful or reliable or trustworthy is the saying. And then he quotes what had apparently become sort of little cryptic statements that were common currency among the churches at the time that the pastoral epistles were written.

9:37 They had no written scriptures of the New Testament. They had the Old Testament scriptures, but not every believer had a copy since we didn't have the printing presses. We now have it and there would be groups of believers who would have the printing presses who would have the Old Testament scriptures in scroll form, but much of what they knew concerning Christ and the work of Christ was embodied in what then was called the apostolic tradition. It was passed on orally by word of mouth and so there was a much greater dependence upon this word of mouth transmission as a means of edification.

10:15 That perhaps will help you to understand such passages as be filled with the Spirit speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. A person could not go home and open up his New Testament and have his family worship. And so there was this greater sense of dependence upon mutual sharing of these sayings that had apostolic approval, that had the imprimatur of divine authority upon them. Now one of the sayings that had the apostolic approval that was common currency and which the people of God loved to share with one another and of which they would remind each other and which would become the basis of witness to others is this saying

10:59 that is before us this morning. It is a faithful saying. In other words, the apostle wants us to come to grips with the nature of this saying before we even examine the substance of the saying itself. And he tells us two things about this saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

The Nature of the Saying: Faithful and Worthy

11:23 He tells us that it is a reliable saying and it is an acceptance-worthy saying. A hyphen between acceptance and worthy. First of all, he says it is a reliable saying. The emphasis falls upon the quality of the saying.

11:44 The word reliable comes first in the original. Reliable is the saying as we stand on the threshold of this saying. Viewing it as a large room into which we will enter and we'll examine the walls and the ceiling and the floor and all the furniture that comprise the saying, the apostle says you're standing on the threshold of a reliable saying. A saying that is trustworthy.

12:14 And why is it reliable? It is reliable because it is a statement of the Godhead. God who cannot lie and because it is a truth confirmed in the experience of the people of God. Now whatever is spoken by God and confirmed in the experience of the people of God is utterly reliable.

12:39 Now whatever God speaks is utterly reliable for the scripture says God who cannot lie. So there may be many things which God has said in His word which we can't have not verified in our experience and which no human being has ever verified in his experience. It is still a trustworthy statement because God has said it. But this is one of those sayings that is not only spoken by God and is therefore trustworthy and reliable, it has been verified in the experience of every true child of God. Therefore, it is utterly

13:20 reliable because of the veracity of God which stands behind it and the experience of the people of God which says amen to it. And I then do not weary you this morning with some sentimental notions about Christmas. I would not bore you or insult you by seeking to pump into you or draw forth from you some general humiliation. I would not go after you with the stint of human endeavor trying to beat the scrooge

14:01 that is left in your own bosom. No, no. I would stand in your presence and above all in the presence of God and direct your attention to a saying that is utterly reliable, a statement that is utterly reliable because God has spoken it. I would defend you over anything you say. Do not be silent or move at all using your

14:28 words. And the experience of the people of God confirms it. But the nature of the saying is not only described by the apostle as reliable. He says it is an acceptance-worthy saying. In other words, it is a saying that is not only reliable because

14:47 of what it is in itself, but the very nature of that saying is so perfectly suited to all complete acceptance. It's not a saying to which you can simply point and say, oh, that's lovely and that's true. It is a statement that touches the highest and deepest of your own personal interests, and it touches them in such a way that nothing worthy, nothing is worthy of you and that statement but absolute acceptance of that statement and its implications in your own heart. And notice what he says. It is acceptance worthy on the part of all.

15:33 Faithful is the saying and worthy of all. Acceptation. I do not come with a saying that is fitted only for adults or for children or for church members or for people from a Christian home or for people from a non-Christian background. It is a statement worthy of acceptance by all. And so I can say this morning, without any fear of contradiction, I have a word for

16:00 you and you and you and you and you. And it matters not where my finger is pointing and who feels it's pointing at whom. It is a statement worthy of all acceptation. That's the nature of the saying. Now let's look at the substance of the saying. Here it is. Christ Jesus came

The Substance: Christ Jesus

16:20 into the world to save sinners.

16:25 The first aspect of this saying focuses upon the person of Jesus Christ. And so the substance of the saying begins with this person introduced to us as Christ Jesus. And this term, Christ Jesus, by the time the Apostle wrote these pastoral epistles had become the most common title for churches to ever accept Jesus as Church of Isle of sigue, thepering away from Jesus. escransxsksx.blu, стр. 234a, brrt., 13i, dsv, T Elijah v. Fr Suddenly the Lord said, the waster comes up about some kind of Kaia mt. VI, kal. He arrived at Gal Front at the fig treeker's

16:56 by which to identify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The word Christ pointed to His office as Messiah. The word Jesus pointed to His identity as a person. For instance, when you use the terms, President Ford vetoed that weird tax bill, and I prayed that he'd veto it.

17:26 I don't offer introduced politics, but Monday morning in prayer I was constrained to pray, Lord, don't let the Congress be so foolish as to think they can cut taxes and put no ceiling on the national debt and cut federal spending. It's ridiculous. It's contrary to every principle of economics taught in the Word of God. It's a form of thievery by decree.

17:54 ...program inflation into the national economy.

17:58 Well, thank God, President Ford vetoed and Congress, Senate could not, sorry, the House of Representatives or the Senate who ever voted on it didn't have enough votes to override. It was the House of Representatives, I believe. But be that as it may, my purpose is not to speak politics this morning. It's to open up this text.

18:15 When we say President Ford vetoed, President Ford's veto was not overridden. President refers to what? It refers to office. Ford is the personal name which identifies the state.

18:29 It's not a specific person who is in the office. All right, now look at the text. The essence of this faithful saying has, as it were, all of its lines drawn to a person who is first of all introduced in his distinct office. ...is the saying and worthy of all acceptation

18:49 that Christ came into the world. And the word Christ has bound up in it everything which the Scriptures or that the Scriptures teach. Each concerning the long-promised Messiah, the anointed one who would be God's final prophet, God's true priest, and God's exalted king. The one who would be anointed to speak to us the very word of God and be the very embodiment of God's truth.

19:25 The one who would be the priest who would offer up himself and then intercede on behalf of his people. Who would be the king to sit upon the throne of David administering what the Scriptures call the sure mercies of David. All of the covenant promises made to the Lord Jesus and to the people of God in him. And so the word Christ points us to the tremendous richness of all that is taught in the word of God concerning all of the offices that Christ performs as a medium.

20:03 And immediately you see we're taken away from the sentimental slush about the babe in the manger that somehow in some way or other is related to peace and happiness. No, no, no, no. Why did Christ come? He came to be the anointed one.

20:23 And the moment we think of him as the anointed one, prophet, priest, and king, we are needy in Christian theology. We are needy in the grand truths concerning God who speaks and who speaks by his Son. God who is holy and cannot be approached apart from a sacrifice, namely the sacrifice of his Son. God who is sovereign and who has planned the course of human history and has committed into the hands of his dear Son the administration of the entire moral universe.

21:04 Until such time as the purposes of redemption are accomplished and in the language of 1 Corinthians 15 he shall then deliver up the kingdom to God the Father. That's what's bound up in the little word Christ. When the angel said to the shepherds, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ, those shepherds whose minds were steeped in the truth of the Old Testament understood that that word Christ meant nothing. Nothing less than God's anointed prophet, priest, and king.

21:41 But he is not Christ in the abstraction. He is Christ Jesus. And Jesus, of course, is the personal name given to him at his conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary. You remember the record in Matthew chapter 1.

21:58 Joseph greatly disturbed in mind as to what his course of action should be upon discovering that Mary is engaged, beloved one, is pregnant, she's with child, and he knows not what his course of action should be because he knows she's not pregnant by him. And as he meditates upon these things the angel comes to him and says, Fear not, Joseph, to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people, from their sins.

22:37 Thou shalt call his name Jesus. That is his personal name by which the one who is incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary is identified. And as he goes out into his ministry again and again we read in the gospel records that Jesus went here. Jesus saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion.

23:01 The apostles in describing his earthly experience say Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit who went about doing good. It was Jesus who died upon the cross. It was this same Jesus who came out of the tomb and was seen ascending into heaven whom the angels say shall come in like manner. And so this faithful saying has as its central issue and its central personage this glorious person, Christ Jesus.

The Substance: Came into the World

23:35 Now having said that, set the person before us look at this description of his activity. Faithful is the saying worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world. The person envisioned is Christ Jesus. The activity described is that of coming into the world.

24:04 Now that little phrase has absolutely no meaning apart from the biblical truth that he existed in another realm and sphere before his coming into the world. We may use the phrase carelessly, so and so came into the world at such and such a time and we use it as a rather loose way of describing someone's birthday. And it's perfectly proper to use language in that way. But when the scriptures say Christ Jesus came into the world, it's not useful.

24:41 We're not using that terminology in the way that we use it.

24:45 It is setting before us the glorious truth that there was a person who existed before entering the sphere that in this text is called the world. There is a tacit assumption of his pre-incarnate existence. The one described in John's Gospel in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with us. With God and the Word was God.

25:15 The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that hath been made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. Then John says in verse 14, And the Word became flesh.

25:33 That Word who eternally existed as the second person of the Godhead who came in some appearances in physical, or visible form, not physical as we know it, but visible form as the angel of Jehovah who in every true sense of the Word embodied all the attributes of Jehovah, received worship, and was the object of sacrifice. That personage in the Old Testament manifesting Himself from time to time as the angel of Jehovah. That one now comes in a true humanity. But we cannot understand this faithful saying

26:16 apart from understanding the meaning of these words that describe His activity. Christ Jesus came into the world speaking on the one hand of the reality of His pre-incarnate existence and then on the other of His great humility. He came into the world. Now the word world is used with great latitude and great diversity in the New Testament.

26:45 It speaks sometimes of a place, but more frequently of a condition. And here it speaks both of place and condition. Christ Jesus came into the world. Yes, He came to the inhabited earth, but He came to an inhabited earth under the curse of sin.

27:05 For you see, He came to save. The whole context of this paragraph is Paul's amazement at the grace of God. The grace of God to him is a sinner. And when he says, Christ Jesus came into the world, the emphasis falls not so much upon the terra firma, upon the earth as we know it, upon the topography of this one globe in our little solar system which is but a speck in one galaxy which is but one among many.

27:34 No, no. He's speaking of Him coming, coming to the place where sin is a reality, where evil is an ugly and evil ever-present thing to contend with, where there is death and the evidence of Satan's intrusion upon the original bliss of mankind. And so the humility of Christ is in focus. Christ Jesus came into the world.

28:03 It should be a source of amazement that the eternal Word, the second person of the Godhead, would come to but one little speck in the mighty vast universe of God. But when He chooses the one speck as far as we know where sin reigns, what an amazing thing. What an amazing thing. The activity is described in the language of these, in these simple words, He came into the world.

The Substance: To Save Sinners

28:37 But now what was His intention? This faithful saying not only focuses upon the person identifying Him, The activity described came into the world, but what was his intention? It's expressed so clearly, so distinctly, that none can mistake it unless he is willfully blind. Look at the text.

29:00 Christ Jesus came into the world to give us the greatest example of humility and self-denial, so that following that example we might all become better people. Now, that's the way some have rewritten the text and rewritten the whole Bible concerning its doctrine of salvation. Christ has done nothing more than come into this realm in order to give us the greatest example of humility and self-denial, that in beholding that example and in pattering ourselves after it, the world might become a better place.

29:40 That isn't what the text says. The text says Christ Jesus came into the world. To save sinners, and the arrangement in the original is even more forceful. Christ Jesus came into the world, sinners to save.

29:59 And the emphasis falls upon the kind of people on whose behalf he came. Christ Jesus came into the world to save. You see what the apostle did? He put Christ Jesus and his coming in the closest verbal proximity to the people.

30:18 He put Christ Jesus and his coming in the closest verbal proximity to the people. He described sinners. He doesn't want us to think for a moment of the name Christ Jesus, the activity coming apart from those whom he came to deal with. Sinners, he wants us to have those things, I don't know a better word than inextricably.

30:37 You know what inextricably is? You can't separate it. It's all bound up. It's tied together.

30:41 You can't pull it apart. He does not want us to pull apart in our thinking Christ Jesus, his coming, and the needy sinners on whose behalf he came. So the people embraced in the intention of our Lord are sinners. Now imagine the miracle that had to occur for this word to be found on the lips and in the pen of Saul of Tarsus.

31:08 Sinners!

31:11 Originally the man who wrote this statement thought sinners were Gentiles. Sinners were people who did not submit to the strict laws of the Pharisees. Sinners were people who did not submit to the strict laws of the Pharisees. Why, except as did he.

31:24 He would never have used that word concerning himself. And had you ever used it of him, you would have stirred him to his depths. Sinners, no! He says, I'm the separated one.

31:37 And yet we find him now saying that the intention of Christ's coming focuses upon a people who are to be described as sinners. This is why the Lord Jesus is called the friend of sinners. And that's what upset the Pharisees. That's what disturbed them no end.

31:57 If only he had stood upon a soapbox and hurled out anathemas upon publicans and sinners. That is the riffraff, the rabble of that day. If only he had done that, and as it were, encouraged them to join the Pharisaic crowd, the separated ones, they would have delighted in the ministry of our Lord. But the thing that disturbed them was he ate and he drank and he sat and entered in to intercede.

32:23 And they were left in a very intimate, loving, concerned relationship with sinners! In this, they could not stomach. And our Lord delighted in that image. He said, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

32:40 And the word the apostle uses for sinners is that basic New Testament word which has as its basic connotation the sin which is missing the mark. Christ Jesus came with an intention that focuses upon them. upon people who've missed the mark, who have not lived up to the standard of Almighty God, which is the essence of sin. You'll never understand the meaning of the biblical word sin until you first of all insulate it from all horizontal implications.

33:11 That is, take out of your mind, sinning has to do with one human being robbing another person, another human being's possessions, destroying another human being's character, murder, taking another human being's virtue, taking another human being's life, murder, rape, all of these other sins. No, no. Set all of those things out of your mind for a moment. For the essence of sin is to be understood not in these horizontal relationships, but it's to be understood in terms of vertical relationships.

33:45 Almighty God made you for Himself, made you to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him with all of your heart, and to be a sinner, is to be and do any less than that for which God made me.

34:00 I may never spend any of another man's possessions.

34:06 No one may ever be able to point at me as the destroyer of his or her virtue and purity. I may be like the apostle Paul, say, as touching the law of God, my external conduct was blameless, and yet this is the man who says he was the chief of sinners. Why? Because he understood that sin has to do with your relationship, to God,

34:30 and failure to have Him central in your life from the moment of your consciousness is to be built.

34:40 If the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all the heart, the first and greatest sin is failure to love Him with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength.

The Substance: To Save

34:54 You see, the people embraced in the intention, it's sinners. And then what is Christ's purpose towards such? Look at the text. Sinners to save.

35:06 To save. A word that's not very popular in our day, even in evangelical circles. Worldlings have said, we don't like this Jesus saves religion. It's too simplistic for us.

35:19 We want something more sophisticated. And poor, insecure evangelicals have jumped and been scared away from using this beautiful, this vigorous, this pregnant, this many-faceted, glorious word, saved.

35:40 No, no, my friends. We are not embarrassed to say that the purpose of Christmas is bound up in this little verb. Christ's purpose is sinners to save. And what does that word mean as we study it out in the scriptures?

35:56 Well, the best summary I've ever found is found in Hendrickson's excellent commentary on this text in which he says basically this. The biblical word saved has both a negative and a positive side. The negative is it means to deliver or rescue men from sin's guilt, from sin's slavery, and from sin's punishment.

36:21 To be saved means to be rescued from the guilt that is justly mine for not loving God with all my heart and from breaking His holy law. It's to be saved from the slavery of my sin. For the scripture says, whosoever committed sin is the bond slave of sin. It's to be saved from the bond slave of sin.

36:40 The punishment of my sin, that punishment which consists in being cut off from God, alienated from God when Adam sinned, he is driven out of the garden. That punishment which consists in the wrath of God, which in turn consists in everlasting death and separation from God. To be saved means to be rescued from the guilt, the slavery, and the punishment of sin. But that's only half of it.

37:08 As Hendrickson so beautifully points out, it has its positive side. It means to bring into the state which is exactly the opposite of what I was in. To be saved then means not only to be rescued from guilt, but it is to be brought into a state of being righteous.

37:27 It's one thing for God to declare not guilty. It's another thing for Him to say perfectly righteous. It's one thing to pardon the criminal, saying, yes, he has committed his misdeeds, but for this reason or that reason, we will not press charges upon him, or the charges proven will now be pardoned. It's another thing to say the criminal's record is such as one who has perked up the law.

37:53 To be saved means that's the essence of the biblical doctrine of justification. It is not only the forgiveness of all our sins, negative, it is the mutation of the perfect righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. From the state of slavery, we are brought into the posture of freedom, from punishment to blessedness. In place of alienation, there is now fellowship.

38:21 In place of wrath, there is His love shed abroad in our hearts. In place of death, there is everlasting life.

38:29 From the worst, from the deepest condition of misery imaginable, to the highest heights of privilege conceivable, that's what's bound up in the little word, saved. Christ Jesus came into the world to save. To save sinners. And my friends, if that was not His intention, then the incarnation not only remains an impenetrable mystery in itself, how God and man can become one in one person forever.

39:05 That's a mystery. But why there should ever be that mystery is a greater mystery yet.

39:12 Why should He come from that realm in which He was to this realm of sin?

39:20 There's no answer. But the answer, that He came to save, and if He's to save from guilt and slavery and punishment unto righteousness, freedom and blessedness, the Father's justice had to be satisfied in punishing sin. Therefore, there had to be one who was one of us who could stand in the world where we forfeited life and win it back for us. Who could stand in the world where we sinned and yet be sinless.

39:50 And in the world where we deserve the wrath of God, bear that wrath for us. You see, the incarnation is a tragedy instead of a glorious mystery apart from this purpose. And certainly Gethsemane, Golgotha, Calvary, the darkened heavens, the shrouded face of God, the agony of those hours that caused Him to cry, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? This makes no sense whatsoever unless behind the scene of what mortal eyes can see of Roman soldiers and mocking scribes and chief priests and all the rest,

40:34 unless behind that scene there are profound and yet wonderful realities being enacted. In the language of the Apostle, this one Christ is becoming a curse for us. In the language of Isaiah, it is pleasing the Father to bruise His own Son. My friends, never forget, you mock the Son of God by paying sentimental tribute to Him in a manger if you are not prostrate before the Son of God upon the cross.

41:13 You mock the Son of God when you pay sentimental tribute before Him upon the cross.

41:34 There was one purpose of the manger.

41:37 A body Thou hast prepared me. We read in Hebrews,

41:42 Lo, I come to Thy will. And what was that will? That He should be with me. That He should lay down His life for the sheep.

The Application: Of Whom I Am Chief

41:54 That's the purpose.

41:57 The people encompassed within the purpose. Sinners. The purpose to save them. To rescue them.

42:05 Now having looked at the nature of the saying, it's faithful. It's worthy of all acceptance. The essence of the saying, now look at the application.

42:15 The Apostle closes with this statement, of whom I am chief. And again, in the original, the emphasis is even stronger. Having said, Christ Jesus came into the world, sinners to save, of whom foremost I am, even of...

42:39 And that's why he goes on to say in verse 16, How be it for this cause I obtain mercy, that in me as chief might Christ Jesus show forth all His longsuffering for an example of them that should hereafter believe on Him unto eternal life. Here, the Apostle Paul leaves, may I say it reverently, he leaves theologizing about the intention of Christ. And he speaks out of the depths of his own personal consciousness. And he says, this purpose embodied in this faithful saying, I know to be true.

43:18 I have verified it in my own experience. How do I know Christ came actually to save sinners? Those who missed them, who were under a canopy of divine wrath, in alienation from God. He said, I know it to be true, because as the chief, the foremost of sinners, He has saved me.

43:40 And his reasoning is, if he's done that for me, as he goes on to say, he's set the pattern concerning what he'll do to any lesser sinner who sees his need of this almighty Savior.

43:56 Foremost I am, even I, let me illustrate it. Here's a family of four. They're taking a walk in an area with which they're not too familiar. And unknown to them, someone has set a trap for large predatory beasts that might come by that area.

44:16 And it's all been covered over, like you see in the jungle movies. And lo and behold, they don't see it, and they fall down, all four of them, into this pit. And there's no way out. They claw at the sides and try to dig up.

44:29 They can't get out. And along comes a man. He hears their cry. And he offers to rescue them.

44:35 And he has a long rope. And he looks down and he says, how many are there? And they say, there are four of us. Identify yourselves.

44:42 Well, Papa says, my name is George so-and-so. How big are you? Six-four, two hundred and fifty pounds. And then Mama says, I'm Mama so-and-so.

44:50 Five-three, a hundred and twenty pounds. And then there's the two kids. One of them weighs seventy, and one weighs ninety. And the man says, I don't know if I'm going to get you all out of here, but one thing I know, if I can get Papa out, I can get the rest of you out.

45:02 So he throws the line down and says, Pop, you grab hold first. But he calls up and says, I'm sorry. My legs are broken. I can't help to scramble up the walls at all.

45:11 I'm dead weight. I can't. He says, that's all right. Have your wife tie the rope under your armpits, and I'll get you out of here.

45:19 Now, if you see Papa safe at the top of the pit, do you have any question that Mom and the two kids are going to get out? If he's pulled out the greater, in size and weight, he's going to have no problem with the lesser. Right? Well, you say, you think I'm stupid?

45:35 Don't press the course. I see that. Ah, but listen. How stupid we can be in things that pertain to our soul's salvation.

45:45 Paul says in applying this faithful saying, verifying in his own experience, Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom chief. And if he's pulled out Papa, six-four, two-hundred-and-fifty, he can pull up his kids and his wife. That's the logic. That's the logic of the heart.

46:12 That's the logic of the work of Christ on behalf of his servant. Now, we're not going to go into in what sense was Paul the chief of sinners. He obviously was not the vilest of sinners. That's why I retracted that word when I used it earlier.

46:27 Externally, his life was impeccable. He was not abandoned to perversion as we read in Romans chapter 1. He was not abandoned to irreligion in the sense that many are. He wasn't what we would call a deliberate hypocrite.

46:42 He tells us in this very context, chapter 1, verse 13, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Apart from that, he seems to be saying he would have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost for which there is no repentance and forgiveness in this world or in the world to come, he said, if it were not for the fact that I did it in ignorance. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees concerning whom Christ said, Look! Before I came, before I came, there was some excuse, but now that I've come and light has come, you are without excuse.

47:16 If you believe not that I am He, you'll die in your sins. Paul says, I did it ignorantly in unbelief. But nonetheless, he says, I was a murderer. I was injurious.

47:29 I was a persecutor. You see, his sin found its highest aggravation in this. He did not have some darling lust that was as it were his pet lamb, that he kept for himself. But he was out after the very vitals, the very tap roots of the whole Christian faith.

47:48 He was out to destroy the eternal redemptive purposes of God. He was out to obliterate from the earth the very name of Christ. You see, the man who abandons himself to this sin or that sin is guilty of terrible affront to the law of God. But you see, the Christian faith will continue to go on and to rescue sinners and to magnify the grace of God to sinners.

48:15 But he who obliterates the name of Jesus, he who could, if possible, utterly destroy the church out of which the name of Christ and the gospel of Christ is preached, as it were, has brought redemptive history to us. And that's what he was out to do. And it's in that sense that he says, I was cheated at Christ's sake. Oh, my friends, as we bring our study to a close this morning, I want to do so in this way.

The Call to Personal Experience

48:49 Having examined with you this saying that is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, the essence of the statement which sets this person before us, his activity, coming, and the intention to save sinners, I want to ask you, can you put an appendix on the faithful saying that comes out of your own personal experience? You see, Paul points to the objective statement of God. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Now, is that simply religious notion in his head?

49:33 Is it simply good, sound Christian theology upon his lips and issuing from his pen? No, no. From notion to theology, he says, of whom I am chief. In other words, he confesses that this is his deepest, most genuine religious experience.

49:59 He has tasted and seen that the Lord is good. He has found that Christ is precisely what the faithful saying declares Him to be. He is saying that he has experienced precisely what the text says Christ came to do, to rescue, to save sinners. And I want to press upon your conscience that question this morning.

50:23 Can you take this faithful saying and add to it the indisputable witness of your own experience? How do you know that it's a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners? You say, well, I know it's true because the Bible says that. Good. I hope so.

50:44 You say, I know it's true because the Scriptures cannot lie. Good. But my friend, do you know it's true because you with Paul have taken the posture of a needy, helpless, undone, hell-deserving sinner who has come with no pleas of personal righteousness and cast himself solely and completely upon Christ and you found him to be a willing and an able and a gracious Savior? Or do you just point to the saying, well, I know it must be true because I believe the Bible and it's in the Bible.

51:26 You see? My friend, that's not enough. You can go to hell pointing at this text saying it's true. Do you hear me?

51:35 You can sink into hell pointing to this text saying it's true, it's true, it's true, it's true, it's true, up until you say it is true for me. It is true for me and true for me not because I fixed myself up. No, no. You don't negate the statement.

51:59 The statement is Christ came to save, sinners, not to help sinners save themselves, not to show sinners how they may lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. It doesn't say he came to help sinners who will help. No, no, no. It says he came to save sinners.

52:18 It's necessary to save them, to rescue them, to take them from the mess they're in, to bring them to the glory of what God designs in grace, Christ Jesus does. And he does that when helpless sinners own their sinnerhood, with no tongue in cheek, who are prepared to say in principle exactly what the Apostle Paul said. In principle. Things are swept away and you say with the publican, God be merciful to me, the sinner, even as he did.

52:55 At that point, there was only one sinner under heaven in the eyes of the publican who peed upon his breast and that one sinner was himself. There was no comparing of his position with others. There was no great scale of good, bad, not so bad, not so...

53:12 No, no. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Now I ask you, have you taken that posture? That posture.

The Contrast: Gaiety vs. Salvation

53:24 I am chief, the sinner. Now you answer. Five minutes. We'll have a closing prayer and you'll all be gone your ways.

53:35 But I want you to answer that question in your own conscience, in the presence of God. Can you append this faithful saying with the witness of your own experience? Answer, not verbally, but answer. Answer, my friend.

53:58 Answer when the answer is affirmative. Now there'll be everything under the sun in the next few days to help you drive all this out of your head. You'll meet your friends, you older people, you'll see your grandchildren, and you'll say it's worthwhile being old to have grandchildren. I know how you think.

54:30 I look at my parents in the presence of their grandchildren. To think about eternity and God and heaven and hell. Awfully hard, isn't it? You've got all the grandchildren around, all the good food, all the happy times.

54:43 My friends, listen. All the gaiety and all of the lightness and all of the legitimate domestic joys of being with family and friends don't change the issues that you've confronted this morning. You've confronted this faithful saying that Christ Jesus has come not to give us happy times with our grandchildren, and grandparents, and relatives, that we might trample His blood underfoot and throw a little sop at His manger. Don't insult.

55:16 He's come to save sinners. There's a sense in which the only person who has a right to laugh with his grandchildren upon his knee is the one who knows that all is well between himself and his Father. And the laughter that exists between him and his grandchildren is sanctified laughter. The only one who has a right to sit at a Christmas dinner and feast with joy is the one who knows that his lips will not be parched in hell.

55:52 My friend, if you don't have that knowledge, I plead with you, don't allow the coming days to be some kind of a narcotic influence upon your country. Remember this morning when the preacher looked you in the eye and pointed his finger and asked the question, Can you append this faithful saying with your own experience? And for those of you who can, I trust that the wonder and the glory of what God in Christ has done for you will fill your soul afresh,

56:35 will bring anew the sense of amazement, the sense of wonder. Meditate upon Philippians 2. Meditate much upon John 1. Think of the glory, the wonder, that Christ Jesus should come into the world, should come to the very world that would crucify him, and he should do so to save the likes of you and the likes of me.

Conclusion: The Answer and the Plea

57:04 The third question on our On the Street survey is, If the religious significance of Christmas has something to do with the coming of Christ, why did he come? Here's your answer. Christ Jesus came into the world to save. Oh, my friend, if you've not thrown yourself at his feet, and say, Lord Jesus, save even me, the sinner, I plead with you so to cast yourself upon him this morning, and you have another faithful saying from the very lips of the Son of God.

57:41 He said this, Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Our Father, we thank you for your word, which contains faithful and trustworthy words. Words that we sinners desperately need to hear and to understand and to believe. We pray that it would please you by the Holy Spirit to take this portion of your word which has been opened

58:26 in the hearing of this congregation and make it effectual in bringing sinners to the feet of the Savior who came to rescue from sin. We pray that we who are your people may be filled anew with the sense of wonder and amazement that we should be the objects of this coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That when the angel said he shall save his people, that we were in the very thought and mind of you our God. Oh, Lord, may we never cease to be amazed.

59:07 May we never become accustomed to think of sin and think of ourselves as the people of God in such a way as to fail to respond with wonder, with love and with praise. Renew that sense of holy amazement and draw out our hearts in loving worship and in all of the fruits of holy obedience. Hear us and may the benediction of your own presence rest upon us and abide with us as we leave this place. Hear us as we bring our petitions through Jesus Christ our Lord.

59:51 Amen.