Jesus Christ Came Into The World To Save Sinners

So, when you read Scripture, there's all kinds of different passages that you're going to come across. And one of the types of passages that you'll come across are exclamations of God's mercy and his goodness to sinners. And these sorts of passages can often be called benedictions. Now, some of you may know what a benediction is, and some of you may not know what a benediction is, so I want to tell you. A benediction is a good word or a blessing. Okay? It's what I say at the very end of the service when we're singing our final hymn. I go to the back and then when we're done singing, I say, and now receive this benediction. And I read a good word to you from Scripture, a promise from God that says, I'm going to be good to you and I'm going to care for you and I'm going to love you and I'm going to prepare your way that you might walk in it. Now these are things that Scripture says to us. These are things that we also say to one another or offer up in response to God and to his kindness and his mercy to us.

And so our passage this morning actually ends with one of these benedictions, a good word. And in some ways it's strange or it's out of place because it's in the middle of the first chapter of 1 Timothy. You'd expect something like this to come at the end. And they often do come at the ends of books that Paul's written or other places in Scripture. When all has been said and all has been done, we say, here's a good word, a good parting word for you as you go. And yet Paul exclaims to the Lord, About his mercy and his goodness. He gives honor and glory to God in the middle of his letter to Timothy. And so I hope that as we study this this morning, we're going to see why Paul would do that. Because it's sort of a, what's the word? It's sort of out of nowhere, if you will. It's as if Paul is talking and all of a sudden he's overwhelmed with the glory of God. And he just stops and says, glory to you, God. You've been so good.

And I want that by the end of our time this morning, we say, I want some of that. I want some of that for me. I want to be able to say in the midst of whatever is going on, glory to you, Father. You've been good. You've cared for me in wonderful ways. And I love you. Because that's really what's going on with Paul as he speaks. And what you're going to find when we read our text is Paul's not... spending all of his time talking about all of the good things and all of the great things that God's done, he's actually talking about the type of man that he was and the sorts of sins that he had committed. And he's looking on these things and he's seeing who he is and he says, look who God has loved. Look at what he's done. Look at who I am. And he saved me. And that's the context in which he exclaims to God, praise you.

And so my hope this morning is that we, by the end of this time, will be able to say, yes and amen. I want some of that. I want to do that. That's what I want my life to be like. All right? So I'm going to read to you the Word of God. Would you please stand? Our text this morning is 1 Timothy 1, verses 12 through 17. This is the Word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant. With the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy so that in me as the foremost.

Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So as we start out, I want you to see it. I tried to read with a bit of emotion, not as much as I'd like. like to get to, but I don't want you to see these just as words on the page. Oh, look, here's what Paul says about himself, and here's what he says about the Lord, and isn't that a nice thing? I want you to consider these words as though you were saying them, as though you were speaking these things about yourself. How would you say the things that Paul has said about himself if you were speaking? Would you say, yeah, I was a bad guy, and I did all kinds of things, and I was sinful, but you know, God was merciful, and he was good to me, and he overcame all that, and he saved me.

Now, have I said something true? Have I communicated the substance of what Paul has written? Well, in one sense, yes, I have. I've told you the content of what he said, but I haven't given you any of the emotion or the joy or the sincerity of what he has said. And if your heart's not connected with these truths, they just become these things that roll around in your head and collect dust. I know who God is and I know who I am and I know what I'm like, but... Nah, you know, the things that I get excited about, the things that get me up, not that. And what I want is for this to be the very thing that gets us up. Because there are plenty of things in your life to get you down. And if you're like me, you probably are drawn to pay attention to the hard stuff, the difficult things, the painful things. We don't have to try to do that. That's just what happens. And yet when we become Christians and we're changed by the power of the gospel, our disposition toward our lives and everything that goes on in them has to change.

We can't continue to go, yeah, yeah, I have no hope in this world. Because you do have a hope in this world. And so that frees you up to be able to speak without limitation about yourself and about God's, and about his glory and about his son. No longer do you have to be like, oh, well, I need to make sure they know I'm a terrible person. Paul talks about how terrible he is. He talks about who he is and what he's done, but he doesn't talk about it like Eeyore would. He doesn't talk about it as someone who has no hope. And so I want to open that up a little bit as we get in this morning. How does Paul speak about himself? What is he like? Last week we studied the first two verses of this passage and we saw how God strengthened Paul to do this work, to do all of the work that God had in store of him. We also saw how Paul described himself. He says, I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent aggressor.

Now, what is this that Paul's doing? When he says, I'm a blasphemer and I'm a persecutor and I'm a violent aggressor, what's he doing? He's confessing his sin. Do you see that? That's what he's doing. He's confessing his sin. He's saying, here's who I am. Here's what I was like. Here are the things I've done. And there's no excuse made about it. Now, you might want to say, no, wait, there is an excuse. He said he acted ignorantly in unbelief. And we're going to come to that. And I want to demonstrate to you that he's not using that as an excuse. He's not using that to minimize.

the weight or the gravity or the guilt of what he had done. This is his confession of sin. And it's a very difficult way for us to talk about ourselves. None of us want to come and say, here's the closet. Let me open the door and turn the light on and show you around. What we want to say is, that door is closed. That closet has a lock. It's off limits. It's not for you. I don't even like to go in there. I don't want to go in there. And yet here Paul is. speaking to his son in the faith, Timothy, and saying, and to the people that he's ministering to, here's who I was and here's who I am. Last week I said to you, I spoke about Paul's sin, and I say there was no worse sin that he could have committed. No worse sin. Now, why did I say that? Well, I say that because he says, I was a blasphemer. And in our minds, as students of Scripture, when we hear the word blasphemy, there ought to be a flag that goes up and we go, what's that mean?

Because blasphemy is one of these things that we know is very bad, and yet it's very hard to define. When is someone blaspheming? I think in our minds we say, well, if they're cursing God with their words and they've known who Jesus is and they're proactively rejecting it, then that's blasphemy. Now, is that true? Yes. Absolutely, that's blasphemy. But is that all that blasphemy contains? Is that the full definition of it? And I say no. It's not. And we need to bear in mind as we consider this that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin. Right? This is what Scripture teaches us. And so as Christians, we go, there's a thing that's really, really bad. Like, unforgivable. We're told to be forgiving. We're told that no matter what we've done or who we are or anything like that, God will be merciful. But there's this thing that if we do it, all hope is lost. Everything is gone.

And so we're right to say, I don't want anything to do with that. And yet our definition of what that is isn't very thorough, isn't very robust. And so consequently, we don't know if and when we've come up to it, come close to it, or are doing it. And so when Paul says, I'm a blasphemer, what he is communicating is, I have committed the most atrocious, awful, wicked things that can be done. And it's contrary to the way you and I think about sin, because when you and I think about sin, I mentioned last week, You've got the first table of the law, and it has to do with how we relate to God. And you've got the second table of law, and it has to do with how we relate to man. Well, which table of the law do we experience, and which ones seem more severe to us? Oftentimes, it's the second table of the law, because we understand in our bones that murder is wrong. And we've seen with our eyes the destruction that adultery causes. And we've seen how lying corrupts, or stealing, or coveting.

We've seen kids who don't honor their parents and we go, oh no, this kid is going to destroy their life and all kinds of people's lives around them. We can see those things with our eyes and we can go, that is terrible and that is bad. And what you see and what you understand in that context is right. You see it. I'm not trying to minimize and have you go, well, murder's not as bad as your bones tell you it is. No, it's probably worse than you understand it to be. And yet, first table offenses. that are aimed directly at God and are opposed to him and his rule and his reign in this world are worse in his eyes. And blasphemy falls into that category. When Paul says, I'm a blasphemer and he's confessing his sins, what he's saying is, I have stood and opposed myself to God and said, I will have none of it. I'm going to do everything in my power to dethrone you and to take your place.

So when he says he's a blasphemer, that's what he's communicating about himself. He's saying, if I could build a tower of Babel, and I could climb up to heaven, and I could throw you off of your throne and seat myself there, I would do it. And the things that I say and the things that I do are all aimed at that end. This is blasphemy, and this is what Paul has done. This is how we can describe his persecution of the church. This is what it means when he says he's a violent aggressor. He was proactively working hard. in his opposition to God. And I ask you, what mercy is there for a man like that? Should there be mercy for a man like that? Or is it unforgivable to spend your life opposed to the living God, doing everything you can, breathing out threats against his people and seeking their harm? Is there a worse thing that can be done? This is how Paul describes himself to us. I'm a blasphemer. I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent aggressor.

This is his sin and he's confessed it. And there's no excuse made for it. He says, well, I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And he's not saying that makes my sin less heinous or less wicked. That's not what he's saying. And I want you to know that because you and I face these constant temptations to minimize and to reduce the weight or the gravity of the things we do and say. We don't even have to try. We could go through and I could tell you examples of when I've done it. I could go through and tell you examples of when I've seen you do it. When I say things, and it's like everything in us is meant to make any blow that comes at us a glancing blow. We never want the blow to connect fully. It's like if you were at boxing and you were in a ring, the whole point is to try to get the punches that are thrown at you to not just land squarely on your body or your face. You want it to be moving. You want it to just brush off of you. And this is what we do with our sin. And so I ask you, is that what Paul has done when he confesses his sin? Does he say,

I was a blasphemer and I was a persecutor and I was a violent aggressor, but I didn't mean to. That's what he's saying. There's a contrast coming. Think about ignorance for a minute and consider what is the opposite of ignorance? It's knowledge. You didn't know something. Now you do know something. This is the difference. What is unbelief? What would you set in juxtaposition to unbelief? What's the opposite? Light is to dark as unbelief is to faith. And so when Paul speaks of his ignorance and flowing out of his unbelief, he's setting up this contrast between his faith and his love for God. He's saying, here's who I was. Here's what I did. And I didn't know any better. And it was terrible and awful. And God changed me and look at what he's made me. And so we can look on Paul and we can say, boo hiss, what a terrible man. Who could do the sorts of things he did?

violently persecuting the people of God, seeking their destruction and their death. I've never done anything like that. I want you to think for a minute and consider, could Paul have described himself any other way? Did he have anything else he could have said about himself? Did he have anything to brag about? Because you and I, we all have things to brag about. And those are the things we like to talk about. Hey, look what I built. Look what I did. Look what I saved. Look at the good stuff, right? Look at the benefits. Did Paul have any of that? Well, he had more of that than you or I do.

In Philippians 3, 5, and 6, he says, As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. And what is he communicating as he writes those words? He's saying, if anybody could say, I'm an exemplary person. Man. If there's anyone to look up to and say, I want to be like him. He's my role model. Paul says, it's me. You will find no one better than me when it comes to serving God as a Jew. I'm the cream of the crop and I'm the best that there is. Now when you hear people speak that way, there's generally two ways to respond to it. One is to despise them. And we don't necessarily despise them because what they're saying is not true. We despise them oftentimes from jealousy.

We wish that the things that they're saying are true of them were true of us. And the other way to view them is to say, oh, wow. Oh, wow. He's holy. He's so much better than me. I need to be like him. And in Paul's case, there was no one who could deny the things that he said. He was not lying about himself. When he says, my devotion to God and my service to him is heads and shoulders above what anyone else has to offer. But in Philippians, what does he go on to say next? Because we could stop there and we could say, I want to be like that. I want to be able to say that about myself. I want to be able to boast in my own accomplishments and my own works and my own zeal and my own desire. I want to be the kind of person everybody looks up to and everyone follows. He carries on in Philippians and he says, but whatever things were gained to me, speaking of all the stuff he's just listed, whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

And so we find in Philippians the same thing that we find in 1 Timothy. We find Paul telling you who he is and what he's about. And even in Philippians where he starts off saying, look at all the good. If the world were to judge me, they would say there is no better man. He says, but for me, apart from Christ, All of those things were nothing. They worked to my harm and to the harm of those who heard me. When Christ got a hold of me and when I believed in Jesus, everything that I thought I had done well was exposed to be a pit of sin. And I praise God and I thank God for showing me who I was.

And I was glad to lose them. Glad to consider them as waste or rubbish or excrement, to be tossed to the side. That's how much value all that stuff has when compared to the value of knowing Jesus Christ. Take everything I am and everything I've done and everything you look up to me for and throw it away. I have nothing to offer you but the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's my most prized possession. When Paul came to Christ, his perspective on his past completely changed. And this is a common thing that goes on with people when they either come to faith or they get serious about their faith. People talk about it in these two ways. All of a sudden, their whole life, everything that they thought was settled and done and processed and the conclusions had been drawn, all of a sudden, all of that stuff gets brought out and it's put out on the table for reexamination. And an entirely different conclusion is drawn. They look at those things and they say, man, I thought I was doing well. I thought I was, I thought I was, I was, I was.

doing all the right stuff. But now I see that I was wrong. I wasn't doing that to serve the Lord. I wasn't doing that to honor him. I wasn't doing that to bless his people. I was doing that to get attention, to build my own self up, to get people to admire me. I had one of my sons earlier this week, we were talking at dinner, and he said, he said, and one of the things you have to know about my house is we're learning to let our kids comb their own hair. Now that may seem like a strange thing to you, but little boys really like to mess up their hair just for fun. We don't let them take clippers or scissors to their hair. That's no. But we're getting to where we'll let them comb their hair after they get out of the shower in silly ways. That's where I'm at. I just want you to know. So, you know, we're learning to let them express themselves, right? And so there's this kind of joke that goes on in our house. They come out of the shower and who knows what's going to be going on on top of their head. And sometimes I just can't take it and I say, honey.

Go comb your hair. Because what's recently been going on is they don't comb their hair at all. They just take it and they just bush it all up and stand it all up and swirl it all around. It looks like a hurricane is going on top of their head. And so I say, honey, go comb your hair. And so one of my kids at dinner earlier this week, he says, dad, would it be okay for me to wear my hair all spiked up and messed up to church? Sincere question. And I looked at him and I said, well, it depends, honey. Why do you want to wear your hair that way? I don't want him to, right?

we try not to come out of the house without having examined the heads of our children. But he asked the question, well, would it be okay? And he's testing, he's pushing, he's saying, are you going to let me get away with this in public, right? And I said, you know, personally, I don't want you to look silly, but there's more to it than what I want. And so I say to him, well, honey, it depends on why you want to do that. Why do you want to comb your hair up like that? He says, well, I don't know, because it's cool. And I said, well.

if it's just that you think it's cool, we can probably go along, even if I don't like it. I said, what do you hope to happen at church if you comb your hair that way? And he says, I don't know. And I said, you have to look at it and see, are you doing it because you want to draw attention to yourself? And for this particular son, that wouldn't be outside the realm of normal for him. And I said, if you're doing it to draw attention to yourself, you probably ought not do it. If you want to be a distraction, if that's the point. Probably not a helpful thing to do. It depends on why you're doing it. And so what I'm trying to do in that conversation with him is I'm trying to change his perspective or broaden his perspective on his heart and what he's doing. And I didn't say all of this to him. I just said, well, why are you doing it? If you're doing it to get attention, that's probably not a good idea. I don't want you to. He said, okay. But what I'm trying to do is get him to think about why he wants to do the things he does. And I'm trying to give him a godly perspective on how to make decisions that honor the Lord. Now, Paul, before he was in Christ,

There was none of that. There was no concern. Even though he thought he was serving God, he wasn't. This is what he tells us. He acted ignorantly in unbelief. But when he became a Christian, when his eyes were opened, everything that he did came up for review. Even down to the way he combs his hair. Everything that we do comes up for examination. And this is how it should be as Christians. Paul goes on further in verse 15. He says, And so here again, Paul affirms that he's the chief of sinners. Before he knew Christ, he was the chief of righteousness and the chief of obedience. He was high and lifted up, respected among men. And the change that happened when he became a Christian was he went from being the chief of righteousness and the cream of the crop to the chief of sinners. The worst of all.

Now, if I were to ask you, how would you describe yourself? Chief of righteousness, chief of sinners. If you're a Christian, you say, well, I know the answer. I'm supposed to say, I'm bad. And I say, you're right, you are. Now, how comfortable are you with that answer? And you go, well, I know I'm supposed to be comfortable with that answer, and yet you're right again. But really, how comfortable are you with the answer? Well, here's how you can tell. It's one thing for you to talk about your sin, for you to describe it, for you to say, here's what I am, Here's what I've done. Lord, have mercy. Because you're in control of all of the communication, the expectation. You're managing all of that in the way that you talk. So here's the test. How do you respond when someone else talks about your sin? How do you think the chief of sinners would respond if someone talked about his sin? Maybe this will help. Paul was a persecutor of the church. And so what that meant was he went around finding Christians.

arresting them, dragging them back, having them put on trial and then put to death. Now these people had families, right? But they were torn away from. How would Paul respond if one of these family members were to speak of his sin? If they were to come to him and say, you know what you did? You destroyed my family. You drug off my dad. You drug off my husband. And you killed him because he loved Jesus. How do you think he would have responded? I didn't know what I was doing. He wouldn't have said that. He wouldn't have pleaded ignorance and said, it wasn't my fault. And so you see in that example how the chief of sinners would respond. And you also see in that example how you ought to respond. If you're to say, I'm a sinner, I've done wicked things, the test of your sincerity in that statement is, What happens when other people speak of your failures to you? The natural inclination is to dig your heels in and make excuse, to diminish, to distract. And it's not right. It doesn't give glory to God to do that because it's aimed at minimizing your guilt. And nowhere in this passage do we ever see Paul minimizing the wickedness of any of his actions. He says it was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent aggressor.

The worst sinner that there's ever been. That's who I am. And ignorance is not a sufficient answer. And so Paul confesses his sin. He owns his sin to everyone and anyone. He doesn't say, well, they don't need to know. He's written it down in the Bible. The Holy Spirit brought him to write down what kind of man he was so that we would see what kind of men and women we are. I want to speak for a moment about this idea of minimizing our guilt or minimizing our sin. Why do we do such things? Well, I'll tell you. The reason that we minimize our guilt and try to play off the things we've done is because we're trying to manipulate or manage the consequence. This is always what's going on. If I'm talking to one of my, you know, if I hear smack at my house and then I hear wah, somebody cries. I go and I figure out what's going on and I say, honey, what happened? And the one is crying and the other one's standing there like.

right? And I say, what happened? And the one through the tears, and I look at the other one who's standing there like, oh no, and I say, what happened? He says, and that is like thinking how to minimize, how to make this a glancing glow, how to reduce my responsibility for what I've done, because I don't want the full consequence of it. This is what we do. We see it in children because they haven't learned how how to be sophisticated in their efforts. But you and I, if you're an adult, you have. And you children, as you grow up, you're going to try to learn sophistication in these things. You're going to try to learn how to mislead and fool people. And it will be to your harm. Now here's what I think is underneath it. If we're to admit the full truth and to examine all of the evidence of our lives without any excuse or justification given, Satan will come in and tempt you and say, there's no hope for someone like you. Now, whether you realize that, you think that, or whether you're just compelled by this, like, I don't want what I've got coming, I want you to know that that's alive and well in each of your hearts. You think, if I don't minimize, if I don't make this manageable, what hope do I have? And I want you to look at what Paul says. He says, I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And he says, the grace of our Lord was more than abundant.

For what? More than abundant for what? More than abundant for all that he had done. And what Paul teaches us in this passage is that there's no need for you to minimize or to dismiss who you are and what you've done. Because the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is more than abundant to save. And so there's no need for you to make excuse anymore. Only to confess and to believe. It is a trustworthy statement. Deserving full acceptance, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Not sinners who've managed their sins. Sinners. Ones who've made a mess of it and now have to stand by and watch other people suffer and clean up the mess of it. Sinners. It's a trustworthy statement. Deserving full acceptance that these are the ones who Jesus came to save. He didn't come for the healthy. He didn't come for the righteous. He came for sinners.

And you have no need to deny or to minimize that reality in your own life. Because when you do, you give Satan all the opportunity in the world to push off the grace of God. And you say, no, I don't know if it's for this. But God has said that it is precisely for this. Paul says, with all sincerity and all truth, I'm the chief of sinners. There is no man worse in this world ever has been than me. What about Judas? Who was worse, Judas or Paul? If you ask Paul, but what about Judas? He betrayed Jesus. He sold him down the river for 30 pieces of silver. Isn't he worse? No. Paul says no. There's a further point about why Paul brings up his former life, the reason he speaks about it, and it's for our sakes.

He carries on later in the passage and says, yet for this reason I found mercy. And so he says, I'm going to tell you, here's why I received mercy. So that in me the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. And what he's saying to you, what this verse teaches us, is that God has had mercy on a man who's done the most awful, terrible things that could be done. And if he will have mercy on that man, he will have mercy on you. He will have mercy on you. It's given as a boon or a foundation or a life raft for you to cling hold of and to say, if he'll save a man like Paul, if the grace of God is sufficient for him, I can lift my head up and I can come to God and I can say, I have no other thing to offer you except this mess. I wish I did. I've been spending my life trying to come up with something that might please you and I got nothing.

But more mess. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Romans 2, 14, Paul writes, he says, do you think lightly of the riches of the mercy of God? Do you not know? Do you discredit? Do you minimize? Do you discount his goodness to his children? Not knowing that his patience and his loving kindness lead you to repentance. It's been my experience and many of yours as well. that there have been times in your life where you've been laid bare. The closet door has been opened, the light has been turned on, and every single thing that's in the closet has been brought out for examination by other people. And the fear that I find in my own heart and in the hearts of those that I've seen go through it is that when people look, when someone else looks and they see who you are and what you've done and why, that they will reject you. And it's a paralyzing fear. And you go, if they only knew. And I say,

what if they only knew? Does God not know? Ought we not to expect of one another the things that God gives to us? That if he can look in the closet and see everything with perfect knowledge, if he's chosen to be patient and to bear with sinners in their weakness, why do we fear that someone else won't? And what I found in my own life is that when those things have been laid to bear and exposed, one of the most comforting things that strengthens me is that when it's all said and done, even though the mess is not cleaned up, those who've loved me and those who've cared for me are still there. They haven't said enough and no more. I'm gone now. You've done more than I can handle. They remain and their love remains and their care remains. And there's nothing more motivating if you've had this happen in your life than to have people love you in your sin and to say, I'm here.

I'm here for you because Jesus has been here for me. Now let's go to work and let's clean up. Let's work on this. There's no greater communication of God's grace to you than at that very point. This is the work of mothers and fathers. This is the work of brothers and sisters. This is the work of children to their parents. This is the work of elders and pastors and deacons and small group leaders. And Bible study teachers and Sunday school teachers and nursery workers, this is our work. That when we would see the sin of someone else, we would go, what grace have I been given? Look at me. Can I not love this sinner with the same love that I've been loved, with the same care and the same affection and mercy that I've found in Jesus? This is the context of Paul's exclamation, now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God.

Be honor and glory forever and ever. What more can be said than here I am, laid bare for the Lord to see. He's within his rights to cast me out, to judge me, to condemn me. And his decision and his choice is to save me. What more can be said than all glory and honor are yours forever and ever. You who could kill and destroy have chosen to save and to heal and to give life. So the question that comes to us now is, having looked at the text, is do we believe it? Do we really believe it? And when I ask do we believe it, I don't mean do you believe these things to be true as opposed to false. I mean do you believe it for you? That's what I mean. Paul says, here I am. Glory to God for his mercy to me. Do you join with Paul in that same exclamation? Here I am.

Glory to God for his mercy to me. Not to other people. Not because it's not for them. It is. But do you believe that it's true for you? Do you care that it's true for you? Does the blood of Jesus Christ come to you and comfort you when you see your sin? That's the question to you. Can you say with freedom and by faith, I'm the worst sinner of all. Look at what I've done. Glory to God that he saved sinners, that he sent his son into this world. To save me and to change me and to make me new. That I wouldn't continue in my former way of life. Because if he hadn't come in and he hadn't saved, what else could I do but double down on my sin? Thanks be to God. Praise the Lord Jesus for saving us. Do you believe it? Do you believe it when Satan comes to you and he gets in your conscience? You take the closet and you lock the door. You turn the lights off and you don't let anybody in there. But somehow Satan gets in there. He knows what's in there.

And he comes to you and he says, you've done it again. And this isn't the first time and not the second time. You're doing it again. Do you believe it then? What hope do you have? What other hope can you have in that very moment than that Jesus saves sinners? How else do you fight back against those temptations, those pangs of conscience when Satan wants to come into the past and pull up and say, here's who you are. Here's your rap sheet. Here's what you've done. But to say, I know. And God knows. And he came to save people just like me. And I'm no longer that man because God's been good to me. Get behind me, Satan. This truth is the truth, the only truth that will produce holiness in your life. This is the only truth that will bring you to break with sin. You may have knowledge that you ought to break with sin. You may even have desire. I know I should break with sin. But this truth that God came into the world to save sinners is the power.

to bring it into reality and to bring it to pass. That you wouldn't continue in your former way of life. That when you sin, even if you're a Christian, you go, Jesus came to set me free from these very things by his blood and his death. I repent and I turn away and I seek holiness by his grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the only thing that will bear you through the dark days. The discouragements, the trials, and the sufferings. This man who wrote this, the Apostle Paul, is the same man who wrote this passage in 2 Corinthians where he describes his life and he says afflictions and trials and sufferings and punishments of all kinds. Yet we rejoice. In the midst of all of it, we rejoice. Because God's grace is more than abundant to cover over all my sins and all I've done. This is the message to us. This is the message of the gospel about us.

This is the work that God does in saving sinners. This is the message that's supposed to be taken to the nations. You see who you are? You see what you've done? You have no hope. Will you agree you have no hope? Yeah, I have no hope. Okay, but there is hope in Jesus. Put your faith in him. Trust him. Here's who I am and here's what I did. You think I don't understand what it's like to be you? I do. And more than you even understand, there's hope in Jesus. Put your faith in him. This is the gospel. And it's for you. And you ought never to believe that you've sinned in such a way that God would reject you. Because in that moment when you're entertaining that, you're entertaining a temptation from God or from Satan to turn away, to disbelieve, and to justify your continued unbelief. And it's my hope and prayer that none of us would fall short of the grace of God, would be in a place where

We've decided on our own behalf, against the testimony of Scripture, that God won't have mercy on us. It's my desire that we would be informed by Scripture that God has mercy on sinners. That we would identify ourselves as sinners who've been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. And that we would rest in it, that we would live in it, that we would speak it, that we'd encourage one another with it, strengthening one another with it. This is what we're here for. This is what the church is supposed to do. This is what it means to fulfill the Great Commission. to love the nations, to disciple them, to speak of this great mercy given to us because God wanted to. There was nothing in us to deserve it because he wanted to, because he had glory and mercy and love to demonstrate, and this is how he chose to do it. And we as his children partake in it by faith and carry this message to those who don't know it. That's what it means to be a Christian, to believe this for ourselves.

all of the ways that we're inclined to disbelieve it. We say, no, this is what's true because this is what God has said and this is what God has done. And I trust what God has said over what I feel. I rest in him and I hope in him. He's my peace. This is our place and this is our work. Let's pray.