Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1837
Delivered by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, 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 for ever and ever. Amen.”—1 Timothy 1:15-17.
WHEN Paul wrote this ever-memorable text, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” he placed it in connection with himself. I would have you carefully notice the context. Twelfth verse:—“I thank Christ Jesus 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 faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” You see, the apostle had spoken of himself, and then it was that the Holy Spirit put it into his mind to write of the glorious salvation of which he was so notable a subject. Truly it was a seasonable and suggestive connection in which to place this glorious gospel text. What he preached to others was to be seen in himself.
When I read to you the story of Saul’s conversion, suppose I had finished it by making the remark, “This is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” you would all have said, “That is true, and it is a natural inference from the narrative.” Such a remark would have served as the moral of the whole story. It is an easy and a simple inference from such a conversion, that Christ Jesus must have come into the world to save sinners. See, then, why Paul uttered it in this particular place. He could not help bringing his own case forward; but when he did bring it forward it was to add emphasis to this declaration that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is my conviction that our Lord in infinite wisdom intends that his ministers should themselves be proofs of the doctrines which they teach. If a young man, a very young man, stands up to tell you of the experience of an aged Christian, you say at once, “That may be very true, but you cannot prove it, for you are not an aged person yourself.” If one who has been privileged in the providence of God to enjoy the comforts of life stands up to preach upon the consolations of the Spirit in poverty, you say, “Yes, that is very true, but you cannot speak from experience yourself.” Hence the Lord likes his servants to have such an experience that their testimony shall have a man at the back of it. He would have their lives sustain and explain their testimonies. When Paul said that Christ came into the world to save sinners, his own conversion, his own joy in the Lord, were proof positive of it. He was a witness who had tasted and handled the good Word of life to which he witnessed.
Paul went to heaven years ago, but his evidence is not vitiated by that fact; for a truthful statement is not affected by the lapse of time. If a statement was made yesterday, it is just as truthful as if you were hearing it to-day; and if it were made, as this was, eighteen hundred years ago, yet, if true then (and nobody disputed it in Paul’s day), it is true now. The facts recorded in the gospels are as much facts now as ever, and they ought to have the same influence upon our minds as they had upon the minds of the apostles. At this moment the statement that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners has Paul still at the back of it. “He being dead yet speaketh.” Oh, you who are burdened with your sins, I want you to see Saul of Tarsus before you at this moment, and to hear him say, with penitent voice, in your presence, “The Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” Doubt not the statement, for the man is the evidence of it. He who saved Paul can save you: yea, he is willing now to display his power upon you. Be not disobedient to the heavenly message.
But, beloved, if we have not Paul in our midst to bear his personal witness we have still many living proofs: we have indisputable evidence in those that are still about us that it “is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” I could summon to this pulpit scores who were literally the blackest of transgressors, but they are washed, and sanctified, and so they are living arguments of the Lord’s power to save. Many also are now present who could not be numbered by their fellow-men among the chief of sinners in certain aspects of the case, yet they most willingly put themselves down as the chief of sinners under some other way of viewing it, and they bear their testimony, as I do to-night, that Jesus is able to save unto the uttermost. I, who now stand before you, am a living witness that Christ Jesus can save sinners, and does save them still. The Lord has forgiven and justified me, and I have found grace in his sight. In my case, also, it is proven that it “is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” Oh, how I wish that my hearers would believe me! Many of you would accept any statement which I should make; why do you not accept this? You do not think me a liar,—why, then, do you not believe my testimony concerning Jesus? He is as ready to save to-day as he was of old. He is ready to save you if you will trust him.