Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3089
“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.” 1 Timothy 1:15.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon the same text, are as follows—Sermon #184, Volume 4—THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL; #1345, Volume 23—FOR WHOM IS THE GOSPEL MEANT?; #1416, Volume 24—THE FAITHFUL SAYING; #1837, Volume 31—A GREAT GOSPEL FOR GREAT SINNERS and #2300, Volume 39—THE WHOLE GOSPEL IN A SINGLE VERSE]
YOU will observe that Paul wrote this verse immediately after he had given a little outline of his own personal history. He had, he said, been “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious.” And then he added this priceless Gospel verse, as if he inferred it from God’s Grace to him, as well as received it by Inspiration, “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.” It was an experimental text, then, one which the Apostle fetched out of the deeps of his own soul, as divers bring pearls from the ocean bed. He dipped his pen into his own heart when he wrote these words. No preaching or teaching can equal that which is experimental. If we would impress the Gospel upon others, we must have first received it ourselves. Vainly do you attempt to guide a child in the pathway which you have never trodden, or to speak to adults of benefits of Divine Grace which you have never enjoyed. Happy is that preacher who can truly say he speaks what he does know and testifies what he has seen.
The testimony of Paul is peculiarly forcible because he was a very straightforward man. Before his conversion, he was second to none in opposing the Gospel. He was a downright man who never did anything by halves. As the old Saxon proverb puts it, “It was neck or nothing with him.” He threw his whole nature into anything which he espoused and it must have been indeed a mighty inward force which led him to speed forward so eagerly in the directly opposite way to that which he had pursued with enthusiasm throughout the early part of his life! He was an honest man, a man to whom it was impossible either to lie or to be neutral. He was truthful, sincere, outspoken, wearing his heart upon his sleeve and carrying his soul in his open hand. When we hear him say, at the outcome of his own personal experience, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, we may be sure that he believed it with his whole being—and we may receive his testimony as one which he lived to prove and died to seal with his blood! Never had a fact a better witness—he lost all for its sake and counted that loss his greatest gain! Hear his words, for he speaks to you from the ground which received his blood—his blood speaks better things than that of Abel, and it cries with a voice no less loud and clear!
The text, as we find it, is like a picture surrounded with a goodly border. We sometimes see paintings of the old masters in which the bordering is as full of art as the picture itself. We might safely say as much of our text. We will look at its framework first. Here it is—“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.” When we have carefully considered that, we will study the great masterpiece itself, meditating upon the matchless saying, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” When we have noticed the preface and the saying, you will then allow me to preach a short sermon upon it.
I. First, then, THE FRAMEWORK. Paul says, “it is a saying.”
When we declare a sentence to be a saying, we mean that it is commonly spoken and usually said, so that everybody knows it—it is town talk—“familiar in our mouths as household words.” Those who like harder words, explain that this is an axiom, a Christian axiom—a self-evident Truth of God, a thing which nobody who is a Christian doubts at all. But I will keep to our own version and add that I greatly wish that our text were more truly a saying among all Christian
people at this day. That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners is a Truth of God which we all believe, but do we all talk about it so frequently as to make it, in very deed, a saying? Do you think that our servants, who have lived for months in our houses, would in their gossips say, “It was one of my master’s sayings, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners”? I will even ask—Do you think that if a person attended our places of worship for years, he would be able to say conscientiously, “Why, it was our minister’s ordinary saying! It was quite a proverb with him—he was always repeating that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners”? Yet a sentence cannot he called “a saying” until it is often said. It does not get into the category of sayings and is not called by that name unless it is a matter of ordinary common talk!