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In the year 1666, John Bunyan, who was an English
Puritan, wrote an autobiography whilst he was in prison entitled,
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. In this autobiography,
he recalls his conversion to Christ and the subsequent call
then to the ministry. The very title of this book itself
gives us an insight into what John Bunyan thought concerning
himself. He believed himself to be the
chief of sinners. In this autobiography he said,
and I quote, They bring afresh into my mind
the remembrance of my great help, my great support from heaven,
and the great grace that God extended to such a wretch as
I." We understand from that the idea that John Bunyan rightfully
had of himself before God, that he was, as the hymn writer said,
amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like
me. Now, lest we think that this
is some puritanical way of thinking about our, pardon me, our great
sinfulness and misery and so on, if we look again to the passage
of Scripture that we read this morning, Paul himself confesses
that this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to see his sinners, of
whom I am chief." Paul himself used that, well, he was the one
that gave us that language, but he had that similar way of thinking
of himself, that he was the chief of sinners, that he was guilty
before God, and this sin had brought only into his life misery
and that which was worthy of judgment. But again, in case
we think that this is something that is only in the writings
of the Apostle Paul, if we read in Matthew chapter 5 in the verse
number 4, the Lord Jesus Christ himself said, Now he's talking
here about those who are entering in and have entered into the
kingdom of God. And what are these people mourning
over? They're mourning over their sin. They're mourning over the
guilt that they have, having violated and broken the law of
God. But there is a blessing here.
For as they mourn over their sin, a mourning that's bringing
about repentance of heart, a turning to God and faith, they shall
be comforted. They'll be comforted in the gospel
itself. They'll be comforted with the
promises of this kingdom. that if we are truly saved, we
shall be forgiven. Now, though the dread of guilt
and fear of punishment may be removed, And it is, it's promised
to us that it will be removed in the life of those who have
trusted in the Lord. The sense of the awfulness of
our sin and what our sin deserves often stays with the believer
throughout their life. So one hand, they recognize that
there is that dread of guilt, that dread of punishment, which
in Jesus Christ has been removed. For there is now therefore no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. But at the same
time, when we think back to what we were and how we lived and
the things that we had done against the law of God, we still feel
the sense of shame. We still feel the sense of regret. We still have that mourning over
our lives that in any way we had offended a holy and just
God. In many ways, every believer
thinks of themselves as the chief of sinners. If there was one
place that I had to disagree with the Apostle Paul, and I
don't disagree with him at all, but it would be here, I would
say, no, Paul, you're not the chief of sinners. I am the chief
of sinners. I am the chief of sinners, and
you perhaps would feel the same this morning. Just as John Bunyan
wrote, he felt the same thing. Having looked at his sin, that
deep sense of sinfulness was there. Now this sense of sinfulness,
this sense of misery is contrary to the philosophy and the psychology
that is often preached to us by our culture. We live in a
day and age that from the moment we're born, we're told that we
are special. And we are told that any sense
within us that would be doubting ourselves, or we're thinking
negatively of ourselves, is not to be thought upon, but rather
we are to affirm ourselves. And so people today are encouraged
to speak to themselves. Wake up in the morning, look
in the mirror, speak to yourself and affirm yourself. You say
perhaps to yourself, I am confident. I am strong. I am successful. I am good. My friends, such a
practice is contrary to the gospel. Such a practice actually doesn't
lead you out of that sense of insufficiency and so on. It actually
only increases it. Because the reality is you're
not good. The reality is you have nothing to be confident
in other than the work of Jesus Christ. The reality is that you're
not strong, you're weak. And the gospel does not try to
encourage the individual to lift themselves up. It encourages
the individual to look away from themselves, to the one who is
sufficient, to the one who is able to see, to the one who never
sinned, but in everything was perfect before the Father. Let
me ask you this morning, as we get in really to the mean bulk
of our message, have you that sense? that understanding that
you are a sinner before God. Have you ever come to that understanding
that you've broken the law of a holy God? And as a result of
that, you deserve punishment. Has there ever been the feeling
coming upon you, the sense of conviction of sin, that feeling
of misery and of guilt, knowing that you deserve wrath and judgment
at the hand of God? Let me say to you this morning,
that if there is no sense of sinfulness in your life, then
you are not a Christian. I say that not on the authority
of some reformed tradition. I say that not upon the authority
of any one idea of any preacher. It's upon the authority of Scripture
itself, because those who are in the kingdom of God are mourners. And they mourn over their sin.
And so if there is no concept this morning, no acceptance within
your heart and your mind that you're a sinner before a holy
God, then you are not in God's kingdom. You're not in God's
kingdom. Again, I stress to you that this
is missing today in evangelical Christianity. There is this reluctance
to acknowledge our sinfulness. And there is this distortion
of the gospel, that the gospel is only there to fix the problems
of your life. That the gospel there is to answer
every worry, every fear, and so on. No, the gospel comes to
deal with your sin. The gospel comes to deal with
the fact that you deserve wrath. Jesus Christ, as we will come
to see today in his missional statement, came into the world
to save sinners. And I pray that you would see
the very central aspect of the gospel. It's not so that you
have some God in heaven that you can just, you know, in a
sense, come to and, oh, I'm worried about this or I'm worried about
that. No, it's to bring you into a saving relationship with him. Yes, that he might be your father.
Yes, that you might pray to him, but that your sin might be dealt
with. That you might be justified in
his sight, but also as well that you might be saved from its power
and dominion. I believe that there would be
greater happiness in the lives of people today if they understood
the very essence of this. that happiness and holiness go
hand in hand. And people today, they're trying
to pursue happiness in this and that and the other thing, not
understanding or not acknowledging that the source of all misery
is sin itself. And you need to have your sin
dealt with in order to be truly blessed. As the Psalmist would
say, blessed or happy is the man whose sin is forgiven. As we think about this subject
this morning, if I can borrow the title from John Bunyan, Grace
Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, there's four things that I want
you to see today as we consider this passage of Scripture. First
of all, there is a recognition of personal guilt. There is a
recognition of personal guilt. Then secondly, there is a recognition
of Christ's sufficiency. Then thirdly, there is a recognition
of grace that abounds. And fourthly, there is a recognition
of divine glory. Recognition of divine glory. Notice with me first of all here,
this recognition of personal guilt. Paul in verse number 12,
which is really the section that we're dealing with from verse
12 to 17, Paul is recounting how the Lord had enabled him,
strengthened him, and the Lord had placed him into the Christian
ministry. that he who was once a blasphemer
and persecutor had been saved by the grace of God and had been
called into the service of God. But as Paul begins to give his
testimony, as he begins to recall the transformation that had taken
place in his life, I want you to see here that there was a
recognition of his sin. There was a recognition of personal
guilt and of a personal debt that he owed to the law of God. Now, where did this idea come
from that Paul had this debt? Where did it come from that Paul
was guilty before this God? Well, it came from the law. Unfortunately today, in evangelicalism,
cliches have arisen concerning the law of God. One of those
cliches is now that the Old Testament was all law, but now we are in
a time of grace. And let me say to you that there
can be no understanding of grace without the law. And the law
of God simply did not start when the book of Matthew began. The
law of God continued. Of course, there were certain
aspects of the Old Testament law that were fulfilled in Jesus
Christ, such as the ceremonial law, that, yes, came to an end. We were no longer obliged to
fulfill that ceremonial law. There was aspects of the national
law given to Israel that expired along with that nation state.
But the moral law continued. The moral law continues even
to this day, because the moral law is an expression of the righteous
character of God. And so there can be no end to
it. Now, as we think about the law, we see that Paul is dealing
with some within the church here, as Timothy was at, who were distorting
the use and the application of the law of God. And let me just
walk you through this very briefly, as I show you how the law of
God exposed the sin within Paul's life. In verse 4, it says, So
he instructs Timothy here. Don't get involved or don't get
carried away with these false teachers that are bringing in
these endless disputes about the lineage of so-and-so and
all of these questions that we do not have the answer to. Don't
get distracted, Timothy. And he gives to Timothy a charge.
He gives to Timothy a commandment in verse number five. He says, What was that charge given to
Timothy? Well, it's reiterated in verse number 18. And so, when
we think of that term, commandment, We often think about the Ten
Commandments, but that's not what it's speaking about. It's
speaking here about a charge that is given by a superior to
an inferior. A charge given by Paul, the apostle,
to the inferior, the elder Timothy, and a charge that was to instruct
the people of God in true religion. Religion that is not just crossing
the T's and dotting the I's, but religion that grows out of
loving God and loving our neighbor, religion that produces a good
and a clear conscience, and a religion that has a sincere true faith. That's what he's instructing
Timothy to do, the goal of this instruction. Timothy, the goal
of your ministry ought to be these three things, as laid out
in verse 5. But in verse number 6, he then
says that some have swerved away. They have turned aside from the
simplicity of gospel ministry. And they are now introducing
desiring to be teachers in verse number 7. they are introducing
these genealogies and fables and so on. It says in verse 7,
"...desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither
what they say, nor whereof they affirm." And so here, more than
likely, it was the Judaizers again, just as in the case in
the book of Philippians, just as in the case of Galatians and
so on, they were trying to bring the church under parts of the
ceremonial law that were not applicable to them. And Paul
was saying that, listen, they're using the law, but they are not
using it lawfully. They have a bad and a poor application
of the law of God to the people. Now immediately Paul defends
himself in verse number 8. He says, but we know that the
law is good. if a man use it lawfully. Paul
anticipates the reaction he's going to get where they accuse
him of somehow disregarding the entirety of God's law. And Paul
is saying, no, no, the law is good, the law is profitable,
but only if it's used lawfully, only if it's applied in the right
manner and in the right way. As Paul will go on to show, that
the law here was not made for the righteous man, but for the
unrighteous man. And so as he begins to unfold
here from verse 9 to 10, what's the main essence? What's the
main purpose of the law of God? It's to show us our sin. It's
to show us that we're not righteous. It's to show us that we're unrighteous. And you might read that this
morning and say, well, the law was made for, or not made for
the righteous man. It was made for the unrighteous.
See, the law is made for bad people. But remember what Paul
would say in the book of Romans, chapter 3 and verse 10. There
is none righteous, no, not one. And so, yes, the law was not
made for the righteous man, but for the unrighteous man. But
all of us are unrighteous. All of us have broken the law
of God. All of us live in sin and in misery. Only Christ was ever perfectly
righteous. Even Adam, who had a righteousness
there in the Garden of Eden, still had the potential to fall.
Only Jesus Christ was the one, the perfect righteous Son of
God. So this law, what does it do
in its moral essence? It shows to us our sin. It highlights
to us that we are lawless and disobedient, that we are ungodly,
that we are sinners. And again, notice, as Paul would
say, he's the chief of sinners. Notice again, the application
of the law to sinners. for unholy and profane, for murderers
and fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for
whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for
men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there
be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." So Paul,
having established that the law is good, that the law, rightfully
applied, exposes that there is none righteous, no not one, begins
to recall his own unrighteous condition. In verse number 13,
he says he was before a blasphemer. He thought he was serving God.
He thought he was serving the true God. He thought he was carrying
out God's purposes and that he was fulfilling God's purposes,
but actually he was a blasphemer. And there is a warning to everyone
here today, that much like the Apostle Paul, you could have
been raised in the faith. You could have been raised in
the things of God. You could have been taught the
Scriptures from your very earliest of years. And yet, if your life
is not in accordance with Scripture, And if you're not actually serving
and living for the God of Scripture, then all that you are is a blasphemer. Paul's good intentions did not
matter. Paul's desire and thinking that
he was right did not matter. He was a blasphemer. He violated
the first and the third commandment. He was also a persecutor. We
know how horribly he treated the Christians as he persecuted
them. He was a violator of the sixth commandment. And he was
injurious. Again, he injured them, he hurt
them. Again, a violation of the sixth
commandment. Then he says, "...but I obtained
mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." What does that
phrase mean, that he did it ignorantly in unbelief? In other words,
Paul was saying that he was not doing these things against the
conscience that he had. He thought he was doing right.
He thought he was doing right. And he is making a difference
between somebody who has received the truth and yet sins against
that light, and somebody who does it in ignorance. There is
a difference. Now, he's not saying here that somehow his sin was
less of a problem, or that his sin was less severe. No, he's
fully acknowledging here that his sin made him guilty before
God, that it made him a sinner, even the chief of sinners. But
he's acknowledging that there's mercy. There's an understanding
of the difference of degrees of sin that one would even commit. And so, through the law, The
sin in Paul's life was exposed. And my friend, the right and
the proper and the good application of the law of God to our hearts
today is to expose us of our sin. In Romans chapter 3 and
verse 20, it says in that portion of Scripture, Romans 3 and the
verse number 20, Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no
flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. And so the law of God gives to
us a knowledge that we are guilty, that we are sinners, that we
deserve His wrath and His punishment. And also then, not just is there
the effect of knowledge, but there is also then, by the Holy
Spirit, the effect of conviction. In John's Gospel, chapter 16,
in the verse number 8, When he has come, that's the Holy Spirit,
he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. The Holy Spirit, using the law
of God, convicts us of our sin and our guilt before God. My friend, this is what takes
place in conversion. This is what takes place when
men and women are born again. The Spirit of God brings a conviction
of sin, brings an understanding that we are guilty before God,
deserving of His wrath and punishment. And I wonder as you're sitting
here this morning, if your heart is open and the Spirit of God
is moving upon your heart, is there an acknowledgement today
that you are a sinner? Is there an acknowledgement in
your heart today as you compare yourself to the standard of God,
the 10 commandments that you have sinned? You might say this
morning, well, I look at the 6th commandment, thou shalt not
murder. I've never murdered anybody. But the 6th commandment, my friend,
it encompasses hatred. It encompasses not just the things
that we don't do, but the things that we have failed to do. And
so whenever we're not preserving and bettering the lives of our
neighbor, we're violating the second commandment. You might
look at the seventh commandment and say, well, I've never committed
adultery, never cheated on my partner or my spouse and so on.
But has there been lust in your heart? Even prior to your marriage? Even in your marriage? Has there
been a looking away to another husband? Who perhaps you think,
well, if I was married to him, he could give me more, he could
provide to me more. What's that? Adultery of heart.
Men, is there a looking away to another woman? Looking at
her body and her form and shape and saying, I wish I could have
her. What is that? It's adultery of heart. Such things are a violation of
the law of God. What about the ninth commandment?
Thou shalt not bear false witness. We forgive ourselves very easily
for our little lies. We have an aim even for them.
We call them little white lies. Oh, they're not as bad as the
black lies. My friend, God does not distinguish it like that.
Sin is sin. And although there are degrees
of sin, sin is still sin. What about the first table of
the law? Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? Often whenever
the commandments are quoted, you even see this with some well-known
people and they're quoting the commandments of God, they somehow
never quote the fourth commandment. And yet, my friend, if you do
not keep in the new covenant, the new day, the new Sabbath
day, the Lord's day as a holy day, you're sinning against God.
That's a serious thing. You don't get to make up what
you do in the Lord's day. You don't get to say, well, I'm
going to go to church today and not go to church next week. No,
it's His day. It's His day. And any entertainment
of your own self or your own thing on God's holy day is a
sin against the Holy God. What about the third commandment?
We take the name of God in vain. I pray that you do not do that.
I pray that you would never, Christian, take the name of Jesus
and use it in a light way. I hope that whenever you're watching
something and you hear it, that it grieves you. I pray that you
would never take the name of God and use it in a light and
frivolous manner. I pray that it would grate upon
you when you're working with somebody and they would take
the name of God in vain. As Christians, we never should
say, oh my God, that's blasphemy. It's blasphemy. I don't care
if you're a Christian and you don't intend it to be blasphemy.
It is blasphemy. My friend, we could go through
many more of those commandments. But as you hear the law of God
being preached to you today, is there a humble acknowledgement
that you have sinned? That you're guilty before a holy
God? That you need Jesus Christ to
save you? You see, unless you acknowledge
that first that you are a sinner, then there can be no salvation.
Unless you first acknowledge that you have broken the law
of God, then you'll never be brought to Christ. For the law
was our schoolmaster, our teacher. to bring us to Christ. There might still be that hesitation
in your heart, I am not a sinner. My friend, it doesn't matter
what you think. God says that for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Are you a mourner in Zion today? Are you someone that is truly
mourning over your sin? Yes, the sense of punishment
has been removed. Yes, we have that wonderful truth,
no condemnation, now I dread in Christ. But dear Christian,
do you remember the sins of the past? Does it grieve you? We ought never to boast of them.
We ought never to brag about them. They ought to grieve us.
And if there is that sense of regret, that sense of, oh, why
did I ever disobey or break the law of God? Well, let that even
be an encouragement to you this morning, that that is a sign
of grace within your heart. That is a sign that the Spirit
of God is working and has moved upon your heart. That you have
truly mourned. and therefore you shall be comforted."
But notice here, secondly, he also recognized Christ's sufficiency. In verse number 14 and 15, "...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. He recognized, in light of his
sinfulness, in light of his personal guilt, that he could do nothing
to save himself, that he could do nothing to deliver himself
from the wrath of God. But Christ was completely and
totally sufficient to deliver him. He recognized, first of
all, Christ as the Messiah. He uses the word Christ in verse
number 15. It's the New Testament equivalent
of the Old Testament term of the Anointed One or the Messiah.
And so he's acknowledging here, this man, Jesus, who came into
the world, was the one promised of God of old, was the one who
was promised to come in and to deal with our sin, to bring the
law of God into our hearts, and to completely and totally forgive
us through faith. He also then recognized his mission.
He came into the world to save sinners. He's speaking there
about his incarnation. Christ was God manifest in the
flesh. And he came into this world for
a single purpose, to save sinners. Perhaps you look at the life
of Christ and you say, well, he's an example, a moral example
for me. And that's true. Christ did live
perfectly. But His main purpose was to save
people from their sins. And if you reject today the knowledge
of sin, if you reject the guilt that is yours today, then what
you're actually doing is this, you're rejecting Christ. And
you're rejecting His mission. And you're rejecting His person.
And you're saying for the sake of your own pride, I will not
acknowledge that I am a sinner. I will not do that, and I will
not have this man to be my Savior. Jesus Christ came into this world,
He went to that cross, and upon that cross He died, the just
for the unjust. He became our substitute when
all of our sins and guilt was laid upon Him. And the Father
looked toward the Son as the one who was guilty. And He who
knew no sin had become sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Through His death, forgiveness,
salvation. My friend, through the atoning
work of Jesus Christ, forgiveness today you can receive. He died
for sinners. And the only recognition that
you need today is to acknowledge that you fit that category. That
you yourself are a sinner, guilty before a holy God, deserving
of nothing but wrath and mercy. But believing this, that Christ
is sufficient. That He has died for sin. And
that His blood is able to atone for the worst of sins that you
have committed. Notice here, as he recognizes
Christ's sufficiency, what motivated Christ to do this. In verse number
14, "...and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant."
It would have been sufficient, I think, to have used the word
abundant. He didn't do that. The Holy Ghost
added the term exceeding abundant. This is grace that is just overflowing. This is grace that cannot be
contained. This is grace that cannot be
restrained. This is grace that is shown in
its fullness, in its absolute maximum, to every single individual
who would come to Jesus Christ in faith. They receive that grace
that abounds. Perhaps as you are here this
morning, there is a recognition of your personal guilt. There
is a recognition this morning that you are guilty before God,
and if you were to die today and stand before God, that your
mouth would be stopped. Romans 3 verse 18, you would
be guilty before God of violating His law, and that just and holy
God would bring down the entirety of His wrath upon you for your
sin, and it would be just and holy and good for Him to do so. But my friend, let me remind
you that with all of your sin, that there is grace to cover
it that is sufficient. There is grace that is able to
pardon your sin, and the sin that you have committed can never
outspend the riches of his grace. He died to save the chief of
sinners. My friend, that means he can save every sinner. All
those who come to Him today in faith and in repentance can know
this wonderful, rich grace and be forgiven. Notice, and we'll
make this point brief, but we'll tie it in with verse 16. I want
you to see here that there was a recognition of a divine pattern. There was, yes, this grace that
abounded, but it carried on and it set for us a pattern in verse
16. How do I know? How do I know that Christ today
will save you? How do I know today that Christ
will save you with all of your sin, known and unknown? How do
we know today that Jesus Christ will save the worst of sinners?
Because Paul, by the Holy Ghost, tells us so. Paul was saved to
demonstrate God's patience. to demonstrate His long-sufferingness. To demonstrate and to set a pattern
that all who believe, irregardless of their sinful condition, can
be saved. That's the divine pattern that
is set. And I ought to encourage you today, come to Jesus Christ.
Oh, you feel the weight and the guilt of your sin upon you. And
perhaps that sense of sinfulness would cause you to be like Adam
and Eve and run from God. Oh my friend, don't do that this
day. Let this be an encouragement to you to run to God and find
in Him grace sufficient, grace for all of your sin. But then
finally, there was a recognition of rightful glory. There was
a recognition of rightful glory. Paul makes a pivot in case anything
could be ascribed to him of honor and of glory and of praise. He
pivots immediately after his testimonial account and says,
Immediately in case people would look to Paul and say, what a
testimony! That must be a special thing
done for that special man. Oh, maybe there was something
that Paul did or had achieved in all of this. No, immediately
he pivots the minds of the reader and the hearer to look to their
King, to look to the one who deserves that glory, who deserves
that honor. Dear Christian, this morning,
as you recall how Christ had delivered you from your guilt
and from your misery, it is imperative on us that we would always be
giving the glory to God alone. For all that your sin did, all
that it did was bring shame and grief and the deserving of God's
wrath. But Christ in His grace has saved
you. It is all of Him. It is completely all of Him.
And so it is right for us to give Him the honor and glory
for which He is due. You see, the one today, the one
today who would say that they're not a sinner, The one today who
would say, I don't need a savior. What they are in fact doing is
this, they are lifting themselves up. They are putting themselves
in the place of God. And they are saying that I will
receive this glory for the good person, for the righteous person
that I have. And what are they doing? They're
taking God away from his rightful place. They're putting themselves
at the very center and they're exalting themselves above God
himself. Blasphemy. Pray that you would
come today acknowledging your sin, accepting of your guilt. But my friend, that for every
one look to yourself, take seven looks toward Christ, and look
to Him in all of His sufficiency, and see the promises of His gospel,
that if you come today and believe in Him, you will receive life
everlasting. That is the pattern, that is
the promise that God has made for you today. Believe in Him
and life everlasting will be yours. The dread of punishment
can be removed. The sense of condemnation can
be lifted. Christ is an abundant Savior,
but He is also a willing Savior, willing to pardon, willing to
save. I pray that you would come to
Him today be saved, even through Him.
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
In this sermon we will consider the subject of "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners"
| Sermon ID | 52724615261671 |
| Duration | 36:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 1:15 |
| Language | English |
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