Please remain standing for the reading of God's word, beginning with our Old Testament lesson, which we have already sung, and that is Psalm 32. This is one of several penitential psalms in the Old Testament where the psalmist pours out his heart in confession of sin. Psalm 32, a psalm of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. For this cause, everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely, in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord Mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous and shout for joy. All you upright in heart. This is the word of the Lord. Turn now to our New Testament lesson and sermon text. First Timothy Chapter one. We'll focus primarily on verse 15, but we'll also discuss verses 12 to 17 of this passage. Pay careful heed to the reading of God's word. And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying. and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. However, for this reason, I obtain mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible to a God who alone is wise, the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. You may be seated. I wonder how many times you've regretted what you've said or regretted what you did not say. I'm sure most of you know what it's like after a hard conversation to reflect, perhaps with help from your spouse, on how you failed to say the right thing at the right time in the right way. For good or ill, words are powerful. Proverbs 18.21 says, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. Words are powerful, which is why faithful words, faithful sayings are like water in the desert to a man who is dying. Faithful are the wounds, and by extension we could say the words of a friend. In congregation, we are like dine men today. We live in a desert wasteland of AI manipulation, fake news, misinformation, and biased fact checking. We live in a world of lies, of hype, and of spin, and so we, like a dying man, are grasping and groping for water in the desert. We want faithful words. We want trustworthy sayings. You desperately need to hear, to heed, and to speak faithful words. And in God's grace, he has given us, in a kind of splendid isolation, five faithful sayings in the New Testament. Five times in the Greek New Testament, you find the phrase pistos halagos. Bear with me. Pistos means faithful. Lagos means word. Put them together. And into translation, they come out as this is a faithful word, or this is a faithful saying. Five times, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to give either Timothy or Titus a faithful word. 1 Timothy 1.15, 3.1 and 4.9, as well as 2 Timothy 2.11 and Titus 3.8. five times. And in two of those cases, in 1 Timothy 1 and 4, it is accompanied by the phrase, and worthy of all acceptance. Each time Paul sets up, this is a faithful saying, and then he fills in the blank. Over the next month, I want and plan to look at each of these verses in context so that we as a congregation in a world of lies, hype, and spin can hear, heed, and speak faithful words. Our first faithful saying comes from 1 Timothy 1.15, where the apostle Paul writes, this is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. We're gonna consider this faithful saying under three headings. First, the purpose of the incarnation. Second, the poster boy of sin. And third, the pattern of salvation. First, the purpose of the incarnation. This morning we discussed, in contrast to the improper mingling of heaven and earth and the sin of the sons of God with the daughters of men, there was a proper union of heaven and earth, and that is in the incarnation of the Son of God. But why did Jesus come? Why did the Word become flesh? Verse 15 tells us, plain as day, Christ Jesus, Messiah Jesus, The anointed Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He did not come as a social justice warrior or as a political lobbyist. He came to save and to save those who needed saving. In other words, one purpose of the incarnation of God is the salvation of man. Christ became man so that men might be saved. This is reflected in the Nicene Creed, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. That's the purpose. How did he accomplish it? Well, the creed continues, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. As Paul says elsewhere, who was delivered up for our offenses and was raised for our justification. It's his humiliation and his exaltation by which Jesus saves sinners. It's a bit late in winter, a bit early in 2025, but this is the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus was born to die, and he died to save you from your sins. Just in passing, this is a good reminder that the church's top priority is the salvation of souls through the preaching of the gospel, that we confess the spirituality of the church, that we are a divine and spiritual institution with a spiritual God-given mission to take the gospel to the nations. Now at the end of this faithful saying, right after the word sinners, Paul adds the phrase, of whom I am chief. He's talking with Dr. Babb before the service, and he suggests there could be a literary pause here, of whom I am chief. And that brings us to our second point. Not just the purpose of the incarnation, but the poster boy of sin. By his own admission, by his own confession, Paul was the chief of sinners. Of whom I am chief. Literally, of whom, as for me, I am the first one. Rock bottom of the pile. Absolute zero. He's the top sinner if the world were turned upside down. The greatest of the worst. Poster boy of sin. And when you read that, and as I have read it, I've been tempted to think this must just be hyperbole. Rhetorical flourishes. He can't really mean he's the chief of sinners, the worst of the worst. Isn't this just flourish? Congregation, I'm convinced that when Paul uses this phrase under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he really means it. He's already proved his point in verse 13, where he says, I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man. Here we find an unholy trinity of sinful words, deeds, and characteristics. These things marked out Paul in his pre-conversion state. He was a blasphemer. He not only spoke against, but cursed Christ. He was a persecutor, he persecuted the church, the bride of Christ. And this is connected to blasphemy because Paul's persecution of the church was ultimately directed against Jesus. If you persecute the body, you also assault the head. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me, Jesus said on the road to Damascus. That's why David in the psalm says, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Not because he hadn't sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah and the kingdom, but because he realized that as God was his chief and highest end, that his sin was ultimately an offense against an infinitely holy God. God was the primary party his sin attacked. You mess with Christ's bride. You mess with the bridegroom. And so Jesus was attacked by Paul's persecution. And finally, he calls himself an insolent man. The Greek word here is the word from which we get the term hubris, often a fatal flaw of heroes in Greek tragedy. He was an insolent, prideful, hubristic man. It's used in classical Greek of Penelope's suitors in the Odyssey. Insolent. This is not just hyperbole. Paul is truly, in his own words, the chief of sinners. Again, I was talking to Dr. Beb before the service, and he mentioned a phrase that was helpful to me, the gathering humility of Paul. That if you chart out his life, and you look at early on in his writings, he refers to himself as the least of the apostles. born out of due season, the 13th apostle. He wasn't with them in the upper room. In fact, he was persecuting the church before he became a sent one. Later, he calls himself less than the least of all the saints. He's the outscouring of the earth, and then here, toward the end of his life, he takes upon his lips the title, and he owns it, I'm the chief of sinners. of whom, as for me, I'm the first one. And yet, congregation of the Lord Jesus, despite all of that, Paul obtained mercy. Don't let that phrase pass over you, wash over you. Park on it. This man, a blasphemer, persecutor, insolence, obtained mercy. Look at verse 12. And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, persecutor, insolent man, formerly. Implication no longer. New identity. Formerly. But I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy. I love the divine passive there. He doesn't say that God showed mercy to him. He slips it in. I obtain mercy. An emphasis in Paul where he realizes that he could not save himself, but rather God saves sinners. This thought continues in verse 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Exceedingly abundant, that God for Paul is a fountain of infinite resources. As one commentator puts it, grace provided salvation, faith appropriated it, and love applied it. Abundant grace. with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is where John Bunyan got the title of his great work, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Whereas Newton was said to say, I'm a great sinner, Christ is a greater savior, grace that is greater than all my sin. Though he be the chief of sinners, the poster boy of sin, Paul obtained mercy. We've seen why Christ came to save us, how Paul was the chief of sinners, but why did God save this man? Why did God save this blaspheming, persecuting, insolent man on the road to Damascus and do it in this way? There's an answer given in a couple places. It's given once in verse 13 and again in verse 16. Let's look first at verse 13. We've already read part of this before. Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy. Why? Because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Paul, appears to be contrasting his sinning in relative ignorance with a kind of willful, intentional, high-handed sin. Paul, we could say, sinned with his eyes closed, or at least half-closed, rather than sinning with eyes wide open. There is a difference in the Bible and in our experience between relatively unintentional sins and blatantly high-handed sins. For example, there is a difference between killing someone accidentally in a rage of passion versus a cold-blooded, premeditated murder. We saw this distinction in our study of Psalm 19 where David discusses secret faults as opposed to presumptuous sins. Eve was deceived in the garden. Adam, however, was not, but appears to have sinned with eyes wide open. That's why Jesus spoke of an unpardonable sin. Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. That's a difficult text, but among other things, Jesus, at the very least, is telling us that there is a kind of high-handed sin, a sin that involves attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to demons, that is unforgivable. There is a kind of hardened, obstinance, willful sin that Jesus says will not be forgiven. And this is, in some measure, reflected in redemptive history. God, you'll remember, did not immediately punish the generation that rejected Jesus and crucified Him. No, He gave them time to repent. That generation, that 40-year period was set before them. But after the public vindication of Jesus in his resurrection, and in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, there was no longer any excuse for those who rejected Christ. Even with respect to the pagans, Paul said, truly these times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. God's long-suffering toward that generation came to an end, came to a close, and those who persisted in the face of the resurrection, in the face of the giving of the Spirit, in the face of so much long-suffering, persisted in persecuting the church, Eventually, that generation suffered God's judgment when he destroyed the temple in A.D. 70. We read about it in Psalm 32, to cry out to the Lord while he is near. Or as Isaiah puts it, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Today is the day of salvation, but there is coming a day when Christ returns and it will be too late. Well, Paul, in contrast to a kind of willful, high-handed, eyes-wide-open sin, says that he did it relatively ignorantly in unbelief. This is perhaps reflected in what he said to the council in Acts 23.1, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. In some sense, this would include his confused, corrupt, pre-conversion zeal. Now we have to be careful here. You have to be careful. In Leviticus 6, one to seven, we learn that a high-handed sin could be demoted to an unintentional status through repentance. So that when someone in the Old Testament committed a high-handed offense, God could still show mercy if they were willing to repent. And so let us not use this teaching to bring us to despair. No, there is hope. There is always hope for those who repent. Also, We need to be careful to realize that Paul is not excusing his wicked behavior. Oh no, far from it. He owns his sin. He calls himself the chief of sinners. As the Hebrew of Hebrews, he knows that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Good intentions, however better than bad intentions, are not good enough. He knows that. He knows that he was culpable when he sinned, doing these things ignorantly in unbelief. And yet, with no desire to minimize his sin, Paul does say that his ignorance was significant. As illustrated by his physical blindness on the Damascus road, Paul, prior to his conversion, was spiritually blind. He was self-deceived. However culpable, he was relatively ignorant, and Paul's ignorance elicited the Lord's sympathy, his compassion, such that Paul obtained mercy. As Christ said to those who were in the very act of crucifying him, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Yes, there's a sense in which Paul knew what he was doing when he persecuted the church, but there was also a sense in which he did it ignorantly in unbelief. That's part of the reason he obtained mercy, but we must not stop there. We dare not stop there, because there's a much bigger picture, and that brings us to our final point. Seen the purpose of the incarnation, the poster boy of sin, but third, The pattern of salvation. The pattern of salvation. In addition to the reason given in verse 13, there is a deeper rationale for why this wicked man obtained mercy. And in the way that he did, verse 16, however, for this reason, I obtained mercy. Why? that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Congregation of the Lord. Paul obtained mercy, even as the chief of sinners, so that he could serve as an ongoing pattern for every Christian in every generation, to those who are going to believe on him, that is in Christ, for everlasting life. And that word pattern is that from which we get the word type, or more precisely, prototype. In fact, there's actually a connection here. The same word that's translated as chief in verse 15, chief of sinners, is the same word translated as first in verse 16. The first sinner is also the one who's going to first experience grace as a pattern in this way. By granting mercy to the chief of sinners, Christ showed all longsuffering. what has been called the unlimited patience of Christ. When Paul was cursing Jesus, when he was dragging Christians, when he was standing there before the stoning of Stephen, in all of these things, think about the patience of Christ. You might see a father whose child is tugging at his sleeve and asking him the same question over and over again, perhaps smacking him in the face. And it would be a remarkable duty of patience not to immediately lash out at that child. Well, in an infinitely higher way, Jesus was patient with Paul. Even as he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Jesus' patience toward his disciples is remarkable. As Peter denies him not once, not twice, but three times, Jesus looks at Peter. while Jesus is on trial for the authorities, and later he restores Peter patiently, lovingly, long-sufferingly. Well, even so, consider the unlimited patience of Christ. What's going on here, this pattern of salvation? That God would show mercy to the chief of sinners. Well, it's as if Christ is saying, If I can save Paul, then I can save you. Paul, this prototype, this pattern, for all those in all ages who are gonna believe on Jesus' name, this, his life, his conversion, his ministry, it is screaming to the world through Jesus, if I can save Paul, I can save you. It's as if Jesus is saying, if I can use a blaspheming, persecuting, insolent man to write the lion's share of the New Testament and stand before kings and bear witness to the Savior, then I can use you. I look out on all of you. I look out on you as the covenant people of God. I look out on our covenant children who are growing up in the church, and I wonder in the years to come, What will Christ do for you? What will Christ do to you? What will Christ do with you? What will Christ do through you? Sky's the limit. Although without him, you can do nothing. With him, you can do all things. As a prototype, Paul is lifted up here and is encouraging us that if God did it for Paul, if God did it through Paul, he can do it for you, he can do it with you. So with Paul as our God-given pattern, How can we apply this faithful saying of the Lord? I want to close with four applications. Four applications. First, most important, repent and believe on Jesus Christ for everlasting life. Repent and believe in the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. I was reading this afternoon from Petrus Van Maastricht's theoretical practical theology and he defines faith. as the act of the whole rational soul whereby we receive God as our highest end and Christ as our one and only mediator for this purpose. That in union with Jesus, we are then brought into communion with all his benefits. That through faith, we have justification, adoption, sanctification, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end. Wouldn't it be wonderful tonight if one of you would come to Jesus for the first time from this faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. And I was talking to Dr. Bed before the service. I wish I'd talked to him earlier in the week about this, but before the service, we were talking about this text, and how many men have been converted under the preaching of this very verse. And time would fail us to tell the many stories, but one is the story of Thomas Bilning. who struggled greatly with assurance and was very confused by the superstition and the works righteousness of the Roman Catholic Church and the priests he'd gone to visit. But this man took refuge as he read the Greek New Testament of Erasmus, reading this verse. Pistos, halagos, this is a faithful saying. Christ Jesus came into this world to save me. And he went to the confessional booth, grabbed Hugh Latimer's garments, tugged at his shoulder and said, I need to confess to you. He went to the confessional booth, and here in that confessional booth, he really confessed his faith to Hugh Latimer. And Hugh Latimer, as a man in ministry, was converted that day through hearing the confession of another, and that confession was based on this very trustworthy bedrock faithful saying, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And oh what a glory it would be if one of you in the years to come would be able to say, that was the verse by which I was converted. That was the verse by which I gained assurance of salvation. That was the verse where God got hold of me, even in my rebellion, in my obstinacy. And though I was already a Christian, I was backsliding, and God pulled me back to the narrow road. It was that day that God used that verse for me to go on with God, to go forward in my walk with God. Not to be content with a lukewarm Christian life, but to really be on fire for God because he'd saved me and he'd given me service in his kingdom. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for everlasting life. Some of you have had a Damascus Road experience where God got hold of you, and others of you may need to have just such a Damascus Road experience where you come to an end of yourself, where you come to an end of your striving. And you come to an end of your struggling. You come to an end of your running. You come to an end of yourself and you're driven out of yourself into the arms of Jesus where you stop running from him and you run to him. You flee from the wrath to come and you run toward Christ. And you embrace him as he embraces you. in the conjugal bonds of the bridegroom and the bride, where you desire him earnestly. You want him more than anything in the world. God is my highest end. Christ, my only mediator. He is my love, my beloved, and I run to him. I do not merely walk toward him. I run to his arms. That is the heart cry of faith. to earnestly desire Jesus, not merely to assent to the truth, but to consent your will to the truth, to rely on Jesus, to trust in Jesus, to receive him, to embrace him as your Lord, your Savior. It is hard for thee to kick against the prick, so I call you this night to surrender yourself, all that you are and all that you have, into his competent and compassionate hands. Repent and believe. Second application, give thanks to Christ for the promise of salvation and the opportunity for service. That's a keynote in verses 12 and 14. Look especially at verse 12, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. You look at a verse like this, and you realize Paul is really being set forth as an example, a pattern for us, not only to learn from, but to be encouraged by. You realize, as you look at yourself in the mirror of God's law, you're not worthy of the least. Christ is worthy of the most. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. And the only proper response is to say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for giving me opportunities to serve you. I'm not sufficient for these things. I'm not sufficient to be a minister of the gospel. You're not sufficient to be a deacon. You're not sufficient to be an elder. You're not sufficient to be a parent. You're not sufficient to be a spouse. You're not sufficient to bear the name of Christian. Who is sufficient for these things? But God. has been faithful to us, and for this we give thanks. Third application, rely on the Spirit of Christ to fulfill your ministry. Again, verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me. Paul was a man who knew the saving grace of God. He was justified. He was a man who knew the sanctifying grace of God. He was being made holy as Christ is holy. But this was also a man who knew the enabling grace of God. the empowering grace of God. Not just grace as favor, but grace as power. Not just God's smile upon you, but God filling you with his Holy Spirit to do works that Jesus said would be more mightier than his somehow. in the age of the spirits, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. And so as a mother, as a teacher, as an elder, as a deacon, as a soldier, as whatever you are, when you come to an end of yourself and you feel like I cannot do it, realize that there is enabling grace in this passage for you. that the same spirit by whom God raised Jesus from the dead is resident in your hearts, empowering you to do mighty things. It is not I, but Christ that lives in me. Fourth and finally. having repented of your sins, trusted in Jesus, thanked him for salvation, that you're surrounded with songs of deliverance, relying on his spirit to fulfill your ministry, fourth and finally, praise the God of your salvation through Christ. Praise the God of your salvation through Christ. Like David, oh Lord, open my heart to you. thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness." When you realize how much You've been forgiven. When you realize how much you've sinned against God, when you realize how much you really do deserve hellfire forever, when you realize the cost of Christ's blood spilled for you, when you realize the amazing quality of grace, what is the reflex action in your heart but praise the Lord, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And when Paul considered this faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom he was chief, doxology was his spiritual reflex. Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen and amen. Let us pray.