Saviour Of Sinners!
Saviour Of Sinners
1 Tim. 1: 15
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
What are we to believe... about man... about sin... about salvation... about life... about death...
about hell... about heaven... about the future life?
The Bible provides the answers.
The Bible Teaches That Sin Is A Reality.
Listen!
- "Jews and Gentiles... are all under sin." (Romans 3: 9)
- "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." (Romans 5: 12)
- "Let not sin reign in your mortal body." (Romans 6: 12)
- "God sending his own Son...[as an offering for sin], condemned sin in the flesh." (Romans 8: 3)
- "Sin hath reigned unto death." (Romans 5: 21)
- "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1: 15)
These Biblical statements show that sin was, and is in the life of all men -- except Jesus Christ,
in whom was no sin.
Every individual must say, "I have sinned."
- Sin is in us, as it was in Adam, who ruined a whole race.
- Sin is in us, as it was in David, who said, "My sin is ever before me."
- Sin is in us, as it was in Manasseh, who made the streets of Jerusalem run red with the blood of God's saints.
- Sin is in us, as it was in Mary Magdalene, who had seven devils.
- Sin is in us, as it was in Peter, who denied Jesus three times.
- Sin is in us, as it was in Judas, who betrayed Jesus.
- Sin is in us, as it was in the rich young ruler, who would not give up earthly wealth for heavenly riches.
- Sin is in us, as it was in Saul of Tarsus,
who "destroyed them, which called on Jesus' name in Jerusalem."
Sin Is The Cause Of All The Suffering In The World.
We know that sin is ruin.
Though many relish their sins with impenitent hardness of heart -- sin is the nightmare of the human race.
- Sin is madness in the brain.
- Sin is poison in the heart.
- Sin is frenzy in the imagination.
- Sin is leprous pollution in the blood.
- Sin is blindness of the eyes, and deafness of the ears.
- Sin is prostitution of the tongue.
- Sin is palsy of the feet.
- Sin is withering of the hands.
- Sin is a black darkness that invades man's whole being.
Sin is the curse of all curses.
- Sin abuses the authority of God's law.
- Sin abuses God's justice, as though He would not punish it.
- Sin abuses God's power, as though the sinner's breath was not in God's hand.
- Sin abuses God's wisdom, as if God's laws were not right and reasonable.
- Sin abuses God's omniscience, as if God did not see all our ways.
- Sin abuses God's warnings, as if they were not to be feared.
- Sin abuses God's promises, as if they were lies.
- Sin abuses Christ, as though He were a deceiver and a devil.
- Sin abuses Christ's death, blood, righteousness, and salvation.
Sin is transgression.
- Sin is overstepping the divine boundary between good and evil.
- Sin is missing the mark of God's righteousness.
- Sin is a departure from what God has declared as righteousness.
- Sin is failure to meet the divine standard of God.
- Sin is lawlessness, which is spiritual anarchy.
- Sin is the intrusion of self-will into the sphere of divine authority.
- Sin is unbelief.
When sin reigns, the state of the soul is death.
- Sin is insidious.
- Sin darkens the understanding.
- Sin defiles the conscience.
- Sin hardens your heart.
- Sin stiffens your will.
- Sin disorders all the affections.
- Sin puts every soul under the sentence of God to eternal wrath.
From sin's ruin you can get relief.
Sin incurs the penalties of spiritual and physical death.
Relief is found in God's forgiveness.
- Sin is debt.
God's forgiveness and God's acceptance are the payment for that debt.
- Sin is a cloud.
God's forgiveness is the sun, which does away with a cloud.
- Sin is stain.
God's forgiveness is the blood bath which washes away the stain.
- Sin is dross.
God's forgiveness is the fire which burns the dross out.
- Sin is darkness.
God's forgiveness is the light which dispels it.
- Sin is a burden.
God's forgiveness is the removal of it.
- Sin is death.
God's forgiveness is the burial ground of sin.
- Sin is poison.
God's forgiveness is the antidote.
-
Sin is captivity.
God's forgiveness brings freedom from that captivity.
-
Sin is death.
God's forgiveness gives us life through Christ.
What a relief it is -- to experience the truth, that "where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound;
that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5: 20-21)
Jesus Is The Sinner's Saviour.
There is no remedy for your sin and my sin, except in the sacrificial death of Christ,
who "appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Hebrews 9: 26)
Jesus is the only name "under heaven... among men whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4: 12)
This remedy in Christ is available by faith, because through Christ
"is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things,
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13: 38-39)
"Christ died for our sins." (1 Corinthians 15: 3)
"The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53: 6)
God "hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin:
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
How is the sinner, "dead in trespasses and sins," made alive?
Jesus said, "He that heareth my word and believeth... is passed from death unto life." (John 5: 24)
That's how!
Jesus said, "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." (1 John 5: 11)
That's how!
Paul said, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
(Romans 8: 2)
That's how!
Jesus Christ is the everlasting source of eternal salvation.
- Only Jesus can break the power which holds man in chains of death.
- Only Jesus can avert the punishment which threatens all those who are without Christ.
- Only Jesus can open the fountains of grace to all who are still in their sin.
Through Christ the law is vindicated, the holiness of God is honored, and mercy is offered to all
because "Christ receiveth sinful men."
Jesus received the wages of sin which He never earned, that we might have eternal life which we never deserved.
- Christ went into an awful gloom that we might enter into glory.
- Christ was unjustly judged that we might escape the judgment to come.
- Christ was scourged that by His stripes we might be healed.
- Christ took our place on the cross so that we might be forgiven.
- Christ hung upon the cross with all our sins upon Him,that we might stand before God with none of our sins upon us.
Some years ago when the crew of the Squalus realized that they had taken their last dive,
and that they were lying helpless at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean -- 240 feet below the surface;
they sent up smoke flares and a buoy.
They hoped that one of their sister ships would find them, and be able to rescue them.
Their help must come from above.
In agonizing silence, they waited.
Soon after that fatal dive, the submarine, Sculpin, set out in search of them.
The red smudge was found, and then, the buoy was found.
Twenty-four hours went by before the actual rescue work could be started.
A giant 10 ton diving bell dipped and rose again and again,
each time taking several men from the depths of the Atlantic to the safety of the submarine.
All 33 men were rescued!
When that huge diving bell came down to the Squalus' crew, not one of the 33 men said,
"I will think it over."
- Not one said, "There are hypocrites on the Sculpin, and I want nothing to do with them."
- Not one said, "I'll wait until I get married."
- Not one said, "I'll wait till I am older."
- Not one said, "I'll wait until after I get my business established."
- Not one said, "There is too much to give up."
- Not one said, "I am waiting for a loved one or friend."
- Not one said, "I do not understand how the diving bell works."
- Not one said, "I will sometime."
- Not one said, "I don't feel like being rescued."
- Not one said, "Maybe tomorrow."
Not one of them found fault with the Sculpin crew, as some find fault with the leadership of the church.
Not one of them said, "Next year will be soon enough."
Not one said, "I'd rather just stay here and die."
Every single one of those men accepted the way to safety.
Christ is ready to forgive!
He is ready to save!
Come today! Come now!
The day of wrath is not yet come.
This day of grace is yours!
God forgives your sin through Jesus Christ.
God declares you free from sin and guilt, when you trust Jesus as your Saviour.
"Who bare our sins in his own body... that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness."
(1 Peter 2: 24)
If you're here without salvation -- come to Jesus!
Jesus says, "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." (John 6: 37)
To those who are young -- God says, "They that seek me early shall find me." (Proverbs 8: 17)
And to those who are older, who have long been dead in sin, come quickly out of your grave.
The Lord Jesus calls you!
Come! Come now!
Come more quickly than a dying man would cry for a doctor.
Come more quickly than a drowning man would reach for a lifeboat.
Come even now while I speak, and Jesus will give you life eternal!
Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White
