Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/larry-steers/1timothy-1-15/
Let's read 1 Timothy chapter 1, and we're going to read verse 15. You could almost call this verse a companion verse of John 3 .16. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15. 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.
And that will be all that we're going to read, and we know that God will add His blessing to what we have heard, and to this precious verse of Scripture. And I am certain that sitting in this audience right now, there will be some who were saved reading 1 Timothy chapter 1, and verse 15.
This is a tremendous statement. There are a number of things in this verse for a few moments that I want you to notice. I want you to notice that as my brother and I, and those who have given their testimony, have stood on this platform tonight, we have stated and can state very, very clearly, and emphatically, that a person can be saved.
That they can know for certain that when life's little journey has come to a close, that they are going to be in heaven. This is a word for young people. It's a word for older people, and middle-aged people, whoever would be here tonight.
Can rise from this room, exit this building, and know for certain that they are saved and on the way to heaven. And we have that confidence. We have that full conviction. The man who wrote these words that we have read knew that, that he was saved when he rose from the dust of the Damascus road, and continued his life a saved man on the way to heaven.
His life changed immediately on that Damascus road. You might ask yourself the question then, what does it mean to be saved? Well, I think it's a common word in the Bible. I can't tell you how many times that you find it in the Bible, but you'll find it over and over and over in the Word of God.
And you know that saved means to be delivered from some danger. That there's some danger ahead. And you need to be delivered from that danger. That has already been emphasized. And we trust when we preach on hell, that we do it with compassion.
Hell is real. There are souls in hell right now. There are souls in hell right now, who have sat where you have sat. They have listened to the Gospel. Some of them have heard it all of their life, as they lived upon this earth.
And they may even have thought at some time in their life, that they would like to be saved. There may even have been a time when they were convinced that they needed to be saved, and for a moment they even wanted to be saved.
But they never got saved. And tonight they're in hell. And I want to assure you tonight, that hell is a literal place. I was raised under the sound of the Gospel. I'm not going to tell you my testimony tonight.
I did that here two years ago. But from as early as I could remember, as a little boy going to Sunday school, I feared that I would be in hell. I want to assure you tonight, I want to warn you tonight, that we're talking about a literal place.
And I don't know if some who are older here, I never have the responsibility to stand beside a bedside of a person who's getting near the end of life. And you have preached to that person. That person has come to a Gospel series in a tent.
And you have tried to warn them. And you have tried to plead with them. And you have tried to present them honestly and urgently and faithfully and compassionately with the realities of hell. Then you get the phone call that they're in the hospital and they're dying.
And you go to the hospital and you stand beside that bedside. That person is breathing their last on this earth and they are not saved. I remember leaning over that dear woman and saying to her, I'm going to read some verses from the Bible to you.
And she was fading into unconsciousness and shook her head. Her husband was holding her hand. And I looked over at her husband and I said, I'm going to pray. And in my prayer over that dying woman, I quoted every Gospel verse that came to my mind hoping that something would get into the soul of a dying woman who is facing hell.
And that's real. And if you ever stand beside the bedside of a woman like that, nearing eternity not saved, there's a sense that fills your soul with dread and fear. Hell lies ahead. And no one in this meeting tonight, no one, is guaranteed tomorrow morning, young or old, life at best is very brief.
Like the falling of a leaf, be in time. And the man that wrote the words that I have read tonight, realize in a moment of time what I want to remind you of. I want to remind you that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
I had an uncle who died, like he now saved. I had the responsibility of preaching at his funeral and at the grave where we laid him away on the earth. My son was beside me. My son has heard me tell how I got saved a number of times, but he's never seen the house.
So I drove down the road not too far from the cemetery park, a little distance from the house, and I told him, Stephen, that's the house. And I have a sense in my soul, and I love the words of the poet, that when I arise from earth to soar up to my home in heaven, back where I'll cast my eyes once more to where I was forgiven.
It's a precious thing to know that you're saved and to be able to look back in your life's little history to that moment when, as a sinner, you trusted Christ. And you rejoice tonight knowing that your sins are forgiven, that you are saved, you're on the way to heaven.
I'm going to ask you just three questions tonight. And the answer to the three questions are found in the verse that I have read. And I would expect, as I look over the audience tonight, that likely everyone here in Sunday School, the youngest who can memorize verses from the Bible, has memorized this verse.
I want to ask three questions. And the answers to the three questions are all found in this verse. The first question is simply this. Who can be saved? And if you look at the verse, you'll find the answer very clearly.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Who can be saved? This verse answers that question. If this was the only verse in the Bible that you had, you would have enough in this verse to know that you could be saved.
And the second question is, why can a person be saved? And this verse answers that question so clearly, so emphatically. It tells us why a person can be saved. And the third question is, how can a person be saved?
And this verse answers that question too. What a statement of truth! Speaking tonight to sinners on the broad road to eternity, let me impress this upon you. Tonight, you can be saved. There's one little word in this verse.
The English language has little words. But it has little words that have tremendous meaning. Just notice the verse again. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. And that word all tells me who can be saved.
I have no hesitation to make this statement tonight. That wherever we would preach the Gospel, we have been preaching the Gospel to Chinese people who didn't even know there was a God. But we can tell them that they can be saved.
Whoever they might be. From whatever country. From whatever culture. From whatever station in life. We have no hesitation to make it absolutely clear that all can be saved. That word whosoever in John 3 and 16 emphasizes the same truth.
That whosoever believeth in Him, all can know Christ. And the Bible is abundantly clear on that. Peter makes this statement that God would have... Or John Paul makes this statement that God would have all men to be saved in the very next chapter and to come unto a knowledge of the truth.
God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's the grand truth of the Gospel. That's what fills the soul of the person who is preaching the Gospel. To remind you.
To tell you. To plead with you that you can be saved. God shows no favoritism. Whether it's a child raised under the sound of the Gospel. Or whether it's someone as my brother who never heard the Gospel before.
All can be saved. The Bible tells it very clearly that God willeth not the death of any. That is that any should die and perish in their sins. Before I was saved, there was a man in our little town. I was born in a town of 350 people.
Not very big. And that man, his name was Norman Ralph. You'll never meet him. He's in heaven tonight. Norman Ralph couldn't read or write. And to my shame, we used to refer to him as a town dummy. When he went into the bank to cash a check, he'd put a little X on the check and the bank manager would come out and initial the X to indicate that he had witnessed Norman Ralph make that X.
One of the greatest shocks of my life was when I came home late one night and faced my mother in the kitchen and my mother told me that Norman Ralph had got saved. He'd come to Gospel meetings. He had sat and he had listened.
A man who couldn't read or write didn't have a Bible because he couldn't read the Bible. All he could hear, all that he could take in, was what the preacher was saying. But he listened. He was convicted of his sin.
He knew the life that he was living. A careless life. A man trusted Christ in a Gospel meeting one night. And one of the first things that he did, he went out and he bought a Bible. And he came to the meetings in the little Gospel hall.
And as the Scriptures were being read, he followed along with his finger under every word that man learned how to read after he got saved from the Bible. God can save any soul. Even a man who couldn't read or write.
Someone who's never heard the Gospel before. Perhaps tonight, the first time. That person can be saved. Can know for certain that they are on the way to Heaven. The Lord Jesus said, I am come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
You'll notice in this verse that there is a limitation here. And it's a great hurdle for some people. Notice what the verse says. This is a faithful shame and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
That's a hurdle. There are multitudes tonight. Many living not too far from where we're standing. And they will not acknowledge that they are a sinner. They will not acknowledge their need. One woman said to me when I knocked on the door and asked her to come to a tent meeting, she said, well, you have your interpretation of the Bible and I have mine.
I asked her to get her Bible. She went and got it. It took her a few minutes to find it. And I told her to turn to Romans 3. And she turned to the chapter after a few moments. And I said, now read verse 23.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I said, just give me your interpretation of that verse. So she looked at it for a few moments. She said, well, I guess it says that we have all sinned.
I said, well, that's my interpretation of the verse too. You said, I have my interpretation. You have yours. We both have the same interpretation of that verse. Everyone has sinned. Not only born in sin, but we have sinned from the moment of our birth.
Born in sin. On the broad road. Born to sin. And that's a difficult hurdle for some people. Probably for many. Another verse that has, I think, been referred to tonight. That when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
Sinners, ungodly. I've got to the point where I don't ask people now if they're saved. Because people will say they're saved and they don't know what they're talking about. But I do ask a question I'm going to ask tonight.
Have you ever found out you're lost? Has it ever dawned upon your soul? I'm lost. I can't find the way to heaven. I'm sure I'm speaking to some here tonight that before they were saved, they tried to get saved.
They struggled with the issue of being saved. They knew they were lost. They couldn't find the way. Lost in their sin. In all of the darkness of their sin. Have you ever discovered in your life, I'm lost.
All can be saved. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Why can a person be saved? Because Christ Jesus came into the world. What a statement. Simply expressed. Notice what that statement means.
That Christ Jesus came into the world. And so He came from another realm. He came from another place. He came from a place outside of the world. And from that place which was heaven, Christ Jesus came into this world.
And He came to provide salvation for sinners. He came to provide salvation for those who are lost. What a truth. The day that I was saved, that struck me from this verse. I wasn't reading the verse, but the truth of this verse.
God said I was a sinner. I knew I was a sinner. And when I wondered what the solution to my sin was, God also said that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I was a sinner that He came into the world to save.
How often has it been said that if I was the only sinner in the world, He would have to come from heaven into the world that salvation might be provided for this poor sinner. What does the death of Christ mean to you?
If you have found out that you are lost, if you have discovered that you have sinned, then let me ask you, what does the death of Christ mean? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ come into the world? He came into the world to provide salvation for sinners.
I find it very interesting that oftentimes at the end of a Gospel meeting when Christians get kind of stirred up, and they kind of go back to their salvation, and going out the door they say, that was my verse tonight.
Or someone will try to tell you a few details of how they got saved, because Christians rejoice in being saved, in knowing Christ. Do you know that tonight? Could you lay your head on your pillow tonight, thankful that the Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and there's a moment in your life when you discover, I was the sinner for whom He came to save.
Again He said, I've come, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He said, I've come to seek and to save that which was lost. And in order to save sinners, He had to die. I'm speaking tonight about the Creator of heaven and earth.
We've heard a little bit about creation tonight. He spoke worlds into existence by the word of His power. One poor sinner, in a little town in southern Ontario, the Lord Jesus could not speak the word for my sins to be forgiven.
He had to die. And He had to die in a very certain way. Satan tried to have Him cast Himself off the pinnacle of the temple and to be in a crumpled heap at the bottom of that pinnacle. But He couldn't die like that.
Not only that, He couldn't respond. No response to Satan. The Jews tried to cast Him over the brow of a hill. He couldn't die like that. And a marvelous thing, He just simply walked through there next to that crowd, and then disappeared.
Couldn't die that way. They picked up stones one time to stone Him. And He couldn't die that way. He said to Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent into the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
He had to die upon a cross. He had to die that terrible death of crucifixion that even just the act of crucifixion and the terror of that awful death of being crucified, hands and feet so rudely torn, lifted up upon a cross, crowned with thorns upon the tree, silent in His agony.
He had to suffer on a cross. He had to suffer the awful judgment of sin, not for Himself, but thank God we can say, for my sin, the wrath of God, in all of its entirety, was poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary.
The judgment that my sin cried for and demanded was paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. And the soul who is going to heaven will never forget that moment when they realized that the Lord Jesus Christ had suffered and died for them and His precious blood was shed.
And for eternal ages, they will rejoice and sing the anthem of heaven unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own precious blood. I was at the conference in Fortiesville Prairie just a month or so ago.
Every time I go to the conference in Forties, I meet a young woman. Well, she's a little older woman now. I won't give her her name because there are some people here who know her very well. At the end of a meeting like this one night, she came to us at the door weeping.
Not very often do you see people today so concerned about their sin that they're weeping, that they're shedding tears. And she's crying. I want to be saved. I remember sitting down with her, with another brother.
I remember asking her about the issue of sin. She had no doubt about that. I'm a sinner. I can't hear her yet. I asked her the question that we often ask if you died right now, where would you be? She said without any doubt, she would be in hell.
We read a few verses to her, but it almost seemed that the more that we read, the darker it got, the more difficult it got. She cried all the more. Finally, I can't hear her yet. She literally wailed, I'm on the way to hell, and there's nothing I can do about it.
I don't know how many times she repeated that. A number of times. I'm on the way to hell, and there's nothing I can do about it. And I can tell you that there are times when you're sitting with a person like that and you're looking at them, and you really don't hardly know what to say.
We had read some verses to her, but that didn't mean anything to her. She didn't see anything in the verses that we had read. And so just on the spur of the moment, without anything else that we could say, we said to her, why can't you do anything about it?
And she's weeping and crying. She said because Jesus has done it all. And then she burst into a smile. She realized at that moment that she could do nothing, but the Lord Jesus Christ has done everything.
That's what this verse is saying. That's what John 3 .16 is saying. That's what our brethren have been telling us who are telling us how they got saved. Because they came to a moment when they realized as a sinner that there was nothing they could do.
You know the question to the jailer? Or the question the jailer asked? What must I do to be saved? The answer is nothing! I don't have any hesitation to say that. Nothing! But what they said to that man, they pointed him to another man who has done everything.
They really were telling him when they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, that this man, Jesus Christ, has done everything. What a moment. Maybe tonight. I don't know who's here tonight.
But maybe tonight in this meeting, there will be a sinner who will understand that I am on the way to hell. That I can't do anything about it. And you'll come to the conclusion tonight, the Spirit of God will impress upon your soul that the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary has done everything for me.
He has taken my place. He has suffered in my room. He has bore the judgment of my sin. And because He has suffered, because He has died, because His precious blood has been shed, there's nothing I can do.
He has done it all. So we can say all to Jesus. Everything I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. I'm going to quote the verse again. This is a faithful saying. And worthy of all acceptance.
That just simply means how can a person be saved? All acceptance. This is something that is worthy. It's something that is dependable. It's something you can rest your soul on for eternity. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
You can be saved tonight. And you need to be saved tonight. One of the things that I feared greatly when I was just a little boy, and I would gather that brethren had preached much on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if I wasn't saved, I would be left behind. He could come tonight. There's an urgent reason tonight why you need to be saved. The three brethren who told how they got saved may have told it for the last time tonight.
My brethren and I may have preached the Gospel for the last time tonight. We would have to urge you tonight that now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. We pray.