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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/murray-mccandless/gospel-3/
1 Timothy 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. Let me read that to you again please or with you.
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. We have read one of the favorite gospel texts of gospel preachers down through the ages.
And I know that John 3 .16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life is the gospel in a nutshell. But that gospel in a nutshell is found also in other passages of the word of God too.
From my own experience in Luke 19 and verse number 10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. I believe that if that was the only verse I ever knew or ever had, there's enough in that verse for me to know for sure that the purpose for why Christ Jesus came into the world was to save me.
I want to bring you to another verse here and the apostle says this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. You know, if you are listening in ministry, often you will sense that when men are preaching about the coming of the Lord Jesus, they never convey that truth to you without reminding us that he's anxious to come.
Having purchased that bride, paid that price, he's waiting momentarily and will leave heaven and rapture away every true child of God. Everyone born again, saved and on the way to heaven. What we know to be the rapture of the church, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me remind you, he is anxiously waiting that moment. Now he no less anxiously waited that moment for when he was going to come into the world to go to a cross, to die, that he might purchase your salvation, pay the price of your sin.
He waited that moment. The Bible says, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son. The fullness of time. He waited. All those periods, those ages and dispensations, finally the moment came.
When into this world, there's a babe born, wrapped in swaddling clothes, the Christ, the one who Simeon picked up and he said, now thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Wonderful thing to be saved. Let me ask you today, do you know anything about it? Now listen, I can relate to young people in this auditorium just now, at a conference, and I never, and I hope I never will get on a conference gospel platform without reminding myself that I once sat where you sat.
Once was your age, and I wasn't saved. And I came into that gospel meeting waiting for it to get over, just like you, wondering how long it would be. Knowing the gospel well enough almost to know the next thing he was going to say.
But you know, during that meeting, something started to change in my thinking, and it was this, you're not saved. And even though I planned on being saved, the great question was this, what if I died in my sins and was not saved?
As I sat in front of that Sarnia Conference with people that know the family I come from, with 50 to 60 first cousins, whether they were thinking about it or not, I didn't know. Frankly, I wasn't concerned.
There was one person I was concerned about, it was me. And we were going to travel home that night from a conference with another man, and I didn't consider him as good a driver as my father at that time, and I thought, what if something happens and I die?
Somebody else comes across the road. Now this was going through my mind. I can assure you, I sat like that was the last gospel meeting I was going to be in. And except the man that was preaching, Mr. Oswald McLeod, told me years later when he was preaching about his text, I wouldn't have known.
Because above and beyond a preacher's voice, God was speaking to me. Pray, brethren, that in this closing meeting of this conference, God in mercy speaks to our children, speaks to you, friend, if not saved, that you'll be awakened to the reality and the solemnity of dying in your sins and going down to hell.
Horror of horrors to miss Christ, to miss everything in life. Let me just finish that, though I was not planning on telling you how I got saved. I came home that night determined. I will get this. If it isn't now, I will never get it.
I'm not a night person then, and I'm still not, and I fell asleep on my bed. I woke up the next morning and I thought, that's it. I've heard about this. Just sleep yourself away, and one day you're going to wake up in hell.
Next day I went to school because I had to. Got our chores done that night, went back to my bedroom. Going out to conference that night, I scooped up whatever tracks I could get my hand on. There's a table of them at the back of the auditorium.
Reading that little text in a track, those words, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. I was sure I knew who the lost people were. They were the boys down the road that did things on Sunday I didn't do because I couldn't do them.
It wasn't allowed. The lost were people that came to me and they didn't know where Matthew was in the Bible. The last person I ever thought was lost was me. And I discovered that's why the Savior came.
He had come to seek and to save that which was lost. I thought, I'm lost. I thought, that's why Christ came. I thought, if you'd have turned to me and said, are you saved, I am not sure what I would have said to you.
Now people tell me, tell you it's not about feelings, but I have to say to you I felt good about something. You know what I was feeling good about? Was the fact that I was saved. That's why Christ came.
That's why He died. That's why He gave His life. That's why He shed His blood. So I could be saved. So you could be saved. My friend, it's a wonderful word, it's a wonderful truth, this word saved. I've had people tell me, ah, that's just something you major on.
It's not really a lot of times in the Bible and so on, the word saved, obviously they don't read their Bible. The word saved is enough times, sir, in your Bible, you can put it once on every page of the New Testament.
Wonderful thing to be saved. Way back in the Old Testament, this is what God's saying to Israel, happy art thou. Oh Israel, who is like unto thee? A people saved of the Lord. Wonderful to be saved of the Lord.
I meet people, they tell me they're saved, and when they're done telling me what they want to tell me, I've come to the conclusion they're their own Savior. They did it. Nothing about the work of Christ.
Nothing about an appreciation for a man dying on Calvary's cross. Listen to the text tonight. This is a faithful saying. You can't go wrong with it. The first thing I want you to notice about this saying is this, it's absolutely dependable.
Isn't it nice to know people? Come on, you know that, you're parents. If dad tells you something, boys, you could defend that because you said, my father has never lied to me. And likewise, your mother.
And there are other people, and you have absolutely, you could depend on what they're telling you. But we live in a world today, and you know what people tell you, you've got to ask yourself, is this really true?
In an advertising world, as long as you buy the product, who cares what you heard? Who cares what was said? There is so little in this world you can depend on. This is a saying you can. That the reason that Christ Jesus came into this world was to save sinners.
You saved? If not saved, my friend, you are living your life as if He didn't even need to come. My father-in-law, a lay reader in his church, very religious man, confessed to me, not that he had to, a number of years after he got saved.
We went through the very bridge where it happened. His daughters had gotten saved. One of them, my wife, and the other one, Mr. Walter Gusses and his wife. As he was going through that bridge over the Hammond River, he said, I took my fist, imagine, I beat it into the seat of the car and I said this, why did He come?
He didn't need to come for me. How do you like that? Why did He come? He didn't need to come for me. Listen, friend, I saw that man sit in a gospel meeting, six foot two, great big fellow that he was, and the tears coming down his face, because you know what he realized?
He realized why Christ came. Have you ever realized that? Is that ever a truth for you? Has this statement anything that you can depend upon tonight? What are you depending on for eternity? Don't you say, I'm not really that bad a person.
I try and bring some happiness into the home and I try to do what my parents tell me, and you know, I'm a lot better than some other kids on the street and so on. Are you telling me that's what you're depending on?
You see, that really wasn't what I was depending on. You know, I'll tell you something. I got the strap too much to depend on that because I knew I was a bad boy, but I couldn't depend on that. But you know what I did depend on?
I was depending on the fact I'll get saved sometime, but just not now. You see, I could never in my thinking think, visualize not being saved or not getting saved. I thought it'll happen. Other people have gotten saved.
I'm a lot younger than they are. I was going along with that. I was depending on that. You know, depending on that will take you to hell. You've heard me say that before because I've had enough gospel meetings in Garnerville that you have heard me say.
I have never, never heard a person in all the testimonies I've heard ever say, I'm just sorry that I got saved so young. There's a lot of things out there I wanted to do. I wish I could have done them.
And I regret that I got saved so young. It's never happened. Just the opposite. So many people stand up and they say, I wish they got it years ago. My only regret is I wished I had it years ago. I preach with a young man a lot by the name of, well, he's, well, you know him out here.
He's Scott McLeod. And I want to tell you, Scott did everything. Raised in a home, his father, one of our most respected overseers in Atlantic Canada, could have been raised in a better home, him and his brother, Mark.
And Scott lived the life. There wasn't much in life Scott McLeod didn't do. When I knew him, he had, I knew him a long time before this, but when he got into teen years, he grew hair down below his shoulder blades.
He had more chains on his arm and neck than you could imagine. He worked out one big, proud character you couldn't, you just wouldn't know he was the same person today. Invariably Scott McLeod will say, if only I had had it long ago.
But let me tell you about the Savior that was sent. Do you understand that, excuse me, the Savior that came. Before the Savior came, now stay with me, he had to be sent. And before he was sent, he had to be spared.
Listen what the Bible says, Romans 8 and 32, he that spared not his only son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Bless God, he never spared his son.
A couple of years ago, a younger pastor introduced a visiting preacher. That visiting preacher was an older, bent over man, very obviously. And I'm not sure how excited the congregation was about the preacher they thought so much of stepping aside and let this older man take the service that day.
But the man mounted the platform and he began to speak and he began to tell a story. Told a story of being out on the Pacific Ocean. He was a man that liked boating. There were two boys in that boat. There was his own son and his son's friend.
It was really a neighbor up the road. A storm came out of nowhere and overturned that boat and threw the three occupants of that boat into the Pacific Ocean. Now, into the rushing waters of the Pacific Ocean are three people.
The father, the son, and his friend. The father was near the boat and he grabbed a hold of a rope. The boys were not that far apart, equal distance. He knew that his boy was saved, but he knew his boy's friend wasn't saved.
Who was he going to toss the rope to? He only had one. He said it was an excruciating decision, but he said, I looked over to my boy and I said, my son, I love you. I love you. Last words he said to his son, that was the last words his son heard.
And he took the rope and he threw it to his friend. The friend grabbed it. That boy's body was never recovered. Sure it broke the father's heart, but he didn't spare his son. As he told that to that hushed audience, when he was finished speaking, the young teenage boy came up to him and he said, sir, that was a nice story.
But what father in his right mind would let his son die? He looked at him, he said, you've got the point of my story. That's exactly what God did. God didn't spare his son. He let him die so you could be saved.
But he said, wait a minute. He said, I want to tell you something. He said, I was that father. Furthermore, your pastor was the other boy. That changed everything. Do you understand that God had one son, a son in whom he's so delighted?
We read those words in Romans 3 that God spared not his son. There are things in this world that God didn't spare and I can understand them. He didn't spare the rebellion of angels even that left their first estate.
He spared not Sodom and Gomorrah. The judgment fell. And I can go through the Bible and show you things and people and places that God didn't spare and I can somehow understand it. But you know, as we gathered this morning in this gym to remember the Lord Jesus Christ, do you know what drew our hearts in worship?
That we don't know why God spared his son. We're thankful he did. That he didn't spare his son. The wonder of it all made us worship God. And thank God that the son that wasn't spared was the son that was sent.
And the son that was sent was the son that came. And this is a faithful saying. Worthy of the acceptation of all that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, said the Apostle Paul, of whom I am chief.
Not only is it absolutely dependable, but it's been authoritatively declared. That's good for you to understand that, friend. Prophetically, the Old Testament prophets told of the coming of Christ, of Emmanuel, the one that would be the great deliverer.
Go back to the beginning of your Bible, back to Genesis 3, where they're told that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. That's Christ. Only one end of this world that was the seed of the woman.
Listen to what Joseph says to his brethren. He said, I die. I'm going to die. But he said, God will surely deliver you and bring you out of this place. And he said, after his decease, they would put his bones into a coffin.
And that coffin would be a herald of hope. It would remind them that God was going to deliver them. God did deliver them. Go years later to the New Testament. There's a lady going outside the city, following the body of her son.
The Lord Jesus comes, and he speaks the word. Young man, I say unto thee, arise. My, that God would speak to you in this meeting tonight. You hath he cricket who are dead, and trespasses, and in sin, said the apostle.
Do you know what the people said when they saw that young boy arise? God has surely visited his people, that there has arisen amongst us a great prophet, and God has surely delivered his people. My friend, I want to tell you it has been authoritatively declared, down through the ages, this great grand message of the gospel, that Christ Jesus came into the world.
That truth has been heralded from platforms, from pulpits, from open-air meetings, through various medias. It has been authoritatively declared. You know, we don't have to stand up here and kind of go over it and say, you know, do you understand that?
I don't understand it tonight, friend. I'm not asked by God to understand it. I believe it. And I thank God he didn't spare his son. Do you know why? Because I wasn't saved, and I needed a savior. And the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world.
You wonder why I love that text? For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. I had brought to Jackson last year, where we're having gospel meetings right now, Mr. Meakin and I, my own vinyl text that I often hang in my tents that have verses on them, usually short verses.
So we're getting some new ones made up. I was out at the manufacturing place, the graphic people at...they don't really manufacture it, that do the artwork and that for the signs. And, of course, Luke 19 and 10 is one of the verses that hangs in any tent I preach in.
I said to the sign writers, he did an artwork and he had sent it to me on a file in my computer, and I said, could you put something in gold on that verse? He said, what do you want in gold? I said, the word son.
Oh, sure, he said, I can do that. That's no problem, right? He said, I can put son. He says, is that all you'd like in gold? I said, no, there's another word. I wonder what the second word would be. Now, you might think the second word was save.
Well, that's true, but it's the last word, the lost. Salvation is the happy experience when a person realizes that's why the Son came. I was the lost one. He came to seek and to save me. I don't put those verses, those words together.
The Bible does. Not only has it been authoritatively declared prophetically, but historically, the world would never be the same again because Christ has come. Thank God for it. But not only that, friend, it has been adequately demonstrated that Christ has come.
You have not an imagination big enough to imagine a world that Christ had never come to. I would never know what this world would be like. I've sometimes wondered what it would be like if sin had never touched it.
Now, I have to work my imagination on that. I have no idea what it would be like. But I do know what it is like because sin has come. That's why the tears. It's why the graveyard. I visited it today and stood by my mother's grave.
I didn't want to lose her and the family didn't want to lose her. I stood by the youngest sister in our family's grave way back in Fingal, Ontario. And why is that? Because sin has come into the world.
So I do know a little bit about a world that sin has come into. I know nothing of a world that sin hasn't come to. But, you know, I know something of a world that the Savior has come to. I'm so glad I know nothing of a world that he'd never come to.
Imagine what it would be like. The Bible likens the believer unto the salt of the earth, unto a light-preserving factor in a world that is so corrupt and so vile. Do you understand, even dear Christians, I know this is not ministry, this is gospel, do you understand that your life without saying a word has a preserving effect on your road?
Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't speak to them. That's the truth of this book. It has been adequately demonstrated. Always spoke of the cross, the truth of the cross. But, you know, what I have to tell you, sadly, actually, it's been disbelieved.
It is. Oh, you say, well, I'm not one of those. I really believe that the Lord Jesus Christ came and that he died on the cross, and I believe that he died for me, but I'm not saved. Oh, my friend, the Bible says, he that believeth is saved.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but wrath of God abideth in him. Bob Hope, who for years left his home here in the USA and would visit the troops abroad, was asked by a reporter one time why he did that.
They said, Mr. Hope, why at a time when you could enjoy it with your family, Christmas time when everybody is home, do you pack up and leave for Vietnam or wherever it might be that this country is at war and visit these troops?
What he says is just like this, I'd just like to take a little bit of home to them. Do you know when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, you know, he hasn't taken us out of it yet, but do you know what he did?
He brought a little bit of up there to down here, isn't that true, Christians? Think of the joy that's in our home, would it be there if we didn't know Christ? Think of the happiness. I know we've had our sorrows, I know we've had our fears, I know we've had our anxieties, but thank God for one who came to bring a little of that home to this home down here, in anticipation of the fact he's gonna take all that are saved to that home up there.
He could never do it. He would have a purpose in coming the second time had he not come the first. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.
Thank God he came. Didn't stand, so to speak, on the deck of heaven, throwing life preservers out to people. Back in Ontario there in Toronto a few years ago, a number of years ago, when that ferry was coming into the wintertime into dock at the Toronto Harbor.
And a fellow went off the side, slipped, he was out where he shouldn't have been, went off the side of the ferry, was in the water, fighting the ice. There was a man by the name of Brian Figueri that stood on that wharf and he watched the deckhands throwing life preservers to him, throwing this to him.
But the man was in such shock, and the waters were so cold, and the churning of them by the vessel itself trying to get away from him. Brian Figueri dove into those waters, grabbed that man, pushed him over to that ice-laden side of that wharf, and he was rescued.
See what it took? It took someone, someone, to come down into the very circumstances in which that man was going to lose his life to save him. That's why Christ came. This is the faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.
You say, well, I want to be saved. I want to know for sure that I'm saved. It wouldn't be salvation if you didn't know it for sure. And you can only know it for sure from the word of God. You take God's word for it.
That's why Christ came. Think of the cross. Think of his suffering. Think of the purpose for which he came. And you'll be ever grateful to God that he came. Listen, just in closing, let me say this. The night I got saved, I was not visualizing Christ dying on the cross, though I knew he did that.
I wasn't like others telling their testimony and thank God for it. They, like the language of the hymn, they saw one hanging on the tree for them. I wasn't even thinking about that, though I knew he did that.
I just simply understood, took God and his word. Christ came for me. I ask you, I ask every young heart and older one in this meeting tonight. Who did he come for? Did he come for you? Shall we pray?